College Book Haul

Dear Readers,

Ahh college...an average of four years of schooling that cost thousands of dollars and will in return provide you with a piece of paper that can hopefully help land you a job, I digress though, I am not saying all college is bad. I mean I am one of the people going to it so why would I bag on it so much. These are honestly what I believe are normal thoughts of an average kid who is going to attend college these days. This post is not to list the pros and cons of college though. It is to discuss books. College books are books that I don't actually want to buy. Now before you freak out and call me a hypocrite let me explain why and what college books I actually do want to buy. Now I am someone who rarely passes up the option to buy a book, if I am at a Barnes and Nobles or a consignment store, the chances are I will end up purchasing at least one book if I have money. College books though are different. The books have rental options and because college is expensive as it is with tuition alone and unless it is a book you really will need/want ( like for your major) or have no other option  but to buy it, most people will rent their books. I did a mixture of both for my first year at community college ( I will be here a year or two before I transfer to another school to get my four year degree), I hope to be able to rent most of my books next semester to help save money.

Anyway, I want to talk about my college books and what I got. I know many of my readers may be wondering what is so interesting about college books. The answer is that the books I got are not actually all boring, dull, text books, but plays, guides, memoirs, and books I feel I can actually use in the future of my writing career. Let me first star off by saying I am a Communications/Journalism major. So I am gonna be really exited and intrigued by the writing books I purchased or rented, rather than some people may. I'd also like to get the "boring books" that I deemed not very topical or worthy of long explanations. The first was my math book. I am going to be taking Math 011 and had to purchase a new book for it. At first I didn't understand exactly why I needed a new book and why my only option was to purchase it new rather than having options to rent or purchase the book. I learned today when my books came that It was because it was a workbook that my assignments would be in. Oh and I purchased a calculator Yeah...I told you it was boring.

For my English stuff it gets a bit more interesting. I rented two books and bought the third one. The two books I rented were both novels that seem fairly interesting. The one book is Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, which I have already read and seen most of the movie. I thought it was decent when I read it. I am excited to read it again though. The only problem is if you do rent or buy used, just remember you may have to deal with pen or highlighted areas in the book. That is the issue with my copy, it has many pages with pen markings and side notes on it. While I would not mind a few pages or just highlighting throughout my book, it has at least 50% of the pages with markings on it. It will be a bit annoying, but it is not that bad considering It  is a used rental that I paid way less money for compared to if I had bought the book. The second book I rented for my school was a play called The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance. Though I have not read it, the book looks interesting and as far as I can tell is about a man who has some kind of deformity and while in the hospital meets someone who tries to help them in life. That is a rough description, but a somewhat accurate one I believe. It seems to remind me of the musical My Fair Lady ( which was based on the book Pygmalion by the way). The copy I got look almost new, even though it was used which can be a fun surprise for some who are renting or purchasing used books. The final book I got for English was an English Writing reference guide. It is a spiral book I bought used that was made specifically for my school. The book is spiral bond and includes tabs that when you turn to certain pages will tell you about how to write in MLA or APA format or about researching, word choice, sentence structure,etc. I bought the book because in the future I think it will be a good reference guide for me to look at for writing, especially if I will be taking more writing courses.

My favorite books I got are definitely for my communications major. The first class I got two books. One I bought and the other I rented. The book I bought for my first Communications class was The Associated Press Stylebook. This book I recommend to anyone going into journalism or PR or some kind of news/media writing career. In the book the first is like a journalism dictionary. You can find almost any word and the description will tell you if you should capitalize it, explain it for the readers, don't have to explain it for the readers, how you should word something,etc. At first glance this stuff may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised when it comes to how certain words should be written to be professional.The book also talks about media law, terms I should know, and resources I can use in my writing or to learn more. I purchased the book because I believe it would help me not just during my college years, but after I graduate and could be used as a reference for later on in my career. The book I rented for the class was the  book Writing for the Mass Media. The book is basically self explanatory, It goes over writing in all different forms from newspapers or twitter. It talks about how to write news stories and different kinds, guidelines to follow when writing, and exercises for writing practice, as well as helping you to become a better writer. For my second Communications class I just needed to rent one book entitled Key Readings in Media Today. The book again tells me the types and ways to write news stories, but also is filled with research about different news and media in the past as well as today. All the books I bought or rented for my communications classes seem fascinating and I can not wait to read them.

College is a new experience and so far I am excited about the subjects I will be learning (well except math, but at least most of the math looks algebraic which I am pretty good at). The books, I hope will help me in my journey to becoming a real writer that can hopefully one day see there name on the byline of the front page of a newspaper or byline of a magazine story (or internet news story depending on how technology and print news are in the future).

Thank you

-Jessica