Doomed to a Bad Art History Text

This morning I dove into the bookstore websites for my varying institutions, looking up what my required texts will be this fall (in an attempt to acquire most of them cheaply). I ran across my Art History course, looked up the text on Amazon and was greeted by a $120 book. Its not even a good $120 book, the reviews for it state how much it sucks. Since the text is fairly new I looked up the previous edition, only to find that its reviews are roughly the same standing, it isn't a very well liked book. The text, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, is in its 13th revision. It is speculated by many reviewers that the only reason the book is used by so many college courses is that it has been in print longer than any other art history text. This sucks! I'm considering spending $11 on a "very good" copy of the 12th edition and not bothering with the 13th.