Textbooks
The haunting of all the books I have bought but never read: a memoir
January 23, 2021By: Kyla Dowling, Staff Writer I can feel them watching me. The clown on the cover of It by Stephen King, the main character of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina . . . Their eyes follow me as I enter my room. I pick up all three Hunger Games novels from my desk chair so I can take a seat. I’d meant to read them back in the seventh grade, but I had more pressing issues then. I was swamped cosplaying BBC’s Sherlock and kissing my friends “for practice” (definitely not because we were all secretly a little gay). I move…
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What Grinds Our Gears: SFU’s bookstore should be helping me find books
September 13, 2020by Sara Wong, Peak Associate Having the correct copy of a required course reading is extremely important. That’s why I primarily rely on the SFU Bookstore when purchasing my course materials. However, for the second semester in a row, the bookstore…
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SFU’s “Sharing of Textbook PDFs Fact Sheet” fails to consider students’ constraints
May 25, 2019By: Gabrielle McLaren, Editor-in-Chief I want to preface my crankiness over SFU Library’s “Sharing of Textbook PDFs Fact Sheet” by stating that I understand intellectual property laws. I understand why they’re so important to protect the work of academics and other…
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The Worst Purchase: Non-mandatory online access code
March 29, 2019Written by: Sakina Nazarali, SFU Student Right after one of my business lectures, I knew I needed my textbook fast. To help with costs, the professor mentioned we could buy an earlier edition of the book if needed, and that a…
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SFSS lobbies provincial government for lower student loans, open access resources, and sexual violence policies
November 28, 2018Written by: Amneet Mann, News Editor In a recent lobbying trip to Victoria, student directors from the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) met with provincial government representatives to advocate for restructuring student loans, open-education resources, and a review of…
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Why you’re paying so much for textbooks: Part 2 ⁄ 2
March 29, 2018By: Alexander Kenny, Peak Associate When students discuss the topic of textbook prices, it is almost unanimous amongst them that prices are too high. Last week, we discovered that textbook prices arose from a complex network of reasons. University bookstores…
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Why you’re paying so much for textbooks: Part 1 ⁄ 2
March 21, 2018By: Alexander Kenny, Peak Associate Purchasing textbooks has become a macabre ritual amongst post-secondary students. Students at SFU, myself included, always spend time discussing, comparing, and ultimately asking the question to end all questions: “How much do you have to…
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Textbooks are okay, PDFs are not
November 1, 2015Since the beginning of my university career, the most exciting part of a new semester has been buying new books at the bookstore. I know that this isn’t the most affordable or efficient way to get my course material, but…
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An interview with a textbook publishing baron
September 10, 2012Baron Cardiff of Pearson, formal owner of the Pearson Canada textbook company is currently thought to command a GDP of $305.2 million, or in layman’s terms, Gabon. Amassing his fortune through the textbook trade that his family has owned for…
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