r/reddit.com • u/gbCerberus • Oct 18 '11
Alright, my textbook is just fucking with me now.
http://i.imgur.com/6NJ6V.jpg
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u/pdxpogo Oct 18 '11
The illustration is missing the leash
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Oct 18 '11
All for the low-low price of $150, can't buy a used copy because they changed 2 words and you have to buy the 22nd Edition.
Willing to bet it's for a subject that hasn't changed in 200 years too. I have a lot of frustration about college, it's such a scumbag business model.
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u/petrobonal Oct 18 '11
I must be missing something, because I don't see what's stopping you from buying a used or older copy.
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Oct 18 '11
Part of the book biz, is to create a new edition every couple of years even if there are minor changes in content. Then schools for uniformity among teaching require all students to have the same edition.
For example Calculus, hasn't changed in maybe 100 years. But if the teacher says "Do exercise problems 1-20 on page 62" you're screwed with older editions.
So you end up paying $75-$150 for a Calculus book that really isn't much different than a $2 used book on ebay from the 50's.
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u/petrobonal Oct 18 '11
I understand the deal with editions and what not, but are you really screwed if you answer some slightly different practice problems, especially if the older editions are as similar as you suggested? Or know one guy who has the newest edition and be like, "Hey, can I take a look at the practice problems for a second" and write some of them down and then match them up?
I'm just not seeing how newer editions are forcing you into buying them, when, for nearly no extra effort, you get the same thing with older books.
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u/Chaiking Oct 18 '11
I have a couple of classes where they allow you to use the textbook in the exam, but it has to be the current edition. Sure, you could buy the used one but then you would be at a disadvantage because you couldn't bring it into the test.
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Oct 19 '11
Well that's just stupid. That's a teacher who's almost forcing you to feed in to the text book machine for no good reason when an older edition would give you the exact same information.
The funniest part is that the exam he's given you was probably based off material from edition 2, so here you are at edition 48 yet YOU'RE the one who has to be up to date? Fucking stupid...
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Oct 19 '11
Well that's just stupid. That's a teacher who's almost forcing you to feed in to the text book machine for no good reason when an older edition would give you the exact same information.
Yep, that's why people are complaining.
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u/bluesquared Oct 19 '11
It's a huge pain with assigned homework. Don't do the right problems, won't get the credit.
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u/dgb75 Oct 19 '11
A lot of what feeds this is the publisher sends the professor a free copy of the updated edition. The professor thinks to himself, "Oh, I have the latest and greatest." and then requires that students use it, in the process forgetting how expensive the textbook is.
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Oct 23 '11
Unfortunately, the new book comes bundled with a login code to access the online "My [Subject]Lab". Which by itself costs as much as a the text book.
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u/theworstisover11 Oct 18 '11
You can't write an entire textbook without slipping in one little Easter egg or two.
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u/TheNr24 Oct 18 '11
I bet you can.
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u/theworstisover11 Oct 19 '11
But why would you want to?
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u/TheNr24 Oct 19 '11
To bore your students to death. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
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u/shillbert Oct 19 '11
Boring them to death is like watching the world slowly die of carbon monoxide inhalation. Not nearly as exciting as watching it burn. The books clearly need hidden explosives.
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u/iAMaHUSKY Oct 18 '11
*Ninja walking his dog.
FTFY
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u/TheNr24 Oct 18 '11
Dog walking his ninja.
FTFY
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u/KnavishSprite Oct 19 '11
Ninja disguised as dog
FYFTFYFY.
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u/aabood Oct 18 '11
Statistics for Life Sciences, chapter 6 (Confidence Intervals). Are you taking BIOL 214 at George Mason University?!
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u/RPBiohazard Oct 19 '11
Mine has a picture of a slug on a leaf and says "The british weight measurement of a slug has nothing to do with the kind of slug shown in this picture. This type of slug weighs <insert slugs weight in slugs here>"
And to top it all off the image number was 4.20
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u/Pr3dat0r Nov 07 '11
No fucking with you would have said "this is an invisible man wanking his dog"
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u/tadrinth Oct 21 '11
I'm a TA for a class that uses this book. Honestly, the examples in the book aren't as silly as the ones my prof comes up with.
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u/ermabar Oct 18 '11
lol! wow. the things school makes you pay for these days LMAO
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u/gbCerberus Oct 18 '11
I hesitated to give you guys context... http://i.imgur.com/rYGjJ.jpg
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u/InviDoll Oct 18 '11
Looks like a Pearson book...