<p>It is sad to me when any bookstore closes. It likely offers knowledgable advice re books. You cant put a price on that. IMHO.</p>
<p>The tricky bit we are dealing with is knowing what books to buy. The book list is sometimes not available until the first day of class, or one changes sections or class in the first week, and a different text is needed. We’ve lost a fair bit of money trying to be “smart” and buying on line, only to have unused or the wrong books hanging around the house forever.</p>
<p>^^Join the fun. Sell your extra books online at Amazon Marketplace or one of the other sites. I use Marketplace with great results. </p>
<p>As far as buying the wrong edition, Amazon in general offers a 30 day money back guarantee. That is better than most college bookstores. Amazon Marketplace vendors also must have return policies posted.</p>
<p>Today’s NYTimes has an article about the closing of the Morningside Bookshop, an institution right near Columbia/Barnard for over 40 years. The landlord, Columbia, is owed a tremendous sum in back rent. A true loss to the community.</p>
<p>Our kids have had to buy books at their private school since they started. Unless you specifically said you didn’t need the book, you were billed. The only option of used books was if you had an older sibling or were on financial aid where they had a limited number of used books for sale. They had a buy back program at the end of the year, but my kids could never remember when it was and then would invariably miss the date.</p>
<p>So this year they started this online bookstore. You can sell back books but you can also buy used books. I just cant figure out how they determine used books? I always liked going into the bookstore to find the book the kid bought with the best of intentions and never cracked it open. I don’t want a used book that’s already highlighted (who knows what kind of student that kid was). So… how do you trust buying used books online?</p>
<p>Many college bookstores have been bought up by larger companys like Barnes and Noble. The Boston University bookstore, for example, has not been run by the university for years. It is a Barnes and Noble store. I believe DD’s university is also. The reality is that my kids went to the bookstore for only to get us gifts (coffee mugs and sweat or tee shirts). They never bought their books there. Both purchased their books online either used or new. DD rented a text for one course (knew she would not want the book later). DS never went into the bookstore where he goes to grad school (OK…it’s an arts conservatory…but ykwim) except with me to buy the obligatory coffee mug.</p>
<p>My observation is that these bookstores are excessively overpriced. Even though books are now available in multiple places, they still haven’t reduced prices or figured out a way to keep their customers. If they close, it will be a testament to free enterprise in the book selling industry. My guess is you will see small “campus shops” in the student unions to sell the Logo Stuff.</p>
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<p>One of my professors used a textbook that hasn’t been printed since around 1967. He gives handouts of all the chapters we use, but I wanted a real physical copy with an index (much better than 23 chapters worth of photocopies). The copy I wound up getting was $8 and filled with writing in the margins. The good news? All of the writing was derivations for when the text would say “We know from X, and Y, and Z that Q must be true.” Pretty much made it the best thermo book ever.</p>
<p>When will textbooks change to Kindle books?</p>
<p>Princeton and Arizona State have Kindle textbook pilot programs for this fall semester.</p>
<p>^So does Case Western Reserve University, I believe.</p>
<p>There’s also free open textbooks: [Online</a> ‘open textbooks’ save students cash - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-09-open-textbooks_N.htm]Online”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-09-open-textbooks_N.htm)</p>
<p>My schools bookstore is still going strong.</p>
<p>I love good bookstores and will gladly pay for the privilege of browsing and advice. But textbooks are and always have been a scam. Maybe college bookstores will get better if they can’t depend on a captive audience. Appalachian State in NC has gone to renting textbooks…</p>