How did you decide which textbooks to keep after college?

Question

I recently graduated from college, and I've got boxes and boxes of textbooks (I rarely sold a book back to the bookstore because they usually only offered me about 10% of what I paid).

Unfortunately, I don't have the space to keep all of them, and, realistically, I probably won't look at the majority of them again.

How did you decide which textooks to keep after you graduated?

What's the total number (estimate) of textbooks that you ended up keeping?

Answer 1

I graduated way back in the old days of 1982. I have a teaching degree. Sure that I would use everything related to teaching, I kept all the text books related to my intended field of work. I ended up not teaching in a public school system, was a stay-at-home mom for 6 years (I was married and had 2 kids while earning my degree) and then opened a daycare in my home. I have been doing that for 20 years now. My brother, who is 6 years younger than I, also decided to go into education. Thinking I could save him tons of money in textbooks, I offered him everything I had saved. We attended the same university and he had many of the same professors I did, however, not even one of the books I had saved was usable to him. I ended up recycling every one of those text books and would have been further ahead financially to sell them back at the end of the semester for the 10-25% offered and wouldn't have had to lug them through 2 moves. What I did use was some of my notes and handouts and projects that I did while a college student.

Answer 2

Probably too many, but I am probably pathological about buying books anyway. I've been know to bring back more than 10 pounds of books in my suitcase while traveling.
I would get rid of all textbooks that are likely to grow out of date quickly - like biology texts (unless you plan to use them in your job). Also, jettison those oddball paperback texts that cost $50 for 100 pages, that you'll never pick up again (sell them online). Sell off everything except a few books you absolutely loved and those you want to keep as reference material. I have kept an anthropology text "The Forest People" for some reason..... I graduated from college more than 30 years ago.

Answer 3

I'm an english major, so I keep the majority of books that read solely because of the fact I want to read them over and over again. If you have boxes of them, I am assuming that you probably don't read all of them. Go back through, pick out the ones you're not interested in anymore, and try selling them on amazon.com. That's what I've done with texts the bookstore won't buy back and it's surprisingly lucrative.

Answer 4

Keep the textbooks you may possibly need. For example, if you were an English major, and you're going to be teaching high school English, you probably don't need to keep your calculus book. Once you've narrowed them down to your field, if you still have too many, select the ones that contain the most information, or that you are most interested in. For example, if you're keeping history books, you might choose to keep your textbook from World History 1, since it can be used as a reference for many different topics, then books from your class on Medieval China.

For the books you decide not to keep, don't just throw them out or burn them. You can sell them at half.com or donate them to your local library, or another worthy cause like Books for Africa: http://www.booksforafrica.org/index.html

Answer 5

I don't have many of my books. I decided to keep the books in my favorite subjects. The ones that I think I might need or actually want to look at one day again. The others I donated or sold. You don't get alot when you sell them back but at least someone else will get an opportunity to use them instead of them being used by dust bunnys.

Answer 6

I kept only the ones that were actually related to my major, or that I just found interesting. If they were not related, or were related, but I didn't need extra research in that area, I sold them. Keep the ones from the classes you didn't do so well in. You'll need to reference that material later when you realize you didn't understand as much of that class as you thought!

Oh, and I sold my books on http://www.half.ebay.com/ and got much more for them then what the bookstore would have given me!

Answer 7

Eh, I haven't graduated yet, a year left of college, AHHHHHHHHHHHH! :( lol. I would keep the most interesting books, the ones I can look back into if I need to know something, it has to ofcourse have to do with what I've learned, my major- You know how school cram us with classes we do not need sometimes. Well, keep the ones you like, and most helpful books that you can go back and look for information if ever needed. I hate selling thee books back to the school b/c they give so little $, that's silly. I sold mine on eBay.

Answer 8

im currently in college, but i can tell you that i will end up keeping the ones that help me the most, the ones that i will forget some of the information, and the ones i will need as reference in the future. some of the books you might never ever need them again, it depends on your career path. im going to be a teacher, so i will need to keep a few more than most people. i can already tell there are quite a few i will sell back. just use your best judgement and im sure you will be able to decide. i hope this helps.

Answer 9

I only kept 1. I teach sped and I keep my "Intro to sped book". I would suggest only keeping the books that you will probably need in the future (maybe if you were to go back to grad school), like a general reference book (which is why I kept the intro book). The rest you should either sell or give away -

Answer 10

I keep all the books that is related to my major. Like psychology textbook.......and then secondly other ones that interest me which I think I will probably look through again later. The rest I'll sell back on half.com