The Biannual Textbook Monster
I’d like to thank any possible higher power for having a total inability to understand anything scientific, because my best friend, who majoring in physical therapy and athletic rehabilitation, is paying out the wazoo (spell check?) for her textbooks. I am a communications junkie, and my textbooks are probably about as cheap as they come.
I just paid a total of $115 for the fall semesters text books. That’s 13.9 hours of work in minimum wage terms.
As I just mentioned, I am glad to be majoring in something where the textbooks are fairly cheap. All my bio, or chem, or physical therapy, or engineering friends are paying hundreds of dollars for every book, and they probably need three or four. I usually need more books, but when I can rent them for $8, I can hardly complain.
That’s another one of my secrets though. I don’t buy my books. Let’s face it, no matter how interesting the class, I will never read a textbook again. So I rent, and I rent cheap. I go through two sources: the Roosevelt bookstore, and eCampus.com. I pick whichever is cheaper. eCampus also sells and buys books back, usually paying me more for my books than the school. So this semester, I got lucky. I had a good amount of credit for eCampus, and I threw that right back into renting books.
Today’s eCampus savings
1 school-bought book: $45
4 school-rentals: $70
2 eCampus rentals: $0
But, just like every other college student, I will take a moment to wonder why textbooks are so expensive. I would almost rather pay more in tuition in order to have books provided to me.
Intrepid 