This is so sad. And such a waste! I'm sure there are literacy programs or libraries that could have used those books.

Indeed. What a waste.

It's too bad that nobody wanted them, though.

bah. What an idjit. Those books would have made perfectly good props for a rich person's library. Do you know how much they pay for prop libraries these days?

Seriously, I weep. You can't imagine how thrilled I was to find a few small shelves of used English language books here at one of the Athens bookshops. (They have more, but not a lot, of new English language books, as well, but gah - so expensive! I can't afford right now!)

I used to haunt the used book shops in New Orleans. It was one of my favorite activities, and one of my major, major losses when moving.

Meh, it's not a big deal. Only 2% of all books published are worth the paper on which they are printed.

Paper is such a destructive technology, it deserves to go the way of the CD. Too bad he didn't just recycle them.

I want those books. I cry for those goddamn books. I have never, ever been able to bear to throw a book away, and the thought of burning people's thoughts and words and fucking lifetime works just makes me want to scream.

If you ask me, this Wayne fellow is a madman. Unbelievable. Could he at least open up his collection of unwanted, unsellable books for the public to browse and take home for free? Jesus.

Yeah, we should get rid of all our books, so that after WWIII nobody will ever know we existed.

Tom Wayne amassed thousands of books in a warehouse during the 10 years he has run his used book store, Prospero's Books.

Just so we're clear, I totally did not give this guy permission to burn my books.

ha!!!!

What about donating them to nursing homes? Or rehab centers? Or even hospitals, for waiting rooms/longterm patients? Prisons? You mean to tell me that none of those kinds of places wanted these books? Shoot, I'd take some of 'em, particularly antique ones. It's a waste of good paper, and a waste of the reading experience. I like nothing better than to hold a book in my hands, curled up somewhere with no distractions, and lose myself in it's pages.

Paper is such a destructive technology, it deserves to go the way of the CD. Too bad he didn't just recycle them.
I agree that it's a shame he didn't recycle them, but I hope the book never goes the way of the CD, because there is nothing quite like curling up with an actual book to escape the madness of the world for a while. Anything made of plastic or that needs recharging will never, ever replace this (one of very, very few remaining) pleasure in my life.

Ha, snap!

Well, that's your own sentimentality, dg. As much as I love to read, I would much rather know that future generations have forests to enjoy rather than warehouses full of Jokes for the John.

Think about this situation for a moment. Not only were these books that a used book store could not sell, these were books that sat in a used book store's warehouse. A very significant portion of them are already acid-rotted. Their best use now is toilet paper.

redvixen: Don't worry. He didn't burn anything with any value, and if he did, that's his own loss.

Of course it's my sentimentality. However, I don't have a problem with the use of paper for things I consider permanent, such as books. I do have a problem with the massive use of paper for newspapers that have a lifespan measured in hours and are then discarded in landfills. It is a crying shame that any books are burned and a sad reflection on the society we live in that books have so little value that you can't even give them away.

Reading a bit deeper, this guy is using the old "Buy this book or we shoot this dog" hype. Toward the end, the story reveals that customers could buy a stack for $10 before they went on the fire.

IOW, the usual CNN spin to stir up the blogosphere and generate page hits, and the same tricks that Fox News has duplicated so deftly.