Bookstore Owner Looking For Knee-Jerking Fun

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

His collection ranges from best sellers, such as Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" and Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities," to obscure titles, like a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910. But when he wanted to thin out the collection, he found he couldn't even give away books to libraries or thrift shops; they said they were full.

So on Sunday, Wayne began burning his books in protest of what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.

He's protesting society's diminishing support for the printed word, yet all the libraries and thrift shops are full. If support for the printed word was diminishing, wouldn't those places, especially libraries, be having a difficult time keeping their collections "full"?

One of this morons supporters believes that "not reading a book is as good as burning it". Is that some sort of "fuzzy logic"? There are hundreds of books I have not read, although I would love to read them. If somebody burned them because I am not reading them yet, when they thought I should have already read them, I would never have the chance to read them.

How is burning books going to make we want to read more? Maybe it's just me, but I think there are more efficient ways to create interest in books. Then again, curling up with a good book might not warm the cockles of your heart as much as watching a stack of the classics burn in front of an independent booksellers storefront.

However, the bookstore owner sums it up best, all by himself.

"After slogging through the tens of thousands of books we've slogged through, and to accumulate that many and to have people turn you away when you take them somewhere, it's just kind of a knee-jerk reaction," he said. "And it's a good excuse for fun."

It was a knee-jerk reaction and he was just looking for a good excuse to have some fun.

Burning books, no matter the reason, is just a stupid idea.

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