University of Exeter

Exeter

Arghh - English reading list!

Hi everyone

First of all, I'm in to Exeter and I'm really happy about it - it looks like a nice place and luckily for me it's relatively close to home for when I want to go back and visit parents etc. (no long travel times!)

Anyway, the thing is I just came back from shopping today to find a massive huge pack from the English department waiting for me! It has quite an extensive reading list and I've been looking it up and if I got them all it would cost a fortune (I'm amazed at just how many little extras I have to buy!)

I was wondering if anyone knew from experience whether it's recommended to own copies of the entire reading list, and if it is do you know good places to buy them (costs would zoom to hundreds of pounds if I brought them all RRP!) I've been looking on ebay and amazon but copies are either non-existent or still pretty costly.

I'm stressing a bit other how much there is so any response would be great!

Thanks

Rachael

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Reply 1

romeosbitch

I didnt think it was that much!

I'm annoyed that is says you absolutely have to have the copy that they say as I've pretty much got all of the reading list from second hand book shops etc but its not the recommended version and apparently this is going to matter alot, so I'm back on amazon again.... yay...

University of Exeter

Exeter

Reply 2

supercat

Yeah, English people really get hit with the reading lists - one of my books for one of my modules next year is £30 :frown:

I would recommend getting the right edition - you can survive with a different one but it's quite difficult in seminars etc when your tutor says "turn to page so-and-so" and you have to try and find it!

Try getting them second hand - eg on Amazon there is amazon marketplace which can sometimes be quite a good deal. Or there's ebay. I would get all of the "essential" books - you really need them for lectures/seminars/essays. You don't have to get background or recommended texts, and they SHOULD be in the library, but they tend to get taken out reaaaally quickly. If you're lucky, your friends will let you borrow their copy now and then.

Reply 3

Angelil

FEAR NOT.

In my experience people quite often don't have the recommended text. You won't get penalised for having a different one and it doesn't take long to find the right page even if you do have a different edition. In some cases even the recommended texts aren't the best ones to have: we were reading an Oscar Wilde play in the first year and those of us who had the recommended text really struggled to write our essays as there were no line numbers given, and it's really annoying and somewhat unprofessional to have to commentate on a play when all you have is the page number and the act number. So when book shopping, try and get the recommended editions where possible, but don't worry if you have a different one and definitely use your common sense.

Amazon Marketplace and charity shops are most definitely your friends here. I would advise you to avoid the uni Blackwell's like the plague as it's hideously expensive. I only used it in emergencies. When using the library, organise yourself and be prepared - try and get the background reading a few weeks in advance and extract relevant material. You may end up spending a lot of time making notes, or a lot of money on photocopying, but it's definitely less money than you'd spend on buying the books themselves.

As for the reference books on the list, don't buy any until you get there. Many of them will only be used once and material can be photocopied from library books. The ones that will be used more often will become apparent when you arrive (the Rivkin and Ryan book that you use for C&C is a staple though, so definitely buy that!).

Reply 4

The Boosh

damn rivkin and ryan!!! is that still on the go?! brings back nightmares.

i bought a book for £80 not so long back. that stung.

Reply 5

Angelil

The Boosh

damn rivkin and ryan!!! is that still on the go?! brings back nightmares.

yep, fraid so.

The Boosh

i bought a book for £80 not so long back. that stung.

Ouch. What was it?!

Reply 6

The Boosh

sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edition).

Reply 7

supercat

Yeah, Rivkin and Ryan was definitely around last year, certainly toned the old arm muscles carrying that one up to campus.

Reply 8

Niyati

Ahhh Rivkin and Ryan - the one thing i didn't like about my course :biggrin:

Lugging that up to Peter Chalk at 9 in the morning was not fun and reading about C & C from a essay originally in French - not exactly easy

However i was quite lucky because I found a rivkin and ryan on ebay for £2 instead of £20 - unfortuantly it was an older version so it missed out a few of the essays from the 2nd semester

I have a load of books from last year but can't decide whether i want to keep them or sell them. I am starting to get rather a large supply of books :biggrin:

I got to the point last year where i was buying the penguin £1 books :biggrin:

and borrowing from the library. Some of the books i never actually bought...

