The best piece of advice on books that I can offer new students going to college for the first time is, do not buy all of your textbooks at the college bookstore! If you order your books online on the same day that you receive your syllabus, you will typically receive your books before your first assignment. You can even choose to pay for overnight shipping, this is a bit more costly, but usually still cheaper than buying at the bookstore. If you are worried about receiving your books late, you can always try to contact your professors a week before the start of class and ask about the list of book(s) you will need. Most importantly, you should always shop around, and using a book price comparison site such as We Compare Books when shopping around makes it much more easier.
If you are forced to buy books at the bookstore, buy used. In fact, given the option, you should always choose used instead of new when it comes to textbooks. This has multiple advantages, for one you have the obvious price advantage, for another, often the previous owner of the book underlined or highlighted the important sections, and this means that skimming becomes easier (this is of course if you trust that the previous owner of the book was smart enough to have underlined the correct passages).
The best way to buy books is directly from previous students. This ensures that you pay less for your books and also that the students selling their books receive more money for them. Remember that the less intermediaries there are, the less money you spend and the more money goes in the pocket of the seller.
