<p>We could not own the HS textbooks. You had to return them at the end of each semester. If you lost/damaged books (including library books), you had to pay a fine before graduation or you did not get your diploma.</p>
<p>I've just finished my freshman year of college, and here's what I found that I needed:
[ul]
[<em>]MLA Handbook--I actually had to buy a copy for my first paper, and I used it for almost every paper after that.
[li]Elements of Style and some sort of grammar handbook. I can't tell you how many times I had to check something out in my copy of Harbrace's Handbook.[/li][</em>]As for textbooks, I didn't take any of the books, but I did take my AP Biology and AP Calculus class notes, and I did use them occasionally.
[/ul]
For pleasure reading, I usually checked my books out of the library. It would've been nice to have some of my favorite books around me, but I found that I really needed the space.</p>
<p>Also, be careful when ordering the international copy of a textbook. In addition to having a soft cover (which is actually nice), a lot of them are in black-and-white. In some courses this wouldn't make a difference, but in some courses it could make a huge difference.</p>
<p>Wait and see? S1 called and asked for his Statistics book in January. He felt the university text book was not as good as his high school stats book. Go figure.</p>