<p>I second not buying books until you find out whether or not they’re useful. Last year me and my roommate never touched our Econ 101 text book. Also, I ordered a book for my math class from Amazon, and luckily it never came because my professor thought the book was pretty worthless and rarely used it, so I just got my refund.</p>
<p>As far as where to look to find what books you need, there’s a few places you should check. Sometimes it’s listed under course description on the course guide. Sometimes the professor will have a course website with a syllabus or something similar. Sometimes the department will have a list of required texts (<a href=“http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/textbook.shtml)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/textbook.shtml)</a>.</p>