Why must learning be so expensive!?

I love reading, well, I love the idea of reading. I try to read, I really do. I'm probably in the middle of about 5 different books right now, and I keep buying more. Though, within the last year, I've hit the trade publications hard. Subscribing to AdAge, Creativity, and Communication Arts. These are really cool and should be required reading if you are a student of advertising. Throughout my college career though, we've been given books to read, great books, like Al Reis and Jack Trout's "Positioning" and "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This!" by Luke Sullivan. I love reading advertising and learning more from the masters of the industry. But, I'm out of school, doing an unpaid internship, working 21 hours for free, holding down two other part time jobs just to make it to the northside and back and pay some bills. Not much left at the end of the week.

So now to the problem, learning does have a price...why are marketing books so damn expensive? 150-200 page paperback costs about 20-25 dollars! This is crazy and insane. Don't even get me started with the graphics arts and logo design books, 50-100 there, jeez. "A Tale of Two Cities," "Canterbury Tales," "Great Expectations." The greatest literary stories ever told, for a low price of $6.99. I know everyone wants to make a buck, but come on. Why must learning be so expensive!?

There are a few solutions however if you're in the same boat as me. One idea you're already doing. Blogs. Blogs are where great minds speak their minds on many topics. If there's something you're interested in, chances are, there's a blog for it. If you're an advertising person, check the links to the right for more great blogs. Another way to learn for free is newsfeeds, rss or signing up for email blasts. AdAge has them and most other publications have them. It got me through college, until I decided to drop a ton of money for the hardcopies. So, who says reading is dead? It's just expensive, so onto the internets we go! Feel free to comment if you have any other suggestions for you readers out there. Hope this helps.