I am sitting here at work trying to figure out the most cost efficient way of getting the books I need for class. It would be no problem for me to buy them all, if
A. they were going to be used again
B. they did not cost an arm, buttcheek, and all my life's savings
C. they would actually be used in class... meaning, more than just the first 6 classes, and
D. students would receive more then 5 pennies and a pat on the back when they sell them back to the store...
Textbooks cost entirely TOO much, and selling them back to the store just for them to resell them to students (or not accept them at all because a new addition with a new cover and a few extra 'the's have been added) is not something that has ever sat well with me. Therefore, I look to the libraries first, and then to online sources (such as amazon.com) before I venture into the school store to be bamboozeled by the prices... oh why can't life be as simple as it was when we were in elementary school and books were already in the classroom and tasted like playdough LOL... well maybe not that, but they didn't require a blood signature to get (and they would be used next year!)... I guess I'm just venting about how ridiculous it is that in such an economy the prices are high for books in general, and then so called updated books whose information hasn't really changed... maybe that's why I stopped reading like I used to when I was youger... the joy seems to have faded away... hopefully it will come back once I've graduated...
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Books, Glorious Books...
Not much to report here... A week into July, almost a fortnight, and I am really ready for the Fall term to begin. Apparently I need more structure than I would have guessed.
Also, though, I'm excited about the books. Partly this is because I am a total unrepentant book junkie, as anyone who has been to my house can tell you. Speaking of which, I must highly recommend a couple of books -- not everything I've read this summer, because a) that would be ridiculous, and b) most of them are part of my overwhelming Civil War nerdfest, but a couple.
First, Last Night in Montreal, by Emily Mandel.
Second, City of Thieves, by David Benioff.
Just read them.
Anyway. So I can't wait for the books this fall. The second part of why...
Well.
In the happy confines of the Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program, we are fortunate enough to have instructors who for the most part eschew the tired old canon. Across all our genres, we read the Important Old Stuff, and the new stuff the profs think is important. This makes everything more vital and vibrant, in my opinion.
It's especially thrilling because this is NOT the case at every school in Baltoville.
I won't tell you which other school I visited recently, soley for the purpose of checking out their writing program's shelves in the student bookstore. But I will tell you that I was startled by how out of date the books seemed -- yes, they were classics, mostly, but they were the same old classics that writing programs have used for DECADES.
I was already glad that I'd ended up at UB for any number of reasons, many of which I have mentioned in these fine glowing pages, but standing there in the bookstore looking at the vast array of The Same Old People... It made me extra pleased to be here, among writers who believe that writing is organic and changing and fluid.
Of course I'll keep myself occupied until Fall -- I have my award project to address, for one thing, not to mention the ever thrilling LOOK FOR JOB, but... But I'm psyched for Fall. For the titles my instructors use to make their points this time.
And anyway, who isn't glad for an excuse to hit the bookstore?
Also, though, I'm excited about the books. Partly this is because I am a total unrepentant book junkie, as anyone who has been to my house can tell you. Speaking of which, I must highly recommend a couple of books -- not everything I've read this summer, because a) that would be ridiculous, and b) most of them are part of my overwhelming Civil War nerdfest, but a couple.
First, Last Night in Montreal, by Emily Mandel.
Second, City of Thieves, by David Benioff.
Just read them.
Anyway. So I can't wait for the books this fall. The second part of why...
Well.
In the happy confines of the Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program, we are fortunate enough to have instructors who for the most part eschew the tired old canon. Across all our genres, we read the Important Old Stuff, and the new stuff the profs think is important. This makes everything more vital and vibrant, in my opinion.
It's especially thrilling because this is NOT the case at every school in Baltoville.
I won't tell you which other school I visited recently, soley for the purpose of checking out their writing program's shelves in the student bookstore. But I will tell you that I was startled by how out of date the books seemed -- yes, they were classics, mostly, but they were the same old classics that writing programs have used for DECADES.
I was already glad that I'd ended up at UB for any number of reasons, many of which I have mentioned in these fine glowing pages, but standing there in the bookstore looking at the vast array of The Same Old People... It made me extra pleased to be here, among writers who believe that writing is organic and changing and fluid.
Of course I'll keep myself occupied until Fall -- I have my award project to address, for one thing, not to mention the ever thrilling LOOK FOR JOB, but... But I'm psyched for Fall. For the titles my instructors use to make their points this time.
And anyway, who isn't glad for an excuse to hit the bookstore?
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