Did you keep your college textbooks?

[Phoenix84]

The college threads lately got me thinking.

I kept most of my core physics and science textbooks from college, in case I needed to reference them later, but I sold back all of my non science textbooks.  I figure I wouldn't need to review classical mythology for athropology anytime soon.

What about you?  Did you keep your college textbooks?

[Phoenix84]

Whoops, I guess this should have gone in off topic.  Now people are going to get mad at me.

[Sam_2.0]

Sold them all back, especially the expensive math ones (my major, so there were several). I tried to buy them used (half.com, other students) and sold them back at the end of the semester when everyone was trying to buy them up for the next one. Some times I made money on the books, mostly just broke even.

[Phoenix84]

Apr 8, 2014 16:25:45 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Sold them all back, especially the expensive math ones (my major, so there were several). I tried to buy them used (half.com, other students) and sold them back at the end of the semester when everyone was trying to buy them up for the next one. Some times I made money on the books, mostly just broke even.

You were a math major?  Interesting.  What was/is your career goal in mind with that?

You are correct in that math and science textbooks always seemed to be much more expensive than the liberal arts textbooks.

I still have my calculus textbook, but it's falling apart.  I totally wrecked that book, but still can only remember basic derivitives and integrals.

[kittensaver]

From my undergraduate years, the only book I kept was the Complete Riverside Shakespeare. That's one book that's not going to get outdated

[Sam_2.0]

I majored in it because I like math. It was challenging, so I went for it. Finished up an education degree to go with it and realized during student teaching that I love math, but hate high school kids. So I got a 2nd major in Sociology and now work for a utility with low-income populations and financial aid, as well as handling high-level complaints (state, atty general, that kind of stuff).

I am like the kid who majors in theater because they love the arts. Just turns out that having a bachelors in Math looks good to prospective employers. DH majored in musical theater because he loves it, and now is a stock broker

[Deleted]

I don't think I have any anymore. I think husband has some construction manuals, but they could probably go too.. 

[Phoenix84]

Apr 8, 2014 16:32:12 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

From my undergraduate years, the only book I kept was the Complete Riverside Shakespeare. That's one book that's not going to get outdated

I originally read that as "the complete revised Shakespeare" and I was like

Man, I need a nap.

[busymom]

I kept a few books from my major, that I could use as reference books. By the time I went through my textbooks again, they were old enough that no one wanted them. Not even the charities. It was depressing to throw them away, since they're so expensive, but they were just taking up space.

[justme]

I sold back most. I kept a couple. Though I think that was more because I was a tutor and then GTA so I kept those that I could reference. I think I may have finally gotten rid of them?

[Sam_2.0]

busymom - I love your tagline!!

[busymom]

Thanks Sam!

[lazysundays]

Every single one. Absolute waste of space.

[midjd]

I only kept the ones I couldn't sell back because the new edition had been published before the end of the semester.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I kept all of mine, as did TD.  Now we have some duplicates of chemistry text books!

I wish I had sold 'em.

[simser]

I have all of my chemistry books and most of my music books (majors). Other than that I kept my interesting books. That's probably 80% of the books I bought, but most of that information will never go obsolete. In fact, one of my books is the definitive subject, and it's already 30 years old! I will continue to keep them if I ever need to teach the classes. Which I'd like to!

[cktc]

I still have most of mine, but they aren't strictly text books. A lot are novels, art history books, foreign language books, and reference manuals. I already had several books on the Pre-Raphaelites when the university added a course on them so I was thrilled to add more to my collection.

[dancinmama]

Nope, I always had to sell them to be able to afford the books I needed for the next term.

[iono1]

Sold back the ones I could, threw out the rest. I double majored in political science & psychology and ended up a real estate appraiser because my aptitude was in math.

[Cookies Galore]

I kept the AP style guide and all the media studies/theory stuff that interested me. Sold back everything else.

[alabamagal]

I kept all my engineering books thinking that I would need them in the real world. But the few times I looked at them, they were way too theoretical. So they basicly sit on a shelf at work, and have to be moved every time I get a new office.

Now I get all my technical information off the internet.

[sheilaincali]

I kept several of the books from my major because we used them for multiple courses. Last year when DH and I were doing a huge purge I did get rid of most of them and only kept a small handful. DH has a year left of his program and he has been renting his text books so he doesn't keep any of them. As soon as the semester is over he returns them.

[aliciar6]

In undergrad I sold a lot of them back because for some reason they changed versions of the book instead of using the same one for Transport Process and thermodynamics...we had 2 semesters of each, would have been nice to have used the SAME book.

I did keep all of my grad school books, but I didn't have to pay for them, work did.

[yogiii]

Wish I had sold

[hoops902]

Kept a decent number of them, haven't used any of htem except when I needed something heavy and rectangular.  I should ahve sold them back.  I had some notions from others that I'd actually use them later in life...so wrong.

ETA:  It's kind of crazy looking back, this was only 10 years ago, but the idea of "just look it up online" hadn't really caught on nearly as much. 

[tractor]

I sold back all I could. There were a few that I really liked that I kept. However, I left them in a box in my dad's garage between graduating and moving into my own place and he burned them all (he's a fire bug and that's his way of disposing things). Never bothered to ask me if I was keeping them for some reason.

As an aside, he paid enough attention to the fire that he pulled my high school year book our of the inferno before it got too bad. He figured I might want to keep that one, and seeing it now with the corner burned off make me just shake my head and remember all those textbooks that I tried to save.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Anyone want a Morrison and Boyd Organic Chemistry book? We've got 2!

[Phoenix84]

Apr 8, 2014 18:03:45 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I kept all of mine, as did TD.  Now we have some duplicates of chemistry text books!

I wish I had sold 'em.

If you had sold them, and ivested the money in the stock market, you would be a gazillionair 30 year later, according to my phil script.

[Phoenix84]

Apr 8, 2014 17:55:51 GMT -5 midjd said:

I only kept the ones I couldn't sell back because the new edition had been published before the end of the semester.

Just think, when your daughter goes to law school, you pass your law textbooks off to her.  You can even have a cerimony to do it.  I'm sure her perofessors will understand if she uses 25 year old text books.

[wyouser]

Kept everything related to majors or fields of interest. Got rid of the rest. But then I'm the left handed high plains weirdo....I'd rather buy and keep a reference book than check one out of a LIBRARY.  and NO I DONT ENJOY READING curled up with a $#%^&*# computer in a comfortable chair at home. After doing battle with these electronic nightmares all day...I want the feel of paper to relax by.