Well, that's true Bostonian. In our city, we're very fortunate to have a free book swap twice a year. I picked up tons of free textbooks and academic books at the last city book swap, even some that were fairly recently published. BUT I'm un/homeschooling and have the time, energy, and patience to wait for this book swap when others may not.

I also occasionally pick up used textbooks or academic books at the used bookstore or on Amazon too. But again, I'm not in a rush or pressure to get x textbook by a certain amount of time.

Still, with CC students, I really think there should be a push to use free/open source materials as much as humanly possible. Too often, there isn't. Instead, the publishing industry still holds a considerable amount of clout as well as the deans or heads of department who cast their orders to faculty.