[handedness]

The central thesis of the article is this:

> Don’t blame books for being too expensive. Everything else is more expensive, and that’s why you can’t afford books.

College textbook pricing is a function of the aforementioned rate of increase of everything else becoming more expensive, not a function of the cost of books increasing generally. They are, the author argues, decreasing, unless you introduce external distorting factors.

[WaitWaitWha]

poppycock. the author is wrong about textbooks.

The article is correct that recreational books are below for cumulative CPI. College textbooks on the other hand are at ~ 3 times the rate of general inflation.

Source:

BLS CPI-U (FRED: CPIAUCSL)

BLS "Educational Books and Supplies" (FRED: CUSR0000SEEA, ~767 in Mar 2026, base 1982-84=100)

BLS "Recreational Books" (FRED: CUUR0000SERG02, base Dec 1997=100, recently ~96-100

(just search for the above, and follow the link to https://fred.stlouisfed.org)

[handedness]

I also heard tell the illustrated manuscripts market is soaring.

> the author is wrong about textbooks.

The author didn't write an article about college textbooks, he wrote a response to an article about mass market books and affordability.

The forces which have made college textbooks (and college educations in general) unprecedentedly expensive, real though they are, have little to do with this article.

Edit: I re-read my original comment and I probably wasn't clear enough. The external distorting factor is the higher education system absolutely exploding costs of everything to do with higher education, from predatory professors and textbook companies to the rent-seeking and regulatory capture of higher education institutions. College textbooks got incredibly expensive for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with the actual costs associated with making books, which are arguably cheaper than they've ever been.

[shalmanese]

Only for commodity goods does the cost of production impact the price. As substitutionality lessens, the price more and more approaches the value delivered.

[handedness]

Exactly. The article was specifically about mass market paperbacks.