Between 1986 and 2004, textbook prices rose 186 percent in the United States, or slightly more than six percent per year. Meanwhile, other prices rose only about three percent per year. This paper examines the economic reasons why textbook prices have escalated so briskly and what reasonable alternatives are available that might slow down these price increases. While the author admits that it is a "precarious enterprise for anyone to presume to offer advice to an Advisory Committee of Congress (i.e., the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance), perhaps especially an economist who has been a college president," he nonetheless proposes how a study of this issue could be conducted, and he makes recommendations regarding promising legislative and regulatory solutions.