<p>our library has textbooks for every class that you could take and study within the building's confines for 3 hours max - so you don't have to buy it, but you do have to spend a lot of hours in library rather than studying somewhere else</p>
<p>used to get books at campus bookstore and return them every three weeks, then buy them again for 3 weeks - untill they started demanding that students bring proof of dropping the class when attmepting to return the book</p>
<p>there are also some texts that can be downloaded from online - people copying books and then making their files available for everyone else to use, just like movies</p>
<p>I've found that even though books are much cheaper online, when you add up all the shipping costs from all the different sellers, you're not saving much since most sellers don't have Plato and Chemistry books lumped together. Anyone have any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>I bought the international editions for my two textbooks because they were cheaper than a used US edition. Also older editions go for really cheap so find out if you REALLY need the newest edition for the class. As for finding the textbooks for free online, I tried that on several different P2P/sharing programs and I found general books on the subject but not my specific subject. I would xerox the books but most of my textbooks are anywhere from 700-900 pages and if the copier chages $.05 a copy that's already in the $35 ballpark just for copying the book (unless your school lets you copy for free).</p>
<p>you could also steal the books you need. go in to the bookstore on the first day of school when the place is crowded with students. take a few books you need and walk out with them. trust me it works. i've found that lab manuals and course readers are easier to get away with than thick textbooks, but its worth a try. the workers will be so occupied with ringing people up they wont pay attention to shoplifters. give it a try and good luck.</p>
<p>I've found that even though books are much cheaper online, when you add up all the shipping costs from all the different sellers, you're not saving much...</p>
<p>I disagree. Flat rate priority mail is $4.50 per book; substantially less for media mail. </p>
<p>I've purchased texts boos that were $85 at the school bookstore, for $11 + $4.50 shipping. You do the math.</p>
<p>For the math in photocopying: the easiest thing to do is to size it down so you get the full two page spread copied onto one page of your reader. This makes the text pretty small, but if you landscape the pages, it works really well -- and then you've just cut your copying costs in half.</p>
<p>I just took my roommate's lab book to Kinko's today to make a copy for myself (copies on campus are more expensive). The guy behind the counter was like "well, we can't copy it for you since it's copyrighted...but we'll show you how to set up the self-serve printer so you can do it yourself. We don't really monitor those." Haha. Cost me $10 instead of almost $30 though, so I can't complain...</p>
<p>Some books I wouldn't buy past editions of (like something that would change a lot from edition to edition), but I'm going to try the 3rd instead of the 4th edition of the econ book I need - the new one cost way too much.</p>
<p>The best I think is to actually buy your books online and buy them early. You can be sure to get all used books. Also, if your school does BuyBack, do that early too. It sucks when you've got a new book you want to sell back to the store but you can't because they've already bought back too many copies.</p>