Two legitimate ways to save tons of money on books

This piece can be helpful to everyone, but it will be more to college students who have to pay hundreds of dollars every year for books that are useful for only 8 or 16 weeks. Understanding that finding digital version of books on the Internet is a controversial issue, I’d like to stay away from that and focus on two tactics that have helped me tremendously and hopefully will do the same for others.

Buy International/Global version of books

In case you have a burning desire to own physical books for future references or a dominant preference for ink and paper, this tactic is for you.

In my experience, books share essentially the same content across versions. The biggest difference perhaps is examples and redistribution rights. Despite sharing the same content, International or Global version is much cheaper than the North America version. Take the book below for example. Same edition. Same authors. Same content. The price difference is a staggering 100 dollars

This is a book I had at school. I have nothing against it or no relation with the author or the publisher. This is just to give an example

As a student, I can speak from first-hand experience that students don’t find much motivation to actively resell books. Even if one manages to resell a book, it will be at a significant discount. Given that much knowledge nowadays is accessible thanks to the Internet and people’s willingness to share via blogs and social media, I don’t think it’s worth it to make a sizeable investment upfront in books and likely a loss eventually.

With International/Global version, there will still be expenses involved. However, the damage is much smaller and if you don’t have the time or will to find a buyer for your books, you probably won’t have to lose much sleep over it.

Public libraries

I have borrowed many books from the public library and saved hundreds of dollars in the process. Books, even some latest releases, are available for free for a few weeks. Renewals are possible, depending on the availability of the books and how coveted they are. At some libraries such as the public one in Omaha, you can even suggest titles for the library to purchase. Of course, the library’s management retains the discretion to approve or decline such suggestions. As part of your taxes goes to funding for public libraries and you can save a lot of money, there is no reason not to take advantage of that.

As students in the US are saddled with a lot of student debt/loans, every dollar saved on books can count tremendously in the future due to a little thing called “compound interest”. Do yourself a favor and find a way to save as much as possible!