Blackwells Books

fran_from_willesden

They're really starting to annoy me........

I've been back at Uni for a week doing a masters and so have been in to enquire about various texts I need throughout the year - easier to buy then get from Library as Library hasn't many copies. So far, with all but 2 recommended texts, I've had the answer " We used to stock them but we don't anymore" :mad: . When I ask if they can order it so far the answers have been "It's out of print" which I know is not true but I can't be bothered to argue!

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH :mad:

Also, can anyone tell me why textbooks are so expensive - the two that Blackwells do stock are £50+. Not fair on poor students!

Oh and one more thing - at freshers fair Blackwells were giving out loyalty cards whereby every time you spend £10, you get a stamp. Collect 10 stamps first of all and get £5 off, collect another 10 stamps and get another £7 off and finally collect a further 10 stamps and get a final £10 off. All in all you have to spend £300 to get a saving of £22. Seems a bit of a rip off to me.

jr666

A lot of time, money and effort goes into writing a book that usually has a very small readership (a few thousand) hence the high costs. Blackwells, like any bookshop, will sell the book at the list price which is usually around £50 like you said. JK Rowling or stephen king have many more readers than some obscure german academic so the printing/publishing costs are less.

Take a look at the cheap uni books thread that suggests cheap(er) ways of buying uni books

Wirenth

Fran, there is a better way to get hold of textbooks other than buying them! Blackwells were at my univeristy union as well, and, yes, their books are whoppingly expensive. But the local library back at my Mum's came up trumps for a lot of the texts - just ask to reserve it or locate one using the interlibrary borrowing service.

In addition, many books are available free on the net. I got a brilliant copy of a software engineering book (bleugh!) via the next - the author published it on there free to use.

Might be worth a try?

Also, some lecturers recommend 'favoured' texts that don't always read well, or give the title of a recommended book just to have a course reading list. You don't always need to buy these books; depending on the lecturer the course notes can be sufficient.

One further thought - try contacting students on your course in the year above you. Some will be dying to get rid of their no-longer-needed texts.

Darren21

I got an email from Blackwells giving 10% off when you register with them, can send it to you if you want as I don't need it.

juno

I've got a coupon for a £5 gift voucher when you spend £30 after 1st Nov. PM me if you want it.

hjb123

When I was in a Borders Store the other day they were going to be having student days where students get a discount. The days were 7th and 22nd October.

H

Karnam

folyes and borders in charing cross road are currently doing 20% off books for students. these days normally happen from my experience at the start of the academic year and right after Easter. If you plan ahead and get hold of the reading list before summer you can use the 20% student discount days with the good intentions of reading the list during summer. these days generally don't happen once term is underway!

blackwells and borders are owned by the same people, blackwells being supposedly the academic branch and borders are the more casual branch. blackwells are HORRENDOUS! the loyalty scheme sucks so much, blackwells based student discount days are only 10% and they only happen v v rarely (I hadn't ever seen a student day at blackwells until this week and I've been looking out for 3 years!!) however there is a way around this. Go into Borders and ask them for your academic book, ask them to search every branch and to search blackwells as well. When they offer to order it into Blackwells, say no and ask them to order it into Borders. You can then claim the discount at Borders.

as an english lit student reading a min of 8 books a week I know my bookshops!

NOWSE

About 6 weeks ago my daughter and I went through her text book/reading list to order the books on the internet. A number of books came up as unavailable at all the sites we looked at and so she is going to discuss these with her tutors. Of the ones that we were able to order we found https://www.amazon.co.uk to be most likely to have them available, (at usually the best price), with Blackwells failing to stock the majority of the required books.

Karnam

sometimes books are out of print by the time student need to buy them. the courses and course descriptions are done around 1yr in advance so books can go out of print. tutors tend to either photocopy what is needed if its not much, or just take it off the reading list and put something else on. some universities have blackwell's reading lists online. so you can go to the blackwells website and click on your course and the entire reading list for that course can be put in your basket in a click

juno

You don't need to buy everything on the reading list though!

Karnam

juno wrote:

You don't need to buy everything on the reading list though!

you dont have to read everything on the reading list either!