windy's trip

[Freenhult]

I never said you were?

[The Beatles]

Buying textbooks is pointless. Library or torrent does it, I haven't bought one in 4 years (out of 5). Old editions are fine, reserve copies for exercise numbers.

[Devari]

I regrettably did not learn that until after my second term started. But, henceforth, no more textbook purchases for me.

[Gen. Volkov]

I never said you were?

Then don't argue about it with me. Some things are arguable, this particular comment was not one of those things, at least for me.

Beatles: I can never find the textbooks I need on a torrent, and the copies in the library are continuously checked out from the beginning of the semester until the end.

[The Beatles]

I can usually make reservations at the UW. Sometimes an other campus has it (UW has 3 campuses). Luck of the draw.

[Gen. Volkov]

IU has multiple campuses, but they all use different books. The courses are not standardized.

[The Beatles]

Then it's just big libraries -- most campuses stock a few copies.

I told a lie earlier, I did buy a textbook once, but I think it cost around 81 cents on amazon.com.

[Gen. Volkov]

Yup, and other smart people check them out for the semester. So I am stuck with buying used books, which are at least cheaper.

[Devari]

Just about all course texts are automatically put on reserve at UVic. Since the checkout period is, at absolute maximum, a few days, it's not too hard to just go there, read what you need, photocopy anything you need a hardcopy of, and return it for someone else to do the same. Photocopying what you really need at 10 cents a page is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a full textbook.

(Keep in mind, CAD prices here.)

[Devari]

Now, of course, I only thought of this trick /after/ my second term started... So I haven't put it into practice. But, I have talked to other people who have, and it does seem to work reasonably well.

[The Beatles]

It has... consistently.

[Devari]

Excellent! Hooray and huzzah, that's $800 saved next year!