Poll: Would you ever burn a book?

[lazysquirell]

Burning a book in protest isn't clever and does little more than piss people off, it's disrespectful and opressive towards another's beliefs. You're also essentially belittling others ideas which might be - and usually are - as valid as your own, why burn a book and cause tension thus taking you further away from any kind of resolution? Also it could potentially be a one of rare book thus depriving future generations of some knowledge, ideas, or indeed just enjoyment. You then also have to take into account the symbolism attached with such an act such as censorship, opression, intellectual supremacy, it's just a dick move with all things considered imo.

As for the digital era argument I can see why some people feel that way, I personally beg to differ; there is an unexplainable feeling to picking up a book. Also knowing that perhaps you aren't the first person to have picked that same book up and leafed through it's pages. To me books will always be better than any gadget you could show me, but then I suppose it stands to reason I am a writer. I know it is entirely sentimental but I feel it really would be a crying shame if books were to be replaced entirely. I can understand this argument however since my argument is based on sentiment alone.

I think the thing is some people see it as just paper and it not being an act of disrespecting another's ideas but to others the written word holds more merit.

 

[Thespian]

If I had a logical reason to and it didn't hold any sentimental value then sure. In the end books are just bound paper, I don't see why you would with hold burning them more than anything else.

Because when you burn a book, you not only destroy the paper, you destroy all the knowledge contained within. This does not apply to those mass-produced paperback thrillers you see in every newsagent. I would happily burn those.

Well that's true, but hence I meant "a" book, but not a very specific, say, lost manuscript or something. And even then we'd have to determine if the book's information outweighed whatever need we had to burn it for.

Can't see any situation where you'd need to burn a lost manuscript for warmth in order to survive, but you see what I mean.

 

[SpecklePattern]

I don't know, would you ever break a ruler?

[sub][sub]I don't get it....[/sub][/sub]

Here is another. I'm confused. Yes and no both goes.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Possibly because I needed to set something on fire and paper is flammable.

 

[jackpipsam]

Yes and only if it was twilight

 

[Hamish Durie]

600 page maths text book and my girlfriends twilight

 

[Dogstile]

I once burned a bible because my friends were going on about how it was sacred and that we needed to treat it with respect.

I listened to them all day before grabbing one (it was one of those small ones they give out at schools) and burning it in front of them. The shock on some peoples faces was awesome.

Ahhhh, I enjoyed that day :3

Gotta say, that's being an ass. You can just choose to ignore them or just respectfully tell them that you don't really want to hear their religious views because you disagree. If they insisted on still trying to "enlighten" you, then it would be somewhat okay to do what you did.

If this was the case, sorry for calling you an ass. If not, I stand by my opinion. An atheist myself, by the way.

OT: No, I would never burn a book (regardless of content), unless the situation was dire - something like being stuck in a cold, damp place and we desperately need heat of some sort and don't have access to some alternate fuel.

EDIT: You can at least recycle the book instead of burning it. Doesn't improve it a whole lot, but at least it won't be a complete waste then.

Yup, several hours of "enlightenment" makes a man not want to hear about god anymore. May have been a tad extreme, but it worked.

I once burned a bible because my friends were going on about how it was sacred and that we needed to treat it with respect.

I listened to them all day before grabbing one (it was one of those small ones they give out at schools) and burning it in front of them. The shock on some peoples faces was awesome.

Ahhhh, I enjoyed that day :3

That's kind of a dick move...

I'm never claimed I was anything other than a dick. I take pride in my dickery.

I don't know if that is really something to be proud of.

It takes amazing amounts of not caring, i'm proud.

 

[Fraught]

Why the fuck wouldn't I? It's not like sheets of paper slapped together have SO MUCH MEANING to me that I can't burn even one.

What? What's the point of the question?

 

[Swyftstar]

No. The thought of such a thing makes me die a little inside.

Can I ask why?

I've always found that so weird. It's not like it's the only copy. It's just paper with ink shaped into symbols printed all over it...

Oh, it's nothing logical and it's kind of hard to quantify. I've just always had a intimate relationships with books ever since a rather unhappy childhood where they were the only things I had to keep me sane. It's a sentimental thing. I don't hold any grudges against anybody else who does it.

 

[exessmirror]

only if the book is really really bad i would burn it

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

The only way I'd burn a book is if it was really, really cold. And then I'd burn books I didn't like if the opportunity were given. Other than that, not on purpose. I mean, if I was burning some trash or something and a book happened to be in there, I woulnd't dive in after it or anything.

 

[Realitycrash]

Unless it's freezing, I'm stuck in a cave over the night and the only thing I got to burn to stay warm is books, no.
Books are sacred to me, and burning them represents an antithesis to civilization, reason and all mankind has achieved.

 

[Stephanos132]

Not unless it was absolutely necessary (only viable fuel for miles). Even then, I'd try to preserve books on knowledge, history, how to do things and maybe some of the better novels. Most others can go.

 

[Jnat]

Waste of paper.

 

[^=ash=^]

I wouldn't go out of my way to burn a book, but I could do it if I had to.

xxx

 

[Brainpalm]

Only the Bible.....

 

[freakydan]

I burned a copy of Jane Austen's Persuasion after my Literature and Theater class in college. That book had hurt enough people. Besides, in this day and age, when books are mass produced, burning one copy of a book isn't a big deal. They can churn another copy out in no time. It's not like I burned a copy of the Gutenberg Bible or something historically significant. It was a copy of a book I paid too much for, that the bookstore would give me significantly less for, and so it was either burn it in the fireplace, or toss it in with the trash, where it would have sat in with the rotting food on the way to the dump.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Yeah, if I was cold.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I can just about deal with dropping a worn out or damaged book in the recycling, knowing it'll be ' reborn ', but burning a book feels symbolic, and just wrong.

yeah, I'm hung up on books.

strangely, I've got zero problems with destroying cds, videos, dvds etc.

 

[dfphetteplace]

I once burned a bible because my friends were going on about how it was sacred and that we needed to treat it with respect.

I listened to them all day before grabbing one (it was one of those small ones they give out at schools) and burning it in front of them. The shock on some peoples faces was awesome.

Ahhhh, I enjoyed that day :3

And not a single fuck was given that day.