Books without joy

For the past two years, going to the U-Store every term to buy my books was a distinct pleasure and therefore an excellent way to spend hundreds of dollars I had to spend anyway. There, I picked my books lovingly, making sure to search out the ones in the best condition, weighing delicately the benefits of buying certain books new and certain used. Maybe that’s why I’ve never sold any of my books back, even the ones for the really terrible courses. That’s also probably the reason I always went to the U-Store for all of my books, even when I knew some of them would be significantly cheaper on amazon.com. And then Labyrinth came.

As a freshman in high school, I found waiting in line to be given my books tedious. As a junior in college, I find it not only tedious but also insulting. There is more than enough space in Labyrinth to allow students to meander and look for their course books on their own. Instead, a good deal of the basement is barren, and students must wait to be handed their books from behind a counter in the corner. It is no longer possible to look through the copies to find one that is just right, and it’s awkward to have to ask the bookseller to get you another copy “because this one is dented.”

But the new system is detrimental to the vast majority of students — not just obsessive-compulsive bibliophiles. We all have to wait in line to be served and then wait some more for the Labyrinth employee to figure out what classes we are talking about and where the books are. Also gone is the opportunity to shop for courses effectively by seeing what books are on the syllabus. I have yet to hear a single student have something positive to say about this new system. While waiting in line, I saw several students, come down, catch just a glimpse of the line, roll their eyes and head right back up the stairs. This is unsurprising. If I wanted a random stranger to give me a stack of books, I would buy them on amazon.com.

There are also important financial questions that make Labyrinth a significantly less appealing purveyor of textbooks. Under the old system, students could buy a lifetime membership to the U-Store for $25. Members received discounts on items, including a 5 percent discount on textbooks. In contrast, Labyrinth offers no discount on textbooks, but instead promises to bump a member’s discount from 10 to 20 percent on everything except textbooks only after the member has spent $300 on textbooks.

Labyrinth has obviously put forward this membership plan to be competitive. But if we analyze the numbers, it becomes immediately obvious that Labyrinth is not really competition. In my case, purchasing at least some of my books at Amazon would have saved me $40.  I admit that Amazon was also cheaper than the U-Store, and buying books online can be problematic. The real issue is the difference between the U-Store membership and the Labyrinth membership. So far, I have spent approximately $450 on textbooks. Five percent of that is a $22.50 discount. I would have to buy more than $112.50 in non-textbook items at Labyrinth to accrue similar savings.

Then there are questions of practicality. For instance, Pequod was very conveniently located right on the third floor of the U-Store; now books and course packets must be purchased in different buildings located on different streets. And of course, it is essential to question whether the establishment of a de facto bookstore monopoly is really in the interest of either town or gown.

I realize that it is nearly impossible for the U-Store to return to its former glory. I mourn that loss. Labyrinth apparently is here to stay, and that’s not necessarily an absolutely terrible thing. There are some good things about Labyrinth too: They have a nice children’s section, and they have a decent selection of academic texts, which is nice when the library doesn’t have a book you needed by yesterday, and the staff is friendly.

But the U-Store, as we knew it, had all of those things too. If we cannot have the U-Store back as it was, then several serious changes must be made in the way in which Labyrinth deals with students’ needs. First and foremost, students should be allowed to pick out their own books. And Labyrinth’s textbook discounts to students should be at least as generous as the U-Store’s once were.

Martha Vega-Gonzalez is a history major from New York, N.Y. She can be reached atn mvega@princeton.edu.

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