I always hated textbook shopping. Too dang expensive!
Plus, the bookstore was at one end of campus and most of the dorms, including mine, were at the other... so I had a looong way to drag those expensive doorstops!
I once bought a textbook for one of my freshman classes - "required" and quite expensive. I think I opened it once the entire semester. Next semester it wasn't required any more, so I couldn't unload it.
For another class, the professor required eight, count 'em, EIGHT different books. He also changed the reading list from year to year, so in some cases you couldn't get the books used. Someone down the hall from me had taken the class the previous year, so I bought what books I could from him, and bought the rest new.
There was also an infamous textbook - the book was about 60 pages long and cost at least $150. Almost everyone either borrowed someone's text for the semester, or photocopied it out.