I never buy textbooks if possible. One of the plusses of being in software engineering is pretty much every book has an official PDF form... which has been pirated .

People who annoy me are ones who know there is a PDF available, and then go to staples and print it off anyway for like $50 because they "can't stand reading off of a computer screen".

PROTIP:

1. Use money for textbooks to buy epic huge HD monitor
2. Zoom in PDF so each letter is like 5 by 5 centimeters (if that still hurts your eyes, well, your eyes might just be retarded)
3. ???
4. PROFIT

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

People who annoy me are ones who know there is a PDF available, and then go to staples and print it off anyway for like $50 because they "can't stand reading off of a computer screen".

Agreed. But for people like me, sometimes its hard to control self from gaming when I have to read for a test on a computer.

Originally Posted by AelyaS

Some of us have no choice if a large number of our courses use CCW

I hate that. It drives me insane when profs say "You have to buy this $180 courseware. I'm going to test and use examples right from it. It's very important, you need it to pass" and then they never mention it again..

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I never buy textbooks if possible. One of the plusses of being in software engineering is pretty much every book has an official PDF form... which has been pirated .

People who annoy me are ones who know there is a PDF available, and then go to staples and print it off anyway for like $50 because they "can't stand reading off of a computer screen".

PROTIP:

1. Use money for textbooks to buy epic huge HD monitor
2. Zoom in PDF so each letter is like 5 by 5 centimeters (if that still hurts your eyes, well, your eyes might just be retarded)
3. ???
4. PROFIT

I'm one of those people that does not like to read off a computer screen. I have no problem doing so, but I find it harder to picture pages and diagrams when they are on the computer because the screen is static.

I have never used ANY textbook that I have bought. I always have the intent to, technically I should read the chapters but I never do... and I have never used any of the expensive courseware texts that I have bought either, with the exception of Labour Studies and English. This is because everything on the Labour Studies exam actually was from the courseware, and because English courseware consists of additional texts that you have to read. It is pretty much guaranteed that any English courseware you have to buy, because like I said, it has the readings that the school doesn't offer in individual book form. And of course, you also have to buy the books for English, as that is what the course revolves around.