A New Semester is Upon Us

Well, it is the first week of August, and therefore the first class assignments for UB Law have come out.  Last year, while I was excited to get to work on my new career, the first assignments were lost on me.  I have mentioned this several times previously here, but trying to read for law school before you have attended law school is a doomed undertaking.

Although I read the cases, took notes, and even tried to come up with a "brief" format, the first few class sessions were spent mostly writing word for word what the professor said, and simply replacing my prior, useless, notes.

This year, however, I am confident I will be able to get something out of the first assignments.  Of course, the irony is that I have only minimal assignments in two of my classes, and no assignments in my three other classes!

First assignments also mean textbook assignments, so I spent this morning on Amazon.  So far, three classes are completely taken care of for a little over $100.  This is awesome.

What is not so awesome, is that my school, like an increasing number of colleges and universities, no longer has a school bookstore.  Instead, we have a Barnes and Noble on campus.  They have already declared that textbooks will not be available until a few days before class starts. They also have set aside only limited time to actually stop by and purchase your text books.  Also, all the prices have gone up.

As for textbooks, the price increase is sort of a part of life anymore, and honestly, I don't mind buying heavily damaged or marked books online, as long as they have all the pages, so it doesn't really effect me.  What kills me is that the UB mesh basketball shorts that used to be $15 are now $25.  Hoodies are  $65.  Plain T-Shirts, $25.  Come on, really?  And the other awful thing about B&N college bookstores is that they don't have any retail books or prep books.  If you are a large book chain, why not have a nice selection of leisure reading at least? Nope, just 25 or so that they are pushing.  Why not carry a ton of supplement and prep materials?  Nope, although there was a section of SAT prep books.  Why, at a law campus, would one need a college admissions prep book?  How about some Examples and Explanations?



Any new UBers, or simply first year law students, I have available the following texts, which I would let go cheap, as in under anything you would find online.  I have Property (Dukeminier), Criminal Law (if you have Rochvarg), Contracts (Ayers and Speidel), Torts (Farnsworth and Grady), and Con Law (Barnett).  Comment here and I will get in touch with you.