h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just had to spend over 80 quid on my textbooks for this semester. Needless to say I'm less than impressed considering I'll have to do it all over again next semester and I still have another subject to buy for and it'll be another 20 quid. I'm a poor Uni student, I can't afford 100 quid for something as unimportant as books!

Some things don't change. I remember my sister being stung $150 for a single textbook once.

On the bright side, my Chinese texts only cost $5.50 each, on account of them being printed in China on really shoddy paper...

I'm just glad a certain "handbook" that exists for my subject isn't required all the time - it costs about £100! Although I've been into Blackwells recently and seen their buy-back scheme so you can get at least some of your money back when you've finished with your textbooks. (I dunno if that would help for next semester, Iago ... suppose it depends on whether or not your course is really nasty and "builds" on things over the entire year.)

Have you looked into that buyback offer at Blackwells? It's not as good as it looks, they'll buy them off you at below 40% what you paid for them, more often about 10-20% even if they are in mint condition, which all but one of my books from last year are. Also they don't give you money, they give you vouchers for their shop which is great if they have all your books in stock. Unfortunately they don't half the time.
Finally I really don't like the idea of selling my books, I like having bookshelves full of famous and intelligent-looking philosophers and politicians. Do have any idea how cool it looks to have the complete works of Aristotle on your bookshelf, next to Kant and John Stuart Mill? I just wish looking cool didn't cost so much
Anyway I'm all sorted now for this semester and it's only cost me £120, so I still have a grand in the bank

OK, fair enough - I was only in Blackwell's anyway to quickly buy a copy of a book on Fortran 90 (a lovely programming language for scientists and mathematicians), so I wasn't really looking into how they could buy my books back.

My bookshelves are full of books that look cheap but cost an absolute fortune, e.g. a 300-page hardback that cost £63! (Fortunately, my research budget covered the cost for that one ... ) They're all still relatively useful, so I can't afford to sell them if I want to do demonstrating in my department, for example. However, if my family decide to buy me a book as a final graduation present, I'll be intrigued as to what they buy me!