Do you still own your textbooks?

[Lorizael]

For those of you whose college days are long past, do you still own any of your textbooks? If so, do you find value in them (career-wise or just personally)? If you don't have them, have you ever regretted getting rid of them?

Thus far in my college career, I have not hesitated (much) to sell textbooks from the previous semester to help pay for ones in the upcoming semester. It's just seemed like a natural cycle. But this semester is my last one, which means the cycle is coming to an end. If I sell my books now, it'll be primarily to provide a short-term financial cushion. I don't like the idea of permanently depriving myself of a potentially valuable resource just to ease my immediate financial hardships. There have been several occasions where I wanted to look up something in an old textbook but couldn't because I had sold it. That makes me sad.

I like books. I also like eating.

[Garth Vader]

I sold the ones that seemed useless. I think I only looked at one of the ones I kept, and then only a few times. This is in 20 years.

[Jon Miller]

Yes.

All of them, even the non-physics/math ones.

JM

[Jon Miller]

I use them in my career.

I even bought extra ones. And intend to buy more.

JM

[rah]

I was a poly sci major so NO. But then I hope not since I graduated in 1979.
I did keep one programming text for awhile.
But finally there was nothing in it that I couldn't find on the internet so there was no reason to waste shelf space on it.

[Jon Miller]

Many textbooks in science can be found on illegal websites. But often not the exact book or edition you desire. Also, it is different to read from the web versus reading a book and for some things a textbook is more functional.

For short reviews or short papers the web is fine.

[rah]

Well I guess if you're younger you haven't had a chance to really weigh yourself down with possessions. As you get older you'll be looking for more things to get rid of.

[Jon Miller]

I got rid of a ton. 15 boxes (some big, some small) of books and board games went to my mom and 2 boxes of books and 2 suitcases went to Sweden 6.5 years ago. I also got rid of stuff moving to Belgium and Chile (although I kept the boxes at my mom's house).

But remember, I am also an academic. Most of us have bookshelves full of textbooks.

I value my textbooks more than my Cherryh or Pratchett or Banks or Bujold collections.

JM
(Not sure about textbooks versus board games, probably I would keep the textbooks.)
(I got rid of several times the amount that went to my mom's when I left the US. A ton of SF and video games, as well as furniture and electronics and clothes.)

[Lorizael]

Yes.

All of them, even the non-physics/math ones.

JM

Dammit. I just knew you were going to say that.

[rah]

Once I graduated I was poor and had boxes of books that I could live without. Win Win

[Jon Miller]

Actually, I kept all of my physics/math exams, HW, handouts and so on until I left the US in 2009. I had intended to use them as materials when I started teaching.

I miss them a little now. But it was for the best to get rid of them. I am not the most organized and they were chaotically crammed into book boxes.

JM

[Lorizael]

I still have all my notes, handouts, exams, etc. I can't sell those, and they have proven useful occasionally.

To be clear, JM, do you even have undergrad texts? Like, I recently stumbled on my multivariable calculus text from three years ago that I never got around to selling. Is something like that still useful for you? I've found that a lot of relatively low level math/physics stuff can be found online pretty easily.

[Giancarlo]

I finished my poli sci, computer science undergrad and poli sci grad degrees. I kept most textbooks from my major/graduate courses, but the general education textbooks were sold. Some math books fetched around $100... Even used. Of course, I never wrote in them.

My poli sci books are still useful and the computer science books might be too in the future, though technology is rapidly evolving.

[Ben Kenobi]

I still own my phys and astro texts. Have they come in handy? Not really. I may end up selling them or donating them. I didn't keep any of my history textbooks.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I sold everything the store would buy back everywhere -it wasn't really my money, for one thing, thanks Mom and Dad- and I ended up with probably a boxful. Some of the literature and history ones have actually come down off the shelves a few times in the decades since. -I'd probably actually hold onto, guessing, about half if I had a choice between them and the buy-back money now. Books can be teh awesome.