There's no sales tax on paper-books in Norway, but there is on ebooks, 25% (They've even enforced it on ebooks fram Amazon! Ebooks are not books, but software, you see.). Price are high because they are set by a cartel. The publishers bought the book store chains, you see... (They already owned the press.) And they've bullied the small publishers and independent book stores ever since.
The new book law freezes this system, assuring that the prices will never go down. It was basically written by the cartel. The reason for the law? To protect Norwegian language and culture of course.
I've always read a lot, and prior to university I got my books from the local library. I got into the habit of buying books written in English while studying at uni, how was I afford anything else in addition to the text books? All I read in Norwegian these days is newspapers
