Textbooks

• Sinned wrote on 2012-09-18 12:52
  As someone who works at a Barnes and Nobles College branch, rental is 50% of new cost and the last day to return is 10 days after finals (this semester being 12/24).
  
  As a student, pirate them, buy older editions if it's possible and try to get it as early as you can so you can get the cheapest deals before everybody else buys them. I only buy from the bookstore if I can't find a better price online or the shipping/handling+price makes it worthless.
• Nugga wrote on 2012-09-18 14:37
  I fuucking hate college textbooks. The new up-to-date edition textbooks easily cost over 100 dollars apiece. I just buy used books from amazon or rent them from bookrenters.
  
  Only spent ~100 dollars for five textbooks
  
  And also got my calculus textbook for 5 dollars (used from Amazon, but just like new) :-]
• Osayidan wrote on 2012-09-20 11:27
  At least it looks like you use your books.
  I had to buy a 200$ textbook for some class and we only used it for the introduction page written by some famous architect... still pissed about it just thinking of it.
• Juno wrote on 2012-09-20 12:23

  Quote from Osayidan;953576:

  At least it looks like you use your books.
  I had to buy a 200$ textbook for some class and we only used it for the introduction page written by some famous architect... still pissed about it just thinking of it.

  
  
  Ugh...like those teachers that say on the first day of class that they won't -really- be using the books...like it's some casual thing instead of breaking the bank.
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-09-20 13:43
  lol... or you can read the book even though the teacher didn't specifically ask you to do so? University is not high school. D:
  If the book turned out to be crap, then that's a ripoff.
• Sinned wrote on 2012-09-20 13:44

  Quote from Yoorah;953603:

  lol... or you can read the book even though the teacher didn't specifically ask you to do so? University is not high school. D:
  If the book turned out to be crap, then that's a ripoff.

  
  
  There's also a problem where you have nothing from the textbook on the test. Or they teach you the entire textbook through powerpoints and lectures.
  
  @_@
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-09-20 13:54
  There's also a problem where you have some things from the textbook on the test. (But sir, this topic wasn't in ur powerpoints!!) You can't teach a whole textbook through powerpoints and lectures--that's retarded, lol. I mean, sure, a lot of profs will make it easy for you like that, and it could be fine for shitty courses you don't care about. If you want to have good knowledge of a subject, though, you better read the damn books. D:<
  
  I got the required and optional textbooks for my computer security courses, and I've found them to be great. But to each their own!
• Osayidan wrote on 2012-09-20 14:04

  Quote from Yoorah;953603:

  lol... or you can read the book even though the teacher didn't specifically ask you to do so?

  
  
  Not really, when you have multiple art projects that each can take up to 25 - 35 hours to complete. If this was some kind of science class I'd agree.
  This was a book about architecture for an architecture drawing/planning class, and we bought a 200$ book to read about 3 paragraphs. By the time we got halfway into the semester some us us started asking the teacher if we'd be using this book at all and she just bluntly said no. Too late by that point to get it returned a the school book store. Lots of pissed off students.
• Komachi wrote on 2012-09-20 14:44
  Have you tried ebay? My textbook costs went from about $200 to $300 per book to about $200 to $300 for all my books for that semester.
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-09-21 06:10
  I dont buy textbooks until after the first few class periods. I basicly outright ask my teachers if i need the book. Managed to avoid at least 2 classes last semester doing that because the teacher basicly said no, the book is not going to be used except for once or twice. Still got an A, borrowed another students book for them.
  
  My problem is when each class needs 2-3 textbooks, and each one cost 100$+. It adds up fast.
• Murasaki wrote on 2012-09-22 17:54
  I'm just wondering what those books are made of that they cost that much. @.@
  
  My school does these things called Course Readers where they just take pieces of a book we actually need, and make them into one note-book like thing for the class. The company takes care of the copyright stuff. Some classes still ask for actual books, but the most expensive book I ever bought for school was 70 dollars. The rest have all been under 30, and they haven't been many.
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-09-22 19:56
  Textbooks tend to be expensive for several reasons. One of those is that they tend to be for specialized courses and therefore the market is limited. Smaller print runs mean more cost per book. For the same reason, competition also isn't very strong, so we get even higher prices. ):