Supercat - what is the £30 book in your module?!? Also do you have a reading list for your first semester yet? I would have thought we may have got it early so that we could read the stuff on it

Reply 9

Angelil

Undoubtedly sell them. You will run out of space and you will also need the money to buy more books (particularly in your third year when you'll need to buy several for your dissertation, probably). I sold a lot of mine to younger students and I also offloaded a huge bag of them to the guy that sells second-hand books in Cornwall House on a Wednesday. I only got £25 for that bag overall, which was a little disappointing given the sheer number of books, but ultimately I'd probably bought most of them second-hand and perhaps made a profit. Should get back on to selling last year's books, hmm (please contact me if you need books for third year, hehe).

Reply 10

supercat

Niyati

Supercat - what is the £30 book in your module?!? Also do you have a reading list for your first semester yet? I would have thought we may have got it early so that we could read the stuff on it

The £30 book is an anthology of renaissance drama, so it's probably quite hefty! You can get reading lists from www.readinglists.co.uk but I wouldn't buy the books from there because it's mega expensive.

Reply 11

Angelil

Don't buy it from Blackwell's or Waterstones, and I can guarantee it won't cost you £30 :wink:

I think I got mine for £20, if I'm thinking of the same one that you are.

Reply 12

The Boosh

i'm suprised you guys don't keep your books, especially those of you going for postgrad. do you refer back to them each year (for assignments, dissertations etc)?

Reply 13

Angelil

I only kept a couple of books that I thought I might use for my dissertation. I sold all of the rest. I simply haven't got the space and I'd rather have the money for any books I need the following year.

My postgrad subject is different so I'll need a whole raft of different books anyway!

Reply 14

The Boosh

fair enough. believe it or not, i still dip into the R&R every so often (though not too often) for my phd in a different field. it's so full of snippets of key theorists! after so many years studying the one thing i found was the extent to which theory is generic - you'll find marxism, structuralism, feminism all over the place (across the social sciences, arts and humanities). it's the point i keep trying to get across in the tsr "prestige wars" - that the context of the course (womens studies or whatever) is simply a context of interest, whereas the theory often remains the same.

Reply 15

Niyati

I will definitly keep my R & R firstly because its a different version, not the modern one and secondly because i might use it again.

If i do sell some books, i can think of some that would definitly go in the pile i.e. Vindication of the rights of women. I think I read 2 chapters of that and that was more than alot of people!

Thanks Supercat for the list - none of mine look to be over £20

Reply 16

Ariadne

Aaargh I'm really worried about these reading lists, I've only just got back from my gap year 2 days ago and haven't even started working through the list! For those who've already done first years, which are the major ones to make sure you read, so that I can prioritise?

Reply 17

Angelil

I honestly wouldn't recommend reading any book more than a week in advance of the seminar and lecture on that book - you won't remember it in enough detail to discuss it so you'll just have to read it again in the week leading up to it anyway.

Reply 18

Niyati

If you do want to read something - get the longer texts out of the way (like The Odyssey) then there isn't as much pressure when you 'have' to read it. I was lucky last year because alot of the books on the list i had already read which meant that I could just skim read the books to remember. Also last year we had a text we had to read for homework - it is usually culture and criticism - i recommend reading this in Freshers week or a couple of days before the first lecture, as cult and crit is very easy to forget :biggrin:

(but then that may just be me that forgets it).

Reply 19

Rachael89

Hi all, thanks for your replies - they've been helpful!

I've been looking up the books, can't find the right eidtiuons on ebay (Amazon's better) so I'll probably be getting them from there. I do however have one significant problem, all ofthem appear to be at least reasonably affordable apart from the John Jowett, Oxford edition of Richard III has it's lowest price as £86!

My jaw dropped when I saw it, here's a link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tragedy-King-Richard-Oxford-Shakespeare/dp/0198182457/ref=sr_1_1/202-3747419-0308637?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188994871&sr=8-1

There is no way on this earth I'm paying £86 for a book, does anyone know if they'd sell it cheapter at the uni shop? Or if any other editions would do?

Thanks

Rachael