this^^.... ive got both Direct Loans(govmt) and Sallie mae... Now that i'm out the interest isnt toooo terrible, but of course i wish it were better. Having to repay obviously SUCKS the big one. Right now I havent consolodated, because I havent seen a better rate for doing so. (havent looked too hard either).
Overall Id advise just trying to do federal only if they can cover all you need.
AND FWIW, online books are the shit. You can basically google-search the damn things...I never had them but my GF has some.