any cheap books help

Chadsman

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchEntry for cheap 2nd hand books.
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchEntry compares the prices of new books
There are also a couple of companies that offer e-books
...eg: http://www.ablibris.com/site/home.php3

klondyke

elisebutt65 wrote:

Hiya
College library is a bit useless as all the students try and grab all the books they need straightaway and then keep renewing them so you never get a look in - LOL QUOTE]

Most college libraries (and probably public) only allow up to 3 renewals and this is only if book is not required: NO renewals if book is on waiting list - so make sure you put yourself on the waiting list. If budget allows and there are huge waiting lists for some items, library might buy more copies.

(Speaking as ex-college librarian!)

starlite_2

There are usually just a couple of 'core texts' that are worth buying, you will be told about this in your course introduction.
I got away with buying these, and then photocopying the relevant passages from others in the library.
Your department will probably offer 'course packs' for a small fee which will have copies of all the chapters relevant to lectures, I think my department charged £8 for these.
Make the department notice boards one of you firast stops as people will be selling unwanted books from the previous year, but be quick as these tend to get snapped up quickly.
Oxfam have quite a few shops that are solely books, and if you shop in a university town you are bound to come across a couple.
Waterstones and Blackwell also have second hand academic bookshops in central London- I don't know if this would be any use to you
Good luck with your course!

Lin_Delou

Have posted this link elsewhere on boards, but it's worth a try for text books. https://www.greenmetropolis.com
All books are £3.75 to buy, and if you put any up for sale there you get £3
Good way of re-cycling, and they donate to a Tree charity everytime you buy.

witchhazel

Find the nearest oxfam to your college/uni ask them about text books but the best time to buy is June when students are clearing out. Oxfam web site https://www.oxfam.org.uk has a shop finder click on the 'what can i do' banner.

lellie

oxfam are usually over priced for second hand text books..

blackwells have a second hand section but it's usually overpriced too.

I only needed to buy 1 book last year.. and it was something I was genuinely interested in too..

If you see books related to your course cheap though buy them - I work in the public library and we had a couple books in the booksale for 20p each which were related to my course - quite handy to have.

ghww

it's true that most of the books you'll need are in the library, but at essay-deadline times (and if you're writing on an obscure subject) you may find it difficult to get hold of what you need. if you do need to buy books then it's almost always cheaper to buy second-hand or online - my campus bookshop was usually the most expensive in the area! amazon and ebay are obvious choices, but also https://www.swotbooks.com is worth checking (look for the book on amazon first and then search swotbooks for the ISBN code, as the search facility is poor).

also, if you have friends doing the same modules as you it's worth setting up a little book-sharing collective, so you can each buy a different book and then share them amongst yourselves. you can also share notes etc and proof-read each other's essays (which also helps with revision). oh, and avoid paying unnecessary postage costs online by getting one person to buy all the books and then splitting the cost.

elisebutt65

Just thought I'd add that my library also buys the books back at 85% of the price that was paid for them so that's a nice little bonus at the end of the course

I now have a shelfull of really big books that cost me a fraction and stand to make about £100+ back next year

Konstantine_2

If you go to https://www.CheapUniBooks.co.uk and enter your book list in, it tells you where the cheapest place to get your books is!