I bought an Indian copy of a microelectronics textbook on eBay, replete with a dire warning on the back cover about not selling it outside the subcontinent. The only difference was the paper is thinner and the diagrams aren't two-tone, they're greyscale. Luckily, however, electrons do seem work the same on all continents.
That said, we weren't required to buy any books at all and and books we were required to read were kept at the library in the "core" section, so there'd always be a number in the building, not lent out. As it turned out, in retrospect, I don't think any specific book was ever actually "required" to be read.
I did buy a few books (about 10 over 4 years), including a copy of Stroud's Engineering Mathematics so old it recommended logarithm tables (otherwise it was perfectly serviceable). I bought those because I actually wanted them to keep and I still have nearly all of them.
That said, we weren't required to buy any books at all and and books we were required to read were kept at the library in the "core" section, so there'd always be a number in the building, not lent out. As it turned out, in retrospect, I don't think any specific book was ever actually "required" to be read.
I did buy a few books (about 10 over 4 years), including a copy of Stroud's Engineering Mathematics so old it recommended logarithm tables (otherwise it was perfectly serviceable). I bought those because I actually wanted them to keep and I still have nearly all of them.