sometimes I just want to spark up poor literature, I feel a great injustice when I waste my time with literary garbage, have you ever set fire to a book for any reason? or atleast thought about it?
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2006-09-29 08:25:29 · 24 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Never, and you shouldn't do that too
2006-10-01 00:39:07 · answer #1 · answered by smalvina 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have actually burned a book. But listen to WHY before you brand me a fascist.
I left a copy of a Jodi Picoult book on the counter in my kitchen one evening when I came in from work. The next day, when I was cooking, I spilled some chicken stock onto the counter. I wiped it all up, thought I was done. That afternoon I cleaned house and put the book away.
A few weeks later I started smelling something dead coming from a bookcase. I moved things around and hunted for evidence of a dead rodent and looked and couldn't find ANYTHING.
The smell got WORSE. Eventually I narrowed it down to one particular shelf in the bookcase. And then I found the culprit. I couldn't imagine how a book, of all things, could smell that foul, but when I opened the pages and nearly vomited, I remembered the stock on the counter. Apparently, I had doused the book in that stock too, but hadn't noticed. Now the stock and the bits of meat in the stock were rotten. Gagging and retching, I doubled-bagged the book in some shopping bags and took it outside.
My husband was burning some boxes out on the burn pile the next day. I joined him and gave my poor book a ceremonial cremation. It just seemed the most honorable way to dispose of a book I'd really enjoyed but that now was permanantly befouled.
And that's the only time I've ever burned a book - but I think it was not only justified, but the right thing to do.
2006-09-29 12:24:10 · answer #2 · answered by shovelbum_mud_lover 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I actually did, but not for censure reasons, or anything even remotely related to banned-books, or what people should/shouldn't read.
I took a cinema analysis course once, and it was the most horrible course I've ever taken at university (I took it for extra credit). The professor claimed that American movies were all brain-washing, and he was a complete nuts. I hated his class. We had had to buy a book he'd photocopied (I swear!) that talked about the myths in American history that was the most boring and useless thing I've ever read.
After the course, I threw the book into the fire as a relief that I would never ever have to go through that class and its absurdities ever again.
It was more a case of throwing away course notes than really burning a book, but there you have it.
Burning actual novels, or textbooks "en masse" as a protest against the authors or the subject, or the themes, is IMHO atrocious, though.
2006-09-29 09:30:13 · answer #3 · answered by nellierslmm 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, I burned a diary I kept when I was about twelve. Didn't want to remind myself of what a dork I was (or leave the evidence behind for anyone else).
Don't think I've ever wanted to burn an actual published book. A lot of people seem to react quite strongly to the suggestion... I remember once a friend of mine burning this really crappy french joke book he owned for some reason (think of the worst joke book ever, then imagine it in french, then make it 100 times worse) and I still felt kind of bad. It's not just the connection with the Nazis, it just seems wrong, somehow...
Guess maybe I should have kept that diary after all. I'm still kind of a dork so burning it clearly didn't solve anything.
2006-09-29 15:02:18 · answer #4 · answered by hosmer_angel 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Never, even I red the worst book in the world, I can not to think about burned, maybe there is a reason to be in a bookstore or a library. So the best is looking for a better book and try to forget the other one.
2006-09-29 09:49:03 · answer #5 · answered by Esther 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Life is too short to read a poor book. Just "chalk" it up to experience and move on. Don't burn books. Somebody may want to read it. Donate it your public library or to the Goodwill.
Burning books is a bad idea- 1) safety 2) intellectual freedom
3) it sets a bad example to others- if your don't like something,burn it. Instead of finding a better solution.
2006-09-29 08:38:49 · answer #6 · answered by Malika 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
In high school we always had bonfires at the end of the year and burned the stuff that we really hated studying all year long. It wasn't like anyone was going to use it again, and it's better than if it went to a landfill, not to mention satisfying.
2006-09-29 08:45:40 · answer #7 · answered by Sa-Ba 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
People who start by burning books end up burning people.
You need a fair amount of heat to burn a book anyway. Your ordinary bonfire will just char the outer pages.
2006-09-29 23:48:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Once - it was a terrible Clive Cussler paperback, ghastly prose, ludicrous plot. We were camping and needed something to get the fire going. The book was dry and no one in their right mind would ever read it twice, so into the fire it went.
It burnt a damn sight better than it read.
2006-09-29 08:39:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have never burned a book and never would. I do not feel that there is any justification for burning any work of literature whether you feel it was a waste of a time or not.
2006-09-29 08:31:24 · answer #10 · answered by girk_420 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I have never burned a book. It would have to be the most offensive, sexist, racist, hateful book that I have ever read to move me to do something like that.
2006-09-29 09:18:48 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