Recent purchases

[erilaz]

^ That's one thing I definitely do NOT miss about being a student. Textbooks were expensive enough back in my day, but nowadays the prices are utterly absurd.

[esm]

It's worse when you're pretty sure you're not going to need the books again, and most buy-back options don't give you anywhere close to a good deal. Hardcover science textbooks are the worst.

I haven't had to buy very many books for linguistics at all because in upper level classes we read mostly research papers. The books I did have to buy are good resources written by very prominent people in the field.

Of course, the printing cost does get high and I'd be drowning in papers if I print too much.

[boinsie]

Don't buy from the school bookstore unless you absolutely have to.
If it's a book you're not going to care about keeping (or if you don't particularly care about condition for your collection), buy it used from a reseller online (Amazon, eBay, etc). That way, when your class is over, you can sell it on that same platform for basically the same amount you bought it for. You won't lose out on nearly as much money that way.
It's obviously less possible when the book is an edition specifically made for your school, or one that comes with an online homework submission service or whatever other garbage, BUT, it's something to keep in mind when you can.

[CaptainBerryzGiraffe]

Oh, did I say buy? I rent my books, not buy, because it's hella cheaper. (yanno $20 less per book adds up...)
I had to buy some from the school book store just because it wasn't available on amazon or chegg and some were "new editions" etc etc, annoyances. Those two were the only two I got from the book store, and they were the most expensive, too. UGHHH

[rikkikow]

What you might think of doing then is buying the book and after you are done with it rent it out yourself.

[erilaz]

I kept nearly all of the books I bought for foreign language and linguistics courses as an undergrad and grad student. Sold back virtually everything else when the courses ended.

I was really lucky a few times, because the assigned textbooks were things I had picked up months/years earlier at local used book stores or the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library's big annual book sale. So instead of paying $40 or whatever for French for Reading Knowledge, I already had a copy that I had bought for 35 cents. You couldn't buy books online, much less download them, back in those days. The World Wide Web came into existence about a year after I started grad school, and I was done with all my coursework before Amazon and eBay even existed.

[esm]

I think nowadays they're really pushing rental books, at least from my experiences at the schools I've been to. When I was a freshman, there were only a few titles that were available for rental, and by my senior year almost everything was available for rental. When I did my masters, all the books were also available for rental, but at the end of the semester I decided to buy some of the books that I wanted to keep, which was basically just paying the difference between the rental price and the full price. At least it felt like a payment plan for the books, so it's not like I had to pay all that amount at once.

For buying online, I'd also check out half.com and abebooks.com

[boinsie]

I was thinking of getting a mustard-colored jacket last year around this time, but it didn't end up happening for a variety of reasons.
Fast-forward to today at the store..!!!

[TotallyUncool]

Looks good!

[rikkikow]

Looks good!

Yes, she looks really good in the first photo. She even has a little "Aika" working there too.