Everyone can agree that textbooks are extremely, outrageously expensive. It's no secret. What I wondered was how outlandish are the prices, really? Is there anything that can be done about it?

My school bookstore is a Barnes & Noble, as are most school bookstores across the country. Thanks to this, one should be able to safely assume that the prices will be the same in both the school bookstore and Barnes & Noble stores. This is, however, far from true.

When I found out that my school bookstore started a price matching system with both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, that was the first red flag that said something might be wrong between the booksellers.

My class schedule offers a link directly to our online bookstore where students can input their schedules and get all of the textbooks they need after specifying what condition they want them. While this is incredibly convenient, I found out quickly that this costs students quite a bit of money. Buying all of my textbooks for the semester in new condition from the bookstore directly would have cost me $477.65 for eight textbooks. On top of tuition, room and board, fees for student government, and a million other fees, the price of these textbooks is ridiculous.

"But that's just how much textbooks cost." "You think you can find them cheaper somewhere else?" As a matter of fact, I did. Just by going online and doing some research on Barnes & Noble and the book prices there, which is the same supplier as my school bookstore, I dropped the total price to $405.98.

By looking up prices on the same supplier as my school bookstore, I saved almost $75. That is beyond ridiculous.

After a trip to my school's bookstore today, I ended up having to buy most of my books used thanks to new ones not being in stock. Even with buying used books, I managed to save $53.24 on the books I ended up buying there.

I can't blame this on the employees of the bookstore. They were wonderful for spending time with me confirming the prices on the screenshots I brought in to get the discounted price. They were incredibly patient, and are always willing to help, whatever the student needs. So thank you, to the employees for being the one bright spot in buying textbooks.

I blame the entire textbook system in schools. Can anyone give me a logical explanation for why I almost have to sell a kidney in order to pay for school books each semester? Why there are scholarships just for buying textbooks? It makes no sense. So students, if you have the time, I would definitely recommend checking out price matching at your school. Instead of skipping dinner for two months to pay for your textbooks, it may only take one month.