When I was a kid in school, our textbooks were a little worse for wear, but they did their job. In fact, I remember a  chemistry book that didn't even have a cover to it. I went from class to class carrying a backpack full of books, which tore into my shoulder every day.

The other day, I was reading in the paper that one of the local schools bought the entire eighth grade class tablet computers. The days of old ratty school books were gone and everything they needed was available with the push of a button.

Entire volumes of math, science, English and social studies books stored on a tablet a third of the size of a single book. They no longer have to carry heavy book bags from one end of the building to another and up a flight or two of stairs.

It's a blessing for the schools as well because they don't have to figure out where to store hundreds of books over the summer. Students can't write in these books, rip out the pages or lose them. They are always in pristine condition and when its time to get new ones, the school just deletes the old and uploads the new. No fuss and no muss.

I am a big fan of the way textbooks are going. I've had my Kindle for a while and have gotten used to reading a book electronically. Students today are so electronically connected that switching away from paper to an electronic format will be a piece of cake. In the next decade, textbooks may go the way of the 8-track tape.