Check the publisher and see if they have an ebook option. If they do you'll be able to buy it through B&N or Amazon and use the Kindle or Nook app to read it. Or, depending on the publisher, it could be available as a PDF which you can read from many apps.
The series I teach with is offered as PDF and super convenient.
i have been looking to do this as well, but to what i have read on the nookstudy etextbbooks, you CAN NOT use them on a ipad or other mobile devices other then your laptop. but it seems that you can get the same books from amazon kindle, and since your a college student, your eligible for amazon prime free for six months i believe, and then its half off after that for 4 years. also the amazon kindle can be downloaded on your ipad, and your text books an be read from there. just go to amazon, search the book you need, and hit the buy e book, im not sure if they have a rent option.
Some publishers will require an unsealer application to be downloaded to your laptop which must be used in conjunction with Adobe Reader. Make sure you really look into what the requirements are from your book's publisher to use their ebook or PDF version, or else you may wind up wasting some money...especially if you don't have a laptop you can take to class. I'm sure iTunes U (look in iTunes, there is a college book section) has some books which can be synced to your iPad. I'm not familiar with what kind of selection they'll have...but Amazon doesn't have every textbook available in a Kindle version, so many times you may be left with no viable ebook version whatsoever.
While Amazon and Nook are OK methods for textbooks on the iPad, I find apps dedicated to textbooks are usually much better. I know of 3:
Kno - I've bought textbooks here and was very satisfied with the experience. You can't highlight, leave sticky notes on pages, and even use handwriting to annotate with a stylus/finger. You can also organize books by class and semester. Just go to their website to buy the books and log into the app to download them. They even let's you get your first ETextbook for free right now.
CourseSmart - very similar to Kno. I haven't used their app, so I don't know how it compares to Kno. Pretty sure they are both similarly priced. I think they both allow renting as well as buying, whichever suits your needs.
Inkling - I haven't used this one yet, but I plan on it. Their differentiator is that they let you buy chapters at a time as well as the entire book. I know I've had courses where we only cover the first 10 or 12 of a 35+ chapter book, so this may be appealing to you.
I had my Anatomy and Physiology book in PDF form that I used in iBooks by dragging the file and dropping it in iTunes. It worked out quite nicely, though after reading PatBen's list, I downloaded Kno Texbooks. I did a quick scan of their offerings and it looks like one of my books may be available, and they have a "1st eTextbook Free" for .edu addresses that qualify. I submitted mine and hope it works out. That would definitely save me $170 and make me like the app that much more.
Hang on and see what comes out of the rumored upcoming Apple event in NY, NY - which is being alleged will be in part about textbooks....
If it is about textbooks then it's a horrible time. All of us college students have started or are starting real soon. I need to purchase my textbooks before the end of this month.
Hang on and see what comes out of the rumored upcoming Apple event in NY, NY - which is being alleged will be in part about textbooks....
While the information that comes out of that event may very much be useful stuff, I don't see it being implemented effectively until at least the fall, at the earliest. I'd love for them to do to college textbooks what they did to the music market, but that's an industry that seems remarkably slow to change. We have some big Barnes and Nobles tie in to our bookstore and they still don't have all the books you would need. In addition, even if you have a Nook, which is sold through the bookstore as well, none of the books work on the Nook. They're restricted to laptop only.
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Just how DO you get college books an an iPad? 
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