Tag Archives: math

Three less books

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Sold via Amazon: The Medieval Soldier: 15th Century Campaign Life Recreated in Colour Photographs. Nice military history book with lots of photographs of reenactors. Having recently gotten involved in historical reenactment myself, I did not want to part with it. However the price I got ($62) is hard to argue with.

Earlier this week I sold my copy of Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar for $45. From childhood, growing up near the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, I have been fascinated by Ancient Egypt and the surrounding regions. However, I have way too many interests, and know now I have to make some choices about how far to follow each of them.

Likewise Sneddon’s The Use of Integral Transforms ($25). This is a textbook on advanced applied mathematics, and so closer to my formal studies. However, I have several other books that cover similar subjects, none of which will fetch me anything worthwhile on the used market (I have checked). So I am keeping those instead.

That’s $132 for the week. Not bad, if you don’t place a value on giving up dreams.

Selling books

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Back in the summer of 2004 I realized I had way too many books, and was never going to do much with a lot of them. Rather than dumping the lot at a used bookstore, getting pennies on the dollar, I have been selling them on Amazon.com. This takes longer–sometimes a book will not sell for months–but I get a much more reasonable return. Also there is some satisfaction in knowing that the book is going to someone who cares.

Parting is hard. These books, mostly advanced math and physics, are part of the dreams of my youth, and I have been carrying them, in more than one way, for a long time. I was going to list one particular quantum mechanics book tonight, but glancing through it brought back so many happy memories of college and grad school studies (OK–you knew I was weird) that I put it back on the shelf. Still, I did list 9 others, and one has already sold for nearly $40.