# Did a time come when you ditched all of your university textbooks?



## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

And what did you do?

Did you attempt to sell them for a few bucks a piece? Take them to Goodwill?

Or did you make use of your city's wonderful recycling program?


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

When we sold my mom's house, I had a basement full to deal with.
Libraries, used book stores, goodwill and the like did not want them.
It took a coupla' months filling the blue box, at two locations, to dispose of them all.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

I left them on the desk when I walked out......never finished the coarse and never looked back.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

I guess it was the English coUrse? Maybe ya shoulda kept the book. Lol.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

laristotle said:


> When we sold my mom's house, I had a basement full to deal with.
> Libraries, used book stores, goodwill and the like did not want them.
> It took a coupla' months filling the blue box, at two locations, to dispose of them all.


Deep down I know that's what I'll be doing.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Electraglide said:


> I left them on the desk when I walked out......never finished the coarse and never looked back.


I would have done that, but I needed the piece of paper so I could get the certification.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

JBFairthorne said:


> I guess it was the English coUrse? Maybe ya shoulda kept the book. Lol.


Nope


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

butterknucket said:


> I would have done that, but I needed the piece of paper so I could get the certification.


By the time others got the certification I was making about 4 times what they would have if they had found a job.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

JBFairthorne said:


> I guess it was the English coUrse? Maybe ya shoulda kept the book. Lol.


Nope, I used coarse on purpose as an adjective. What I was taking lacked refinement and were of inferior or no value. For the most part they were way off track and in the wrong direction. So of course it wasn't an English course and no one was cooking anyway. BTW the only books I have from back then are On The Road which I found while hitchhiking out of Revelstoke in 1965 and The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings which I bought in Dawson Creek in 1966. Can't beat Tolkien and Kerouac......I've read them a lot. I also have Walden Pond from the same time and on occasion read it. I'm about a quarter of the way thru.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Just last week the bride asked me if she could toss my 30 year old labour case law summaries. Nope.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

I still have a lot of them from my undergrad and pretty much all of the graduate stuff. In fact the case book from my Remedies course is sitting on the dining room table right now .. lol


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Do they still use books?
I'm asking that sincerely. When I went, the textbooks were very expensive, and you bought used if you could. So if it's still like that I would say sell them.
If they don't use them anymore or they're not current, you probably won't be able to sell them so I'd donate them to a thrift shop or similar.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

jb welder said:


> Do they still use books?
> I'm asking that sincerely. When I went, the textbooks were very expensive, and you bought used if you could. So if it's still like that I would say sell them.
> If they don't use them anymore or they're not current, you probably won't be able to sell them so I'd donate them to a thrift shop or similar.


I would actually keep my undergrad books, but I want to ditch my post-grad books, which are probably out of date at this point and worth nothing.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

jb welder said:


> Do they still use books?
> I'm asking that sincerely.


Of coarse they do


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

Didn't go to Uni but both my Music College books and Tech Institute books remain on the shelves. They're handy references.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Dorian2 said:


> Tech Institute books remain on the shelves. They're handy references.


I hope they're more useful than my DOS reference book.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

vadsy said:


> Of coarse they do


"He made a fine point, as he had just the pen for it".


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

jb welder said:


> "He made a fine point, as he had just the pen for it".


Imma wait for a nonsensical story about a quill and spelling in the old ways


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

vadsy said:


> Imma wait for a nonsensical story about a quill and spelling in the old ways


Inkwells & pigtails?


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## iamthehub (Sep 21, 2016)

At the end of every year i tried selling them but unfortunately there would be a new edition released and made mine obsolete... 

We had one economics prof that said we could use the textbooks in tests and exams IF we had the latest edition... He was the author... Evil way to make money lol...

The odd text book was used to hold up a desk or sofa, weigh down something...

Anyway I left them at my parents place.... Then 25 years later the basement flooded and we dumped them. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

jb welder said:


> I hope they're more useful than my DOS reference book.



I still have mine too.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Dorian2 said:


> Didn't go to Uni but both my Music College books and Tech Institute books remain on the shelves. They're handy references.


I have lots of music books and have no intetion of getting rid of them.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I have kept a couple that are possibly handy-but unlikely to be common.
And I also came a cross a couple the other day I'd forgotten about & thought I'd disposed of previously
They got recycled.
Back in the day I did sell a couple, because someone else could use them the next semester.
However I didn't have to buy as many as a lot of people seem to have to.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

in the trash on the next garbage day for most of them.

kept the books on electrical engineering . still somewhere in the basement.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I still have all of them. Every last one.



jb welder said:


> Inkwells & pigtails?


