Getting ready to start

Beloved reader,

after enrolling with the University of London and completing registration, which I described in the last post, it took about four days until I received the study material, consisting of the handbooks (one for each Unit), the study guide, a collection of former exam papers (of 2008 an 2009) and a really helpful book called "The Arts Good Study Guide". The latter I can recommend everyone who is about to start studying, be it via distance learning or at a brick and mortar university.

One important thing, that I have not yet received, which was supposed to be included in this 'welcome package', is a student card. I just recently found out that the UoL did not even give these to their distance learning students for some reason or other (well, no official reason given), but that they decided - after the students had protested - to start issuing student IDs.

The next step for me was to order the books for primary reading for the four foundation units. The UoL provided a very detailed reading list that suggested, not dictated, various editions of the books. Some books. I noticed, I had already had at home. Others I needed to buy. It is always a big pleasure of mine to surround myself with books and to go book shopping, therefore the research that ensued was quite some fun for me.

First of all I checked out the German amazon homepage. I looked up the various editions, that were mentioned in the reading list, and then took a closer look at the books. Fortunately, nowadays amazon provides a preview of most the books so that you can check out the index, introduction and the first pages or so. This helps a lot when buying books online. What was also really helpful in some cases were the recommendations by other readers. Especially when it came to choosing a suitable translation of the ancient epics, such as Homer's Iliad or Virgil's Aeneid. I was able to compare several translations, which is, in my opinion, very important with books like these. There have been published so many translations  over the centuries that there is a lot to consider. And with these books it is vital to own a translation that is understandable and yet as close to the original as possible.

Once I had made up my mind about which editions I should by I put them all into the basket in order to find out the price. For all the books - all new ones - I would have spent about 500€. That was too much. So I figured, there needs to be a cheaper way to get the books. I love old and used books but in this case, for my studies, I thought it would be worth buying new copies. So I went to the English amazon homepage and checked and compared the prices there. Fortunately I found most of the books for a much cheaper price, including postage and packing, so that I ordered most of the books in the UK and some of the books in Germany. This way I paid only about 320€, which is, for 32 books, about 10€ per book.

An alternative would have been to buy the books through amazon marketplace, which would have been the cheapest option, I guess. However, mostly used books. Another option would have been to buy an iPad or Kindle and download the books as e-books (most of them for free).

After I had placed my order, I awaited delivery very eagerly. Some of the books were not supposed to be sent out until September 17, however, by now all books have arrived as they were available earlier... Over the last ten days or so, there came a big or small package full of books every day. The last one reached me today.

Here is the result. This is what 4 Units worth of primary reading looks like on one bookshelf. That's quite a lot!

Together with these and the handbooks I am now ready to start!

And to be honest: That are quite a lot of books to read!!

That's it for tonight. Stay tuned.

Yours sincerely,

Kris

P.S: Fortunately I won't have to read all of them!