Advice from you youngin's in College..

[NJL]

I haven't been in school for quite some time.. out of curiosity, are they offering college textbooks in eBook form yet?

Is that even a good idea? If they are, are they at least cheaper than the other books we had to buy that were REALLY expensive?

Signed,
Old Man in a Snuggie

[JohnnyPustular]

Textbook prices are still very high. The culprit is the college bookstores who sell you a new book for $100, buy it back from you for $15, sell it used for $85, buy it back for $10, sell it used for $85... Because the publishers sell one book for every 7 students who purchase, their economies of scale go up. To counter this, they are putting out 'new editions' every year and hoping us professors will demand the students get the new edition. Also new-- our students have to pay a copyright fee on every article we include in a coursepack, so the price of the coursepacks have gone way up.

Some professors distribute electronic copies of the coursepack, but the university says that is illegal. Of course, I would never do such a thing.

For books, students go to Amazon where there is price competition. Bookstores in college towns have a monopoly/oligopoly and always charge full retail.

You don't want to know what's going on with university libraries...

[NJL]

Dude! Thanks for the heads up!

Have you used any texts books in eBook form? Do they even do that yet?

[iamlowsound]

www.half.com, you will thank me later.

lowsound

[jive1]

I write notes in the margins and highlight text in my books, so an eBook wouldn't work for me. I never carried a seperate notebook in college after my freshman year.

[PSPookie]

Textbooks? Are you finally going to take that ESL class

[tplyons]

No eBooks available for any of my classes from what I've seen. I've had a class with someone who did use a .pdf version of a book. Seemed more a pain in the butt than anything, except when it came to finding something.

I still prefer the real deal. Little heavier, and if you buy used, the prices often aren't TOO bad.

[coreyfyfe]

Most new books I've bought this semester come with a DVD which has like the whole book in digital format. Actually, in the newest version (6th ed.) of Molecular Biology of the Cell, the last 4 chapters aren't even in print, only on the DVD. Kind of a pain in neck if you really want to read the book, but I think I've cracked it like twice this semester.

I've bought the book for every class I've taken, bought used when possible, and then resold them if I wasn't going to keep them. There's someone out there who will buy almost any book, regardless of how old they are. I just sold three books from a few years ago (all outdated editions) for a princely sum of $22 bucks on www.bigwords.com ($22 was way more than I thought I would get, these books are essentially useless now). Anyways, Bigwods is a great website for buying/selling used books. They're essentially a search engine for all of the major book buyers/sellers (including Amazon sellers).

[NJL]

Originally Posted by PSPookie

Textbooks? Are you finally going to take that ESL class

lmfao!! hahahahahaahah

[NJL]

guys, keep 'em coming, please!

half.com and bigwords.com are on my "college" bookmarks folder now, thanks, guys

[NJL]

i just hope if i buy online, they books show up in time..

[B.C.]

Originally Posted by NJL

I haven't been in school for quite some time.. out of curiosity, are they offering college textbooks in eBook form yet?

Is that even a good idea? If they are, are they at least cheaper than the other books we had to buy that were REALLY expensive?

Signed,
Old Man in a Snuggie

Sadly they still are horribly expensive, but places like amazon.com and such really help

[MCBTunes]

Yeah ebooks are available for a lot of the newer texts. Sometimes a pain to read on the computer though.

I suggest you consult your professor about the text... I don't know which school etc you are involved in but you can get by just fine without them in many of the junior classes around here - if you go to class or your prof is nice enough to post notes.

After you've tried searching for the ebook try buying from fellow classmates that have taken the course, then online retailers THEN your schools book store . Of course selling your books back to other students after you've taken the course is a good way to cut costs.

Don't worry too much about getting the books late if you decide to order online... Order a week before class starts and they shouldn't show up more than a week after class has begun and no one reads in the first week anyway haha.

[jonathan_matos5]

not really on topic to the thread but my advice for returning to college is hang out near the theater department and hit on the girls. they aren't used to being around straight guys, and this tends to make stuff easy.

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by MCBTunes

Don't worry too much about getting the books late if you decide to order online... Order a week before class starts and they shouldn't show up more than a week after class has begun and no one reads in the first week anyway haha.

I never buy books before the class starts. The one time I did this, I bought one wrong book (the prof changed his mind last minute) and one book I didn't need (the prof just listed in case). Ended up having to return them, which wasn't really an issue, but still a pain in the neck.

[MJ5150]

Don't forget your plaid pants...



-Mike

[Pilgrim]

When buying on campus, buy EARLY and request used books - there is usually a limited supply and they cost less than new. As noted above, Amazon is a good source, and the other sources mentioned are good.

[CamMcIntyre]

I have saved some money by going to TextBooks.com.

Some of my books have been available in E-book format, I haven't used one just yet. They have been less than 3/4 of the new book price. If I get this gig I'm auditioning for, I'm hoping to use ALL ebooks.

I only keep the books I want to read again. Now that I'm in business school, that's not very many.

[NJL]

Thanks! Another link for my bookmarks!

[NJL]

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