Textbooks are worthless?

[konomaigo]

I read this blogpost the other day about how textbooks are a massive ripoff.

He's a marketer, so maybe that makes sense for him. But I still have many of my textbooks, and I still collect ones I like. And I do use them for reference (at the oddest times).

So, LJ world, what do you think? Do you use your textbooks? Are they a massive rip-off?

Comments

[jennekirby]

I still use mine for reference! I've looked at every single textbook I still own at least once or twice since getting out of the class.

[theotherjay]

My partners and I put all our remaining law textbooks on shelves in our meeting room. They look quite official, as long as you don't know what they contain. But in terms of actually useful content, few of them are useful.

Most of the books I read for undergrad were not 'textbooks,' just, you know, books, and so retain their interest.

[setauuta]

I think there's only one textbook that I kept, and it's my theater history text from Reed. However, most of my books for class were actually more like novels or...I guess like "regular" books? Stuff you can find at most book stores. I kept most of those. :)

[leahseraph]

Depends on the field. He's talking about textbooks for classes in marketing, which I can believe would be bullshit. But physics references are a different kettle of fish, if you're doing physics on a regular basis.

[cmat]

In CS, most of my textbooks have both the following: (1) they're useful, widely-owned references for someone doing Actual Work in that area; (2) no-one makes a million off 'em, let alone twenty. In CS, financially, it's a labor of love, in terms of what they make compared to what it costs them in terms of time and missed opportunities.

So... maybe marketers are full of BS? Incomprehensible, but..?