I had gotten very used to having the option of renting textbooks at Fayetteville. It was a very nice system. I pay a flat fee every semester for my texts and they are shipped to me. Now that I am fully back at UNC-Charlotte I am reminded of the horrors of buying textbooks. There seem like so many options and there are so many logistics to consider when buying textbooks.

My original goal for the semester was to buy only digital books, from either the Kindle store, or from CourseSmart. At least three of the required texts for my courses are not available in either format. Luckily, I will likely only keep either CSLG or RSCH 6101, but not both, so that does make it a little easier, but still, that’s 2 physical books to keep up with in addition to my laptop and other materials that I need in my bag (such as notebooks, since most of my classes are physical). On the positive side, there is a course that doesn’t have any textbooks and another course for which I have the option of selecting my own textbooks. Also on a positive note, my textbooks for all courses requiring them will still be less than $275, which is far less than the $400 I became accustomed to spending when I was an undergraduate at UNC-Charlotte.