Last week I was staggered - appalled - to find myself paying £42 for a book I needed for research. I mean, £42 for a book? $68? €48? What's the world coming to? Is it normal for academic books to cost that much? It came as quite a shock, and led to me shuffling round the kitchen muttering about greedy publishers, my impending financial ruin, and the imminent collapse of society. £42 for a book. It's not right.
( I'm not going to say what this book was, fearing that international literary spies may be trying to steal my ideas. Hmm. Must check the phone again for bugging devices. )
Scotland surprised me by winning against Macedonia, thereby reviving our hopes of qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa. Unfortunately, despite a plucky performance against Holland, Scotland lost the next game, and have therefore failed to qualify. Sigh. Scotland used to have such good football players, but we don't any more. Well, I suppose it will give me more time to read my £42 book.
That price is average for the mass of academic books and cheap for the area I'm currently studying in so yeah... hate spending so much money on them but what can one do?
ReplyDeleteI've known folks who paid well over $100 for science textbooks. :( I think that the chances for a student to find textbooks used are getting better, as there are numerous places online that sell used books. I highly recommend www.abebooks.com, which is a way for smaller booksellers to sell online.
ReplyDeleteI hope you love the book, Martin. Research or not it should be fun and entertaining and enjoyable for that much loot. Could have met Juliette Binoche last night at the Barnes and Noble in NYC. But to do so needed to buy her book, selling for $45.00. Didn't care about meeting her that much. tee hee. Now for you, I'd pay it!!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading
Suzie
On my current course, there was a book on the compulsory reading list which was £100 new. Thank God for amazon market place, is all I can say...
ReplyDeleteI see that students are suffering from high book prices! I feel sympathy. Personally, I may abandon research, and just make things up. (as I generally do, really)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't you have borrowed it from the library? £42 is ridiculous. There's no way I'd ever pay that for any book.
ReplyDeleteyep when i was at uni i had the lovely target of £65 for a book on design and marketing.. o the joy i felt when we used it 3 times in the whole year
ReplyDelete42 pounds/$68 sounds about right for a used textbook in some cases. I was an English/Psych major and there were plenty that were $100 or more.
ReplyDeleteIt really is appalling.