BerthaBlog

For a while there I didn’t think I was going to get into the accounting class I wanted. I signed up for the waitlist as soon as I could, but even after the tuition deadline nobody was dropping out. Apparently people signed up for a 200-level accounting course are able to manage their finances well enough to cover tuition. Imagine that.

Earlier this week, checking on the waitlist, I grumbled “They’ve got enough people waitlisted to fill another class.”

I wasn’t the only one who noticed that; a day or two later I got a notice that a second class had been opened and the waitlisted people were all signed up for it. Woo hoo!

So I went off to buy a second textbook. I’m already signed up for a history class, just because it looked interesting (and I was afraid I wouldn’t get the accounting class, so I wanted to take something). My history book was $170 at the bookstore ($130 used); I rented it from Chegg.com for $60.

My accounting book? That one costs $211 at the bookstore ($158 used). I searched textbookly.com and found a (new!) copy for under $60.

Same books, half the price. Why do I feel like the textbook market is a bit of a racket?

We were watching the TV ad for Sunkist, where all the exuberant teenagers run toward the ocean to the sound of joyful music.

I looked over at my husband. “Do you remember Joe Versus the Volcano, with the island people who loved orange soda and had all their clothes and houses and religious icons festooned with parts of orange soda cans?”

He looked back at me. “That’s what this ad has been reminding me of, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.”