I've been looking at going back to school recently just to pass the time while my wife is pregnant. I've been looking at delving into a few subjects that I have not had the time to learn but have always wanted to - primarily language learning and computer programming.
I've been looking at textbooks to see whether or not I can afford them if I go back. I only graduated a few years ago, but the internet has changed hugely since I last bought textbooks. It's not just amazon anymore. For example, if you want to Rent Textbooks, you can do that now. You can rent or buy, if you'd like. Renting is an awesome concept, espcially for hard to find or cheap text books that you don't want to later spend the time selling back on amazon (it is sooo time consuming, take it from me). The thing is used textbooks and textbooks that you can generally rent are way cheaper than I remembered them being.
It's incredible. I'm kind of getting excited.
It is definitely cheaper than it used to be. It looks like someone has started an online price search for U of M textbooks at http://www.GopherTextbooks.com. You can search by class and section.