So... is it safe to sell my textbooks?

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, so I have sucessfully completed my massage therapy course. Yay!!!

I just bought a review guide for the NCBMTB national exam. I paged through it at Borders before I bought it. It seems pretty thorough. Distilled Essence of Everything I Learned In School.

The thing is, I’m also extremely broke. I haven’t worked since January- I had developed severe back problems and decided to concentrate on getting myself well so that I’ll be able to function as a therapist. I’m actually lucky in the sense that I’m going into a field where I can make a good living working part-time, and can pace my schedule so I have time to do stretching exercises between clients to keep my body in good working order.

I do intend to keep my Kenesiology and Shiatsu books- they will come in handy as reference books later on, as well as being something I need to study- they were the two classes I had the hardest time with in school.

But as for the rest, I figure I can get about a $150 or so for them if I sell them for a bit less than what they would go for used at a bookstore, and I can really use the bread right now. What with having to go through the paperwork rigamarole with applying to take the exam, and all the hoops I have to jump through to get my license, it will be probably be September before I will legally be able to work as a massage therapist. I’m going to start looking for a part-time job for supplemental income- my Pell Grant and tax refund money ran out when the semester did, but that might take a bit of time, and there’s the small matter of buying groceries in the meantime.

So I want to sell my Swedish Massage, Musculoskeletal Anatomy, Deep Tissue, Anatomy and Physiology and Pathology books. Oh, and I still have my English Composition text left over from last semester, too.

But, will I regret this? The material seems well covered in the review guide, which has loads of practice questions. Basically, it has the feel of the notebook of a really good student who got all of the relavant information from both the lecture and the textbooks. I figure, supplement it with the two books I plan to keep, I should do quite well on the National Exam.

Also, I really don’t want to have to slog through a lot of really thick books to study for the exam. There’s an online practice exam which I just took without doing any studying whatsoever and got a score of 73%, and seventy is a passing grade for the National.

So, can I sell my textbooks?

2

This thread is better suited for IMHO. I’ll move it for you.

Cajun Man
for the SDMB

3

My advice? NO

I tossed stats notes to the tip with gay abandon at the end of 2nd yr stats, swearing I would never look at them again. Only to change my mind and enrol in 3rd yr stats with no revision material. I hung onto those 3rd yr notes, and all my text books and guess what - I have been using them this year to write my post grad dip thesis. You never know when you might need this stuff, especially if you are still studying.

4

I think that auliya makes a good point. My gut also says to wait a while. Once you’ve sold them, they’re gone and it’ll cost a lot to replace them. It’s kind of like burning bridges, and all that.

Have you asked some people who have passed their exam and are now working as massage therapists whether they needed their text books? They’d know far more than we would, I’d think.

5

I don’t know about your field but if you are in something like engineering, no, never sell your textbooks. I had a professor say that it is more important to know where to find a thing and use it than it was to actually know a thing. He explained that there were just too many things to know. I once had a co-worker, an electrical engineer, he was the top in his class and he was impressive to work with. He had sold all of his textbooks because he had, "studied the material, had been tested on it, did well on examination, and didn’t need the book any more. He was real impressive to work with, that is until he reached the extent of his memory. Then projects came to a standstill until he could get on the phone for help or actually go buy a textbook, this is not very practical when you are working in a factory 75 miles from a major university. He actually asked the head engineer to buy books for him. I had a friend once, who was a chiropractor. He had quite a successful practice. I remember, he had a skeleton in his living room. One Sunday afternoon we were enjoyng beer and sun in his backyard. He had his textbooks reviewing something and he had a piece of the skeleton with him, looking at it. In many fields you are only as good as your refrences. I am impressed with my current general practicioner. The second time I saw him, I asked a question and he readily said, “I don’t know, I’ll have to look that up.” and he did with me in the room. I think that is much better than telling a lie.

6

Well, obviously, future reference is a concern. That’s why I’m keeping the Kensiology and Shiatsu books. I’m also holding on to my Netter’s Anatomy flash cards.

But anything I would need for future reference I could probably pick up at Borders or B&N for a lot less than what I could sell my textbooks for. I have a pretty good reflexology book, and a pretty good acupressure book, both of which I’ve had for years, enough to use as reference unless I decided down the road I wanted to specialize in the Oriental modalities. The same with my Deep Tissue book. Deep tissue really isn’t my bag anyway, its more of a specialized type of work, and if I decided down the road that I wanted to do it, I would rather take a more comprehensive course in it rather than try to rely on a class that was an “intro to” and a textbook.

