A few words of advice before I list the textbooks, however. When I first got the list, which is included in the Welcome Letter, I went online to the Algonquin College Bookstore website to obtain their prices for each book. You can see most of the prices at the bookstore in the images I posted in the last blog post. Not surprisingly, there are many other vendors which sell these textbooks for much cheaper. They can be found online and at bookstores around town. Buying used is a really good idea, as used books are often of very good quality and what they lack in newness is made up more many times over is price reduction. Also, buying an older edition reduces the price of each textbook considerably. Considering that many newer editions only change a few spelling or grammatical errors and the revisions are not exceptionally extensive, it is usually worth it to go by chapter or section in the assigned readings instead of page numbers when your professors page numbers don't quite match up. Anyway, that is just my opinion and advice, many people may have differing views.
In order to simplify things, since there were so many textbooks that needed to be purchased, I went online, first to Chapters.ca and then to Amazon.ca. Both websites have both new and used textbooks, for similar prices, varying from book to book on which site is cheaper. With the new books, you will generally not have to pay shipping, as long as the total is over a certain price, I believe around $25. With the used books, you will have to pay shipping, which is usually around $6 or $7 for each item. In other words, don't buy a used book for $81 when you can get the new one for $85 - you will pay more when shipping is added on and the new book usually ships faster. The used books come from various third-party vendors from many locations around Canada, the US, and the rest of the world. Most are reputable and you can see their satisfaction rating easily. Having purchased from used book dealers, the quality is very good and usually is as listed (eg. acceptable, good, very good, like new). Even the workbooks were of good quality and had only minor curving of the corners and very little writing inside; most of the exercises were completely blank. Having said that, the experience will differ from vendor to vendor. I've received most of my books already. Only one didn't ship and I received an e-mail as well as being refunded promptly to my credit card. A few are yet to arrive. Most vendors guarantee shipping within 3-4 weeks, many within 1-2 weeks.
Chapters had about the same selection as Amazon, perhaps slightly more, but I found Chapters' website extremely aggravating, as when I had searched for all my textbooks and added them to my cart, I found that when I went to complete the order many from the list had disappeared. I'm guessing what happened is that in the time it took me to add them to my cart, search for other books, and then go to complete the order, someone else had snatched the book away from me, or perhaps it was not available in the first place even though it was listed. Either way, I found it frustrating and switched over to Amazon, which I did not have the same problem with. I chose Chapters in the first place only because they have a "Plum Points Reward" system. Needless to say, the extra frustration was not worth it. I digress.
As a final note, simply by searching for "used textbooks" in your favorite search engine you may find other used book dealers with cheaper prices. Myself, I prefer Amazon since their selection of used books is quite extensive and the prices are usually quite low.
Here is a photographic list of textbooks:
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-05410-2 All Levels |
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| ISBN: 044305150X All Levels |
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| ISBN: 1401871941 Levels 1-2 |
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| ISBN: 1401871941 Levels 1-2 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-072221-2 Level 2 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-07847-4 Level 3 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-04727-2 Levels 1-2 |
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| ISBN: 978-1-4377-0336-8 All Levels |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-0761-5 Level 2 |
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| ISBN: 978-1-4160-2895-6 Level 3 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-06611-2 Level 3 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-05532-1 All Levels |
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| ISBN-13: 978-1-8-97422-076 ISBN-10: 1-897422-07-5 Level 1 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-02003-9 All Levels |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-05178-1 Level 1 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-323-03075-5 Level 1 |
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| ISBN: 978-1-4377-1676-4 |Level 3 |
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| ISBN: 978-0-7216-0632-3 Level 3 |
