It was The Ghost Stories of Maine . I actually have a second copy, and like the book. I burned the copy that my little sister trashed long ago. It was scribbled over in pen, And had ripped pages. I was cleaning my shelf and found this wreck. It had to go! So I threw it in the fireplace.
Nothing to be embarrased about. I like books but they are also heavy and difficult to store. Its good to go thru your collection from time to time and get rid of the extras.
Or just wait until you have to move them and you will find it VERY easy to start tossing.
I’ve done it. Not from any political reasons, but to start a fire. It was a soft cover book that I’d managed to spill soda all over and it had dried. (As I’ve said in book threads, I mostly get books from second hand/thrift shops etc.) No one would take it, and I was broke and wanted a fire so I wouldn’t have to turn the heat on as much. (I used it as a firestarter type thing for the wood.)
I burned a mess of Reader’s Digest condensed books years ago. Found no takers for 'em, recyclers didn’t want the glue and cloth binding, so off to the burnpile.
No great loss.
I gotta admit, I’m shedding a little tear here. My parents had a large set of RD condensed books when I was a child. I read almost every one. Those books are probably what kindled (get it?) my love for reading.
And did they impregnate nice white girls on their way out?
Never burned a book. But I did throw The Elective Affinities by Goethe at the wall as hard as possible while screaming bad words. Forced to read this appalling novel for a comparative literature class. Horrible writing. Horrible characters and characterization. Much longer than necessary to make its philosophical point. Not sure I would have burned it, though. Somebody liked it enough to preserve for many years. Tastes vary.
I put a Bill O’Reilly “history” book (given to me by someone who really doesn’t know my politics) in a local paper recycling bin not long ago, but felt a little guilty about it. I’m against censorship and would never, ever burn a book as a political statement. But I knew I’d never read it, didn’t want it in the house, would not inflict it on anyone else, and didn’t want to just throw it away. So off it went to be pulped - best I could do.
I believe that 99% of all the books currently in existence in the USA will never, ever be opened again. So why not burn the surplus, sitting in boxes, on shelves, or in warehouses. How many people could be kept warm this winter by burning books? They’re all in the Library of Congress, and can be reprinted if necessary. Why aren’t newspapers and magazines just as sacred, yet we pulverize them to insulate houses, and nobody gets indignant about that.
The only time “book-burning” is bad is when all copies of a specific book (and the ideas within it) are burned for ideological reasons. That’s not the same thing.
I concur.
Unless you’re using books to burn a witch. That’s bad too.
TP? :eek:
“How do you know she is a witch?”
“She looks like one!”
Back in the very early 90’s I was big on history of different cultures. I bought this book on the Incas without reading the blurb too clearly.
When it arrived, it was some garbage attempting to cast early Inca society as a Soviet style communist utopia or some shit. I tossed it in the fireplace.