3 ms·

e-Books, to be exact. Some of us strongly prefer to work with paper books. Borrowing those for free from a library is not always an option, so one ends up buyin

e-Books, to be exact. Some of us strongly prefer to work with paper books. Borrowing those for free from a library is not always an option, so one ends up buying them at whatever price point and the physical state they are available in. Other considerations: it is still often true that you get what you pay for; also, you spend so much time and effort seriously working through a math book that whatever money you paid for it looks like something that does not matter at all.

psv1 7y ago
> it is still often true that you get what you pay for Hasn't been my experience at all - in fact I haven't noticed a relationship between quality and price of textbooks in either direction. > you spend so much time and effort seriously working through a math book that whatever money you paid for it looks like something that does not matter at all. You'll spend the time if the book is good. That's an advantage of free books - you can discard the bad ones without wasting money.
- oefrha 7y ago
  > Hasn't been my experience at all - in fact I haven't noticed a relationship between quality and price of textbooks in either direction. Maybe gp was referring to cheaper “international editions” available for certain popular texts. I heard they intentionally add errors to the cheaper editions (or at least shuffle exercises to make students’ lives miserable if their instructors assign textbook problems).
commandlinefan 7y ago
See if you have a half-price books in your area. You can pick up older second-hand editions of textbooks (like Stewarts Calculus) for like $10.
dredmorbius 7y ago
It's possible to print many eBook formats (or convert them to something printable), though that comes with a price, especially for one-off / single-copy printing. And eBook is ... well, free. A single copy might run you $40, as here: https://www.bookbaby.com/single-book-printing https://www.bookbaby.com/single-book-printing Used/resale markets for existing texts are of course an option. And many photocopy shops can throw a usable binding on a text, though photocopy costa alone will be comparable to the price cited above, at $0.07 - $0.08 per page generally. In many cases, ebooks become a very reasonable compromise.
BeetleB 7y ago
> Some of us strongly prefer to work with paper books. On multiple occasions I've simply printed the PDF, gone to FedEx and had them bind it. Very cheap, including cost of paper, toner, etc. A B/W laser printer is fairly cheap, if you don't have one. I was so glad once I bought one.

psv1 7y ago

> it is still often true that you get what you pay for Hasn't been my experience at all - in fact I haven't noticed a relationship between quality and price of textbooks in either direction. > you spend so much time and effort seriously working through a math book that whatever money you paid for it looks like something that does not matter at all. You'll spend the time if the book is good. That's an advantage of free books - you can discard the bad ones without wasting money.

oefrha 7y ago
> Hasn't been my experience at all - in fact I haven't noticed a relationship between quality and price of textbooks in either direction. Maybe gp was referring to cheaper “international editions” available for certain popular texts. I heard they intentionally add errors to the cheaper editions (or at least shuffle exercises to make students’ lives miserable if their instructors assign textbook problems).

commandlinefan 7y ago

See if you have a half-price books in your area. You can pick up older second-hand editions of textbooks (like Stewarts Calculus) for like $10.

dredmorbius 7y ago

It's possible to print many eBook formats (or convert them to something printable), though that comes with a price, especially for one-off / single-copy printing. And eBook is ... well, free. A single copy might run you $40, as here: https://www.bookbaby.com/single-book-printing https://www.bookbaby.com/single-book-printing Used/resale markets for existing texts are of course an option. And many photocopy shops can throw a usable binding on a text, though photocopy costa alone will be comparable to the price cited above, at $0.07 - $0.08 per page generally. In many cases, ebooks become a very reasonable compromise.

BeetleB 7y ago

> Some of us strongly prefer to work with paper books. On multiple occasions I've simply printed the PDF, gone to FedEx and had them bind it. Very cheap, including cost of paper, toner, etc. A B/W laser printer is fairly cheap, if you don't have one. I was so glad once I bought one.