Facebook news feed highlight of the morning

The headlines captivating the 20-something crowd today, courtesy of Facebook.

Disclaimer: Most of my Facebook friends are from college, an extremely politically active D.C. university. Thank you to them for sharing:

Students Find $100 Textbooks Cost $50, Purchased Overseas (NYT 8.3.09)
The details:
American textbooks sell for less overseas than they do in America, so college book stores and students are buying texts abroad.

The owner of Purdue U’s bookstore found better deals at amazon.co.uk than amazon.com I put this to the test with an economics book I used in college (but the 2009 edition):

Amazon.com

Brief Principles of Macroeconomics (Paperback)
by N. Gregory Mankiw N. Gregory Mankiw (Author)

List Price: $145.95 Price: $111.77 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details You Save: $34.18 (23%)

Amazon.co.uk
Brief Principlpes of Macroeconomics, International Edition (Paperback)
(17 Jan 2009)
by N. Mankiw (Author)
No customer reviews yet. Be the first.

RRP: £37.99 Price: £36.09 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions You Save: £1.90 (5%)

Currency converter:
…drumroll, please…

Live rates at 2009.08.03 15:08:54 UTC

36.09 GBP

=

61.0977 USD

United Kingdom Pounds   United States Dollars 1 GBP = 1.69293 USD 1 USD = 0.590693 GBP

Whoa…mind the gap! I mean, that’s not accounting for international shipping rates, but it’s still significantly lower (even though NYT says price differences aren’t normally so significant).

I know that the high price of text books has been a hot topic for college students, but has this particular story been covered yet? Maybe I missed it.