College textbook torrents

[roosta]

anyone use torrents to get their textbooks and know of a good site that has them?

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by roosta

anyone use torrents to get their textbooks and know of a good site that has them?

You can do that nowadays?

[roosta]

there was a textbook torrent i found through google but i think it got shut down, now i cant find anymore though. i know there are some out there but havent been able to find any and i would LOVE to save 500 bucks. i hate buying books that professors use once and it costs me 50 bucks.

[Aria]

Originally Posted by roosta

there was a textbook torrent i found through google but i think it got shut down, now i cant find anymore though. i know there are some out there but havent been able to find any and i would LOVE to save 500 bucks. i hate buying books that professors use once and it costs me 50 bucks.

Better than mine. Our only use of the textbook was one takehome test at the end of the course. If I wanted a good grade I absolutely had to buy the textbook for $100. Totally sucked and pissed me off.

[Kuriin]

Ask the professor to make up lecture notes. Some do, some of course, won't. lol

[Eyashusa]

Just look at the syllabus the first day and figure out what you are really going to be studying. If there are just papers and no tests, you probably don't even need to buy it as your university most likely has the book in their library.

I had a roommate in college who just used the inter-library loan system of Chicago for the entire semester for all of his books. If a library wanted a book back after 3 weeks, he just found it at another library and got it sent to our university library for him to pick up. It was pretty impressive. You can try something like that.

Also: Like the poster above said, try to get lecture notes. Most textbooks for teachers come with CDs now that have lectures/notes already in powerpoint and they will just print them out for you. If they do that, you should be able to get away without buying the book. Unless its an accounting class or something.

[brekk]

The textbook monopoly is such a pile of bullshit.

[Eyashusa]

Especially when they go from one edition to the next and all they change is typos and grammatical errors and want to get another 100 bucks from you. Should be able to exchange your old edition for a new one if there are no content updates.

[Korioni]

Paid 15 bucks for my humanities book last year instead of 90 cause the professor said he read through both new and old textbooks and the only difference was one had a brown cover and one had a blue.

[Fedor]

BitMe.ORG

[Shoeby]

Cool, too bad if you're not a member they're invite only... And of course my one torrent site doesn't give us invites anymore so I have nothing to trade but if someone wants to hook me up with an invite I'd be most appreciative. =P PM me. Thanks

[Goliath]

Most teachers dislike the textbook monopoly just as much as the students. Others are arrogant while at the same time insecure and make you buy their own piece of shit books that cost $60 so they can pocket the gratuity while laughing their asses off.

P.S. I'd love an invite to that torrent site as well.

[Candiarie]

I can trade a what invite for that torrent site as well. That would be extremely helpful depending on their selection and all that

[JustWalking]

Will trade a stmusic invite for a biteme invite, PM please.

[Jukax]

As someone who's spent 8 years in university, I agree that textbooks, in general, are a complete cash cow scam. I estimate I saved myself upwards of $5k by borrowing books from the library or only buying used books.

Very few textbooks change anything of significance from edition to edition; a perfect example is Campbell and Reece's intro bio text that something like 600k North American students use every year (Amazon.com: Biology: Neil A. Campbell, Jane B. Reece: Books. The current edition is 7th; I took it back when it was in 2nd edition in 1999. I loaned my 2nd edition copy to a neighbour entering university last year and he had no problems whatsoever keeping up with class reading, he told me the only real differences were in the pictures and diagrams. Whole chapters of text were still verbatim.

Most universities also require all courses keep a current edition of the textbook on 1-4 hour reserve in the library as well, so you can always study in the library once a week with the text, which, quite honestly, is enough for anything less than a 3rd or 4th year class.

Another trick I used quite a few times was to exploit the school bookstore's return policy. Most campus bookstores have a 3 or 5 day return policy on hardcover texts; for classes I knew I would never use the book ever again I would simply buy the book a day or two before a midterm or final exam, study, then return it after the exam for a full refund - no fucking way was I going to pay $197 for a stats book. Unfortunately I was a bio major, so most of my courses I needed the book for the whole semester. It's quite possible to read the book the night before the exam and end up with an A in psych, but not so much for orgo / biochem / cell bio, etc.

BTW - best tip I can ever give someone going into university: when you buy used books from people on bulletin boards, offer an extra $25-50 for their notes and exams from the class. Notes are a big plus, but copies of last years exams are HUGE....many professors simply recycle exams or use practice problems from the previous year's assignments. Can't tell you how many times it helped me out, especially with calc / physics, which I suck at.