# Best way to dispose of old textbooks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681 "2021-01-16T16:42:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/41 "2021-01-19T01:47:35Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Statistics, Depending on what you are and what you are learning. My nephews Engineering Statistics has changed significantly: different stuff, different methods, different theory. Much to my brothers disgust, undergraduate medical statistics (here) hasn’t changed at all. I’m not a great believer in the general pedagogic theory that ‘if you learn one irrelevant subject, you will have less difficulty learning something relevant’, so I don’t expect my Dad’s computer textbooks to be valuable for another 50 years. I would really like to have some 100yr old HS chemistry textbooks – the one I had was lost and I haven’t been able to replace it. 20yr old Chemistry textbooks would be of no value here, because the subjects taught, and the order of teaching, has changed dramatically – but the chemistry hasn’t, so the content isn’t valuable, just not matched to the educational level or teaching. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/42 "2021-01-19T06:42:52Z")
Good point. It occurs to me that a number of fields like statistics may have been changed by the advent of desktop computing - work that used to be tedious and so over-simplified now is simply fed into computers to generate a precise answer. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/43 "2021-01-19T10:51:18Z")
Even if the basic principles of a discipline haven’t changed in decades, the terminology probably has. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/44 "2021-01-19T23:23:50Z")
I had another idea. Community theater; they may want books as part of the set design, and not care what genre they are. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/45 "2021-01-19T23:33:47Z")
Am I the only one to think of the word “repurposing”? - Book safes are a legit thing. - Mechanical levers to open the secret passageway to your Bat-Cave. - Freeweights for the garage gym Yes, I have used old books for two of the three above, but I agree that recycling is the way to go. A wall of books is kind of useless (and I’ve just started a ‘Minimalist Purge’), but a couple of them around the house can be handy. Tripler Take a guess at which two of the three. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/46 "2021-01-19T23:41:52Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Take a guess at which two of the three. Hah! There’s a bat-computer in the Batcave. If you had a Batcave you would have never bought a textbook in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/47 "2021-01-19T23:48:39Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I had another idea. Community theater; they may want books as part of the set design, and not care what genre they are. A faux painting of books on a shelf would be easier. Or you can also just buy book spines cut off from the books themselves, which would be far lighter. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/48 "2021-01-19T23:53:41Z")
Everybody should send their old textbooks to Miami and see if we can’t make the USA do a wheelie. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/49 "2021-01-20T00:01:38Z")
Or Guam? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/X5dkqUy7mUk/hqdefault.jpg "Rep. worries Guam will capsize?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5dkqUy7mUk) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/50 "2021-01-20T00:21:35Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Everybody should send their old textbooks to Miami and see if we can’t make the USA do a wheelie. It was predicted back in the 1960s that some time around 2010 the combined weight of back copies of _National Geographics_ stored in US basements would catastrophically alter the Earth’s rotation or orbit. Since that disaster has been averted it seems we dissipated the threat gradually by cleaning out our collective basements slowly after cancelling our subscriptions _en masse_ in the 1990s. But if not we could ship all those old _NG_’s to Miami too. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/51 "2021-01-20T02:46:51Z")
Incorrect. The computer in the Bat-Cave runs on MS DOS v2.11, and the book that serves as the lever to its secret passageway is the owners’ manual to MS DOS v2.11. Tripler You know damn well that Batman is playing _Oregon Trail_ on his downtime. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/52 "2021-01-20T06:47:58Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Incorrect. The computer in the Bat-Cave runs on MS DOS v2.11 To disguise the Area 54 origin, it was attached to a console for a Burroughs B205 ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/53 "2021-01-23T17:29:11Z")
I did not think Batman had downtime. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/54 "2021-01-25T07:59:30Z")
[Make end tables out of them.](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Design-Toscano-Power-of-Books-Glass-Topped-Side-Table/111622293?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&&adid=22222222227045445973&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=109185938597&wl4=pla-307348299197&wl5=9020213&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=111622293&veh=sem&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0rSABhDlARIsAJtjfCcqMoPczLQlvqH9O8URTStdYLhW-ue7jqDoVcnb3cxzbgDS615SirAaAq9nEALw_wcB) Easy money! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/55 "2021-01-26T14:09:25Z")
I knew someone who “disposed” of Robbins’ “Pathologic Basis of Disease” by putting a shotgun blast through it at close range. Some texts are useful enough and slow to become obsolete that they can be donated for use in poor countries. Apart from that, most landfills will still take them (good luck with recycling). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/56 "2021-01-26T18:39:14Z")
The library in my old town did something like that with Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. If somebody wanted one of the books, they would let them have it, with a donation to the library, and take the glass top off the table, give it to them, and replace it with another from their stock. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/57 "2021-01-29T00:53:43Z")
I posted a good solution earlier. I think that solution is the best. But, I have another solution… Around here, every Christmas people build bonfires to light the way for St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve. Find a few of these bonfires, shred your books, and use them for fire starter. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/58 "2021-01-30T05:16:08Z")
On a cold snowy mountain top in Tibet. Burn them to keep warm. That’s what Bill Murry did, and became enlightened. I personally try and donate them somewhere. As I fear enlightenment will lead to immediate suicide. ---
**Author:** ![daisysmithh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@daisysmithh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daisysmithh)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/59 "2021-02-07T07:37:03Z")
You can bring your old textbooks to your local Goodwill, Salvation Army, or other local charity. Visit [www.charitycenters.com](http://www.charitycenters.com) to find a local charity center in your area. Besides, sell them or give them away online. [Craigslist.org](http://Craigslist.org) and [Freecycle.org](http://Freecycle.org) are two online options for getting rid of old books and other stuff, for free or for a price. Create a “Free Book” box. Find a place where people wait like the waiting room of the doctor’s office, train station, bus stop, and more. Place a book labeled “Free Books” in that location, check with staff first for permission before bringing your book in. You can even put a box in your lunchroom at work or school. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681/60 "2021-02-09T15:51:54Z")
A few years back I started tutoring at the local community college. There was a room set aside for students studying math and physics, and I dropped off a bunch of my old engineering, math and physics texts here. There was shelf space for them, the subjects don’t age, and students just might figure out how to solve their problem by looking at a different perspective (i.e. from a different book on the same topic). I guess a community center might also be a good place for old textbooks. A library, however, has a greater volume of books flowing through it, and might not always be the best place to drop off old books…indeed they may be looking to sell off the old stuff to clear space for new books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-dispose-of-old-textbooks/930681.md?page=2)