16 Sep A word of warning about textbooks!

A word of warning about textbooks!

Textbooks are very expensive in the states. I have spent on one module here what I spent in a whole year in London.
We are told it is best not to buy the books until you go to the first lesson. Which is sound advice as you may decide you want to change the class. But, at this late stage you are then left with no option but to buy the books from the SFSU Bookstore, which is EXTREMELY expensive.

For example, the “Anthology of American Literature (McMicheal & Lenoard) cost me over $80 from the SFSU Bookstore, second hand. The same book could have cost me less than $20 (inc. postage) from Amazon, had I enough time to await delivery.

Bearing in mind I have had to buy well over 20 books for my modules for this semester, I would save well over $250 by going to Amazon over the SFSU Bookstore.

Don’t get me wrong, SFSU Bookstore serves an excellent service. If you need books immediately you can just go there and get them straight away which is very useful. They allow you to sell them back (at a much lower price) at the end of the term. And the staff are very friendly.

But, if you know that you will definitely be taking certain classes then I recommend that you buy your books from Amazon well in advance because you will save a fortune that could be better spent on exploring the wonderful city of San Francisco.

A bit of advice I’m sure future international students will be grateful for =D