It’s another scorcher. Nobody wants to buy soup on a day like this so I got to leave early. The books were finished this morning so I went to pick them up: freakin’ awesome. They look amazing. I can’t wait to show the class in 45 min.

Now for a bit on college textbooks…

What is a textbook?

Textbooks are large rectangular folders for holding all of the miscellaneous handouts you get from your teacher throughout the semester. They are quite durable and many of them are printed with fun facts and information on the inside. This information is seldom used during actual class time but occasionally it is helful to glance through right before a test or while researching a paper. For the most part, however, texbooks are simply large, overpriced filing mechanisms.

What about cost?

Textbooks often carry a high price tag. They can value anywhere between forty and one-hundred dollars. The average, for a standard hardbound book is close to seventy dollars. Many people wonder what makes textbooks cost so much more than a standard two-pocket file folder, which usually runs around 50 cents. The reason for this drastic markup is purely marketing. The sales of two-pocket folders is limited mainly to the parents of elementary students. This demographic needs little encouragement to buy two pocket folders; it is an inherent instinct in this type of consumer. However, when it comes to college textbooks, the main market is so jaded by years of unnecesary work and the purchase of school supplies they will never use more than once (compass, graphing calculator, condoms), that they are extremely resistant to the idea of buying yet another item which they feel is ultimately unnecessary. Thus, a great percentage of the profits from the sale of textbooks actually goes into marketing the idea that textbooks are necessary to a college education. This marketing is quite subversive and goes essentially unnoticed to all but a few. These people are either writing the textbooks, publishing them, or running the college bookstore. Bastards.

What can I do?

There’s not much you can do. It is difficult to throw a wrench into the textbook-marketing-machine because it is made up, primarily, of old college professors and anal-retentive bookstore managers. The best course of action is to grow up, have kids, buy them plenty of two-pocket folders, and hope they go to a vocational school.

I hope this sheds some new light on the college textbook situation for you. Please feel free to respond with any comments you may have. Thank you.

(man, that only killed fifteen minutes…..)

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