WHAT? He's a bookseller and he's BURNING BOOKS?
This took me as a completely "Ohmyshit" moment:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/6E033DB989C55840862572EE001D0B1C?OpenDocument
[excerpt]
Owner of used-book store burns stock in protest
By David Twiddy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/03/2007
KANSAS CITY - During the 10 years Tom Wayne has operated Prospero's Books, a used-book store in midtown Kansas City, he has amassed thousands of books in a warehouse.
Ranging 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 and a textbook on beginning Polish, the books won't sell. Wayne said even local libraries and thrift stores have told him they're full.
Last week, Wayne began putting them to the torch, tossing scores of books into a burning cauldron to protest what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.
"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.
[article continues ...]
You can "Save a Book" at the store website, http://prosperosbookstore.com, for $1 + shipping and the guy has some really valuable stuff, and even if he doesn't, it's a book for a buck!
But what really makes me wonder is that no one -- no organization or library -- would take these books when he tried to give them away. Are we serious? Is he serious? Where are all those literacy programs? The places like SafeHouse where we donated a children's book to every Christmas when I was growing up? Shit, where's Google when you really need someone to collect and scan all these written works. (Although Google's desire to one day scan copyrighted material for "free purusal and reading by the public" scares the shit out of me because it means that no writer will be able to live as a writer and truely devote their life to it so who knows where literature will die. Right now it's just works that are public domain.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/6E033DB989C55840862572EE001D0B1C?OpenDocument
[excerpt]
Owner of used-book store burns stock in protest
By David Twiddy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/03/2007
KANSAS CITY - During the 10 years Tom Wayne has operated Prospero's Books, a used-book store in midtown Kansas City, he has amassed thousands of books in a warehouse.
Ranging 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 and a textbook on beginning Polish, the books won't sell. Wayne said even local libraries and thrift stores have told him they're full.
Last week, Wayne began putting them to the torch, tossing scores of books into a burning cauldron to protest what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.
"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.
[article continues ...]
You can "Save a Book" at the store website, http://prosperosbookstore.com, for $1 + shipping and the guy has some really valuable stuff, and even if he doesn't, it's a book for a buck!
But what really makes me wonder is that no one -- no organization or library -- would take these books when he tried to give them away. Are we serious? Is he serious? Where are all those literacy programs? The places like SafeHouse where we donated a children's book to every Christmas when I was growing up? Shit, where's Google when you really need someone to collect and scan all these written works. (Although Google's desire to one day scan copyrighted material for "free purusal and reading by the public" scares the shit out of me because it means that no writer will be able to live as a writer and truely devote their life to it so who knows where literature will die. Right now it's just works that are public domain.