5

I have a bookshelf full of tech books. What should I do with outdated ones? What approach should I take to buying new ones? A lot of them are probably irrelevant now. Things that don't change significantly are fine (I have old C++ and Make books whose content is still relevant even if some new stuff is missing) but web development has evolved significantly and I'm reluctant to get anything framework related due to needing to replace books frequently.

I could get ebooks, but having tried a few, I much prefer a physical book.

In the case of old books I no longer need, I can recycle them (as waste paper, or at a book recycling place) or donate them to a charity shop. It seems silly to recycle them as waste paper, but on the other hand I doubt the content will be that useful to others nor will it be that useful in a charity shop!

So instead they just sit on my shelf and remain unused...

What do you folks do with your books when you don't need them any more?

Comments
  • 0
    📌
  • 1
    Some books will forever be relevant for weird and unexplained reasons(actually all are explained but you get the gist)

    For example, I have a classic ASP book by wrox. The thing is huge and informative but outdated in the sense that the technology is ready to be dropped from MS support real soon, yet I have relied on the book for past work...extensively. so I would normally suggest keeping the books there.

    Like you I prefer physical books. I take the half blood prince approach of writing on top of them with very useful notes that can only come from extensive experimentation. Don't know if that is your case, bt in my opinion it adds significant value to them.

    So all in all I say keep them and in practice have some written works by you concerning technology that changes(as its normally the case with languages or tech stacks)

    Its an ongoing process and I love it
  • 1
    Maybe consider bringing them to a library? They can always use books, even when outdated.
Add Comment