Books: Words, words, mere words?

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act V, scene iii

Whether spoken or printed, words are ultimately, only representations, not the things themselves; or words are symbols - representations of ideas and subject to definition, interpretation, redefinition, and misinterpretation.  Yet they are the primary means by which we communicate our thoughts and experiences, and how we express our deepest values and beliefs.  Hence the two questions raised at the end of my last post:

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? (Beside Strange Waters, Mar. 8, 2012)

This is obviously a problem for many people and institutions.  A Google search for "how to get rid of books" will yield "about 139,000,000 results," including:

"How to Get Rid of Old Books" at WikiHow
"New Ways to Do It Make Giving Away Books a Bit Less Painful" (New York Times 2007)

and

"Breaking the Sentimental Attachment to Books" from becomingminimalist.com

One thing these websites have in common is the idea that books should be shared, sold, or given away; as a last resort, damaged books should be recycled.  Nobody advocates the burning of books.

For an excellent overview of the negative connotations of book burning, see the Wikipedia article on "Book burning."

Book burning, in general, is bad!