Should I keep my college text books?

[dmartins]

Hi everyone!
I'm brand new to these forums, I just stumbled across a link here from the Gentoo linux forums.
Anyways, I'm just in second semester of a 3 year college course called Computer Engineering Technology and I haven't decided what to do with my text books from first semester along with the books from the coming terms.

On one hand, i can sell them back to the bookstore for a fifth of the price i payed for them, on the other hand I thought they might come in useful at some point..

What are your opinions on this? Has anyone come to regret getting rid of their books? I'm sure many people have held on to them only to stick them in the closet and sell them at a garage sale 25 years later

Regards,

Dan

 

[spindrah]

don't buy from the bookstore
you can find most of them on half.com for a lot less

 

[jrz126]

I'm in my 4th year for Electrical and computer engineering. I'm saving most of my books (pretty much all of them except the gen ed books.)

I figure they will look pretty good sitting on my bookshelf 10 years down the road.

 

[bryan1]

If I was you I'd hangon to them cause in a few years it's guarenteed you'll forget 1/2 of what you learnt so to speak and it's always good to re read your old text books to refresh your memory. I'm a fitter/machinist by trade and I've kept all my textbooks as not only do they come in handy but as we've changed over to the metric system my textbooks are all in Imperial which comes in very handy for data and such. Besides you might meet someone doing the same course as you and you can hand down/sell the books to them.

Cheers Bryan

 

[ljcox]

I still use some of mine - I graduated in 1972!

 

[stevez]

I'd keep the ones that relate to your profession.

Every author and every teacher does something a little differently. While there may be lots of books out there relating to your profession you will likely find that going back to a familiar book will help with recollection - which can save some time.

 

[Russlk]

I kept all my college books, seldom look at any of them. With the info available on the 'net, you might as well sell them if you need the money now. Plan to buy a reference book. I use "Reference Data for Radio Engineers", Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., also known as ITT Handbook.

 

[Roff]

Two of the main things my engineering education taught me was (1) where to look for answers, and (2) how to understand them once I found them. You can't possibly remember everything you studied.
I have been out of college for 40 years (God, that makes me feel old - oh yeah, I am old), and I still refer to some of them from time to time. I would keep the engineering books.

 

[i_build_stuff]

A lot of what's in engineering textbooks is almost impossible to find on the internet...

 

[jfalco]

I've recently had to refresh my memory from my old Electronics text books, to land a new job.....sure was glad I kept them. Saved a heck of a lot of time instead of searching on the net, just opened them up and there it all was. Haven't opened them up since 93. My suggestion is to hang on to them.

 

[Dean Huster]

I kept all of my books, even the history, English, psych, etc. stuff. I kept them because if they were being used the next semester, the college bookstore was going to pay me 1/5 of what I paid and sell them to the next student for 75% of the new price. If you're going to sell them, make it a private deal via cork boards at the college dorms and classrooms. You can make more and the buyer will pay less.

The calculus book by Thomas was big and broad enough that it was used for three separate math courses at the University of Missouri - Rolla: differential calculus, integral calculus and analytical geometry. So that book ($9.95 in 1967, a real budget killer and probably $80 today) was at least worth the money.

I've never looked at the old books much, mostly the chemistry and physics texts. They just occupy shelf space and remind me of good times.

Dean

 

[jimbob jones]

Burn them, Burn them all.

 

[dmartins]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I've decided to keep most of the books for now. I've already gone back to my first semester Principles of Electric circuits a couple of times to refresh things like superposition, mesh loop, and capacitor impedance calculations. :?

 

[Papabravo]

I still have Analog and Digital Computer Technology by Norman Scott, 1960. It's just a hoot to go back and read about what passed for "high tech" in those days. Some people thought that transistors were just a passing fad.

ROFL

 

[lord loh.]

Books are priceless. Keep them. Selling them reflects bad. It shows your love for the subject. Dump it after the exams.

Excuse me.
More like a discovery channel's serial woman killer who kills and dumps his victim after the night's <you know what>.

 

[RODALCO]

Keep them !!

I did my NZCE electrical in 1995 and still refer to my notes and books sometimes to refreh my memory when solving an electrical problem.

 

[The Mad Professor]

Scan the lot and save to disk , for it takes up far less space , and should file sharing become less of a legal nightmare your collected works will benefit many across the globe.

 

[dknguyen]

Books

Keep them, especially if they're good books. They will be very good references.

Even if they're crap, if they are on a subject you don't like at least you won't have to go out and buy a book on something you hate as a reference.

Haven't you tried any spare-time projects related to your studies? Im referring to my texts all the time and I'm not even done yet.

 

[Don Hawley]

Keep the most knowledgeable ones get rid of the rest after taking notes of pertainent information like crib.Notes just the really good formulas and explanations of good stuff for future use and you can carry a notebook easier than many books you really only use ten to twenty percent of Don

 

[raybo]

The sign of a good engineer is the guy that knows where to find the answer in a book.