Well, we’re back. It’s a new semester and that means new classes. That is, assuming you didn’t fail any from last semester. One thing is for certain, with new classes come great expenses. Unless you are incredibly lucky, a new semester means you’ll be giving away all your money to wherever you buy your text books. Even if you do bargain shop, who really wants to spend money on a text book? We’re in college; the money spent on a text book could go a long way for us.

It’s unfortunate that text book companies assume that the knowledge they think they have contained within the text is worth a few gold bars. Come on, if I am buying this book, it is only because I am already paying through the nose to have someone elaborate on the books long winded points. That’s assuming the 150 dollar textbook you paid for even gets used by the professor. Your 150 dollar textbook sits on your desk, the binding never cracked and you think, “Would Mi Pueb take this book as payment?” No. Neither will LSB. They want your text book on whatever random subject even less than you do.

Someone is getting rich off a text book that we may not even use, let alone get through. Here we are counting quarters to buy a cheeseburger. They could at least split the chiropractor bill 50/50 because these books that we have to schlep across campus are not only bring our moods down but our posture, too.

Then, when you get the opportunity to “rent” a text book you pay almost as much to buy it. We all know that when we rent we are secretly hoping fora “half-blood prince” situation. Crack that book open and look, someone has meticulously filled out all the answers, or painstakingly color-code highlighted the text. Often times, however, if we ever crack that bad boy open, it looks more likely the book was last rented by a kindergartener with jumbo box of crayons. That’s right. The 64 pack that all of the coolest kids were sporting. All the doodles in the margin make you wonder just how boring the class must have been at the last kid’s school. These chicken scratches and sad attempts at doodles don’t look like someone who passes classes often. When you’re an English major each class you take has 12 texts for each course. When you’re in the sciences they just jack the price up, and when you major in music, you have to buy all these different song books that may come in handy later in life.  No matter what your field of study, they will find some way to jip you at least once, and if they don’t, they know they can get you when you have fulfill your general education courses.

In college, there is no salvation from overpriced text books. We all buy that one book that we spent our precious money on and then didn’t open it all semester. It just happens, and you have to take your first world, book buying self to the bookstore or online, and fork over the cash.