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Your College Textbooks: where they at?

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I've still got most of mine. The only book I sold back was a History of Mathematics text book. I hated that class.

Math books are the one thing I collect, for whatever reason. If I weren't so lazy I'd pull them apart and scan them.
 
Chaotic42 said:
I've still got most of mine. The only book I sold back was a History of Mathematics text book. I hated that class.

Math books are the one thing I collect, for whatever reason. If I weren't so lazy I'd pull them apart and scan them.
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The only books I kept were my math and CS books. Still pull them out every now and then.
 
jman19 said:
The only books I kept were my math and CS books. Still pull them out every now and then.
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Yep, especially the higher level stuff. I've never reopened my Calculus books - I'm not a fan of the way those are written. Statistics, combinatorics, and AI? Definitely getting some use out of them.

I bought a used copy of "Computational Geometry in C", which is apparently a class in Wales. That's something I'd love to take.
 
Chaotic42 said:
Yep, especially the higher level stuff. I've never reopened my Calculus books - I'm not a fan of the way those are written. Statistics, combinatorics, and AI? Definitely getting some use out of them.

I bought a used copy of "Computational Geometry in C", which is apparently a class in Wales. That's something I'd love to take.
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My beginner level calculus and diff equations books remain untouched, but I keep my stats, analysis, graph theory, AI, programming languages, ML, etc. books handy.
 
sold what I could right after i was done using them no matter how much i thought " oh this would be useful in the future" because guess what, if they were, I could buy it back in a year for a penny.

Textbooks may be something that might actually depreciate faster than a car 🙂
 
My engineering, math and physics texts are mostly in a couple downstairs book cases (minus a few I had to sell to buy the next) because sometimes I forget stuff and have to relearn it.
 
the fuck if i know. after my freshman year i realized how much it was a waste to buy every book, so from then on i only bought books that i realized i needed during the semester. i definitely bought books for less than 1/2 my classes.
 
Sold them all back except for a 200 dollar accounting book that they offered to buy back for 2 dollars at the end of the semester, that one went onto a burn pile out of spite.
 
Harrod said:
Sold them all back except for a 200 dollar accounting book that they offered to buy back for 2 dollars at the end of the semester, that one went onto a burn pile out of spite.
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You could have donated it. I don't understand people that burn books. Just ignorant.
 
Most of mine I sold back. The ones I couldn't, I put in a yard sale thinking what the heck...

It turns out some backwoodsy looking woman came and bought them all for something like $0.25 each. Go figure...
 
Imp said:
Logical side is telling me to give them away because they're "outdated" -- math and scientific principles go bad in 5 years, yo.
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Wat. Maybe computer or technology books, but math and science?

My math and CS books are in one of my bookcases. I barely use them though.
 
Sold most back. Kept only 4 and they were from masters level courses. Two have been used in the past year. The other two have been referenced in past 5 years.

Pretty low transfer rate from academic studies to actual work. If the books are not useful yet we lug them around expecting to eventually need them what does that say about the divide between school and work? There is a study in here somewhere....
 
I've cracked some textbooks about data structures and algorithms for work before. Like anything else, though, you soon realize that you use the same basic techniques for 99% of the jobs in front of you. The real work is in the implementation details, the project management, dealing with the broken coffee maker, the dipshit client, the idiot who keeps turning the thermostat down to 66 degrees.
 
evident said:
sold what I could right after i was done using them no matter how much i thought " oh this would be useful in the future" because guess what, if they were, I could buy it back in a year for a penny.
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Ugh... That's my thinking now: I can buy shit I need back if I want/need it. Every year back until the last, I was "keep it in case it comes in handy later." Even worse, I bought reference books in grad school that weren't required because I had a regular income.

monkeydelmagico said:
Pretty low transfer rate from academic studies to actual work. If the books are not useful yet we lug them around expecting to eventually need them what does that say about the divide between school and work? There is a study in here somewhere....
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It means education is just as much a business as selling butt plugs... Sad unfortunate truth. The schools and publishers just want your money, even if you never get a job out of it -- I learned this the hard/expensive way.
 
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