Who here buys textbook for fun?

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I have bought some textbooks, some having to do with upcoming graduate study and I do regret that I didn't take a larger variety of classes in the last 2 yrs of undergrad.

I buy them used.

I've got a huge Calculus book on my shelf, and I'm working my way through the problems in it to keep my mind sharp and entertained. Now that I'm middle-aged I have a lot more respect for the young me that took all those math courses in college. I realized back then in a Linear Algebra class that that math was never going to be my thing, but I'm very glad to have gotten as far as I did (Linear Algebra is a far cry from high school algebra). Who knows, when I finish this book I may move on to Differential Equations, which I remember as lots of fun.

I take one or two correspondence classes per year, primarily to keep my brain sharp in middle age, but also because I like the routine. My wife hates it, though. I just finished an interesting one on the history of science.

Yes, I do. They're some of the best kinds of books, IMO.

Yes, absolutely. I love buying textbooks about linguistics and biology. They are so much fun to read.

Me!

I don't read books much, but of all things, I've never been able to imagine myself reading a textbook from start to finish. When in a class, only bits and pieces are ever used.

I wouldn't look in a college bookstore for cheap books (even used).

There are a lot of Dover reprints of old textbooks; depending on the subject, that is likely to be a much cheaper than a current college textbook. Whether this is helpful probably depends on the subject -- both how new it is and how fast it changes.

I've got at least a dozen Dover reprints of old math textbooks. They generally cost me something like $12-$15, which is a lot better than the $166 I paid for my used calculus book.

When we go to used book sales I go right for the text books and usually walk away with a couple, may not read them all but am just drawn to them.

I thought I might go for a degree in nuclear engineering after finishing my Ph.D., and this is something I am still considering. I bought 2 textbooks which are part of the standard reading for nuclear engineering students at the University of Michigan. So far I have read one of them, and I really liked it. I have started reading the other one, too.

I once bought "Macroeconomics" by Rudiger Dornbusch and Stanley Fischer to read on the summer break but I never read it.

Most of my books are textbooks - I always loved getting textbooks in school and then got weird looks from other students for actually reading them.. now people just think I'm studying for a class.

I've bought some graduate level math texts that I'd like to work through. I haven't had the motivation to really get into math lately though. It can be a fun hobby for me but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.

Most people don't seem to understand that math can be like art and a proof can be a thing of beauty. Most people just see it as a bunch of incomprehensible symbolic gobble-dee-gook whose sole purpose for existing is to serve as an instrument of torture.