How not to buy textbooks and still have access to them November 12, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in : books, bookstores, cheap textbooks, college bookstores, free books, free textbooks, textbooks, vjeap books , 2commentsEvery college student hopes to have professors that will choose either free or at least cheap textbooks. Unfortunately those are rare, and many professors simply do not care that the book that they are selecting for the class will cost $200, while in other cases they simply do not have a choice since that may be the only good book on the subject. We already discussed some of the mechanics of textbook pricing and college bookstores. Today I give you a few tricks on how to get cheap textbooks. Some of these tricks are well known, and often used, others are only known to a few, and this fact will enable you to take full advantage of these tricks.
In regards to cheap textbooks many of the tricks have already been covered in previous blog posts, that is: used textbooks, older editions, etc. The trick I want to discuss with you today is how to find ways to avoid buying books altogether, while still having access to the contents of the books. The classic solution to this problem is simple: find a friend in the same class and share the textbook. Unfortunately this is not always possible, and when it is the friend may want you to help pay for part of the book, something completely understandable and a much better deal than having to pay the full price.
Another idea to keep in mind is that school libraries, or department libraries, typically keep copies of every textbook in reserve (this means that you cannot take them out of the building). This means that if you do not mind doing all of your studying at the library, than you do not need to buy the textbook. The downside to this is that you cannot take notes in the book, but you can always make copies of pages, and depending on the subject that may be good enough.
Another much less known trick is that most university libraries in the United States participate in some type of EZ borrow program. This means that they share books with other university libraries and are able to request books from other schools. This is great because you can request your textbooks from another university library, sign them out and bring them home. Depending on your library’s load duration, you will probably have to renew them mid semester, but that is not a problem. You will still not be able to take notes in the book (and out of respect for other students, please abstain from doing so), but at least this way you can read the book in the comfort of your home. This is a little known scheme, but trust me it works great! I had a good friend who went all through graduate school never having to purchase a single textbook.
This last trick applies to all of you out there who took humanities majors, or who are being forced to take litterature, philosophy or history classes. Many of your books, particularly novels are available in the public domain online: all you have to do is search for the name of the book and add “ull text” and if you are lucky it will be right there.
Well I hope that this blog post has given you some ideas as to how to avoid buying books, stay tuned for other postings where I will give you even more ideas on this and other book related issues. If you have tricks or ideas you would like to share, please leave a comment.