I've been watching the price of books go up since the early 60s. $.25 paperbacks, $5.95 hardcovers, only reference books cost more than $10.00. Now days, I buy most of my books to read on my tablet, always less than $20 and take up much less space. I was using the library almost exclusively for quite a well, but I do most of my reading on my breaks on my bus route, so taking a library book in and out of a pack all day is not conducive for the health of the book.