Kids in college are hit with a double whammy: textbooks that cost hundreds of dollars for each class and a backpack that causes spinal deformities resulting from carrying those expensive books from class to class.

Amazon’s Kindle to the rescue!

The Kindle will start carrying titles from Princeton University Press this fall. According to Inside Higher Education, the prestigious outlet joins the presses published by Oxford, Yale, and University of California in going digital.

There still seems to be a bit of a problem in the business model though. Can you really expect me to believe that the Kindle version of an Oxford book called Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You’re Out in California, selling for $21.96, costs 90% as much to produce as the “squashed tree” version? Compare to $24.40 for the paperback through Amazon.

Or what about a Yale book, Churchill’s Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft also available on via the Kindle for 90% the cost of a the hardcover - $25.20 via Kindle and $28 plus shipping in hardcover?

Come on, folks, get real. There are a lot of costs that can be taken out of this model and still give everyone a nice slice!