Walking out of the Dartmouth Bookstore, I heard someone say, "Beat this! $440!" He had a smirk on his face, a Dartmouth ID in one hand and a bag of books in the other. His large expenditure was a point of pride.
While there are few who are so outwardly proud of spending exorbitant amounts on overpriced paperbacks, we all the spend the money without hesitating. I know I forcefully load a washing machine to the point where it rumbles and smokes as if possessed by the devil, all in order to save a dollar, but I still manage to be too lazy to walk a few extra feet to Wheelock books.
Few students actually put much effort into saving money on their books. Ask any student, and he will complain about the pains of being broke while his fashionably colored backpack contains the most recent collection of bookstore rip-off. Most students ignore that network program called Book Exchange and look for books that are untarnished by a little yellow sticker proclaiming "USED." After all, who knows what kind of vile acts the previous owner might have done with that book? For goodness sake, he might have touched the book and read it! No, it must be virgin paper, fresh with the aroma of recently printed ink.
Books often do not even have to be purchased. I would like to think Dartmouth students are still willing to share with their equally fortunate fellow students or at least split the cost of one book. One friend of mine at MIT spent one year without spending a penny on a book; he borrowed and used the library.
Such frugality is unheard of here. One can go into a room and see three copies of the same book sitting on a bookshelf for each of the three roommates. Even roommates have their own individual needs. Who can resist the allure of owning his own hard bound copy of "The Cell?" I know I can't.
Students are not the only ones at fault. Professors often require that students purchase books from which they will read only a few short chapters -- the stuff from which the Reserve Corridor should be made. The library system as a resource of reading in general is much neglected. A provident student could actually borrow all of his or her books from the library for the term. Obviously not all students in a class could do this, but it is a shame that few people try.
By excessively spending on books, all we do is waste. No matter where you stand politically, waste is unpopular. Being Green, we have to conserve and save our forests from the horror of being turned into 900 page paperweights. And, the fiscally conservative children of Reagan, I'm sure, know the sound economic value of buying one less book.
But, it's books; it's an investment that will be used again and again. Right. Once the course is completed, that book rarely sees the light of day again. Even when the course is in session, the book may go unloved and untouched by the hands of the owner (especially when it is the economics book from which the concept of Sunk Cost has just been gleamed). After the final exam, only a trip to sell the book ever warrants a dusting.
The business of selling books is not much more than a money laundering scheme. Dirty money from students' parents becomes clean money for the student -- with the Dartmouth Bookstore taking a hefty cut of the action.
The cycle of buying books ends up only being a grand waste of money and paper. Waste is waste, no matter whose money it is. Besides, the boundary line between student and parental cash supplies is a blurry one at best. So save a buck, plant a tree and split a book.
