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Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#31

Post by geocrasher »

timoth3y wrote: post #25

> I can't really see there's much demand for Java 1.3, or Dreamweaver 4. Designate one bookshelf as your "memory shelf". Keep the books on the languages you learned the most from or that remind you of your best (or most horrible) projects, and place them on that shelf. Display it prominently, and it will be become a conversation starter for every nerd that comes to your home. "OMG, I haven't thought about Dreamweaver…

That's the best use I can imagine. I love it.

Whenever I visit peoples homes, I look at their bookshelves. I pick one book that may indicate something in common, and I make a comment or ask a question. It rarely fails to start a great conversation. And when you're fixing their computer and waiting half an hour for a malware scan to finish, and the customer insists on sitting there watching, such conversations are life savers. Plus, you learn a ton.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#32

Post by mike_paranoid »

syntheweave wrote: post #6

Most old books are effectively disposable decor - the industry prints them by the millions and many have a limited life akin to the Dreamweaver how-to's. The "last a lifetime" highly sought-after books are truly the exception here. For archival purposes you can go see if it's in the Library of Congress or scanned into Internet Archive, and if not, that's a project you can opt to take on(but it's pretty high effort).…

What are some examples of comp Sci/programming "last a lifetime" books? I am just a little confused about this statement.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#34

Post by simonblack »

aliljet wrote: post #16
simonblack wrote: post #12

download a digital copy from the web. throw out the paper. I did a clean out a couple of years back of cassettes, books, CDs, and vinyl LPs and replaced them with digital copies. I also threw out the IKEA Billy bookcase they had been stored in.

I kind of love this idea. How do you do this, especially if you're throwing originals away, in a frustratingly and methodically legal way?

There are many legal archival websites out there.

The way I see it, is that I am merely transferring the informational data that I already own from one medium to another. I am not 'pirating' anything that I didn't already own before.

Those books that I couldn't replace, I kept. A lot of cassettes, vinyl LPs and CDs I made copies of myself from my own media. That took an investment of my time in order to save my space. ('Audacity' and an analog-digital converter from Amazon. Audacity also helped clean up some of the worst scratches on the LPs.)

Once I had copied off my LPs and cassettes, I could also dispose of the cassette-player and turntable.

I haven't completed my task yet. I still have some snippets of video on various VHS video-cassettes that have to be converted to digital if I can get my VHS videoplayer to work again.

I am still in the throes of converting decades-old photos that had been locked away in boxes to PNGs that display as a slide-show screen saver on the computers' screen.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#35

Post by grzm »

mike_paranoid wrote: post #32
syntheweave wrote: post #6

Most old books are effectively disposable decor - the industry prints them by the millions and many have a limited life akin to the Dreamweaver how-to's. The "last a lifetime" highly sought-after books are truly the exception here. For archival purposes you can go see if it's in the Library of Congress or scanned into Internet Archive, and if not, that's a project you can opt to take on(but it's pretty high effort).…

What are some examples of comp Sci/programming "last a lifetime" books? I am just a little confused about this statement.

From the hip: Knuth, Brooks, Gray, Sussman. General theory type stuff rather than specific technologies. Stuff on how to think about problems rather than specific solutions.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#36

Post by culi »

vl wrote: post #28

Just throw them in the trash. There is no way to recycle them, and nobody needs them. Do not waste your own and other people’s time by trying to “find them a home”.

It's stuff like this that makes me wish I had more artsy friends that can use "lost art". I'd honestly pay for someone to take them and make something out of them

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#37

Post by gshubert17 »

mike_paranoid wrote: post #32
syntheweave wrote: post #6

Most old books are effectively disposable decor - the industry prints them by the millions and many have a limited life akin to the Dreamweaver how-to's. The "last a lifetime" highly sought-after books are truly the exception here. For archival purposes you can go see if it's in the Library of Congress or scanned into Internet Archive, and if not, that's a project you can opt to take on(but it's pretty high effort).…

What are some examples of comp Sci/programming "last a lifetime" books? I am just a little confused about this statement.

Oldcomputerbooks.com focuses on computer material from the 1940s through about 1975. Some years back they bought my volumes of Knuth's TAOCP and one book by Edsger Dijkstra, _The Discipline of Programming_, but not anything more recent.

These may not "last a lifetime" in some sense. But early computing books, especially by well-known authors, may come close.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#38

Post by woodruffw »

zeristor wrote: post #8
AlbertCory wrote: post #4

> I can't really see there's much demand for Java 1.3, or Dreamweaver 4 You'd be surprised. Go to "sell back your books" and install the app, scan in the bar code or QR, and find out. They might offer you a small amount of money. They also take some non-technical books, btw. They send you a prepaid shipping label, too.

The Peach Press Dreamweaver 4 book is listed on Sell your books at £0.46. I’m surprised it’s worth that much, the postage and packing would be far more.

At around 2lbs (according to Amazon), it might be worth roughly that much as relatively clean recyclable wastepaper.

(Not that that's the likely reason; it's probably just an out-of-date/low-volume price point.)

Re: Ask HN: What to do with old computer books?

#39

Post by morninglight »

timoth3y wrote: post #25

> I can't really see there's much demand for Java 1.3, or Dreamweaver 4. Designate one bookshelf as your "memory shelf". Keep the books on the languages you learned the most from or that remind you of your best (or most horrible) projects, and place them on that shelf. Display it prominently, and it will be become a conversation starter for every nerd that comes to your home. "OMG, I haven't thought about Dreamweaver…

Books are so heavy. If you move often, they can be a real burden, especially if they are no longer used.

If you keep them as a conversation starter, try this alternative method.

https://youtu.be/UqLTU9uFlPA?list=PLsgvviE9c9fBEPvopDnHcYhyN...

.

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