There are essentially three textbook stores near the UA.

The locations used for a price comparison are the UofA Bookstore, 1209 E. University Blvd., Arizona Bookstore, 845 N. Park Ave., and Beat the Bookstore, 1712 E. Speedway Blvd.

For the price comparison, three common freshman-level texts were chosen and each was priced in the store and confirmed on the telephone. The books, the classes they are used in and prices are listed below.

Best availability:

UofA Bookstore, which has a full-blown department store feel to it, including clothing, notebooks, pens and anything else a new student might need.

Best price/availability:

Arizona Bookstore, which also has lots of extras.

Best price overall:

Beat the Bookstore, though book availability is spotty and there are no frills here. It’s all about the books. Call ahead, or don’t have your hopes high when you go there.

A plus:

Beat the Bookstore employs a very knowledgeable salesperson who seems to know everything about what’s happening in textbook land – for instance, why there’s a new edition, and how/where to get supplemental materials that make older, yet less expensive, editions still useful.

Tip from Beat the Bookstore:

The Quia access code for the “”­DÇðmelo Tǧ!”” online workbook can be purchased for $46.76 at http://quia.heinle.com.

Another option is to buy some or all textbooks online. While this method does have its drawbacks, there are bargains to be had.

Recent UA graduate Christina Slick said she started out buying from the UofA Bookstore, but in later years bought her books through www.half.com because of its low prices.