StatCounter

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Throw another novel on the fire



At one time my lovely wife ran an on-line used bookstore. We picked up a lot of books in bulk. You never knew what you were going to get, but it didn't matter. It only took a handful of decent books to make the purchase worthwhile.

That's how we ended up with a box of Danielle Steel novels. I've got nothing against her personally. She has a hardcore group of followers that buy her new books. There's almost no market for her old ones. However, mixed in with hardwood scraps they burn nicely in the woodstove.

I was reminded of that scene in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” where everyone is freezing in a library. They have a big fireplace but can't decided on what books to burn for heat. Finally someone points out they have a whole big room full of tax law books. Nobody had any objection to burning those.

I've never burned books before. The Nazis gave the whole book burning thing a bad name. It should have a bad name. However, an awful lot of books get discarded or sent to the pulper. The fact of the matter is that there is only a limited market for used books these days.

Some markets are more limited than others.

Right now it's snowing pretty hard. Thanks to Danielle Steel I'm saved a trip to the woodpile.

-Sixbears

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Me too. :) Really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but . . .

      Delete
  2. Oh well, if it helps to keep the home fires burning.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. It hurts my heart to think of burning any kind of books, but if you gotta, then DS is a good choice. I like that silly movie!
    Stay warm!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I suspect in the long run more books will go page by page into outhouses than will ever be put into fireplaces....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably what will happen.

      . . . now where did my wife put those Romance novels?

      Delete
  5. all those "quick to get rich" and "fad diets" books could yeild some good heat too...

    saving the T bills for the outhose, like junk bonds be useful there

    Wildflower

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about all those disaster books for the years 2000 and 2012?

      Delete
  6. good point there, along with tax records, law books, and the new york times...

    Wildflower

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, that's the level the 'Times has sunk to.

      Delete
  7. I find that books printed near the beginning of the last century burn better than modern paper. They really bank a fine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paper making has changed a lot in the last 100 years, so that's probably it. Hate to burn really old books though.

      Delete