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So for my English comp. class I need two books. One is $60, the other $45. The tuition itself was $100. I can get the books used for about $70 which is not much better. It’s tempting to skip buying them altogether, but knowing my luck I’ll actually need them. I’ve looked for the books in PDF format, but sadly these two aren’t available (at least not as far as I can tell, anyway). The required books for my Spring semester classes aren’t much better. Algebra has a $150 book. Insane! That’s HALF my tuition costs for the semester! The Music class apparently requires a $90 book. The only reasonably priced books are for Japanese, at $22 each for the textbook and a workbook.
It’s such a cliché. All it does is reinforce the idea that the teachers are getting kickbacks from the textbook publishers for pushing these hyper-expensive, single-use tomes on their students. We’ve little choice but to buy the book, after all. And hey, our rich parents are probably paying the bills anyway, so screw ‘em, right? I’m not one for excessive government interference in commerce, but I think there does need to be some kind of official investigation into this. Why should a textbook ever cost more than $30? Especially since they’re practically disposable. It’s nothing new, of course. I went through this when I was at Ball State, too. Ah well, as long as I can purchase the books used from Amazon (where they are undeniably far less expensive) I can minimise the pain somewhat. But it’s very difficult for me to feel sympathy for the publishing industry when they talk about sales lost to piracy and used sales while they’re gouging me on the way to the classroom.
It’s such a cliché. All it does is reinforce the idea that the teachers are getting kickbacks from the textbook publishers for pushing these hyper-expensive, single-use tomes on their students. We’ve little choice but to buy the book, after all. And hey, our rich parents are probably paying the bills anyway, so screw ‘em, right? I’m not one for excessive government interference in commerce, but I think there does need to be some kind of official investigation into this. Why should a textbook ever cost more than $30? Especially since they’re practically disposable. It’s nothing new, of course. I went through this when I was at Ball State, too. Ah well, as long as I can purchase the books used from Amazon (where they are undeniably far less expensive) I can minimise the pain somewhat. But it’s very difficult for me to feel sympathy for the publishing industry when they talk about sales lost to piracy and used sales while they’re gouging me on the way to the classroom.
