Much Too Much
Well, I got my financial aid residual today, and I rushed to the book$tore to buy textbooks for the new semester. I underestimated the cost just a bit in my earlier post. The three books I need totaled $380, including tax. What the heck, it's only money.
The best value: Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by McQuarrie and Simon. It weighs in at 1360 pages at a cost of $105.60, or about 7.8¢ per page. That's cheaper than I could photocopy it. And I get to use the book for two semesters, which is an added bonus.
The worst value: Biochemistry by Berg, Tymoczko, and Stryer. This bad boy cost $144.00 for around 1000 pages, including appendices. This makes it almost twice as expensive per page (14¢) than the book above, and I only get to use it for one semester. Those of you who have followed this blog closely know that I'm retaking BioChem this semester. And since the class is being taught by the Biology department this time around, this book is not the same one that was used last semester. That's the real kicker.
The most annoying: Principles of Instrumental Analysis by Skoog, Holler, and Nieman. This book ran me $107.50 - used. This book has only (only?) about 900 pages, which works out to around 12¢ per page. And if that wasn't bad enough, I only get to use this one for half of the semester. To my mind, that effectively doubles the cost. But the book will help me to study for the senior comp exams, and it's probably worth the cost of admission for that.
Given time, I could have bought these three books on Amazon.com for around $252.00. I suppose I still could have done so today, but then I'd have to wait a week or two for them to arrive. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably worth the extra $128.00 (yikes!) to have them here now. Sometimes, time is more precious than money.
Okay, I suppose I should stop complaining about the books now and start reading them. And then there's math homework to be done. No rest for the weary.
The best value: Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by McQuarrie and Simon. It weighs in at 1360 pages at a cost of $105.60, or about 7.8¢ per page. That's cheaper than I could photocopy it. And I get to use the book for two semesters, which is an added bonus.
The worst value: Biochemistry by Berg, Tymoczko, and Stryer. This bad boy cost $144.00 for around 1000 pages, including appendices. This makes it almost twice as expensive per page (14¢) than the book above, and I only get to use it for one semester. Those of you who have followed this blog closely know that I'm retaking BioChem this semester. And since the class is being taught by the Biology department this time around, this book is not the same one that was used last semester. That's the real kicker.
The most annoying: Principles of Instrumental Analysis by Skoog, Holler, and Nieman. This book ran me $107.50 - used. This book has only (only?) about 900 pages, which works out to around 12¢ per page. And if that wasn't bad enough, I only get to use this one for half of the semester. To my mind, that effectively doubles the cost. But the book will help me to study for the senior comp exams, and it's probably worth the cost of admission for that.
Given time, I could have bought these three books on Amazon.com for around $252.00. I suppose I still could have done so today, but then I'd have to wait a week or two for them to arrive. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably worth the extra $128.00 (yikes!) to have them here now. Sometimes, time is more precious than money.
Okay, I suppose I should stop complaining about the books now and start reading them. And then there's math homework to be done. No rest for the weary.
posted by Michael at
7:12 PM
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