My ongoing battle against buying textbooks dates back to my first week at Columbia. I strolled into Book Culture as a happy, innocent first year armed with a list of four required textbooks.
I left shell-shocked and scarred for life, over $400 lighter. My most worthy opponent? Calculus Early Transcendentals by James Stewart, for a whopping $220.
Yes, you read that right, $220 for a book. I don’t think I would pay that much for a signed copy of the Iliad.
Since then, it’s been the same story every semester. I look for flyers for used textbooks, scout Amazon, and assess whether I can get away with simply not buying the books. After one or two weeks of classes this process culminates in a walk of shame to Book Culture to buy the absolutely necessary books (which continue to cost a small fortune).
It’s not that I’m against buying textbooks, and in many cases I find them a lot more useful than the professor. It’s just tough having to spend money—enough to buy a HiFi surround sound system for my room—on books.
