I say steal 'em.

Sadly, even when I buy the books, I rarely read them. As much as I love books, I am more of an experiential learner. I need it applied, at least in my mind, which makes lectures better. I tend to use books as a last minute crutch - so it means I open the text around 4 times a year. I need to figure out how much homework is from the texts.

At any rate, I decided to take Alex's route to textbook success, even before he wrote it up. I'm just rarely in such a bind that I have to decide what to do about books. Not to mention I'm taking a much heavier class-load. /faints

And this will be the semester that you need every book for every class :p

ASK your professors. Some of them will be honest about which you actually need. Of course, if your prof is the author of any of the books, it will be "essential" in order to pass the class ;)

One is the author, unfortunately. And I know I can only get it new. bastard. 120 beans for that one. :(

Which really makes no sense...I mean, if he's teaching the class, isn't he bestowing his knowledge on you anyway?


Bastard.


Occasionally, you can go to the publisher's website and see the changes made from one edition to the other, so you can save money buying the old edition.