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