When people harp on an issue, it’s easy to lose perspective. You start to lose interest in the important things in life: prayer, booze and even porn. And people certainly don’t tire of shouting about how expensive textbooks are. But before you lose perspective on just how high textbook prices have soared, consider this: Last summer, police busted a group of five thieves stealing textbooks from the University Book Center. The police estimated the men had stolen about $100,000 worth of books. Read that number again.

Unfortunately, the university’s not going to find cheap textbooks for you. The book center just renewed its contract with Barnes & Noble, ensuring that it will remain the university’s official textbook vendor for at least the next five years. Administrators have said they expect the deal to lead to cheaper textbooks for students. That’s a pretty fanciful argument when we’re holding on to the status quo. But here’s the good news: If you’re willing to take action, you can get cheaper textbooks for yourself.

That’s what happened when students Michael McKay and Sasha Slutsker took it upon themselves to create ourUMD and include a free book exchange. And that’s what happened when students in the Student Government Association launched a campaign pushing state legislation to ensure cheaper textbooks. A modified version of the bill passed, though some state legislators, the Board of Regents and even the university system’s lobbyist vocally opposed it.

Thanks to the bill, state law now requires universities to post textbook ISBNs and previous edition information online three weeks after faculty have submitted their final order. But that measure only saves students money if they take the time to shop around. So instead of trundling over to the UBC next semester, check out websites like TextbookRevolt.com, which lets students tap into a nationwide free book exchange. Or go to Chegg.com, which lets students rent books for a semester, saving them up to 80 percent off the list price.

But if you’re looking to help the whole student body pay less for books, take a fresh look at Amazon.com. Next year, at least six colleges around the country are partnering up with Amazon.com to bring students the latest e-book reader, the Kindle DX. Arizona State University is going to be handing out about 1,000 of the new Kindles to students in its honors program. For the pilot programs, Amazon.com has agreed to split the costs of supplying the readers 50-50 with universities. This university has already shown a willingness to invest in technology – they gave Banneker-Key scholarship students iPhones, for Pete’s sake. So students should be banging administrators’ doors down to jump on the e-textbook bandwagon while the newest, hottest readers are still half-off.

If you want a job done right, you gotta do it your own damn self.