Burning books - yay or nay?

[Valka D'Ur]

I mean, suppose a publishing company has a big goof up and accidentally prints a million extra copies of the latest Harlequin romance of the month book. Are you guys really going to be morally outraged ( at the idea of burning books... ignore environmental reasons here please) if they realize the most economical thing to do is ship off the extras to an incinerator and perform a mass burning?

The proper thing to do would ship them to a paper recycling company.

 

[bhsup]

Okay, that works too. Either way, the books are being destroyed, which I think is the issue people seem to be having here.

 

[Borachio]

Road building. Apparently Mills and Boon light romance books are ideal.

 

[bhavv]

This one time I got a free audacity book voucher.

I used it up on the naughtiest book I could find.

 

[IglooDame]

Okay, that works too. Either way, the books are being destroyed, which I think is the issue people seem to be having here.

For what it's worth, flag-burning is also a common social taboo...

 

[classical_hero]

Depends on the culture.

 

[Cutlass]

For what it's worth, flag-burning is also a common social taboo...

Damn those Boy Scouts to hell!

 

[classical_hero]

We should have more public burnings of materials, since they never turn bad.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

The proper thing to do would ship them to a paper recycling company.

That's a given. I don't actually have a fireplace. I have dumped books - old school books, English-Swedish dictionaries, heaps of papers, magazines, etc - volumes of information of various value in the recycling bin. Woe, woe, woe the future generations.

 

[CavLancer]

What is the actual law? For instance can we burn book r e v i e w s?

 

[Lohrenswald]

If there are any flea markets around you can give the books to them.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Okay, that works too. Either way, the books are being destroyed, which I think is the issue people seem to be having here.

It's information that is being destroyed.

That said, unless a book is super-rare or some other kind of archaeological/religious artifact, if it's past saving in any meaningful way, it's not the worst thing to toss it. I had to do that with a Star Trek Voyager book last week, since it didn't survive the move intact and usable. I do plan to replace it, though.

 

[CavLancer]

Does the subject matter and author effect the outcome?

For instance is it okay to burn Mein Kamph?

 

[bhavv]

No it isn't because mein kamph is the single best book ever written and hitler was saint.

Well, he was nowhere close to as evil as the bible and koran are.

 

[tetley]

When they start burning my E-books, that's where I draw the line.

 

[IglooDame]

When they start burning my E-books, that's where I draw the line.

Kidding aside, does it matter whether I delete my ebook, or should I drag it to the Recycle Bin?

 

[IglooDame]

For what it's worth, flag-burning is also a common social taboo...

Damn those Boy Scouts to hell!

Kinda like only drinking blood in a church on Sundays, eh?

 

[Kyriakos]

If you are cold, you could burn books to generate heat.

But don't use communist books. That stuff is toxic.

 

[tetley]

I wouldn't burn them for heat--stacks of books have plenty of weight to them, and if they're frozen together with ice they make a good frame for your igloo. That way if tne snowplow or spring comes along you have more solid walls to withstand it.

 

[warpus]

Burning a book just seems wrong on some sort of a fundamental level. Probably because of the historical connotations.

I buy old books and I give them a home. I don't think I'd ever burn a book.