Books You Don’t Really Need to Buy

My first semester of college I logged onto my university bookstore’s website and pre-ordered my books well ahead of schedule. All told I paid close to 500 dollars. This even included a few used volumes. (This is only one of many stupid things I’ve done in college.)

My most recent semester of college I logged onto my university bookstore’s website and wrote down all of the ISBN numbers for all of the books I would need. I then proceeded to reserve all of them, except for two or three, at my local library. I bought old editions of the ones I couldn’t find for pennies on the dollar. My total cost for the semester, once I pay my library fines, will be around 75 dollars. That’s a difference of over 420 dollars. And I took more classes this semester!

My library method works best for liberal arts majors, but you’d be surprised what you will find. Don’t stop at the local library. Check your campus library as well as the library in your hometown. (This is assuming you don’t go to college in your hometown.) Finally, see if your school has an inter-library loan system. This can be especially beneficial if you go to a rather small school but your school is partnered with a much larger one.

You can find many older books online. Google’s audacity has facilitated this immensely. Google Book Search has a plethora of works, recently adding magazines to its repertoire. If you need a book that was written prior to the early-20th century, chances are you can find it absolutely free on Google Book Search.

I know many of you engineering and mathematics majors are despairing. “But new editions of my textbooks are released every semester! What am I supposed to do?” In short, you’ll probably have to bite the bullet; however, if your professor doesn’t utilize the textbook in class, you can stop by the university bookstore any time you need to work on an assignment, assuming your bookstore is cellophane free.

Speaking of editions, do your best not to pay much attention to the E-word. 95% of the time, it won’t matter if you are using a slightly older edition. This past semester I got by with using a textbook that was 3 editions old in a history class. The textbook I used for my political science class was only one edition old, but it was still tricky toward the end of the semester. Since 90% of the book was the same, the book was the same all the way up to the last few weeks of class. (Except for the page numbers!)

Before buying every book, ask around and see if the professor actually uses the book. No fewer than ten times in my college career has a professor required a book only to leave it languish on a dust-ridden tile floor.

Finally, use your judgment if your professor insists you buy a specific dictionary or thesaurus. (Or bible, for you theologians.) The Internet is a magical place with hundreds if not thousands of websites that can meet all of your philological and theological needs.

5 days til Christmas…hope I save you some cash!