Tips on... Buying textbooks

Let me share some tips from ideas that I have picked up from books, friends, and mistakes.

• Just because a book is recommended by the faculty does not make it the best for you. Don’t just tackle a book list indiscriminately. Find out which are the most relevant and the ones that will best suit your kind of person
  
• First ask yourself, “Do I need the book?”
  
• Never buy a book on a friend’s recommendation only—you might not have the same tastes
  
• Always scrutinise a book before buying it. A new book is unfamiliar to you when you first pick it up, and you need to spend a little time with it before you can be sure it is going to be of any help to you
  
• Look beyond the cover. It usually says little about the content of the book
  
• Open the book to the preface, which is usually the place where the author states the scope of the book, the target audience, and the purpose of writing it
  
• Look at the contents page, which gives you a broad framework of the book’s structure
  
• Then turn to the back of the book and quickly skip through the index. If there are any topics you know well, you can see how the author tackles the subject
  
• Sample the opinion of your classmates and colleagues in other years. You may also ask your lecturer or professor if they know about the book and ask for their opinion
  
• A good place to sample different opinions is a website like www.amazon.com, where people from different backgrounds, countries, medical schools, and expectations review books
  
• You may consider a recommended text too good to drop, although you find it too difficult to read. In such case, select and buy a good introductory book for yourself on the course. If properly used, you will find the money you spend well worthwhile
  
• Buy supplementary or reference texts if you want to get a better grasp of the subject. But see if the library has copies first to avoid buying books that you do not need to read for more than a topic or two.