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03/24/2002 Entry: "Today I destroyed books"
I spent about an hour today tossing books into a dumpter.
A message had been sent to the UUCA environmental activism mailing list that left over books from their book sale would be trashed unless they could be donated somewhere or recycled, and that volunteers would be needed to weed out the books that could still be used somehow.
So I volunteered, and when I got there, I became an Afghanistan book donation filterer. They were looking for books suitable for Afghani schools and colleges, nothing too outdated, mind you. I found some old math texts, some bicycle repair guides, and a civics textbook. The picking were really pretty slim. Other people were looking for books the suitable for kids to be donated to shelters, and that could be used for ESL texts
Well, anyway after the filtering phase, there was still a huge amount of books left over. The Arlington library wasn't accepting books until after April 8th because of their own book sale, and there was no room to store the nonsellers anymore. The storage space for filled so books could be dropped off at the library after the 8th, and the then the remainders were sorted based on hardcover or paperback. Paperbacks were recycled, and the hardbooks were just thrown out. Lots of people were making comments about at least not having to see the books burn. There were even a couple references to people feeling like Nazis.
Granted for the most part these where books in very bad condition, and were very outdated and irrelevent. They were, after all, the leftovers of many seasons of book sales, including the last day "buck-a-bag" specials. They were a lot of tell-all books from people I never heard of, or had forgotten about. Lots of economics and physcology books from the fifties, and lots of Red Scare political books. There were also tons of marketing and advertising texts, which I have to admit I didn't mind tossing. After all, I had deemed these subjects unsuitable for Afghani youth !
Soooooo if you're in the Virginia area, and have a need for crappy old books, and you don't mind a little dumpster diving, check out the dumpster at the UUCA. I don't know when the dumpster is emptied, but you may have a day or so. You actually won't need to dive much - the dumpster was pretty close to overflowing when I left. Please don't mess up the area if you visit. Note that there's some sort of military installation across the street that appears to still be on high alert, so you probably don't want to look too suspicious hile you're doing your business. A map is available.
This got me to thinking. If your flag gets old and ratty, there's a very elaborate cermony for disposing of it. I suggest a similar ceremony for the disposal of old books of any kind. At least then people could dispose of books without feeling like a good little brown shit. Oops. Sorry. I meant "shirt". Typo.
It should happen on Book Day, at dusk. In the weeks before the ceremony, the Boy and Girl Scouts would earn merit badges by trying to find a home for all the unwanted books. During the ceremony there would be some sort of "speak now or forever hold your piece" bit, where anyone could claim any of the books they wanted for free which I image would occur during a reading of all the titles about to be destroyed. And then in some sort of suitably somber way the unclaimed books would be destroyed, preferably without a bonfire.
