Books on Fire
Books on Fire is a new arrival which explores the lamentably many examples of book burnings and the destruction of libraries throughout history. It is penned by a noted French historian named Lucien X. Polastron.
He does an excellent but depressing job of recounting the many examples of the annihilation of libraries starting with the fire that destroyed the Great Library at Alexandria which set back classical learning for hundreds of years. He goes right up to the present day with examples like the destruction of the National Libraries of Sarajevo and of Iraq. He is sceptical of the digital book and see it as a threat to the physical book and ultimately to the library itself. It is wise to recall Heinrich Heine's ominous and prophetic words about book burnings: "Where they burn books, they will in the end burn human beings as well."