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After eliminating valueless textbooks after graduating college, I made it a point to NOT buy technical books.
Other folks may go to an extreme -- one guy I worked with had a bookcase 8' tall and 12' wide, literally overflowing with technical books. Each time he touched a new technology, he purchased at least 3 new books. When he moved offices, it took him 2 days to move all the books.
Having spent 25+ years as a consultant/contractor, when I needed technical books, I talked the client into buying them. The same conversation was conducted repeatedly with each client: "You know you can't keep the books when your contract ends?"
Yeah, that was actually the idea. I had no idea what the future would bring in terms of technology I would work with, so I'd talk the next client into buying what I need for that contract. Saved me money AND I didn't have to move the books. When I went into a client site for the first time, I carried my briefcase and one bag of "stuff", and when I left, I did the same.
That said, this morning I looked at the bookcase in my home office and wondered what I'd do with the few books I purchased that are LONG outdated. Keeping with my "don't buy" mantra, there's only 5:
Microsoft C Programming for the PC
XML for Dummies
Learn ASP.NET in 21 Days (probably v1)
Professional C# 2008
Professional WordPress (probably v2)
Is there any value in books this old? WordPress is probably 12 yo and it's the youngest. ASP and XML are circa 2000, and C is circa 1990.
I hate to toss them in the landfill but can't figure out a use for them.
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Bequeath them in your will, let your ancestors deal with what to do with them.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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MarkTJohnson wrote: Bequeath them in your will, let your ancestors descendants deal with what to do with them.
FTFY.
I think your ancestors have even less use for your old books than you do. 
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I always get that wrong. Thank you. Thinking like Merlin, aging backwards.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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I have zero nostalgia with paper books, especially technical books. (with some exceptions)
I moved houses too many times with too many cases of books.
I've recycled most of them and gave a few.
I still have a small bookshelf with 2 dozen dusty books.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Looking around at the shelf behind me I see a dozen or two such books. I may still have some boxed up after my latest move (five years ago). Some date back to the 80s.
I don't think I've bought a new technical book since around 2010, but I have bought/acquired used ones. For instance, I have a COBOL book someone was giving away a few years back.
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I used to use my C++ Manuals as a doorstop
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Compared to my bookshelf, those are practically brand new. I still have books on (MS-)DOS internals and an old 8086/8088 programmers guide that details the entire instruction set.
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Last year I threw away books from that era covering similar topics. One I remember buying and then reading, and it went way over my head (I was in my early teens and had a hard time already understanding books written in English, let alone the subject matter). I went back to it years later, and (re-)discovered interrupt programming. Then it turned out for years to be one of my favorite books.
I also had about half a dozen OS/2 books - one with a foreword from Bill Gates.
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BryanFazekas wrote: I'd talk the next client into buying what I need for that contract.
I know a guy who does house renovations for a living. If there's an unusual tool he doesn't already have but needs for a job, he buys it and keeps it (or rents it for the duration needed if he knows he's never gonna use it ever again, or so rarely he can't justify the purchase). He doesn't make the customer buy it and then hand it over when the job's done. The customer has no need for the tool.
Things might be different in the software world; if you need a license to use some software, and the customer needs to run that software, this makes sense...but books? Even though you hand it to the customer after the job's done, you don't wipe out from your mind what you've learned from the book. You're the main beneficiary. And the customer (in all likelihood) also has no need for the book.
But, I've never done any contracting...maybe I'd change my mind if I was, or was working on stuff I have zero interest in after the job was done. Otherwise, I'd buy, and keep.
In any case...I did get rid (last year or so) of a big pile of books, maybe 5 feet high if I had stacked them all. Clearly some stuff I'll never use again. Although the hoarder archivist in me kinda regrets throwing away at least some of them. Some were brand new (clearly I got by without reading them...) I just never had a "proper" bookshelf and the books were just taking up place in a number of boxes on the floor of a closet. Otherwise I probably would've hung onto a few of them (some I was happy to be rid of).
What annoyed me the most is that I had checked with my local library to see if they'd take them, rather than sending them for recycling (which I know in some cases still end up in a landfill anyway). They wouldn't take anything older than 5 years. Yet these are the same people who are constantly complaining they're underfunded. They weren't junk, and I'm sure if I had bothered I might have found some buyers, even if only for historical value.
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Old books are of two general types:
1. Programming-language specific
2. Language-agnostic like Algorithms, Maths, OS theory, etc.
Type 2 books are less likely to have expiry dates, IMHO.
(Of course, fiction, history, etc. books are of a different realm altogether).
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Over the last several years I have thinned my herd of technical books quite a bit. Here at work I have about 18 inches of shelf. At home it's about half a dozen volumes, a couple of college textbooks from 40 years ago plus some 'work' technical stuff.
I recently dumped a couple boxes of technical books I had stored at home. MS-DOS references, internals, and undocumented stuff. I used a lot of this back in the 90's at work.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I had forgotten about Smalltalk, heard of it many years ago but, like others, didn't do anything with it.
Downloaded Squeak, already have a germ of an app that I might try.
A home without books is a body without soul. Marcus Tullius Cicero
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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(another minimalist clue)
Pinch fitting. (11)
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Appropriate ?
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Nicked! I'll try a different style on Friday.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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I posted a similar one some time back
Unfit home fit (13)
Inappropriate
Mine didn't last long either 
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Nice one!
My car is in for it's MOT, so I only just saw it. I need to get into the habit of looking at 09:00 again... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 1,207 4/6
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Wordle 1,207 4/6*
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 1,207 3/6
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
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In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
modified 7hrs 20mins ago.
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Wordle 1,207 3/6*
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
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Wordle 1,207 4/6*
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Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
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