College Textbooks – What Are Your Options?

College textbooks are necessary and they may be one of the things that are stressing you out the most about college. You may have even heard horror stories of how expensive they are from other friends or family members that are currently in college. These necessary college supplies can easily be over $100 or more per book. You may be starting college for the first time this upcoming semester or maybe this is your second semester and you bought all your books new the first semester and have your own horror stories. Check out below for some ways you can ease the pain of buying college textbooks.

Buy Used – First of all, buy used college textbooks. This will probably mean getting to the school bookstore as soon as you know what textbooks you need for class. Everyone else is going to be thinking the same thing as you – get the used books and save a lot of money. Purchasing a used textbook can mean the difference between paying nearly $200 and paying $80. It’s worth it to go early. When purchasing a used book, you do want to make sure that you flip through the pages a bit to make sure that there aren’t pages and pages of solid highlighted material that will make your studying session harder. Determine how much writing you can live with in your textbook.

The College Bookstore isn’t the only option for buying a used book. If you take a look around the college halls and bulletin boards, there may be notices that college students from the previous semester may be selling a book that you need at a cost that may be even less than the used book cost in the college bookstore. 

Look Online – Check out the internet for the edition of the book you need. Again, it may be less than the cost of your college bookstore. However, there is also the uncertainty that comes with not knowing what condition it is in. This is another circumstance that you need to decide what you can live with in regards to how written in or highlighted your college textbook is when it arrives to you.

Ebooks – Have an ereader or tablet? Look online and see if there is an ebook available for your textbook. There are a lot of benefits to an ebook textbook. You will save storage space in your dorm room, you’ll save a lot of money, and you also won’t have to carry a lot of heavy textbooks to and from class. When you leave your home, apartment, or dorm room, you may be packing up textbooks for quite a few classes that are back to back. That can be a lot of strain on your arms, back, and backpack. If you have a ereader or tablet and don’t mind not having a physical copy of your textbook, see if your textbook is available as an ebook.

Rentals – This is a pretty great option. You just rent the textbook you need for the amount of time you need and then you don’t have to worry about having an extra book around at the end of the semester that you didn’t want to sell back to the college bookstore because of not getting much money back for it. The downside is you have to limit highlighting and writing and make sure the spine and covers are in good condition because students will be renting the book after you. 

Novels – If you’re taking an English class and you need a certain novel, if you already have the novel you don’t need to go out and buy a new one. The page numbers may be off if they are different editions, but it will save you money. Look in the school bookstore first to see if there is a used edition. If there is not and you have a membership to a bookstore nearby that will allow you to get a percentage off of the book, then check out that bookstore to see if they have it. Also, you may want to see if a used bookstore has the novel you are looking for.