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Do you keep your college textbooks?

post #1 of 43
9/28/08 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to clear up some place in my apartment and having a hard time tossing my old college textbooks from years past. There are a lot of them and it fills about 3 good size boxes full. For some reason, I always think I will need to keep them just in case I need to refer to them.
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post #2 of 43
9/28/08 at 6:58pm
Um, it kindof depends on whether: 1. Your work reflects your educational background 2. Your work might require textbook idealism 2. You like what you did enough to care I'm an engineer, still need the old Calc book now and again. And others.
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post #3 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:07pm
I usually keep whatever I must buy for Art History classes, but those aren't usually the same kind of textbook. If it's well-written and informative, I'll probably keep it.
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post #4 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:13pm
I kept all of them them from the various different degrees i started but didn't finish. I have everything from Aeschylus and Ancient Greek history to books on organic chemistry, quantum mechanics, corporate finance, and optimization modelling. Plus i have a ton of books on programming and systems administration. I keep all my books but I throw-out everything else. I don't keep all the junk most people accumulate over the years.

Fwiw, they're nice to have around. I'll even go back to the organic chem once in a while, not because i need to, but because i forgot how something works and I want to remember for my own sake. Same thing with my history books. The accounting and finance books can be of practical value to just about anyone imo. There's certainly no harm in hanging on to them.

edit: i'm incinerating the couple of poli sci books i purchased. Total crap.
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post #5 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:14pm
I would keep them, mine came in handy when i was doing my MBA for reference.
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post #6 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:15pm
I kept my undergrad textbooks for a long time after graduation, until I realized that I was never going to look at them again.

I have recently made about $500 by selling my MBA textbooks through the used book seller option on Amazon. It was extremely easy and a nice way to get some cash.
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post #7 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:16pm
I kept mine for a while thinking they may be a good reference down the road.
Turns out, they were better as a tax write off donation to Salvation Army.
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post #8 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:17pm
I kept a lot of my law and psychology books, but that's because I could only sell the law books back for like 6 dollars.
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post #9 of 43
9/28/08 at 7:57pm
I still have a few, but haven't opened them for quite some time.
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post #10 of 43
9/28/08 at 8:58pm
I have kept all my technical ones, which is pretty much all of them. I actually do open them again a couple times a year. I also have bought new textbooks on my own since I've graduated.

If you have a general education degree that has nothing to do with your career, then you could probably toss them because all the info in them can easily be found on wikipedia.
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post #11 of 43
9/28/08 at 9:08pm
I always sold everything I could. For the books that the bookstore refused to buy back, I keep on a bookshelf in my home office where they collect dust.
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post #12 of 43
9/28/08 at 9:31pm
I keep mine and I use them all the time. I'm a physics major, and most physics majors do the same. Same goes for math and the hard sciences. Back when I was in the arts and soft sciences, I sold them. There wasn't much need to reference material from past classes.
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post #13 of 43
9/28/08 at 9:44pm
Thread Starter 
I think I'll hang on to them. I'd like to sell them but I just have some sort of emotional connection to them for some reason.
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post #14 of 43
9/28/08 at 9:47pm
all gone
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post #15 of 43
9/28/08 at 10:17pm
I try to sell them. Those that don't sell I keep on my shelf.
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