currently reading my chem textbook. all 150$ and several tons of it.

I have never understood why university textbooks over there are so damn expensive. The most I ever paid for a textbook was a £50, 1400 page behemoth of a maths textbook which covered all the maths for the entire course. Most books I picked up second-hand on Amazon for under £20 (a significant proportion of our recommended books were out of print anyway) or just got out of the library.

Sentynel wrote:I have never understood why university textbooks over there are so damn expensive. The most I ever paid for a textbook was a £50, 1400 page behemoth of a maths textbook which covered all the maths for the entire course. Most books I picked up second-hand on Amazon for under £20 (a significant proportion of our recommended books were out of print anyway) or just got out of the library.

That's the answer for you. Over here new 'editions' (the changes are insignificant, as far as I can tell) keep getting pulled out of publishers butts every other year and the universities go along with it. Also, students usually are not informed what textbooks are required until near last minute so they tend to feel more rushed into purchasing from the bookstore instead of Amazon and Alibris competitors (but it still happens.)
Also, a lot of books are required to come with codes or CDs for online 'labs', and when that's required (this time usually individual professors) then that not only ups the price but makes it harder to get an older edition.

Or, as in the case of my university, books are published as 'university custom.' Class syllabi are often even featured in there. In that case, my university makes no show of secrecy of required books because they know there's no other competition out there. The 'custom' books claim to be cheaper, and probably are by like $20 than the normal books, but the markup is still ridiculously high and they know they can get away with it without outside competition.

So there you go, it's the competitive free market at its finest. :)

Personally, I have fallen in love with the library reserves. Which is basically checking out a book for two hours and and then returning it. Oddly enough people here (in my school anyways) don't seem to utilize it too often...

It was only some that were out of print, though. Even the books written pretty much specifically for the course were never expensive - my thermodynamics textbook was written by the professor, published by the university, and cost all of £20. Same for the quantum physics textbook and that was like £10 printed, and we got a free digital version. EM textbook as well, though that was more like £40. The £50 maths textbook was the most expensive I ever bought.

Sentynel wrote:- my thermodynamics textbook was written by the professor, published by the university, and cost all of £20.

Yeah. Our professors like to make money off us on their own works.

Yeah, in one of the university lectures I was listening to online, the teacher told the class about how he was offered a huge amount of money from a publishing company to put out a textbook. He turned them down, so at least there's some decent teachers out there. But when it comes down to it, a lot of the stuff that goes on in unversities over here is about making money. Leaving the students (many of whom didn't even need to go to university) with huge mountains of debt. Really, with most textbooks there's plenty of other options other than actually buying the damn things, I've known students who've just gone back to the bookstore and read the information they've needed. But there's plenty of students who just don't think about the debt (or just have parents who pay for everything for them) so they don't think twice.

Nope, I'm definitely not bitter.


Funny enough, I actually read Buried Fire a couple of weeks ago. It's got its moments, but to be honest it was pretty mediocre, it's amazing how much Stroud's improved since.

Well I can console myself that my library has the feature of scanning books, making them as images, and allowing you to save those images on either a flash drive or e-mail. Which I was not even aware of until I bought all my books (not making that mistake again next semester.)

Finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Quite surprised actually by it. I went into it with low expectations, but everything far exceeded my expectations - the plot, the characters, pacing, tone, etc. A couple of things could be changed, all in all a great read.


Trololololololol

I havent visited in a while...
Was still reading the Drizzt books, read up to the Sellsword trilogy. Unless anybody can tell me if Jarlaxle or Artemis make another appearence I guess Ill move on cause Drizzt got dull.

Edit: lolol @ that thing Nero

^^ My grandparents have that book, it's really good. I like the actual performances better, though.

Baltimore - Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

SO GOOD.

Ian Banks - Canal Dreams.

My library has a lot of science fiction books.

Canal Dreams isn't Banks' best work. If you're interested in the science fiction stuff, look at Transitions or The Player of Games. For more non sci-fi like Canal Dreams, The Bridge is probably the best.

I spent some five minutes thinking whether I should choose Canal Dreams or The Bridge. And I choose the former. >>

FuzzyLobster wrote:Baltimore - Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

SO GOOD.

YES IT IS. And the recent comics series is also really well done.

NO WAY. I did not know there were comics, have to check the library for them, it's perfect since I'm on a comic binge right now (plus Hallowe'en next week).

I am, finally, reading A Game of Thrones.

Currently:

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
Fables by Bill Willingham
The Wake of Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer
golden age superman comics

I'm currently reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, but I always put it down for fear that something really nasty will happen to the leading character. Actually I first began to read it before the Bartimaeus trilogy, but finished the latter, not a progress on the former. After reading it, I sank to a depressed state, thinking that my favorite story is finally over. Just today I found out that there's another Barty story that I haven't yet read, the Ring of Solomon, and I'm really looking forward to reading it, I could barely contain myself.

Fio wrote:Currently:

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
Fables by Bill Willingham
The Wake of Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer
golden age superman comics

Hi-five for Fables.

Goliath - Scott Westerfield

Reading the Graveyard Book to my sister as well, and working my way through a pile of art books.