From: nospam@example.net   
      
   On Wed, 26 Feb 2025, Rich wrote:   
      
   > D  wrote:   
   >> [-- text/plain, encoding 8bit, charset: utf-8, 108 lines --]   
   >>   
   >>>> Too much screen reading if you ask me. But when I'm not working, I read a   
   lot of   
   >>>> regular books, or on my eInk device, which is much kinder to the eyes.   
   Reading   
   >>>> is one of my greatest hobbies. My wife gets annoyed at the enormous   
   number of   
   >>>> books I accumulate. She wants me to throw them away, but it would be like   
   >>>> throwing away my children. I cannot do it! =/   
   >>>   
   >>> I don't know the two of you, but it does sound like a good idea to throw   
   >>> it all away.  But I'm suspicious to say it because I often do it.  When   
   >>   
   >> Ouch! My children! ;)   
   >>   
   >>> I was a freshman, I bought all the books I'd use at the university.  I   
   >>> thought it was expensive, but it was worth it---I thought then.  On the   
   >>> second semester, I couldn't spend that money again and decided to try to   
   >>> just get the books from the library.  If the exact book wasn't   
   >>> available, I'd take another one---a theorem should be the roughly the   
   >>> same in every book, right?  From this experiment, I concluded that I'd   
   >>> never buy another book (and that every student should do the same).  It   
   >>> was wonderful to always look at other books perspectives.   
   >>   
   >> I bought last years used books. Usually they weren't that expensive, about   
   20-30   
   >> USD or so per book. But if you bought them new, the price were at least   
   double!   
   >   
   > The entire university textbook market is one giant scam anyway.   
   > Publisshers make minor updates (often just changing the "exercises") to   
   > create "volume 4", and then the professors state "vol 4" as the text   
   > for the class, duping lots of students into paying full price.  One   
   > wonders how much of a kickback the professors get for recommending the   
   > "updated volume" that is 99.9% identical to the prior volume.   
      
   True. I think it is the same all over the world. I knew a lawyer once who   
   wrote his own book for a university course, but he said in the end, it   
   wasn't worth it. He sold about 30 books per year, so he regretted writing   
   the book and wrote it off mostly as marketing and CV stuffing.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)