Though not a feature of my entire education, we did have inkwells in the corner of the desk until about grade 8. And of course, whether you used a straight pen+nib or a fountain pen, "peacock" ink was THE hippest colour of ink to have. A girl who sat behind me in grade 4 or 5 was an unpleasant type who would jab me in the back with her pen, through the chair slats, for her amusement. Came to a point where I had enough of it, so I dipped my pen into the ink, filling the nib up as full as I could get it. I pinched the bottom of the pen with the thumb and index of one hand, pulled the nib end of the pen back as far as I could, like a trebuchet, turned around, and let fly, yielding a delightful polka-dot pattern on her face and blouse. The teacher knew the girl had been a pain in the arse, but had to do something symbolic, rather than let it appear to the class that such vengeance was to be encouraged. So he simply moved me up to the front row.
"_Oh, get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Hang bail, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters_"


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## reckless toboggan (Mar 9, 2019)

I'm guaranteed a lifetime's supply of university text books.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

We had BOOKS!??


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Just purged all my civil eng textbooks from the early 90's.

They were in boxes that I have moved all over western Can unopened since the mid 90's.

Went to Value Village which made me feel good but will probably end up being recycled.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

MarkM said:


> Just purged all my civil eng textbooks from the early 90's.
> 
> They were in boxes that I have moved all over western Can unopened since the mid 90's.
> 
> Went to Value Village which made me feel good but will probably end up being recycled.


Or used as toilet paper.


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

I pretty much got rid of anything that was hard to move (other than guitars/amps) during a year I had to move 4 times in one year. It was actually a bit liberating.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Mine are structurally supporting my bedframe


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

then that means your "lifestyle" built on a solid foundation of knowledge.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Within a year year of when I bought a lot of the 'texts' they were obsolete. Computer tech and programing was growing a lot faster than they could print new texts in the late 60s. 


oldjoat said:


> then that means your "lifestyle" built on a solid foundation of knowledge.


Also means you put sex over knowledge.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

jb welder said:


> I hope they're more useful than my DOS reference book.


Anyone want to buy DOS and Internet For Dummies?

Sent from my H3223 using Tapatalk


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## ZeroGravity (Mar 25, 2016)

That reminds me, I need to get rid of a couple of boxes of 90's electrical engineering textbooks.....


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## brucew (Dec 30, 2017)

Went into aviation out of HS so no official what is called "secondary education"(well later did take some correspondence(mostly acctg and economics) . I did however read....a Lot. Lot's of history, classics, english lit and anything else that interested me. 

Rest assured whatever you paid for your textbooks, I paid a lot less, pretty much bought them by the pound(many appeared to have never been opened  . 

The one's worth keeping were kept, most are holding up the dirt at the landfill.


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## JazzyT (Nov 1, 2017)

If I didn't sell them right after the course, I recycled them when I had to move.

Now my 90-something father is a different story. He doesn't have a lot of stuff, but he doesn't get rid of stuff either, so he has all his old textbooks. I've tried to get him to get rid of even a single book, and I haven't succeeded. He insists that the math textbooks are still true, but I can't convince him no one in a math course now wants an ancient textbook.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

JazzyT said:


> ... He insists that the math textbooks are still true, but I can't convince him no one in a math course now wants an ancient textbook.


Those books might be an invaluable source of knowledge after Armageddon .. lol


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Still have them... not 100% sure why. They are out of date, but mostly still accurate - Math and Physics haven't changed much since the 80s. I spent a lot of money on them and haven't cracked any of them in 30 years. Hard to throw away something that is still perfectly good, I guess.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Math principles have not changed since he took it that many years ago.

My grandfather would be about the same age as your dad if he was still here, he maybe had grade six because he had to run the farm for his family. That man could do math like I have never seen before, he would scratch in the dirt if couldn't do it in his head. Math was money in his head and he died a weathly poor farmer.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

MarkM said:


> Math principles have not changed since he took it that many years ago.
> 
> My grandfather would be about the same age as your dad if he was still here, he maybe had grade six because he had to run the farm for his family. That man could do math like I have never seen before, he would scratch in the dirt if couldn't do it in his head. Math was money in his head and he died a weathly poor farmer.


My grandfather was the same way, he got to grade 8, then it was time to work on the farm full time. 

He'd be 117 if he was still alive.


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## reckless toboggan (Mar 9, 2019)

I started working when I was 11 years old. I had 2 part time jobs.

I feel 117 years old.

Does that count?


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## JazzyT (Nov 1, 2017)

reckless toboggan said:


> I started working when I was 11 years old. I had 2 part time jobs.
> 
> I feel 117 years old.
> 
> Does that count?


Yes, but I did The New Math.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Wardo said:


> Those books might be an invaluable source of knowledge after Armageddon .. lol


You've seen _The Book of Eli_ ?


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Wardo said:


> Those books might be an invaluable source of knowledge after Armageddon .. lol


For tinder for starting fires?


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

jb welder said:


> You've seen _The Book of Eli_ ?


Had to google it.

I was thinking mad max apocalypse and everyone fighting over gasoline and running things on pig shit.. lol


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Wardo said:


> Had to google it.
> 
> I was thinking mad max apocalypse and everyone fighting over gasoline and running things on pig shit.. lol


This one they just all eat each other.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

jb welder said:


> This one they just all eat each other.


All’s well that ends well.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

butterknucket said:


> For tinder for starting fires?


