Book Burning in Kansas City

I have always felt a certain connection to the books I read. So much so that I have trouble parting with them even after I've read them. My book shelves are overflowing with these old friends and contrary to my wife's protests, there they are staying.

So you can imagine my confusion when I read that a bookstore in Kansas City decided to burn hundreds of books to "spark" controversy. I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that in a city the size of Kansas City, there are no takers for the books. Homeless shelters? Libraries? Community centers?

The goal of the stunt was to shock people into a serious discussion about the importance of books in the face of a marked shrinking in reading trends, and staggering waste streams of actual books.

OK - discussions about promoting reading is a good thing. But I'm betting that donating the books to useful organizations would have produced better results.

No Sleep...

Here it is - 5 AM on Saturday morning and I'm at the keyboard. I've been waking up real early all week and I had a feeling that I'd have trouble sleeping in on Saturday. Usually if I can make it in till 8 or so that's doing good.

I hope to find so time this weekend to work on an application that I'm doing for a Christian organization called Love Packages. These people do great work sending literature and books throughout the world. They need some database work keeping track of things so I'm hoping to help out a bit.

So as the family sleeps I'll be on the laptop. This will be a good time to comment on the book I'm currently reading: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta.