140 zł (45 USD) for a book about access 213 WTF!?

[Pawelk198604]

I wanted to buy a book about Access 2013, with all the MS Office programs that I know the least.

I recently bought a Office 365 for students, it turned out that it also is in Access 2013.

As part of the undergraduate course I had in Access 2003, which passed on a rather mediocre evaluation (3.5) D+ in American or British grading system.

I decided to buy a book about Access 2013 from Helion Publishing house, a very famous Polish IT book publisher .

I wanted to buy this book but it turned out that the book costs 140 zł, a little pissed off to take 140 zł for the book! Although the book was quite sizable, bookseller told me that it was for this that it is a very good translation of the book from Wiley, they have a very good book about computers.

I decided to buy a cheaper book about access 40zł (13 usd) also from Helios publishing house, and the book for 140 zł I, order form my university library:D i will certainly not buy any book for 140 zł (even video games aren't so expansive) maybe some day

[Red Iron Crown]

Required textbooks for University level courses here regularly cost $100 to $200. And they keep changing editions to kill the used book market. It's asinine.

[cpast]

45 USD is also less than most video games in the US, at least AAA games. New games are typically $50-$60 here.

[theend3r]

Required textbooks for University level courses here regularly cost $100 to $200. And they keep changing editions to kill the used book market. It's asinine.

$200 for a book Netbook maybe. Or if it was an original manuscript. Otherwise that's utterly ridiculous.

[Red Iron Crown]

$200 for a book Netbook maybe. Or if it was an original manuscript. Otherwise that's utterly ridiculous.

Captive audience, they can charge what they like and people have to pay it. I even did a math course where the required text was written by the professor teaching it, felt like a bit of a conflict of interest. Not even an obscure subject where his book might be the only one, it was linear algebra.

[theend3r]

So he went around checking if you have his book and would kick you out otherwise? I thought knowledge about the subject is all that matters wherever from it comes. At least that's the case at my school. Some subjects I didn't even get the required books and just learned it all from the internet and some old books my father had.

[Redjoker]

My lab manual and biology textbook from the bookstore were 200 USD apiece last fall per semester. If they have the book you want, you should really look at renting from chegg or amazon. I rented the $200 lab manual for about 35 USD last semester.

@Theend3r For many college classes, the professor will not have enough time in class to go through all the necessary material for the course and it helps a lot to read the material before class. The professor will probably not ask if you have the book unless you need it in class, but not having it can make the class much harder.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Redjoker

[Red Iron Crown]

So he went around checking if you have his book and would kick you out otherwise? I thought knowledge about the subject is all that matters wherever from it comes. At least that's the case at my school. Some subjects I didn't even get the required books and just learned it all from the internet and some old books my father had.

Not quite as bad as that. I suppose it was theoretically possible to complete the course without the book. All the graded assignments were from the text, though, so one would definitely have to borrow a copy from time to time. I don't recall if the library kept a copy or not.

I wish it were only about knowledge of the actual subject matter, but sadly textbooks are Big Business here.

[xcorps]

I paid 225$ for a volume on Marine Engineering. The follow on volumes are 150$ each.

[Duxwing]

Not quite as bad as that. I suppose it was theoretically possible to complete the course without the book. All the graded assignments were from the text, though, so one would definitely have to borrow a copy from time to time. I don't recall if the library kept a copy or not.

Would copying the book and sharing it among one's classmates be fair use?

I wish it were only about knowledge of the actual subject matter, but sadly textbooks are Big Business here.

Please forgive my possible, unintentional rudeness because what you say, if true, would upset me. I want to ask two questions to better understand what you mean.

-I think you assume that the subject matter could be stored somewhere beyond a mind or such a recording medium as a book: do you?

-Also, I think you imply that extraneous, profit-motivated publications comprise all post-secondary curricula: again, do you?

-Duxwing

[Red Iron Crown]

Would copying the book and sharing it among one's classmates be fair use?

Possibly, I'm not an IP lawyer. Copying the whole book would likely not be fair use, but excerpts (say, the exercises used for an assignment) should be ok. It is awfully inconvenient to not have your own copy of the book, though.

Please forgive my possible, unintentional rudeness because what you say, if true, would upset me. I want to ask two questions to better understand what you mean.

-I think you assume that the subject matter could be stored somewhere beyond a mind or such a recording medium as a book: do you?

IMO, there are much more student-friendly distribution methods than overpriced textbooks. PDFs or other electronic copies of the relevant texts would be cheap to distribute, easily searchable, and more environmentally friendly. Certainly there are texts available that are far cheaper than what I paid for mine at school.

-Also, I think you imply that extraneous, profit-motivated publications comprise all post-secondary curricula: again, do you?

I wouldn't call them extraneous, they do contain the subject material and required exercises. The publishers are companies, so they are definitely profit-motivated. My business school texts also contained a borderline offensive amount of corporate sponsorship as well, I'm sure such placement wasn't free.

I'm certainly not speaking to all post-secondary curricula, nor even possibly all curricula where I live; but at my local university book pricing and unnecessary editioning of books to obsolete used ones were definitely common complaints among students. The basics of calculus haven't changed in hundreds of years, there's no need for a new calculus textbook edition every year or two.

[pxi]

That seems to be a fairly common price-point for books like that. Randomly grabbing 3 similarish books off my shelf, here's what we get:

US$ 49.99 - Professional PHP 6 / WROX

US$ 24.95 - UML in a Nutshell / O'REILLY

US$ 49.95 - The Practice of Network Security Monitoring / NO STARCH PRESS

It sucks, but that's unfortunately the reality of the situation. You might look into sourcing an ebook version of the book in question.

[Pawelk198604]

Captive audience, they can charge what they like and people have to pay it. I even did a math course where the required text was written by the professor teaching it, felt like a bit of a conflict of interest. Not even an obscure subject where his book might be the only one, it was linear algebra.

In Poland also it happens,

I studied library science but from the law faculty colleagues know that often buy, legal book written by his professor, then come to the professor for an autograph, and when they come to the exam, check porfesor who has a book, have an easier exam questions and preferential treatment

[cantab]

As pxi says, that seems about average for computing books. I don't feel it's overpriced, considering that writing a good one requires the author to be both good at the software in question and good at writing, and the books will require a fair bit of fact checking and proofing. As you've found yourself, there are some cheaper titles around, and plenty of free online resources.

What you describe from the law faculty, though, is blatant corruption. Unfortunately it's common in many parts of the world.

Studying at Cambridge, there were very few required books. The bulk of the material on the exams was covered in the lectures and practicals, and nearly all lecturers gave out handouts. I think I only bought one course-related text, DHZ's "An introduction to the rock forming minerals" which was pretty much a requirement for petrology.

[Pawelk198604]

What you describe from the law faculty, though, is blatant corruption. Unfortunately it's common in many parts of the world.

A funny thing is that it happens at the Faculty of Law:D , and it is an open secret.

[cantab]

Well that figures. As I understand it if you ever want to sue a lawyer, it's damn hard to find another lawyer to take the case.