Ever since the book-debacle of first year, no-one has been thrilled to buy the textbooks in my program. Seriously, I think most people are as jaded as I am about buying the textbooks the teachers say are required even after they give out assignments from the books. So, naturally this meant that I’d go the route of not doing an assignment for one of my classes because the way I see it … 4 questions is not worth $92.

Sure, I suppose it might come in handy when (if?) he assigns more questions  — but considering we’re at week 6 of 14 … you’d think we’d have been assigned more by now.

I was willing to forgo the marks until it occurred to me that this assignment was for the terrible class of mine in which we are in a single group for the whole semester (and no-one is particularly motivated in my group, including myself). Off I went to the bookstore, waited in line, read the large return policy sign, handed over my Visa, swipe, sign  and voila. The stupid book is now mine.

I plan to return this book … tomorrow, in hopefully mint-condition. I cannot bring myself to spend this much money on something I will only ever use rarely while I am in this program. Hah, I’m pretty glad I can do this! Normally I wouldn’t consider it … and if this was the first week of September I would keep the book. Being at the half-way point makes me think it’s worth the risk to take it back. I feel kind of clever … mwhaha.

Mwhaha.

— books, school

Alliteration: 1, Similes: 0.

I’ve been returning textbooks from first semester to the used book buyback. Sigh. I’m really glad to have shed the Video books. It’s horrible to buy a book and never open it. Luckily it seems I am getting “half back” on the books I’ve brought in so far; they say it’s half-back … but uh, I distinctly remember paying more than $36 for one of those books. Oh, and how about that $8 for the $55 premiere book? Nice. I contemplated keeping it, but seriously I will never use that god damn book. Ever. _EVER_.

After buying a boatload of books in first semester I vowed never to buy a textbook again. Ironically, I bought a book at the beginning of the summer that happens to be a textbook we’re using in one of my classes (so I kind of already failed that ambition). Aside from that my vow would have been unbroken. That is — I suppose — until our teachers heeded to the complaints. Indeed, we complained about buying books and not using them.

What do we get in return? Courses with “required” textbooks that are actually required. For the first time since High School I will actually have to bring something with me to school on Monday’s (aside from a lunch + laptop) … a textbook for my 3D class. Haha!

Oh Sigh! It could be worse …

Someone in our class found 2 of the books we “need” via torrent (some teachers still say they are required, but have no plans to make us use or read them). It’s convenient to have them in pdf form! Sweetness. I guess it’s not all bad in the end! I think only one of the books I “need” is above $50, too. I’m reaaaally hoping I don’t have to buy that thing. Yay!

STUPID READING. EH? EH?

— books, school

I ventured off to the bookstore, some 40 minutes ago and spent an amusing 15 minutes trying to find the required text for Popular Culture. It’s surprising to have actually reading to do. So foolish me didn’t realize that the books were ordered by courseID (and I had no idea what the course number was for PopCulture — turns out it is RAD2001 or RAD1534 … one of those). Luckily I knew what the book looked like and eventually found it.

Looking through it, I noticed that the appearance of the pages seemed odd. The quality of photos and such were just as bad. At first I thought it was to mimic the style of a newspaper.

Someone just walked by and said “nice computer”. MIKE, SHE WOULD HAVE TALKED TO YOU HAD YOU BEEN ON WEBCAM. That’s right, I’m picking up ladies left and right just by sitting on a bench, using the Macbook. *cough*

Back at my locker I decided to examine the book some more. I looked at the back cover and noticed that it had a proprietary barcode and other associated information. It looked like it was all added by Algonquin. I opened the cover, which doesn’t look bad — if you get in close enough it looks a little ‘off’, just not as sharp as you would expect it to be.

At the bottom of the first page I noticed “Reprinted with permission of the author, 2004″. Meh. Lots of books are reprinted. Third page: “Printed by the Algonquin Publishing Centre”. OMG. No wonder it was cheaper than Chapters (who had 0 in stock online, and in-store). Then it suddenly dawned on me: the book doesn’t have a ‘style’ … it was photocopied (with permission). *shocked*

— books, school

I ordered several books this morning online at Chapters. Two of the three books ‘ship in 24 hours’ and one of them ‘ships in 1-2 weeks’. Meh, I am in no gigantic hurry for the books (particularly since the content of one isn’t started until at least March-February). So I assumed that Chapters — like Amazon — decides that shipping everything at once is better than shipping separately, based upon availability. Especially when you choose the ‘free shipping’ option (for orders of $39 or more!).

So I was quite surprised when I read the confirmation email which said “To get items to you quickly, we will ship each item as soon as it’s available. As a result, you may receive multiple shipments.”. HEART.

Oh yes, the fact that I was able to use my gift card online is another reason why Chapters rocks my socks. *cough Futureshop sucks*

And that is why I like Chapters. The end.

— books

I know some of you don’t have them yet, so when you do have your textbooks, LET’S COMPARE WEIGHT AND SEE WHO CAN AMASS THE LARGEST PILE OF BOOKS. I humbly sit before you now with 29 pounds of books, and seriously wonder whether or not these are a worthy investment. We cannot get through all of them in 16 classes, can we?

How is it that a full-colour, 300 page book costs $100. It’s not some rare book either, it’s copyright is actually for 2007, and it’s in its 6th edition. Oho, compare this to a 700 page, full colour book with pages of a heavier paper weight … it was LESS than half of the 300 page book. DO YOU KNOW WHY ONE LEFT A $100 DENT IN MY STUDENT LOAN? IT’S BECAUSE IT’S PUBLISHED BY “THOMSON WADSWORTH” AND THOSE BASTARDS PROBABLY INFLATE THE PRICE … YOU MAY RECOGNIZE THE THOMSON NAME FROM TEXTBOOKS USED AT MHS (or even … uni …). It’s a good thing we’re supposedly heavily using this $100 book … because good god … I would be so pissed if we didn’t.

HAH. When making the comparison above, look at the pictures below. I’ve noted the expensive book … but the book I was comparing it to was “Head First HTML …”. The astute readers may also notice that it is the ‘pillar’ of the book column (because it is so big and heavy). To figure out how many pages were in it involved me sliding it out from underneath the rest of the books (JENGA! JENGA! JENGA!). HOWEVER, this sent the books sliding backward into the wall.

My first reaction: “NO! NOT THE $100 BOOK”. It’s cover is SLIGHTLY bent, but not appreciably (there is no crease). SO BLOODY GOOD. THIS THING IS LIKE DIAMOND. AN UGLY, UNREFINED PIECE OF DIAMOND.

* I realize this is probably a losing battle for me, since your books might be hardcover and thicker :P. BUT IT’S SOMETHING AMUSING TO DO, ANYWAY.

Now I have to figure out which books with which courses, because it’s actually difficult to tell, in some instances.

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— books, college, expensive, heavy