A&P textbook in hardcover or loose leaf?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hi all, hope you're enjoying the Thanksgiving post-oink slump.

I'm having a Black Friday textbook-purchasing conundrum:

I'm about to purchase my A&P textbook from Amazon, and I see it is available in hardcover and loose leaf. There is a significant difference in cost. Is it worth it? From what I've read on these boards, this is a textbook that many advise to keep for the future. I would also be using the text for both A&P 1 and 2.

I searched the threads and found a bunch of dated posts on going through the process of having your books unbound; this book is sold as such, with holes punched out for a 3-ring binder.

Then there's what they call "textbook binding," but I don't know if I want to go there; it's sold by vendors off the site and has a different cover though they say it's the same edition.

So what say you: Bound or Unbound? I'm also curious to know if those of you who took A&P did indeed keep your textbook. That might make me sway toward springing for the regular hardcover.

Thanks! :-)

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Loose Leaf. Put front half in 2" binder and the back half save away for the second semester.

Add the whole book and a medium textbook plus coloring book and pencils in a backpack, it gets heavy.

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day:

If I had to do it all over again, loose leaf. A&P 1 goes over x chapters, then A&P 2 goes over y chapters (typically from the same book). It would be easier just to carry the chapters needed.

I've a loose leaf (which wasn't a choice) for college intermediate algebra, and it works out great as I only bring the chapters we are covering per unit. Less weight to carry, and fits better into my back pack.

is a good video on how to unbind the bound version if you end up getting the bound and figuring out you should have gone loose leaf.

Thank you.

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On the weight of backpack issue, I'd advise you only bring what you are actually going to need for class that day. If you use a coloring book in class, then bring it. If you don't, leave it at home and work on it there. I rarely have textbooks in my backpack honestly, unless it's for a lab.

As far as price, if you want to sell it when you're done do hardcover. I had a loose leaf microbiology book a few years back and there isn't one place online that will accept it to sell, including half.com. If you think you will need it go ahead with the loose leaf.

As far as if you will truly need it after your A&P classes, that depends. The thing is, when you get to med-surg classes, they go over what A&P you need to know for nursing in the chapters. At least my LPN ones did, and my ADN ones do as well, except much more in depth and is a two-volume set. My A&P teacher always claimed we would need to reference it in nursing but I haven't needed it once since I finished those classes.

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As of now, I have a loose-leaf. Would prefer a hard cover. If you plan on keeping it for future references, to me the hard cover will be the better choice.

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I prefered tthe loose leaf so I could carry around a few chapters instead of the whole book. Since I planned on keeping my book the fact that I couldn't resell it wasnt a big deal

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Thank you all so much for your responses! I still haven't decided...I'm giving myself until Cyber Monday, when the promotion ends, to mull it over. :-)

Good points about bringing to class what you need, the resale value, and med-surg review of A&P. Thanks again.

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I have loose leaf and I dislike it! Pages have ripped out of my binder because they're bad quality, and now they're all mixed up because different sections of the course required different pages to study….plus now I can't re-sell mine even if I wanted to.

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I used a hard cover and I'm so glad I did. It was a little bit heavier, but really durable. However, I took both A&Ps together so I had to have the whole book everyday. Still, I think the hard cover was better, because that book really took a beating; I don't think a loose leaf would have survived! :)

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day:

It's interesting seeing the mixed reviews. My intermediate algebra book is loose leaf. I had a smaller binder, and just keep the chapter or two I need for the class in it. I've yet to have a page rip even though the quality is poor and I'm very clumsy. I do enjoy only carrying what I have to carry.

My A&P book is ~ 1,300 pages; and I'm tempted to have it unbound for when I take A&P II this coming Spring semester so I can only carry the chapters needed. If I go through with it, and can find this thread again, I'll let everyone know if I did so, and how it turned out.

Thank you.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

I had a hard cover for Anatomy and did loose-leaf for Physiology (they are separate courses at our school). My hard cover Anatomy book is still on my study desk. My loose-leaf Phys book is a torn up mess. I wish I would have bought hard cover for Phys. I still refer back to it for a fresher on systems in nursing school.

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You all have made such great comments that I am truly stumped. I was just about to purchase the book until I saw the last couple comments and now am divided again. So I went ahead and purchased my other books and left this one out for now.

I love the idea of just carrying around the chapters that you need, but is it worth poor paper quality, as some of you mentioned, if this is a reference book I should keep. The flip side: Will I really want to keep the book, if as @Compassion_x said, med-surg covers what you need in nursing school...

Oh brother. Almost laughable that I can't make a decision about one book!

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