Last week, while sitting at my desk, reluctantly giving away the last few dollars of my paycheck to Amazon for this semester’s order of textbooks, I noticed that the last name on one book in my shopping cart looked oddly familiar.

Taking a few seconds to try and guess where I had seen this surname before, I finally realized that it was the same name on Pace Portal next to the title and room number of my Monday night class. My professor was making us buy his book.

While not terribly expensive, I will admit that the idea of buying this book, whose title and author I have chosen not to disclose, annoyed me quite a bit.

My initial reaction was along the lines of, “are you kidding me,” said angrily and to no one in particular. I was outraged. Why would this professor make me buy a regurgitation of what I was basically going to hear from his mouth throughout the semester?

Guns blazing and agitated, I asked my friends and peers around campus if buying books by professors was normal or even fair. The majority of people I asked said yes to the first question and no the second; they told me that despite being weird, unnecessary, or even annoying, it was actually absolutely normal to buy books written by the professor themselves.

One girl even told me that she once had to bring $40 in cash to the back of an instructor’s truck to pick up a copy of his self-published textbook before class started.

When asked to speak on the matter, varying degrees of acceptance to this practice became apparent.

“I feel it’s ridiculous,” said one student, who understandably asked to remain anonymous on the matter. “If [the professor] already has the knowledge, why can’t they teach their material verbally in the classroom as opposed to making us take on the extra expenses?”

Some, like junior Applied Psychology major Jordan White, believe that if used effectively, texts written from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, might not be so bad.

“I think if they’re just repeating in class what they wrote in the book, then there’s no reason for the purchase. However, in other cases it’s actually beneficial. One professor of mine wrote and published the workbook that he had us use to study anatomy, and it was really helpful.

Jordan believes it truly depends on the experience had throughout the course. She continued, “I had another professor who wrote the book we used and it was completely useless. So it really depends.”

Hearing the experiences of others calmed my rampage down a bit. Hearing one student’s logic over the matter, however, made me retire my soapbox all together. The student in question is sophomore Applied Psychology major Simon Driver.

“I do see where people come from about it seeming messed up, but in the professor’s eyes, it must be great, because they can be with you, even when they’re not [physically] there.” Driver continued, “outside of class they’re still with you, and they know that you’re studying what they know to be correct information because they did the research themselves.”

So maybe Simon’s right, and maybe the textbook for my Monday night class won’t be useless. Only time will tell.