{"id":332,"date":"2011-10-19T16:23:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/?p=332"},"modified":"2011-10-19T16:29:01","modified_gmt":"2011-10-19T16:29:01","slug":"u-rent-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/2011\/10\/19\/u-rent-books\/","title":{"rendered":"U-Rent Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I understand the concept behind rental companies. Twice in my adult life a tree has blown down in my backyard. I don’t own a chain saw. Experience has taught me that I will use a chain saw only rarely, but there will be a time or two when this might be necessary. Hence, I can see the value of renting something I need only rarely.<\/p>\n

Does this fit the situation of textbooks? Here is where my opinion as an instructor and the opinions of my studies may vary. I would think it would be of value to have a required textbook available on multiple occasions. Students might suggest they use a text 3-4 times – the nights before the exams.<\/p>\n

Students don’t really purchase textbooks. This is a fabrication they use to explain their college expenses to their parents (see the beer money ploy<\/a>). The actual question is do they rent books for 4 months or is it less. I am attempting to imagine a situation in which renting a book by the month would be better than buying a book and then selling it back to the bookstore. What sense does a monthly rental fee make? I can see a monthly rental if an instructor required multiple books and a book used in the first half of a course would be unnecessary in the last half. I can guarantee you that none of the books in the B&N ad (see above) fall into this category.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it really be – rent a book for the semester (or quarter)? I assume the value of advertising a rental would be equivalent to a guaranteed buy – back. All this means is that the book company guarantees something your campus book store may not – we will buy your book back. They just call it a rental rather than a guaranteed buy back.<\/p>\n

Now a rent by the week plan may actually be something students would go for. Why pay for a book for the 12 weeks of the semester it will not be used? It is just going to gather dust on your desk.<\/p>\n

You do understand that the old curmudgeon is not advocating such an approach. He is just suggesting that a weekly rental would likely make some company some money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I understand the concept behind rental companies. Twice in my adult life a tree has blown down in my backyard. I don’t own a chain saw. Experience has taught me that I will use a chain saw only rarely, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}