It's the start of a new semester of college, and it comes down to one of the most anxiety filled moments that you experience at least once every six months--buying your textbooks. Let's talk about some serious "ouch" for our bank accounts. This is what typically drives students to do what I consider to be the most unthinkable thing ever: rent textbooks.

For a book-loving English major like myself, the idea of diligently annotating, highlighting, scribbling little notes in the margins of books whilst listening to a lecture, and then having to return said book hurts my heart. I have rented before, but I've vowed to only buy my books from now after one of the worst renting experiences of my life.

Being strapped for cash going into my second year of college, I decided that I'd simply rent two of my textbooks. Come the end of the semester I had a job and a little extra pocket cash, and my love for books could not be denied; so I went back to the bookstore to pay the rental difference of the two anthologies so I could keep them. It was all downhill from there.

First, the woman behind the counter scanned one and brought up the price--no big deal, I could handle it. Then, she scanned the second book and said, "Huh... that's funny." So she scanned it again. And again. After scanning it five times, she handed it back to me saying, "This book has already been bought, you didn't rent it." Joy! I didn't have to pay more out of pocket. So, I gladly took my books and started on my way back to my dorm.

Some weeks later, I received an email stating that I never returned one of the books that I rented, which was confusing because it was the same book I was told had already been purchased. Naturally, I called the woman from the bookstore, and she looked it up and told me not to worry about it. When I got back to school in the spring, she was gone and there was a new person in charge of our bookstore. Once again, no big deal. Then summer vacation rolled around.

Randomly, in the middle of June, I received a letter stating that if I did not return the book I rented, I'd be sent to collections. Sent to collections over a book. Keep in mind, the last time the company bothered to contact me about this book was in December. So I called the phone number on the letter and explained the situation at least fifteen times to the customer service guy who, by the way, could not even spell "anthology" correctly. Finally, he told me that he'd submit something and that within the next two days someone would contact me about the situation. He gave me a case number, and I went on my way.

A week later I still had not received a follow up from the company, so I took matters into my own hands and emailed them. Two hours later, I received an email saying that I was no longer responsible for the price of the book and that I could disregard the letter threatening to send me to collections. Needless to say, I've saved this email because I no longer trust this company to properly keep track of their records.

So while many others will champion renting textbooks as being cheaper and easier, I'll continue paying a little extra to buy my textbooks. A little heads up, if you do decide to rent your textbooks and then change your mind and want to buy them, get that in writing.