Book Costs

After a great mini vacation from blogging and writing while my sister visited, I'm back with some questions I just need the answers to. When I get together with my Picayune, MS sister we spend time in bookstores. Even though she buys nearly all her books on her Kindle, we both enjoy the book atmosphere.

We had lots of time to discuss the advantages of ebooks from price, to access to not needing the shelf space. Though we both love the feel of traditional books, we're comfortable with where things are going right now.

When we discuss books, we cover all kinds of discussions and this time we got around to discussing the cost of college textbooks. My sister is a nurse. All you medical professionals out there know where this is going. Textbooks for students in the medical fields are some of the most expensive. I've heard tales of a single text costing more than $200. One book. At my daughter's school, her classes often require multiple books. Many of these textbooks, perhaps most of them, are not yet available in ebook or the students are encouraged to buy them in traditional form. Those books take a chunk out of a college student's  meager horde of dollars.

Why do these books cost so much? A medical book can become outdated quickly. How great would it be if you owned the ebook and could receive updated versions as they became available for a small cost or even free if you paid tons for the first edition?

Fiction ebooks have a wide range of prices and so do many nonfiction books. Why is the cost of college texts so high? Do you think they'll ever come down or turn to mainly ebooks? What is the most you've ever paid for a book?