Textbooks

[speechfan222]

Does anyone have a favorite website or preference of a company they use to order textbooks? I am currently an online student, so I prefer to order my textbooks online and have them shipped to me. I also prefer a hard copy of the textbook rather than PDF or ebook. I normally order from the cheapest, but reliable, websites I can find. I'm making a final decision about one last course I want to take next Spring and have been looking over the required textbooks. A few of them are older editions and I can only find new copies. They are over $200 in price. 

Give me your recommendations. Amazon.com? Textbooks.com? Any other suggestions? Textbooks are incredibly expensive and if I can save any money at all possible, I would appreciate it. Thanks! 

[khigh]

I use Amazon or AbeBooks if the book needed is more rare or international. 

[PaulaHsiuling]

If you can order a couple weeks in advance, betterworldbooks.com sells old library copies of books for cheap, ships for free (albeit slowly), and donates a book to Books for Africa for each online purchase.

[jrockford27]

If money is a problem, I've known many students who have obtained textbooks via Inter-Library Loan.  Not ideal, since you aren't supposed to write in them and you might not get to have them out as long as you'd like, but something you might consider.

[speechfan222]

How does everyone prefer to make note of important information/concepts in textbooks? I like highlighters but I normally dont prefer to highlight my textbooks. I normally underline information using a pencil but am curious about other options. Let me know! 

[Bayesian1701]

https://www.directtextbook.com/ is a good place to comparison shop across multiple sellers.  I don't know if Springer is a common publishing company in your field, but if it is and your library is a member of their MyCopy program you can get paperback copies of books for $24.99 with free shipping.

[Eigen]

Highlighting or underlining is a lot less effective than re-writing or summarizing to help with retention. 

[TakeruK]

53 minutes ago, speechfan222 said:

How does everyone prefer to make note of important information/concepts in textbooks? I like highlighters but I normally dont prefer to highlight my textbooks. I normally underline information using a pencil but am curious about other options. Let me know! 

Unless it is a very important note (e.g. correcting an error or doing some math to add to the explanation), I generally do not write in my textbooks. Like @Eigen, I rewrite/summarize key points in a notebook and/or an electronic file. Sometimes, I might add a sticky note to a page with some writing, especially if I want to use the sticky note as a bookmark as well.