The Price of Textbooks

S is taking a class through a community college this semester. I was aware that tuition was high, well, higher than when I was a student. But what I wasn't prepared for was the cost of the textbook for the class.

I looked at my old books and noticed that I had purchased a used one for $15. Not bad. So I figured what kind of a hike could it be? When I was told it was $159 for a new and $120 for a used book, my mouth fell open, "WHAAATTT? That's insane!" What a markup!

I talked with the counselor and I made that comment, "Books are a lot higher to pay for than when "we" were in school." The counselor didn't say much and then it dawned on me. The counselor isn't as old as I am! Maybe I should have rephrased it and said, "Well, back in the 70's the books didn't cost that much (as that's how old I am and when I was in college)."

The prized textbook came via Fed ex today. It was gorgeous! It had to be for that price! It was filled with colored pages (when back in my day, we just had textbook with blah black and white photos). They covered a lot of topics that weren't even considered back in the 70's.

Then I was told I could have bought the book over the Internet even cheaper, had I knowned the author/publisher's name. I should have just asked the bookstore the author/publisher name and ordered it from another source. It would have been a little cheaper. I'll keep that idea in mind the next time (next year, no doubt) that S has a college class.