A Missouri bookstore owner held his own bookburning yesterday. It was not, as one might imagine, a Bible-Belt protest against questionable content or subject matter of the books themselves. Tom Wayne burned his overstock of used books as a protest against what he sees as society's decline in interest in reading. This after he discovered that he was unable to give away his overstock to local libraries and thrift stores. He called his bookburning "A funeral pyre for thought in America today." His bonfire blazed for about 50 minutes before the fire department came and put it out because he didn't have a permit. But he intends to get one and to hold monthly bonfires until his overstock of about 20,000 books is gone.
Despite dozens of people showing up to purchase books at the last minute to save them from the bonfire, the majority of fiction, art, history, children's literature, and even antiquarian books are ultimately headed for a fiery demise. Mr. Wayne pointed to a 2002 study by the National Endowment for the Arts that found that less than half of adult respondents reported reading for pleasure, down from almost 57 percent in 1982. He cites the Internet, with its easy access to information, as one cause of declining readership. And the trickle-down effect of dwindling sales in his own store has led to his overstock situation.
It's unfortuante that local institutions in Mr. Wayne's area were unable to acquire his overstock. Perhaps the national publicity Mr. Wayne's story is generating will help rescue the remainder of his overstock from suffering the same fate as yesterday's batch of books. Surely there must be schools, homeless shelters, hospices, nursing homes, etc. across the country that would welcome a large supply of books? Maybe we'll see a follow-up story to this, one in which more of his books will find good homes. I certainly hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment