Showing posts with label textbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label textbooks. Show all posts

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Longman Anthology of British Literature

The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1B: The Early Modern Period
David Damrosch (Author), Clare Carroll (Author), Constance Jordan (Author)
2002
Weight: 2.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


While staying up too late and dreading another day of work, I also began to think about the distance between the United States and Britain AGAIN and grew upset AGAIN.  I kept looking around my messy house and telling myself I needed to get out of bed, stop reading the New Yorker (I had like ten to catch up on), and clean.  Run on the treadmill, at least, I told myself after reading several issues of Runner's Magazine while laying on my back.  On one of my several trips to the kitchen to snack on something or get a glass of water, instead of smoking a cigarette, I saw this book still standing tall on my shelves.  I am not sure why it is still here.  I took it to half.com to see if it was worth anything and, to my renewed frustration, it was not.

That's the thing about text books.  You pay hundreds of dollars for them and they rapidly decrease in value the whole time you have them.  If you do not sell them as soon as class ends they will soon only be worth a fourth of what you paid and, if you stupidly wait years, they will be 75 cents--even if they include "timeless literature."  None of this is new and surprising, but I was looking over my shelves after making this discovery and realizing how very much money I have spent on school books.  I kept them because I loved them or felt like they had more to teach me after I graduated.  With so many of them, I have never even opened them again--as is the case with this one.  I wish I had just written down the titles, sold them then, and bought them back now when they were worth nothing.

On a side note, I kept wondering why none of the books I was listing ever sold and then realized I've had my settings on "on vacation" for ages.  Also annoying.  Nothing like being a million miles away from what I want and being hours away from what I hate to put me in a foul mood.  I apologize to everyone involved.


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Textbook Bundle/Borders Closing

Abnormal Psychology in a Changing World by Nevid, Rathus, and Greene
Globe Literature by Globe Book Company
Gilbert’s Living With Art by Mark Gelten
An Introduction to Modern Philosophy: Examining the Human Condition by Castell and Borchert
Paso a Paso 1 by Scott Foresman
Weight: 17 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating or giving away




I have chosen this collection of books for a variety of reasons, the main one being that all together they are very heavy. I chose them, by weight, out of guilt. See, the thing is, well, Borders is going out of business, and I got an e-mail today saying that everything was 60-80% off. I thought I would just drop by to say good b ye to the big ol’ beast. I’m getting rid of all my books so there would be no reason to buy more. Maybe I could get some stationary or a journal. And, all of the sudden, I left with 4.5 lbs of books, despite myself. Don’t worry, I will give them away too. They were just so cheap, and I was overcome. I was not thinking clearly, I guess. I know I should have just gone to the library but…
The Great Penguin Rescue: ( Come on!—inserted by me) 40,000 Penguins, a Devestating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World’s Largest Animal Rescue. How could I resist the world’s largest rescue of my favorite animal or a fiction book acclaimed by Deb Olin Unferth?

Whatever. I do not need to justify myself any further.

A very brief history of the textbook bundle:
I have carried around Abnormal Psychology since I went off to college. It was one of my mom’s old textbooks. Globe literature must have come from a garage sale, but it looks like a book you would use in middle school. Living with Art has a three dollar sticker on it, but I do not know if I bought it or if it came from someone else. Paso a Paso is from high school. It was the book used in the Spanish Classes. It was the school’s property, but I am not the one who stole it. I inherited it. I took Français anyway. The Modern Philosophy book was found outside of a professor’s office at NC State in Raleigh. It was free to a good home and so I took it. I was visiting Tracy, and I lugged it all around town and then back home.

Another reason am letting these books go is because it is September 1st, and I am 29 days away from taking the GRE. My brain is on ridiculous standardized testing and on whether or not I will ever get up the courage to go to grad school. Where would I even go? It seemed appropriate to choose scholastic books. I will be much lighter now and that much closer to leaving for school again?