When it comes time for class selection, everyone asks about the class itself. Is it hard? Who teaches it? No one ever asks, however, about the textbook. The textbook is a very important part of the class. In college, you have to pay hundreds of dollars for them, so they’ve gotta have some purpose, right? It’s going to be a part of your life for a year, whether that means it’s read every night or something you have to move when you vacuum. Hopefully you don’t leave it in your backpack because those things are heavy, but your locker is an acceptable place to let it collect dust. So, what are the best textbooks to read, look at, and forget about?

Necessary Textbooks (Is that an oxymoron?):

Contemporary Economics (Honors Economics Textbook)-It’s annoying, but actually kind of funny at times. If you read this textbook, you’ll have everything you need for the class and can move on with your life.

AP Lit book- Not sure what it’s called, but you just use the class set for some stuff. It’s pretty interesting and fun to read Fences out loud as a class.

All Math Textbooks- Just do the homework. Stats, Calc, Geometry… Whatever the class, just do it. It will help you. It’s easier to flip to the back to check your answers in the paper copy than online, but that works too. They don’t help much when it comes to teaching yourself the material though in my experience.

AP Euro Textbook- Boring, but helpful.

AP World Textbook- This one is good to read, or so I’ve been told.

Floor Decor:

AP Environmental- A pretty enough cover, but kind of dry to read.

Alan Brinkley’s Beautiful American History Textbook for APUSH- The same as AP Euro… A very long read, but don’t worry! Adam Norris has YouTube videos that go over each chapter 🙂

Biology Textbook- That beautiful bird brightened up my room all of freshman year.

Chemistry- Got some occasional usage, but not much.

Spanish Textbooks- Not used very often, but when you need it someone else usually has it with them and will let you share. Either that, or Señora Colon has pictures of the story posted in Canvas.

Someone call Texas because these should be banned:

World History- You should not have to use the same textbook two years in a row. My book freshman year fell apart.

American Democracy (AP Gov Textbook)- I don’t think I touched this once.

Physics Textbooks (The normal one and the McGill special)- No.

These are just my personal opinion (and the opinions of a few friends who have taken different classes than me). I hope you enjoy and good luck selecting classes!