| One of the most demanding investments we make in | | | | NEW/USED COLLEGE BOOKS (this site is an |
| our college years is in college books. When I was in | | | | amalgamation, a search engine for all the connecting |
| school, both in undergraduate and graduate school, | | | | bookstores online) |
| though I was an English Lit major, my books were | | | | Another strategy you might have seen-unless you just |
| from 100 to 500 dollars a semester. | | | | started school and have not seen the campus facilities, |
| I went about the first week of the semester feeling so | | | | yet-is the common bulletin board system: you post a |
| sorry for myself . . . until I saw some of the other | | | | request for a particular title along with your phone |
| major's college books and prices: psychology, 100; | | | | number outside of the department, in the cafeteria, and |
| engineering, 200; math, 200. But keep in mind there are | | | | wherever else a bulletin board allows public postings. |
| alternatives today, thanks to in large part the Internet. | | | | (Be sure you have gotten approval for posting from |
| First, you have to get over the elitist attitude that you | | | | the associated students or others, who will date stamp |
| need all brand new books. If the book is available on | | | | your ad, else the flyers can and might be torn down.) |
| the shelf in the college bookstore used, go for it. Or | | | | There's one more strategy that some of my students |
| check the used bookstores in town: for anyone living in | | | | have tried-sometimes with great success, other times |
| the San Francisco Bay Area, that is much more of a | | | | with not so great success: two people share in the |
| possibility, as we have Moe's Books in Berkeley, Green | | | | cost of a new college book. They take turns using the |
| Apple Books on Clement Street, and hundreds of | | | | book, especially since they live together and/or are in |
| independent bookstores. | | | | the same class. |
| As well, sites like the world-renowned EBay give us | | | | But by the same token that peer group workers can |
| access to booksellers the world over, and you can | | | | have one peer who is flaky or who takes on in the |
| usually (if you don't have time to bid on a book, as you | | | | middle of the semester or who has a tragedy hit |
| need it within a week) take the "Buy Now" option. | | | | (when he or she has the necessary materials and |
| EBay sellers, from my experience thus far, are fast. I | | | | cannot get them to the group), so might you encounter |
| have gotten books mailed from the UK to the US in | | | | a sharer of your source materials, just when it is your |
| under five days! | | | | turn to use one and just when the partner is nowhere |
| Next, there are appropriate venders outside of EBay | | | | to be found. Of course, some students have taken the |
| online. Here are a few that my own students have | | | | expense of photocopying chapters, but that seems to |
| used over the years: | | | | be overkill (of time and nerves), especially now that we |
| NEW COLLEGE BOOKS | | | | have tools to enhance our book-buying experience. |