What to do with obsolete tech books?

[Peter Parker]

Like many developers, I've collected a set of old tech and reference books over the years, and I'd really quite like to get rid of about 20-30 of them. I've considered :-

• Recycling - not an option it seems, due to glue in the bindings.
• Selling on amazon/ebay - cost of shipping higher than the book value
• Freecycle etc - nobody wants "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell" from 1999, or "Palm Programming - The Developer's Guide"
• Charity shops - not fair to dump this junk on them either
• Bin - landfill

I'd prefer to avoid the bin, but running out of other ideas. Has anyone got any better suggestions?!

[g8ina]

Even though you've discounted them, some charity chops will jump at the chance for stock, if only to pack out the shelves.

[BobF64]

If youre worried about the charity shop not wanting them, take them in in small batches and see if they want them.

Otherwise, youre pretty much down to keeping forever or binning them.

You might be able to remove, ie cut out, the pages and recycle those, ditching the covers and bindings though.

Tbh, I have the same problem, plenty of books that were printed in the mid-90s, its sometimes surprising how useless they are.

[Snake-J]

Man I only have a few books need more to make the bookcase/desk look right. it seems the designers always have 100s of fancys books on their desks shelfs! they must be good as they have a lot of books

I think it would be charity shops or bin though or keep them till they are vintage! /s

[Mucka]

I had a load of win NT and 95 /2000 books I gave to the local charity shop.

[Ttaskmaster]

Recycling - not an option it seems, due to glue in the bindings.

Jigsaw off the binding side and bin that, then put the remaining pages in as loose-leaf recycled paper. Give them in for recycling, or make paper logs if you have an open fire.

That, or take them up the nearest tip/civic amenity site.

[finlay666]

Gumtree can be worth a punt on collection only, depending on the book some can be relevant still

The undesirable ones however.. probably trash only

[ik9000]

any VBA/VB or Dos, shell and Linux in there?

[scaryjim]

Or advertise them on Hexus, apparently ^^^^^^^^^^^

Charity shops will almost certainly take them, and I'd imagine they'll shift a few too. Also, if someone can get hold of the tools to practice, the fact that the books are old doesn't make them any less relevant for learning the concepts of programming, even if the languages have moved on a bit. I've got a couple of boxes that follow me around, but tbh I can't see me ever getting rid of them, even though I do very little programming nowadays. I get a certain pleasure purely out of knowing that they're there...