[Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn.

[gilliaca at jmu.edu]

.>> professors and students tend to be driven to used copies of texts by inverse greed, to get something for nothing 
>
>But where does the simple fact that life is f**king expensive come in? 
>Who can blame a student ...

I would agree. Texts in the humanities are not the most expensive my undergrads have to buy. Those is business, the sciences, economics and the like are far more expensive than ours, and students are often compelled to also buy the accompanying software or cd-rom bundled with the actual books. I am told by students, these have a quicker cycle of revision than English texts. 

Text sales reps are sometimes less than forthcoming about projected prices of new books. I remember a colleague, upon finding that a 90 page paperback he had ordered for a class thinking 'it would be nice for them to have,' i.e., not the main text, would cost $45.00 [this was several years ago], told them not to buy it, and wrote an angry letter to the publisher, who blandly said that specialist books had to be priced high to make a profit.

I think a lot of publishers of college texts are lower than a snake's belly.

C
Cynthia A. Gilliatt
English Department, JMU
JMU Safe Zones participant
"You have made God in your own image when God hates the same people you hate." Fr. John Weston