Back in the day, when I was a college student ... you know, just a few years back ... after finals I'd sell my textbooks and hope to get enough money back to pay for some Christmas presents for my family. No matter that my parents had shelled out for the textbooks in the first place.

Today Amazon announced its Textbooks Trade-In program for college textbooks, "just in time for the end of the semester."

Per the program, Amazon.com customers can swap their used texts for Amazon.com gift cards. You just go to www.amazon.com/tradeinbooks, print out a prepaid shipping label and mail off those books.

The instant gratification will be sacrificed, but it's worth it for the convenience. No more waiting in line and hoping the person who's taking in the books has reached their quota of Statistics texts, or feeling defeat wash over you when that $200 anatomy book gets you a measly $11, or worse, is not accepted because a newer edition is being used next term.

Per Amazon's press release: Once the book is received and verified by a third-party merchant, an Amazon.com gift card will be deposited into the student’s Amazon.com account. This gift card can be used toward the purchase of next semester’s books, or the millions of other items on Amazon.com.

“We’re thrilled to add the trade-in feature to the Amazon.com Textbooks store,” said Julie Todaro, director of Books at Amazon.com. “Our student customers know they can rely on Amazon.com for a great selection of titles and low textbook prices, and we’re happy to be able to offer them another service to help them save money and time.”

Students can buy textbooks through them, too. Amazon claims to offer savings of up to 30 percent off the list price of more than 100,000 new textbooks and up to 90 percent off the list price of millions of used textbooks.

If only poor journalists could afford to go back to school...

Amazon, my go-to site for cheap and used books, has picked their top 100 books for the year, and sadly I have read none so far and never even heard of most of them... If you can recommend any of these (or others!), please let me know.

Here's the first 25:

1. "The Northern Clemency," by Philip Hensher
2. "Hurry Down Sunshine," by Michael Greenberg
3. "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America," by Rick Perlstein
4. "The Forever War," by Dexter Filkins
5. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel," by David Wroblewski
6. "The Likeness: A Novel," by Tana French
7. "Serena: A Novel," by Ron Rash
8. "So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel," by Leif Enger
9. "The Lazarus Project," by Aleksandar Hemon
10. "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America," by David Hajdu
11. "The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America," by Thurston Clarke
12. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson
13. "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves," by M.T. Anderson
14. "Sitting Bull," by Bill Yenne
15. "Netherland: A Novel," by Joseph O'Neill
16. "Home: A Novel," by Marilynne Robinson
17. "Duma Key: A Novel," by Stephen King
18. "Lush Life: A Novel," by Richard Price
19. "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto," by Michael Pollan
20. "The Underneath," by Kathi Appelt
21. "Knockemstiff," by Donald Ray Pollock
22. "A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes," by David Tanis
23. "Pravda: A Novel," by Edward Docx
24. "2666: A Novel," by Roberto Bolano

25. "Alinea," by Grant Achatz