Textbook ripoffs in college

[Only One In All]

But seriously though, back in MY college days I almost never bought the books until the second or third class. If the instructor never made any references to the book, or never assigned any work from it, that was a pretty sure bet that they wouldn't ever use the material. I probably saved several hundred dollars by doing this, several hundred I didn't have to repay back in loans.

I did the same thing and recommend this to everyone. (I also avoided buying the book if it wasn't absolutely necessary to have; i.e. there would need to be homework assignments, not just reading assignments, before I would buy the book. This saved me a lot of money because I never did the reading assignments anyway. I can't really recommend this, even if it worked for me.)

Considering this, how did you do in regards to grades?

[Mogri]

I pulled off a 3.2 GPA, but don't be fooled: the only reason it's that high (which is still not spectacular, mind) is because I had something like 45 hours of straight-A test credits.

The Amazon interviewer asked me to explain my GPA. I told him that I had slacked off during my freshman year. I did not tell him about the slacking off during the other years of my college experience. This answer seemed to please him. Google, according to legend, will not even consider you for interview if your GPA is lower than a 3.5.

[JSH357]

I use the same technique as Moogle and Fenrir--the two majors I've had, CS and English, have never really required expensive books. I only read the texts I'm supposed to have down for English, which are in cheap collections and posted all over the internet, generally. Don't believe that you actually have to read reading assignments--it's rarely the case that a professor will test over them. You can argue that this hurts your education or something, but seriously, reading Wikipedia is more enlightening than reading a college textbook half the time.

I have a 3.45 GPA, which is higher than I ever came close to in high school, and the only semester in which I bought every book was my first one.

[msw188]

I agree with most of this about avoiding buying the book and the uselessness of 'reading assignments', especially in the 'softer' sciences (Psychology, Sociology, any field with the word "science" in the title, like Computer Science or Political Science), but in my experience the more analytical the study (physical sciences, Mathematics), the more likely it is that you will need the textbook. Earlier levels of these classes seem to take all homework out of the book (although you can usually get away with previous editions), and later levels are often difficult enough that a good textbook is actually more helpful than the wiki, or wolfram, or whatever you choose. The word "good" is key though. The problem is that it's hard to tell if a book is truly helpful early on in a class.

All this said, have you guys ever bought a book that you actually appreciated? I have one math book that I barely used while in school, but now when I go back and look at it it's really a great book with lots of good ideas. Good, tasteful prose too, a rarity in mathematics.

[Mazin]

Don't believe that you actually have to read reading assignments--it's rarely the case that a professor will test over them.

This is true. Very often professors will "require" you to read something and then the tests will only cover what was talked about in lecture (or, the text will cover the exact same stuff anyway). So all you have to do is show up and not fall asleep, and you'll understand all that you need to know.

One time I had an English class like this. The final was going to be 20 multiple choice questions, only about the lecture. Several people complained that it was too much. This still confuses and angers me.

All this said, have you guys ever bought a book that you actually appreciated?

I've enjoyed a few of the books I've read for English and creative writing classes. And I like my C++ textbook.

[msw188]

Do you mean academic books on writing technique/critique, or actual novels/collections of stories? In either case, since this is a game-making community where creative writing can be useful, would you recommend any of those books?

[Mazin]

Do you mean academic books on writing technique/critique, or actual novels/collections of stories?

Both. But beware of academic books on technique, there are some good ones but too often the author will go into what they think makes a story "literary" and give absolutely horrible advice, like "don't use external conflict," or "'action' (in the sense of fights, car chases, etc.) can't be meaningful," and yes those are both real (paraphrased) and unexaggerated examples. Many writers and critics develop a lot of strange preferences about stories and then they often try to claim that everyone should write that way. When they say "people like _____ in stories," I always ask: did they actually look at people's likes and dislikes empirically, or is this just what they think people ought to like? It seems to usually be the latter.

In either case, since this is a game-making community where creative writing can be useful, would you recommend any of those books?

One book I enjoyed was "How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead" by Ariel Gore. There's actually very little about the craft of writing itself, but there's a good deal about productivity and self-promotion and publishing, and it has some writing exercises that are quite helpful.

I would recommend Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" to any writer looking to improve their writing, especially dialogue, descriptions of gesture/expression, or paragraph structure (the third will never be discussed in any writing class, but it's important). It's a little slow reading but it's worth it, if you look at any piece of dialogue or description in the book and just think "how did she do this?" you'll likely learn something new about writing.

It's not about writing, but I would recommend Ben Franklin's autobiography to anyone, mainly for the section on his system for self-improvement, it's really quite amazing.

[Twinconclusive]

One of my room mates has just informed me that he found an entire series of international versions of required textbooks that went for 90% less than what the regular American version would have cost.

One such series were Indian copies that were the exact replica of the required text books. We've theorized that some guy must be buying those books in India for $10 dollars a crate and then selling them to American students for $20 a pop.

I wish I knew about these sooner.