Poll: Would you ever burn a book?

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binvjoh

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Sep 27, 2010
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ultratog1028 said:
binvjoh said:
Why not?

It's just paper.
So are $100 bills, the US constitution, your birth certificate, and the Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.

Would you burn those simply because they are paper
Those are specified objects, simply saying "a book" isn't going to provoke any sort of emotional response in me.
 

subtlefuge

Lord Cromulent
May 21, 2010
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dogstile said:
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
I wish I understood how you felt, but to me burning any book makes the joke on you. It shows intolerance and ignorance.
 

gregitaly

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Mar 12, 2009
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IndianaJonny said:
Very true. And it's something almost a little too easy to slip into on the Internet (guilty as charged!). You start to get into bad habits like commenting on world-affairs threads without reading around the subject, lazily assuming the OP has actually read the article he's reacting to, and so on. It may be less (stupidly) impressive but often enough, not knowing what to make of something is a perfectly acceptable position to be in for those of us not looking to inflate our ego.

Is it a fear of making decisions? No, I think I'm just fearful of people who feel they have the right to arbitarily make decisions for other people. Librarians don't tell you what (not) to read, they help you find what your after and make relevant suggestions.
Ah I believe it was Descartes who once so eloquently opined: "Tru Dat Dawg!"
 

IndianaJonny

Mysteron Display Team
Jan 6, 2011
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gregitaly said:
IndianaJonny said:
Very true. And it's something almost a little too easy to slip into on the Internet (guilty as charged!). You start to get into bad habits like commenting on world-affairs threads without reading around the subject, lazily assuming the OP has actually read the article he's reacting to, and so on. It may be less (stupidly) impressive but often enough, not knowing what to make of something is a perfectly acceptable position to be in for those of us not looking to inflate our ego.

Is it a fear of making decisions? No, I think I'm just fearful of people who feel they have the right to arbitarily make decisions for other people. Librarians don't tell you what (not) to read, they help you find what your after and make relevant suggestions.
Ah I believe it was Descartes who once so eloquently opined: "Tru Dat Dawg!"
Yeah, it was either him or Marie Curie; sometimes I just can't tell them apart.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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subtlefuge said:
dogstile said:
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
I wish I understood how you felt, but to me burning any book makes the joke on you. It shows intolerance and ignorance.
I get the bibles lessons and I get why people want to tell me how great it is. Its just I was fed up with people telling me I should be religious.

I've tried, i've tried and i've tried, i'm not and they wouldn't shut up. I shocked them, they shut up and stopped trying. We all win! Right?
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
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Yes. Why would I not burn a book? It's not like books are flags. They're just books.

Of course, the situation would have to warrant it. I don't go around burning anything, including books, for no good reason.
 

Gkthepwner

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Apr 30, 2011
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Yeha sure. Why are you guys so attached to them?
Would burn the Twilight series, any random Justin Beiber biographies, etc.
Aka, books that suck.
 

Jessta

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Feb 8, 2011
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If I was given a good reason and it wasn't a book I particularly cared for... Hell I would burn a book I LOVED if it was for a REALLY REALLY REALLY good reason, like staying alive whilst freezing to death.
 

fooddood3

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Nov 5, 2010
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dogstile said:
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...
 

alittlepepper

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Feb 14, 2010
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I have burned a couple of books, usually ones I really hated. You can slate pretty much any Dickensian work into this category (I appreciate the realism of stories but my god he just had no idea how to shut the hell up already), as well as The Scarlet Letter, but there was one book I read of my own volition that I hated so much that I basically purged it from my memory. I vaguely remember what it was about, but I can't recall the title. It was slow, dull, boring, ineffective, lethargic, and about as predictable as playing Pac Man. Which is bad for a horror book.
So yes, I read all the way through it because I swore to myself I would, then promptly took it outside, soaked it in petrol, wrapped it in Chinese firecrackers and lit the whole damn thing off at once.
 

Chase Yojimbo

The Samurai Sage
Sep 1, 2009
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Yes and no. There are to many variables to state exactly how I would deal with burning or not burning a book. Would I burn a 'certain' book out of necessity? If I lived back in 1942, I doubt very much anyone would mind if I burned 'Mein Kampf', however now that I live in 2011, the supposed 'Age of Reason', I would never burn a book, no matter how horrid it is. However, if it came to my life or anothers in a harsh cold environment, I would sacrifice a book for warmth, because that warmth is both symbolic of knowledge and life, and in the end it still serves its purpose.
 

teebeeohh

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Jun 17, 2009
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i did burn books once
me and a couple of friends burned several copies of "mein Kampf" while on holiday (since the damn thing is illegal to own in Germany). Poetic justice and all that.
 

Wereduck

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Jun 17, 2010
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alittlepepper said:
I have burned a couple of books, usually ones I really hated. You can slate pretty much any Dickensian work into this category (I appreciate the realism of stories but my god he just had no idea how to shut the hell up already), as well as The Scarlet Letter, but there was one book I read of my own volition that I hated so much that I basically purged it from my memory. I vaguely remember what it was about, but I can't recall the title. It was slow, dull, boring, ineffective, lethargic, and about as predictable as playing Pac Man. Which is bad for a horror book.
So yes, I read all the way through it because I swore to myself I would, then promptly took it outside, soaked it in petrol, wrapped it in Chinese firecrackers and lit the whole damn thing off at once.
+1 to this.
Burning a book because it offends you is, of course, a revolting display of arrogant, ignorant intolerance. Burning a book because it stole many painful hours of your life and you want revenge is perfectly acceptable. It's your property; as long as it's not an animal or a sentient machine you can treat it however you like (whether one could treat a sentient machine as property is a whole other argument).

The only reason I haven't burned the most horrid books I've read is because I wanted to preserve them as a warning to future generations.

EDIT: ...and for the record, Dickens doesn't bother me.
 

lord.jeff

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Oct 27, 2010
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I would but not for reasons of hating the book, everything that is created has a right to exist even if I hate it, but if I had to choose between a Nial Gaiman book and an Ayn Rand book to burn for warmth, I'd choose to burn the Ayn Rand book.
 

Sejs Cube

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Jun 16, 2008
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Depending on the circumstances, sure.

A book is just a thing. It's not like it's somehow sacred just because it's words on a page.