How much are you willing to pay for these?

It’s not news to anyone that textbooks are ridiculously expensive – a beginning-of-the-semester trip to the Columbia Bookstore can cost as much as a bulk shopping trip to Costco, and that’s just criminal. In order to help you pinch some pennies this fall, editor Betsy Ladyzhets has compiled a list of places where you can buy or rent books for relatively reasonable prices.

1. CLIO: The Columbia library has a vast amount of resources, including many textbooks – both physical copies and PDFs. Search for all of your books on CLIO before you go literally anywhere else. And even if all the physical copies of your desired book have been checked out for the semester, there are likely some extra copies on reserve; if you know you’re only going to need the book a few times for problem sets or right before midterms, you should consider relying on those rather than buying the full book.

2. PDF searches: Another first step before you set out to pay for books is a PDF search. Literally all you need to do is Google “[your textbook title here] pdf” and look through the results. However, before you decide a pdf you found from some marginally-sketchy site is your book for the semester, you should cross-reference a few pages with a physical copy (from the bookstore or library reserves), in order to ensure it’s the real deal. (And then, after you’ve checked, send it to all your friends in the class.)

3. The Strand: NYC’s oldest and most famous bookstore boasts that it’s home to 18 miles of books; there’s a good chance you can find at least one you need, probably used or at a lower price than what you’d get at Book Culture. It might be good to check the store’s online database before you make the trek down to the East Village, though. (This one is likely more useful for humanities classes requiring fiction or essays.)

4. Your favorite used bookstore: Another recommendation for humanities types – if you need to read modern literature, some famous history book, the Bible, or even anything from the CC syllabus, try to find it used before you head to the Lerner basement. Having the precise edition your professor recommends is likely not as important as you think it is, although if you’re in a seminar, it might be better to check first. There’s a plethora of great used bookstores around the city, but my personal favorites are Bookoff (on 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, has a huge selection of $1 books and many classics for $10 or less), and Westsider Books (on Broadway and 81st Street, basically walking distance from campus).

5. Chegg: Chegg is an online textbook site with a huge collection of used books and ebooks. This site is particularly good for STEM folks, because a membership to the site also gets you access to tutorials, discussion boards, and answers to textbook problem sets.

6. CheapestTextbooks.com: This is another site similar to Chegg that offers discounted and used books. If you put in the title of your book, the author, or ISBN, you can compare options from different sellers to get the lowest possible price.

7. Thrift Books: This site, like the previous two, offers many textbooks at lower prices. While this one doesn’t have as wide a selection, it is Google approved (meaning Google will track and protect your order for free), and offers a lot of rewards options.

8. Amazon rentals: Rather than buying your $200 calc textbook from Amazon, try renting it instead. You’ll need to keep the book in relatively good condition (so maybe don’t study at 1020), but you’ll pay much less at the beginning of the semester and get the rental fee refunded after the semester ends.

9. Buy/Sell/Trade groups: It’s always a good idea to check the Columbia marketplace and Barnard Buy/Sell/Trade for your books – used books from other students are often better than new books, because your predecessors’ highlighting and footnotes can help you figure out which parts of the reading are actually important. Don’t reply on these groups for all your books, though, since any books you can sweep up before the fifty other people in your lecture get to them are mostly strokes of luck.

10. Book Culture: As a second-to-last resort (before you absolutely give up and go to the Columbia bookstore), check Book Culture. They have a lot of used and looseleaf options that are slightly cheaper than what Columbia could give you, their 10% student membership can take the edge off, and you won’t need to pay shipping.

Too! Many! Books! via Leon Brooks