Textbooks are known for being ridiculously expensive, but there are a number of ways you can save on books if you buy or rent them online.

How to Find Cheaper College Textbooks, a recent post on the New York Times, provides a great overview of where to get cheaper e-textbooks, as well as sites where you can rent or purchase used books.  Here are some of the highlights:

• CourseSmart: the largest catalog of e-textbooks available.  E-textbooks cost an average of 60% less than the printed version.
• Chegg: the Netflix of the book world - rent your books for the semester.
• Campusbooks and Bigwords: search engines that compile the best prices from many other sites.

Of course, there is always Amazon, which offers kindle versions of many textbooks.  In addition, as a student you can sign up for free two-day shipping for a year.

You may also want to look into whether there is an international edition of the textbook you need. Textbooks cost far less overseas than they do in the United States. The international version of a textbook generally has been published at a lower production cost, but contains the same content as its American counterpart.

If you really want to be kind to your wallet you can always find your textbooks in the library on course reserve.  You can use them for up to three hours at a time in the library and it won't cost you a dime!

Additional Textbook links:

• Where to Buy Textbooks
• NYU bookstore - textbook inquiry
• NYU bookstore - info for Poly students