Used University Textbooks – Two opposing aspects of my years in college stand out more significantly than any others and those are the good times on the one hand and the hard times on the other.  And, surprisingly enough, both of these disparities really relate to the same issues.  But let me explain myself.

Finally getting out from under my parents’ wings with no restraining apron strings attached, please forgive the silly analogies, accounted for the good times:

I went away to college and entered a realm of good times because my parents could no longer apply curfews, they could no longer asked the questions to which I was too afraid to reply truthfully and too intimidated to lie and they could no longer impose their opinions about the people I party with, the clothes I wear, the hairstyles I espouse, the food I eat, the late nights I keep or the events I attend.

I hated to admit it then, but immerging from under my parents’ rigid supervision and their unrelenting control over my entire life also accounted for the hard times:

I went away to college and entered a realm of hardship because I was always short on money.  Although it was most likely not necessarily so, it seemed at the time that everyone could afford to take their dates out to all the places I could not, everyone could occasionally buy a new outfit or a new pair of shoes but me and all the pockets of my campus mates jingled with coins whereas mine remained perpetually silent.  For me and seemingly only for me; movies were too expensive, theater was too extravagant, discotheques or dance halls were too prohibitive and bars were too excessive.

Oh, yes.  My parents fully paid my tuition.  It was a big expanse for them but because it was completely invisible to me and certainly inaccessible, I am embarrassed to admit that I failed to be grateful back then.  No.  I will not tell you how long ago that was but I will assure you that I am tremendously appreciative of it now.

My parents also gave me money in cash to be spent on “incidentals” such as textbooks and, out of sheer desperation and want; I quickly learned how to stretch each green dollar by buying all my textbooks used from other students who no longer wanted them or from the campus bookstore.  I then greedily spent the savings on all the things which I truly needed: records (they hadn’t invented CDs yet), makeup, magazines, decadent snacks and so on.

Today’s university students can still buy their used textbooks from others on campus or the from the college bookstore but they also have much better options which were not available to me because I was a pre-Internet scholar — they can buy their used university textbooks from online booksellers where the selection is tremendous and, with many of them offering discounts of between 60 and 90 percent off the marked retail prices of the new textbooks, the savings are unsurpassed.

For your convenience, I have listed a few websites you might want to browse through but keep in mind that there are very many more out there:

* University Textbooks at http://www.universitytextbooks.com/.
* Books4Exchange.com at http://www.books4exchange.com/.
* Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/b/?ie=UTF8&node=465600&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2379692241&ref=pd_sl_909u8f3731_b.
* CheapTextbooks.com at http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/?gclid=CPmOotrngZcCFQQCagoduHZlXw.

Filed under: Used Textbooks For Sale

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