Corner Post editorial —
Textbooks often not worth the investment

by Davis Hamor, posted Dec. 12, 2011

Every semester, students are told to buy textbooks for their classes. Not only are these books expensive, but students sometimes do not use the books they are told to buy. Every instructor will make a syllabus that lists the books you are supposed to have for his/her class, but that can be deceiving.

As a freshman in my first semester at Mizzou, I naturally thought that because the syllabus said I needed a book for the class, that I actually was going to use the book. Out of the five books I bought, I really have only used one of them, and even that book has limited usage. I have only used it four or five times for minor homework assignments. This book was quite expensive even after being purchased in used condition. I tried finding all of my books in used condition and I was able to for the most part, but I still spent more than $300. In today's economy, spending money on things you are not going to use can really get under your skin, especially when it is avoidable.

"We need an option to not have to have textbooks for class because you may not even end up needing them," said Daniel Bonacker, freshman ag systems management major from Cedar Hill, Mo.

Bonacker also bought all of the books listed on the syllabuses as needed and like me, never used them.

This has been noticed over the past few years, and the option to buy electronic textbooks has grown in popularity. Electronic books, in general, have grown in popularity since the Amazon Kindle, an electronic reader, was released. Now there are all sorts of electronic book readers you can buy depending on how much money you are willing to pay.

Electronic books are normally far cheaper than printed textbooks. This is a good way to cut down on spending in the economic downturn we are currently going through.

I think the most economically friendly route would be finding out exactly which books you actually need. This would most likely be a smaller number than what is listed on your syllabuses and would save you a considerable amount of money. A single book can go for more than $100, so even one less book to buy would help out.

"They should get their books if they need them for class," said Andrew Harvey, agricultural business and agricultural systems management major from Blackwater, Mo. "Sometimes the rubrics or syllabuses for the class will tell you if you need it, but I suggest going to class and asking the professor if you need them or not."

An action that the University has put in place as a response to the expense and complaints about buying books are book buybacks at the end of each semester. Book buybacks are occurring on Dec. 5-9, 12-16 and 19-20 this year. Sadly, it sounds better than it actually is. When you sell your books back to the school, they buy it back for a fraction of what you actually paid for it. I cannot say that it is a bad thing to have the buyback, but it is not nearly as helpful as it could be. The University should pay at least somewhere around half the price you paid for the book.

"I think it is stupid that they buy it back for so little money," said Zach Elsberry, freshman agricultural business major from Monroe City, Mo.

When asked if we should still have the buybacks, he replied, "Yes, but we definitely need to start receiving more money, or people are going to stop bothering with it."

Whether or not you think textbooks are necessary is beside the point. The main point I want to make is that textbooks are too expensive for this day and age, and students cannot afford to throw money away on books that we will not even use.