I’m currently sitting in Cornell’s library because 1. not only am I so much more productive over here but 2. They also have a book I need to read for my history seminar that I don’t feel like buying.

I have become the biggest slacker with textbook buying. It all started first semester freshman year when I had to buy about 10 books for my U.S. Politics class. Needless to say, we didn’t get through all the books, and “What the U.S. Constitution Really Means” was left to gather dust on my bookshelf.

So over the next few years, I’ve made sure that I didn’t get stuck in that position again. College is already going to leave me in debt until I hit retirement, so every little bit counts, right? I started not buying books until I saw we were about a week away to reading them on the syllabus. For my English classes, I checked to see if there were any kinds of e-texts I could use. And for my history classes, I looked through the college library. I also recently got a library card to the Tompkins County Library, and thankfully, they have some of the books I need this semester. And even though I can’t take books out of the Cornell Library, I can sit in the library and read them, taking notes to make me remember.

I bought one book this semester. It looked like I was going to have to buy The Unknown Gulag, too, but thank heavens for Cornell’s library actually having a history section.