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Letter to the editor

10 Tips: Be book smart when buying college texts

Attention, college students: Are you reeling in shock from the amount of money you had to spend on textbooks at the start of the academic year?

By Laura T. Coffey, Times Correspondent
Published October 28, 2007

Attention, college students: Are you reeling in shock from the amount of money you had to spend on textbooks at the start of the academic year? The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently reported that college textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation since 1986. These tips can give you some ideas for beating the system:

1 Beat the crowds. Your campus bookstore is your simplest and fastest route for finding the books you need, but it can be the most expensive. That said, you may be able to save a little money by arriving at the store as early as possible - the minute you get your list of required books - so you can snatch up used copies.

2 Use ISBN numbers to comparison shop. Write down ISBN numbers and prices for new and used books, then shop around online. Check prices on the Web sites of Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, eBay, Varsity Books, efollett.com and iChapters.com. A comparison shopping site such as BestBookBuys.com can be helpful.

3 Be open to new forms of reading and studying. You might get a choice of print, digital or audio forms of textbooks. EBooks cost significantly less, and in many cases you can highlight areas and make notes in the margins as you read your books. Another option: iChapters.com allows you to buy single book chapters for $1.99.

4 Check out Course-Smart. Six textbook publishers - Pearson, Wiley, Cengage Learning, McGraw Hill Education, Houghton Mifflin and Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group - have teamed up to make thousands of textbooks available in eBook format via CourseSmart.com, a new site that promises to add thousands of titles within the next few months.

5 Rent a book. Much like online movie-rental services, Textbookflix.com allows you to rent textbooks rather than buy them. The savings can be substantial, as long as you're careful to return your books on time. If you keep them even one day after your semester ends, you'll be hit with a $25 late fee.

6 Free downloads are your friends. Many classics of literature and a wide array of other books can be downloaded for free at Web sites such as Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.net.

7 Form a book-sharing confederation. Do you know or can you meet other students with your major? You could create a band of brothers (and sisters) who share, buy and sell books with each other at fair prices.

8 The library doesn't charge a dime. Many colleges set aside copies of textbooks at the library, where they can be used for free. Your city or county library may have copies of textbooks.

9 Older editions are worth a look. If a new edition has just been released for one of the textbooks on your list, compare it carefully with the last edition. The changes may be so minor that you really won't need to pay top dollar for the newer version.

10 Sell your books with care. The campus bookstore will give you a fraction of what you paid for your books once you're done with them, so sell within the network of students you helped establish, or do so online.

Laura T. Coffey (laura@tentips.org)

Sources: Bankrate.com; American Association of State Colleges and Universities (www.aascu.org/policy_matters/v2_3/default.htm); General Accounting Office (www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf)

[Last modified October 26, 2007, 21:03:48]