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Comment by Larrikin | Hacker News Reader

What should I do with books from my childhood that are completely outdated? My mom has massive books that I asked for as a kid or my dad bought that are decades old. Things like Visual Basics 6 in 24 hours, the Photoshop 5 Bible, etc. I think there might be slight utility in slightly less old books like Excel 2007 for Dummies (Excel basics are still Excel basics), but I am completely unsure of the utility of books for software that doesn't even exist anymore.

I feel bad throwing away 500+ page books, but it seems like I'd just be polluting a free library if I put them in there.

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Here's how I think of it. They either go to the landfill, or your house is a landfill. So you're not really saving stuff from the landfill.

I'm in the process of helping my mom sell her house and move into a small apartment. Fortunately her nearby public library takes donations. I think that they have an annual book sale and use the proceeds to support library operations.

I've gotten pretty ruthless about throwing things away. It's not too hard to follow a plan such as a cubic foot per week. The number of books that I'm emotionally attached to dwindles with time.

The Marie Kondo method may be helpful here.

Acknowledge that the Visual Basic 6 book has done its job for you, thank it for its service, and lovingly place it in the recycling bin.

Think of it as allowing a loved colleague to retire in their old age rather than firing a friend.

I'd rather chuck them all into a big fire in the backyard and laugh maniacally.

A VB.NET book maybe, but VB6 was a classic.

I threw out my original CP/M Primer that I had owned since the 1980s (No idea why, I've never owned a CP/M system).

About 6 months later an emulator was released that I could have played in :(

I bet you can find that book and many like it at archive.org

Discard out. They're just inert objects, with little utility. You won't find those books at the public library any more because libraries ruthlessly weed out books people no longer want. Otherwise there'd be no room for the new books people do want.

Allow yourself to keep one. Put an inscription in the front mentioning when you got the book and who gave it to you. Throw the rest out.

Keeping the one will remind you of the entire collection. And it's a nice memento of your childhood, and of those who helped you learn.

Recyclers will pay good money for books since they tend to be high quality/clean paper. If they are outdated tech books in particular, I have zero guilt recycling those.

I burned all mine for heat, giving the books one final purpose. I got rid of things that used to be very precious to me -- an ancient book on HTML, a very old guide to CSS, hilariously outdated texts on stuff like Java 1.4 design patterns, guides to software that doesn't exist in any form and stuff like that. The books served their purpose. They were born from the carbon in the air and back to the Earth they went.

If I find that kind of shit in my free library, it immediately goes to the (properly recycled) trash. Nobody will take it, it's just taking up space and bringing down the attractiveness of my library.

Some of those old books are kinda fun to read, but if they're not going for much on Amazon I'd just recycle them.

I threw my Visual Basics 6 in 24 hours out ages ago, now I wish I still had it for nostalgia.

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