poetry / wdys / writing prompts

Burning books?

Chris Hall51 Comments

Burning books?
Surely not?
Well, why not?

No, you’re crazy… really crazy,
and heaven forbid.
Just don’t do it.

But, again, why not?
There’s no value in these,
so what’s the point?

But, but…
But what can I say?
It’s, well, just wrong.
In fact, I’m thinking you’re deranged.

I know what you’re saying,
but at least we can use those books
to make part of our fire.

Now what are you thinking?
I’m thinking you might be… well, right!

~~~

Image credit: Ebahir @ Unsplash

This image shows a table top with a glass of a drink, probably juice or cold coffee, and a few open books, one of which is either in Persian or Arabic.

Written in response to Sadje‘s What Do You See #352 photo prompt.

What do you see # 352- 3 August, 2026

51 thoughts on “Burning books?”

    • I almost didn’t write this, even though it’s totally true. We had to get rid of quite a lot of books from another house which was sold. Old tatted non-fiction books – nobody would even take them away for free. So putting them on our fire is fine in the evening… toasty we say!

      Would you be happy for that, Nigel? 🤔

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  2. Lol… I had to burn a lot of the old.. Britannica Encyclopedias… the heavy volumes we purchased back in the day. No one wanted them, and we were clearing the house. But I kept a very old Bible from
    1920s and a Matthew Henry’s commentary, which I donated to a seminary.
    I would love to preserve a much books as possible.
    Alas… no room.

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  5. burn down ideas that hurt people or places, not the books, even if we don’t agree with what they say. leave them outside for someone to pick them up and take them, put them back in the universe.
    p.s. i love, love real books, made of paper, the best. sometimes i buy them just because they’re so beautiful

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  6. They are hard to get rid of, although the public libraries will take some gently used. On our side of the pond, there’s a lot of energy going into destroying history, literature, and putting “sanitized” versions online. All familiar marks of dict@tor$h!p. So everybody hold onto a few books & start to memorize, just in case? (Fahrenheit 451)

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  7. “Fahrenheit 8/03”? Or, as Faulkner might say, fire creates “Light in August.” But, seriously, burning books might be done only as a desperate last alternative if they can’t be given away.

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  9. alas the future of burning books is way more insidious. At least in Fahrenheit 451’s world the facts, the history, the tales of the world were there to be recovered… the new world simply replaces the print with ai stories (stories pushed on Readers without editing)… they’re in no hurry, teach the children what you want them to know

    damn! you do have a gift for rabble-rousing lol

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    • Some tatty books mean very little, recycled or even burned, but as you’ve said all this stuff about AI is mind boggling. I kind of think I shouldn’t have written what I did yesterday, but hey-hoe it’s there. Still, I will write something much lighter, and even, fun! Back to my booth etc.

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  10. looking forward to it (our weekly time at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro) as to your post about books… no! it was a very good post for stirring things up (I try to remind myself to try and write in a way that’ll trigger the Reader, one way or another, ya know?

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    • Well, what I wrote was true. My hubby suggested that some of the really tatty and not useful books could be either recycled or (even) burned. And since its rather chilly, we can easily use are lovely fire. It seemed wrong but I have got over the worry of burning books, or at least non useful tatty books. I would never ever get rid of nice, useful and interesting books!

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    • Ah yes, I do remember that film about those awful burning books in IJ. And that was a bad bit. However, you’ll see just up there what I’ve said. For example, would you want a book called “Duplicate Bridge Rules Simplified”? I think not. 😂

      p.s. Still stuck in spam (shame).
      Phew, a little rain at least… more soon would be better. I’d been watching the weather on Sky News earlier, so I’d seen that.

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  14. Yea, this is the one. In Estonian the title is written together as “Raamatuvaras” so I always forget. My mother gifted it to me at a convention where they were talking about the author… Gosh I was young…

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  15. Quite a dilemma, especially for those who are book lovers. I can empathise with you. Space becomes such a constraint after some point that you don’t know what to do with the old books. Well written Chris. 👏👏👏😊

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  17. There are unfortunately some books that don’t have any value. I’ve seen some used for crafts. The pages folded just so, or turned into hidden safes, the pages used for paper mache… But to burn them…even for fuel, perhaps it could be a good use, if nothing else were available. Sigh.

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