Quote:
Originally Posted by Penforhire
That's because academic books are so freakin' expensive. I'm floored that so many graduate-level e-books are over $100 each. It sort of made sense with print books and how few books in total were printed. But then you could sell your paper school books after the class was over (and buy used books to start with).
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I think most people here fully understand the delima you face with book prices, especially grad level books. I know I remember mine. Love my Abstract Algebra text that was about 120 pages and cost $180 back in 1990. Then one of my smart ass prof's, he was one of my fav prof's though, chimed in with the old saw "...beware the thin book." No kidding because in the thin book it's about what they leave out, especially proofs and examples where they can take gianormous leaps leaving the trivial substance of the concept for as an exercise for us lowly students.
Books at this level you are buying the content not the physical goods.
But remember on grad level texts, a lot of time goes into the creation of those books. Plus they only sell a handful every semester or even in a whole year. That's the reason for the prices. Then again it's not as if University professors are the working poor either. I loved my prof's who took pity and used their own books and just gave us zerox copies. Hang in there once you are in grad school it's all downhill from there. Of course dishwashers often earn more than some prof's pay their TA's and assistants keeping all their grant money for their greedy paws!!