Why are they burning books in south Wales?
Pensioners in Swansea are supposedly burning books to keep warm. What are the alternatives to such a barbaric practice?
“Book burning seems terribly wrong, but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves,” one charity-shop assistant said.
It certainly goes against the grain
However, while it goes against the grain, this is not an effort to suppress unpopular ideas. These elderly people are not burning those books out of some misguided perception that they need to protect others from themselves for their own good. They are doing it so they don’t freeze to death in their own homes. This action can be regarded as nothing more than a movement to recycle old books as heat.
Kudos to Leo Hickman, by the way, the journalist who wrote the piece. Nice to see someone offering alternatives instead of just bitching about the situation.
There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.
And it’s not like the books
And it’s not like the books they are burning are ones of any importance.
Think of it as the scene in Day After Tomorrow where they are burning the tax codes and useless reference materials whilst keeping the Guttenberg Bible safe 😉
These books would have just been thrown away if not sold for pennies. Saying that there must be something about South Wales that allows somewhere to sell books for pennies. I’ve never seen books sold for that price anywhere, not even jumble sales!
I guess Oxfam et al just shred the useless ones these days?