My kid has had to spend surprisingly little for books so far (sophomore). Math books sometimes are good for two or more semesters and he was able to get inexpensive international versions online at a huge savings. One of his physics books was written by the professor and was printed by the university press in a no frills form. I think that one was only about $20. For another physics class they used an online text book which was free. I think a PE book was also online only.
I know some professors do try to keep textbook costs down for students, taking price into consideration when choosing the book, and even working out parallel reading assignment sheets to accommodate different editions. My husband has three books published only online, free to his students and kept off the school server so that the school cannot decide that they get to charge an access fee.
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