Katharina Buczek
This 21-year-old young woman is currently in college. And, as in most university courses, she is usually urged to buy or rent versions of textbooks offered by her school.
However, she realized one day that she could actually get PDF copies of the textbooks for her classes instead of purchasing the books outright. After all, this option was significantly cheaper.
And whenever she could not find a free version of a required textbook online, she was typically able to find a site that sold cheap PDF copies online.
Now, it did usually take her a while to locate these PDF copies on the web. But she thought it was worth it since she saved quite a bit of money.
“I will always look online for free or cheap versions before my classes start,” she explained.
“And if I can’t find some, I will generally start the course and decide if I really need to buy the expensive version. We have all been there– buying a textbook we don’t really use.”
This year, though, she enrolled in one particular class for which she could not find any free or cheap PDF copies.
She searched the web for a long time, though, because apparently, the cost of the new complete textbook was between $110 and $150.
Still, her search came up dry, so she attended class without it for a while. And at first, she thought she would just be able to slide by without ever needing to purchase the reading material at all.
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