It is my opinion that Brave New World is one of the most profound and enlightening books of this century. Through its dystopic vision of the future this book helps to shine a microscope on our culture, both where it is, and where it is going.

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The Shock Doctrine is a recently (2007) published book that helps to shed light on global capitalism. In this book Klein examines the failures of the free market system and of the economics of Milton Friedman. This is a great read that gives some explanation to the current economic crisis and will help you understand the forces behind the economy.

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I am proud to announce that I am now (personally) on Twitter. I invite you to follow my Tweets (ID wecomparebooks).

Knowing what textbooks are required for your classes before the start of the semester is perhaps the most important thing you need to do in order to get a deal.  Depending on your professor this can be difficult, many professors use the same books semester after semester, but others wait until the last minute in order to choose a book for their class.

Your best bet for finding out the required book for your class is to email your professor (try searching the professor’s name in a search engine like Google, this way you can get your prof’s email) and to ask them.  In some cases you may have to send an email a few times, as many professors are reluctant to answer student emails from students they do not yet know. You should take care not to alienate the professor – remember to stay calm and polite.

Another option, one that often works, is to find a student who had this class during the past semester or the past year, and inquire from them.  One word of warning, make sure that the student had the same class from the same professor, because different professors use different books, even if they are teaching the same class.  This can have another advantage: you can try to buy the old textbook directly from the student, and avoid having to order it online.

Once you are aware of the textbooks you need for class your next step is to find a deal on the textbook.  To do this I always recommend going to a textbook price comparison site and looking up the book there.  Once you are able to locate the book at an acceptable price to you all that remains is to order it, and await its arrival.

Our society has many taboos; one of the more prevalent taboos, one that has emerged due to the affluence of our society is that used is worst than new. For example, kids whose parents cannot afford new clothes are ridiculed at school. Despite this, there is almost always an advantage to having a used textbook over a new one.

Most importantly, used textbooks are always cheaper, significantly cheaper; buying a used textbook you are likely to save 50%-80% off the cost of the same textbook new. Other advantages of used textbooks are not monetary but still more interesting. As I have mentioned many times before, students often highlight and underline important information in the text so that they can study from that information in the future. This is useful to you because you can more easily locate useful information within the text, saving time in addition to money. That is, if the previous student did a good job and was thorough enough; otherwise you might end up missing crucial information exactly like the previous owner.

However there are downsides to used books. One of them is that sometimes the book condition of is very bad, making it almost useless. I would warn against purchasing used textbooks online when the condition of the book is marked as bad or unknown. Most vendors have a strict policy for book conditions so if you buy a book and it is not in the condition advertised, you should definitely contact the vendor or the store.