He'll have to buy them anyway,
Huh?
Is there a requirement to buy any books at all? As fas I am aware, you can show up and just do the exams.
Yes, schools my suggest that you buy the books they are familiar with (in fact, good schools will be familiar with more than one set of books, have a few lying around you can borrow before you decide to buy or just borrow full stop), but an obligation to buy book (which ones?) sounds a bit bizarre.
Strange that people here seem to get all uptight and "if you cannot afford the books, don't bother flying at all" - which is ridiculous.
The savings may not be that great, and, quite rightly, parts of the the Air law is best not looked at, part of the Comms syllabus have also changed (but ideally you should be learning the up to date CAP 413 anyway - which is free!)... but for the OP purposes, it sounds utterly sensible to me.
B.