Textbooks

Textbooks. The dreaded T-word. For some, its not terrifying and for others it is horrendous.  I think buying textbooks is horrible at times, because Universities overprice them. And I realized that this year when I was looking at one of the required textbooks for one of my classes. At my university it was selling for around $91 before GST (which is a goods and service tax, the only one we have here in Alberta).  My professor was talking in class on Monday, when it was brought to my attention that my university ran out of copies of it. Joy. So my class decided to talk about other ways to buy it, and a girl said that she had bought one through Amazon. I have never bought anything off Amazon, but I thought I would check it out because I needed a textbook at some point in my class (it was one of the few textbooks that would actually work longer in my degree if I went on). And low-and-behold to my astonishment, the textbook cost $81 with FREE shipping! Are you shitting me?!? Next semester I am going to check my textbook list and check online to see the pricing. Because that was ridiculous. (I am not in anyway at all saying buy all your textbooks from Amazon, I am just saying that my University is ripping students off....No promotion. Promise.)

Another thing, at my university, on some textbooks, they offer rentals. Which makes sense, because half the time the University wont buy back your textbooks or if they do they buy them back at $10 when you spent $150.  What is really awesome, is when they allow rentals on Used textbooks. Its quite nice because I don't want to fork out a huge chunk of change just to use a textbook for one class and never use it again. And it is frustrating (for me) to not get back the money I spent on it, so I wont sell back my textbooks often.  Then you are sitting around for years with a bunch of textbooks you will never ever use again. They pile up. Well. For me they do. I think it has something to do with me being unable to throw out books, even if they are textbooks from a horrid class. 

Anyways, on an off topic note I just finished my second book of the year. It was called The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  I really enjoyed it. I was initially nervous after reading the cover because I really didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. And I was looking on Wikipedia more about the authors (because I am that much of a geek when it comes to good books, I want to read more by that same author(s)) and I found out that they are planning a sequel! Which is coming out June 20th of this year! So excited! Because to be honest, the ending was quite sudden and I definitely need to see some closure. If I ever become anything in this world to do with writing, I would adapt this book into a movie in a heart beat. Just because there is so much you could do with it, and I think that it would just be an amazing thing to see on the big screen. This is coming from a girl who would pick apart movies that have come from books.  I can just see how it would go and how to do it. So I swear, if someone doesn't do it and years down the road if I ever feel like someone takes my writing seriously, I would consider doing an adaption of this book. Hands down. 

But I am off to bed, work tomorrow until 3 then class from 4-9. Long day ahead of me. Bleh.