Also, my pathology and anatomy/physiology books are rather poorly written, so if I realized down the road that I needed a reference work in these areas, which again is unlikely, as most of what I would need is covered in the review guide, I would just as soon go to Amazon and see if I could find something better.

7

Ideally, you’d probably hold on to your textbooks. But it sounds like you’ve put a good bit of thought into which ones you can and can’t do with out. I think if you’ve really been realistic about that, then getting rid of the ones you’re not going to use again when cash is tight makes sense.

As for whether or not you’re beign realistic about it, your best bet would be to find a couple of people a couple of years out from your position and see what they needed/still use.

8

Books are like old friends!–dont sell them short.
You spent many months studying them.If you need to check something next year, you’ll know where to find it.And then you wont want to spend $75 to buy a book just to check up on one fact, so you’ll probably just not bother checking it up at all. That’s not the way to get ahead, in any profession.

Also, think about how impressive they’ll look when you start working.Your first client will walk in to face a new, young, inexperienced therapist, but also a shelf full of professional books --that’s better than a blank wall.

9

Not until the textbook sniper has been caught.

10

Actually, at just this moment I’m not thinking in terms of what I’m going to need for future reference. I actually decided a long time ago that certain books were definite “keepers” for future reference.

Right now, my main concern is passing the national exam.

I’ve been looking over the textbook from my Swedish massage class, and it has some pretty good sections on anatomy- musculoskeletal and otherwise, physiology, Oriental bodywork (aka Shiatsu) and all that other stuff. So, I’m basically using my study guide as review, and getting into the Swedish book for the stuff I want to study in more detail- things I’m weak in or that weren’t adequately covered in class. Which there is a frightneing amount of.

And like I said before, the pathology and A&P books are poorly written, so if I need a reference work, I’d rather buy better written works on the subject. Actually, the A&P chapters in the Swedish text gives me a better handle on the subjects than this other book that I paid $78 for an entire textbook on. I think the book was actually designed for a vo-tech school rather than a college course where the various topics are covered in separate classes. I actually kind of felt ripped off, having to shell out for separate books on subjects where everything that would actually be relavant for a massage therapist is to be found between the pages on one (big ol’ honkin’) book.

At this point, I think I’m going to sell everything except:

Trail Guide to the Body, which is actually designed as a reference work for massage therapists and physical therapists, but my Kenesiology instructor used it as his textbook. The artwork is just beautiful. I knew that one was a keeper the first time I opened it.

Do it Yourself Shiatsu, which is actually one you can pick up at Borders, but again, my Shiatsu instructor used it as her textbook.

Netter’s Anatomy Flash Cards, just because I can’t afford * Netter’s Atlas of the Human Body* right now. Someday…

I will hold on to the Swedish textbook until after I take the National exam, but after that, it goes.

I need the bread.

11

Are you close enough/going to work close enough after the exam that you might find these books at your school’s library, or are they too specialized? If you can borrow them upon needing them, and you’re strapped for cash, than I say you’re OK selling them. If not, I’d hold on to them.

I lent my old accounting book to a friend who promptly dropped out of school, left the state, and took my book with her. It was just a general accounting 101 book, but it was the best written acct. book I’d ever used. The writing/lessons we’re written in a way that made perfect sense to me, and no accounting book has ever been quite the same (even though they have essentially the same information). So, if any of the books your thinking of selling “talk to you” like that, then I’d suggest hanging on to them. You can always sell plasma for cash :slight_smile: .

~S

12

Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be needing any of them. The main thing I would need would be a really good musculoskeletal anatomy book (the Trail Guide, which I’m keeping) and a shiatsu book (which I’m keeping.) Just about anything else I would need, I could pick up at Borders. Really. Their section on alternative medicine has a lot of different books on massage to choose from.

Also, I really don’t know where the program director’s head was when he picked the pathology textbook. It’s poorly written, badly organized, and generally not very useful. That’s one I would want to replace with a better book.

And as far as doing any deep tissue work, I want to get Dr. Janet Travell’s book of trigger point maps (not sure what the title is, but I could probably Google it), which was not one of our textbooks.

Basically what it boils down to is, what I need to study for the National exam (I actually picked up a slim volume on Ayurveda, sort of a “use the principles for your own health” guide. It’s not really in depth, but it should get me through the exam. There is going to be a section on the exam about Ayurveda, but we got very little information about it, except for a couple of handout sheets that tied it into Polarity therapy. I guess they’ve really expanded the section on Oriental medicine for the national exam, but most of the massage schools have not kept up. I’m glad I happened to have those acupressure books on hand, since they actually explain the theory fairly well in layman’s terms.