Price controls on college textbooks

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kidicious
So control the price so that producers have to get economies of scale.

Yeah, because they don't try as best they can to get economies of scale on the few textbooks they sell?

I'm not an expert on every little medical area, and either are you.

Please, medical insurance policies are very easy to read and understand. Most participants just simply do not read them. If there is a procedure you aren't sure about, you can always call your provider (their number is on the back of your card).

[Ramo]

"Classical Mechanics" which is in its third edition, costs 140$

$35, local joint.

[KrazyHorse]

0$, borrowed my officemate's

[Odin]

None of my textbooks were over $90 (the most expensive was my General Chemistry textbook, $89). How the hell does a textbook cost $600?

[I Am Jeff]

Book prices are seriously absurd and 1/2 the time I hardly use them. Which is why I stopped buying them unless I am 200% sure I will need it.

I am really pissed this semester, I had to buy a $100 dollar book because the professor got it custom made for the class and there are silly problems in it I need to do. I do not need this book for any other reason then doing these dumb problems. And this is an easy course, making it worse.

There are 3 classes in which I am not buying books. Going to class, taking notes, and doing the various assignments/projects works well for me. I personally can not stand reading most text books, they are dry, boring, and I feel the just do not do anything for me. My grades have actually gone up, significantly, since I stopped buying the useless text books.

I may have to cave and buy 1 more book this semester, but I will put it off for as long as possible.

[Last Conformist]

The most I ever gave for a textbook was ~150 USD, and that was a huge two-volume thing. Bad buy, since the book sucked. Most science books I've bought for uni have cost around half that.

Tangentially, since the market for science textbooks in Swedish is pretty limited, we end up using alot of American textbooks. Compared to European ones (well, Swedish, British, and German ones, since that's what I've got experience of) they tend to be longwinded and chatty, giving the impression the authors are paid per word. I don't know if they really are or if it's just a cultural difference, but since prices depend more on size than content, it does contribute to high textbook costs.

We also have plenty of textbooks by Swedish authors in English; this is partly because they want to sell the books outside of Sweden too, but also partly because oftentimes they do all their work in English, and the technical vocabulary simply doesn't exist in Swedish.

[Az]

Students' Dean's Library

Rent books - and all proceeds go to buy more books.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Interesting. I've been puzzling over that business model myself, starting a store that made customised reading packages for profs on demand.

Why should the profs have to waste their time photocopying, all they would have to do is send their requested works in sufficiently ahead of time, and the store could whip it up.

Where I study, the students' association does that.

[Pekka]

I can't afford them books either, and I think only few can. However I just buy the ones I REALLY need, meaning that they will benefit me later on, and they are some kind of.. basic bibles of that field. Something I should have even after I graduate. For example: Bjarne Stroustrups The C++ Programming Language, went through it in the book shop, googled it a little and thought oh well, this is a book I could have, and maybe even should have.

So I bought it. I bought two books last year, and this year I have bought none so far. I think it's worth the price, why would anyone even need all the books, get the ones you really need and then copy the rest or get it somewhere else.

[loinburger]

The cost of my textbooks is chump change compared to the cost of my tuition.

[Zkribbler]

Anyone else have professors that wrote the textbook they then required you to purchase.


I just realized, I wrote a textbook once. It was a law casebook. I downloaded legal cases for a law professor off of Westlaw, and then edited them down to a reasonable length--taking out the copyrighted formatting of course. Took me a couple of months working part time. I got paid work-study rates.
I R a author.

[Kassiopeia]

Wow. My field probably has something to do with it (our reading is mostly classics like Machiavelli or Locke or Kant maybe), meaning the market for my "textbooks" is wider, but I've only had to buy a book once. It was a guide to writing scientific text, and I got that one used, off the Internet, for dirt cheap - I only bought it because I thought I would need it later on.

At least one copy of a vast majority of the coursebooks is accessable in the university library, and if there are several copies, you can even take a few home... the thought of buying books is as weird as that of paying tuition is.

Although, the student union does sell, for some courses, these photocopied bunches of paper, most of the time they're economics related stuff. Hmmm.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Anyone else have professors that wrote the textbook they then required you to purchase.


I just realized, I wrote a textbook once. It was a law casebook. I downloaded legal cases for a law professor off of Westlaw, and then edited them down to a reasonable length--taking out the copyrighted formatting of course. Took me a couple of months working part time. I got paid work-study rates.
I R a author.

Yes, and the class and textbook both sucked. (His other book was "recommended").

I was expecting to get more out of a C++ class.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Anyone else have professors that wrote the textbook they then required you to purchase.

Yes, in two different econ classes, and both times the professor had the good grace to donate his share of the class sales to a charity of the class's choosing.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Spaced Cowboy
Yes, and the class and textbook both sucked. (His other book was "recommended").

I was expecting to get more out of a C++ class.

Bjarne Stroustrup?