The last good-bye (a respectful farewell to secular books as well as the Bible and the Quran)

These two questions haunt university libraries, famous writers and bibliophiles of all ages:

What do you do with too many books?

What do you do with a book that has become too damaged to use?

One abstract writer summed up the problem beautifully:

There is an inherent tension in most literate cultures between the idea of a book or enduring text on the one hand and the possibility of its disposal or destruction on the other. Disposing of books transgresses inhibitions reinforced by family, school, media, and government. The concern for book preservation involves respect for culture(s), veneration of traditions, and, at its root, the preservation of cultural values (Abstract: "Disposing of Non-Disposable Texts").

Even if we are disposing of a secular text, one without the weight of history and sacred tradition, educated and intelligent people find it difficult to destroy books.  Ray Bradbury's anti-Utopian novel Farenheit 451 is set in a future uncannily like our present, where people are literate, but read only non-fiction; choose shallow, interactive entertainment over reading; have lost connection and empathy; and whose government routinely burns books and kills thinkers.  We instinctively know that, when we lose books, we lose ourselves.

Nevertheless, at some point, even the most beloved books will become too damaged to repair or keep, and then we must face the hard question:  What is the best way to deal with a discarded book?  For sacred texts, the question is even more complicated:  How do we dispose of this sacred text while respecting its content and traditions?

Quotes from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (just because I love books)

Works Cited

"Abstract: Disposing OfNon-Disposable Texts." Syracuse University Library. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://surface.syr.edu/rel/32/>.
Citation for actual book (not the abstract above): James W. Watts, “Disposing of Non-Disposable Texts,” in The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in the World Religions, ed. Kristina Myrvold. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 147-59.