Or wiping.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Electraglide said:


> Or wiping.


I was thinking that too.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

butterknucket said:


> I was thinking that too.


Then you can use them to start the fire.....after you wipe.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

That's resourceful!


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

butterknucket said:


> And what did you do?
> 
> Did you attempt to sell them for a few bucks a piece? Take them to Goodwill?
> 
> Or did you make use of your city's wonderful recycling program?


I've kept mine. Makes me feel smarter just looking at them.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Electraglide said:


> Then you can use them to start the fire.....after you wipe.


They would probably burn better that way as well.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I ditched many of mine the minute the course was finished. But I kept the majority of my history (my major) books from both undergrad and grad school. Some I got rid of (boring shit like Ontario history), but kept almost everything else.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

jb welder said:


> I hope they're more useful than my DOS reference book.


Trade you for a Fortran IV book.


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## Stephenlouis (Jun 24, 2019)

I'm three educations in and closing in on retirement. Like any collection, I only kept the best books from previous learnings. Rest I tried to trade in at used book stores, no value at all.


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## troyhead (May 23, 2014)

Most of my textbooks went to the used bookstore the day of the final exam to try and get some money back. I kept a couple I thought might be interesting, but that was it (and I may have cracked them open total of a half-dozen times since).

After not actually reading the vast majority of my textbooks for several classes, I wised up to the fact that they weren't really required at all for many courses, so sometimes I just didn't buy them in the first place.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

troyhead said:


> Most of my textbooks went to the used bookstore the day of the final exam to try and get some money back. I kept a couple I thought might be interesting, but that was it (and I may have cracked them open total of a half-dozen times since).
> 
> After not actually reading the vast majority of my textbooks for several classes, I wised up to the fact that they weren't really required at all for many courses, so sometimes I just didn't buy them in the first place.


A few semesters in I realized that even if you buy the books, most of the time you only need to read the chaper summaries if you bother reading anything at all.


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## JazzyT (Nov 1, 2017)

JazzyT said:


> If I didn't sell them right after the course, I recycled them when I had to move.
> 
> Now my 90-something father is a different story. He doesn't have a lot of stuff, but he doesn't get rid of stuff either, so he has all his old textbooks. I've tried to get him to get rid of even a single book, and I haven't succeeded. He insists that the math textbooks are still true, but I can't convince him no one in a math course now wants an ancient textbook.


I thought of another funny example of how my dad wouldn't throw away anything. He took pictures when we were on holiday -- developed as prints or slides. Of course, you'd have the occasional out-of-focus shot or one with a thumb in the way. Yup, those were not thrown away. He'd be showing slides on the projector and "click, here we are the falls ... click, that must be my thumb ... click, here we are back at the car..."


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

JazzyT said:


> I thought of another funny example of how my dad wouldn't throw away anything. He took pictures when we were on holiday -- developed as prints or slides. Of course, you'd have the occasional out-of-focus shot or one with a thumb in the way. Yup, those were not thrown away. He'd be showing slides on the projector and "click, here we are the falls ... click, that must be my thumb ... click, here we are back at the car..."


I have a few boxes of negatives and prints going back to the 1870's or earlier. The glass negatives are interesting and there's a few shots of feet and the ground and some that might be an out of focus great aunt Sophie. And a few that I think my great grandmother didn't know about and show that great grandpa used to do some "boudoir" shots to supplement the income of the news paper/print shop. Also a few that show that when my grand father worked at the Banff Springs Hotel during WWII he wasn't always alone. Grandma and the family lived in Vancouver. Also a couple of pics of Mom and her boyfriend on his Harley on the way to San Francisco in 1938. Things like that you keep.


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

Well, when I graduated, in 1985, I was going away and had to have my own professional library.
Four years later appeared electronic libraries and, later on, online resources.
But as I left my private practice in 1992 to become part of public services, I was introduced
to my new desk which had only a French dictionary on the shelves !
So, I brought the biggest part of my already old books (1975-1985 editions) to my new office, while
the rest was stored. These stored files were thrown in trash bundle while I moved again later on.
The textbooks, most heavily hand annotated, added credibility to my status I guess,
though I rarely opened any of these for the following twenty years as online up to date references were
available.
So, when I retired, I just pulled the thrash bundle at the door of my office and throwed almost
everything to be recycled, sending the basic still up to date atlas to the office document center.
Nope, kept nothing ! Oh ! Had a book, new, I finally gave to a friend who returned to work !
P.S. I still have my degree certificates, in their original rolls, I never even had hung in any office !


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## leonedibben (5 mo ago)

Did I sell them all? Why not? And I have also seen many students just throwing them away. I collected them all and sold them with 50% off. It was one of the easiest ways to make money in my life. Those college books are always needed, and many students want to save some money by buying used ones. It’s a good way to save money and do good for the environment. 
I did this when I graduated from miami.asa.edu a long time ago, but I would do the same now. I don’t know why so many students throw them away, even though they are not rich. I might think about repeating the experience.


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