Textbooks
Textbook companies often have business practices that force students to pay large amounts while already on a tight budget. While some courses have switched to more equitable and affordable models, such as open learning materials, some of your classes may still have expensive and/or unethical practices.
Here are some tips for getting textbooks.
1 of 3: NEVER buy books ahead of time
In some classes, the book actually is an invaluable resource. You can see the Hall of Fame section below for some examples. However, with most classes you will find that you don't actually use the textbook. In some cases, the professor will TELL you that you don't need it sometime in the first week.
Sometimes you will need to buy a specific version of the book, you will need some special online access, or it might be cheaper buying from a particular source. When in doubt, it's always best to wait for the first week of classes.
2 of 3: Find a PDF or EPUB of the textbook
Even if you ultimately get the physical book, a PDF is super handy for if you don't have your book with you. It's also often free.
3 of 3: Try to buy books second hand
Most students want to get rid of their books once the term is over. Below you can find some places to buy and sell your textbooks.
Places to look for PDFs & EPUBs
Anna's Archive
Somewhat newer source for finding textbooks and research articles.
Library Genesis
Most commonly recommended place for finding textbooks. Please note that this link changes from time to time.
Mobilism
Has some books that you might not find on LibGen. You may need to make an account to see the book section.
Project Gutenberg
Full texts of books or individual stories in the public domain. All files can be accessed for free under an open format.
If you are looking for research papers, see the Research Guide.
Places to buy/sell textbooks
WARNING
Sometimes a course or publisher will have shady practices that force students to buy new textbooks every term. This can include restructuring, renumbering pages/questions, or unnecessary online components. See TIP 1, even when buying second hand.
UBC Bookstore buyback program
This card links directly to the buyback search page. To learn about how the program works, see this link.
Karrot
A third party app, used by UBC students.
Facebook Marketplace
A third party website, used by UBC students. See below for some UBC specific groups.
Discount Bookstore
No longer available?
UBC Specific Facebook Groups:
✅ Course Hall of Fame
Here are some courses that are a great model for afforable and ethical learning materials. These are textbooks that are affordable, open source, and/or closely tie in with the content in the course. You should still wait before buying these books, since this section is intended to show off some amazing courses and teaching teams at UBC.
| Course | Textbook | Type | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAPS 391 | M & M Essential Anatomy | Custom | 🖇️ 📚 | "Reading the textbook was pretty much all you needed for this course" |
| CHEM 121 | CHIRP | Custom | 🖇️ |
| DSCI 100 | Data Science: A First Introduction | FOSS | 🟢 🌐 | "Beautiful textbook that's really nicely organized" |
| MICB 202 | Custom | 🟡 🖇️ | |
| PHIL 220 | forall x: UBC edition | FOSS | 🟢 🌐 🖇️ 📚 💻 |
| PHIL 320 | Sets, Logic, Computation | FOSS | 🟢 🌐 🖇️ 📚 💻 |
| PHIL 322 | Boxes and Diamonds | FOSS | 🟢 🌐 🖇️ 📚 💻 |
| PHIL 323 | An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic: From If to Is | Free Text | 🟢 🖇️ 📚 💻| Free through the UBC library |
| STAT 201 | ModernDive | FOSS | 🟢 🌐 |
❌ Course Hall of Shame
These are courses where the textbook is expensive, unethical, and/or not useful for the course. This section is intended to highlight some courses that have been called out for their textbook practices, and hopefully encourage them to change.
One of the easiest ways that a course can improve is by making the textbook optional, or providing
| Course | Textbook | Type | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIOL 300 | The Analysis of Biological Data | regular | 🔴👎🔢 | "Expensive and mandatory textbook written by prof. In class problems could only be submitted using newest edition of textbook." (link) |
| CHEM 111 | unknown | regular | 🔴🚫🔢 | "Could not find that book online anywhere free or paid, nor could I find any used ones for sale". "Practice problems from the textbook are part of your grade and change every year" (link) |
| ECON 101 | unknown | regular | 🔴🚫 | "Had to buy an expensive [...] textbook for a good chunk of your grade because you had to do the online quizzes that came with it" (link) |
| PSYC 101 | unknown | regular | 🔴🚫 | "Had to buy an online textbook to submit homework that was worth 19% of your grade, and that homework was just clicking buttons repeatedly" (link) |
Icon Reference
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| 🟢 | :material-check: Free resource |
| 🟡 | :material-check: Cheap resource |
| 🔴 | :material-close: Expensive resource |
| 🌐 | :material-check: Open Source |
| 🖇️ | :material-check: Closely tied to the course content |
| 📚 | :material-check: Long term value (even after course is completed) |
| 💻 | :material-check: Accessible formats (ex. available online) |
| 👎 | :material-close: Irrelevant / Not helpful / Barely used |
| ⛔ | :material-close: Mandatory Online Component / Unnecessary bundling |
| 🔢 | :material-close: Unethical practices (ex. small edits each year to force new purchases) |