While yes you can borrow books from a library there are times when you just have to buy a book. And most of them are very expensive. How do you save money? Well you could buy a book with friends. This way you'll be spending only a fraction of what the book costs. Afterwards you can sell the book and get back some of your money.
This is how my high school nephews do it: they sell their last year's books to incoming students and buy new ones for the current year which they will then be selling the following year (that is, if that edition would still be the required book for that year). I think it will be difficult to co-own a book with classmates as the teacher might require each of them to submit their book to check some homework or seat work. In my time as a student, while most teachers/schools are strict about legalities, there are some teachers who allow students to photocopy books. In some schools nowadays, students who can't afford to buy all the books just use their cellphones to take pictures of the content of their classmates' books. Some schools, however, now use ebooks and require their students to own a tablet. These aren't cheap either and many private schools take profits from selling books to their students so there's less avenues for saving on books for their students.
Old books or used books for references, for school or college textbooks are being resold in the second hand bookstores and their costs are almost one-half or even less of their original costs. While I was studying in college, I was able to buy some of my textbooks from the said bookstores and what you have mentioned too from my friends who have already graduated from the college. Now I had already finished my college, had been worked and retired from my job, I never resell my old books and college reference books but I have donated them to our city library and to some schools.
We have a shop here that sells used books at half the price or even at a lower rate. We can find books of any type, be it educational, novels, stores or drawing books. I buy a lot of novels from there and to my surprise I could find some valuable guides to assist my kids in studying. It is a good option to get books of your class from senior students. I have seen people doing this. This not only saves money but also a chance to teach kids the real value of money. I give my kid's school books to some kids who belong to a middle income family and I give it to them when my kids are promoted to next class.
I think sharing a textbook would quickly cause you to lose friends. You and the "co-owners" of the book are doing the same course with the same assignments and exams, so you are going to want to use the textbook at the same times. The suggestion to by a used copy is far more realistic, the book might be an older edition or marked up but you have it under your control. Any asset you do not have possession of it one you could lose access too just when you need it most, which makes it essentially worthless and a waste of whatever money you put into it.
In some state universities here, photocopying of books is very common. And although the school authorities see it, they just tolerate that practice for reasons that their students are mostly from poor families. It is against intellectual property rights law but I guess it is one good way of saving money from buying expensive books. By the way, photocopy service is very cheap at 1 cent per page.
Here, the private schools do not leave you with any option but to buy books. You have to deposit a certain amount towards buying the books for the next year at the end of each academic year. However, I do not have a idea about the government institutions. Buying the books in every new standard is thus a compulsion.
I have seen some of the students taking the notes on the mobile and laptop. I also know some of the students who are recording the lecture of the professor. And then during the exam time they are listening to them for the revision of the content. This way I have seen that some students are saving the money on textbook. In fact with digitization of the content, a lot of money can be easily saved. Evernote is one such app that can be used for this task.
The best way that I was able to save was to go in with other students. It was easy for me though because I had gotten to know and lived close to everyone, which of course is not really the case at colleges anymore. It worked though, just sharing one and using a copier if need be.
A lot of my friends photocopy textbooks from the library. And many benefit from digital textbooks, they can be cheaper than the physical book. A lot of students sell their old books once the semester is over. I myself have never paid full price for a textbook, I always get them used or digital.
My advice is try to go and find an ebook copy of the book online. If that does not work then I suggest trying to buy a used copy of said book from Amazon or Ebay, that's what most students from my college did anyway including me.You could always share with a friend until you get enough money to get a book of your own.
