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This post is all my personal opinion and you don’t need to agree with me at all. I welcome other opinions so please do comment down below!
Recently, on Instagram, I saw a post by an individual stating that they absolutely hated their Harry Potter books and because of that they decided to burn them! The post caught my attention and I just had to check it out, fully believing that it was a prank and/or click-bait. Sadly…it wasn’t!
I went on to read that they didn’t like Harry Potter because it was too dark. To me it seemed like the individual was a fanatic or something, pulling in religious quotes about how magic is bad and just ripping apart the entire community. It wasn’t exactly written well, something a little childish in my opinion, BUT, that is not the point of this post. I’m here to talk about NOT BURNING BOOKS! Dear god…please don’t!
Give the book a second life if you’re doing it because it’s old!
I’m not generally one for defacing books, but sometimes you get books that are too well worn and falling apart, so painting them, or painting on the pages, I’m not completely against. It does give them another life in a way if they are too far gone to be read. But even then, you really need to be careful what books you choose. But burning books?!
The message behind book burning, and it’s history, is horrible!
Book burning was used in the 1930’s, during WWII, by the Nazi’s. It was a way for them to control what people were reading and to get rid of anything that they felt was wrong. The burning of books stands as a very powerful symbol of intolerance.
People still do this now, burning religious texts to get a message across. If you burn something, it shows you have absolutely no respect for it. And to me, that is beyond wrong.
If you don’t like it, donate it!
If you are going to burn a book and clearly don’t want it anymore, you might as well donate it. You can even sell it for a few dollars and make some money back! Someone else will appreciate the book, especially when it’s popular books such as Harry Potter! Someone who may not be able to afford a full price book could get a book they’ve always wanted!
It doesn’t matter if you detest the book, but it’s not really your place to be burning the written word. It’s the utmost form of disrespect and to book people, rude! To authors it is extremely hurtful.
Just why would you do it?!
So overall, if you ever have a moment that you want to destroy a book, just take a moment to breathe and think what other people may view you as when you do it. How others may take your message.
For me, I immediately had to unfollow because I can’t, in good conscience, follow someone who does that. I know people burn books as art symbols or something, and I don’t agree with that either, but burning it because you detest it, that’s just a whole new level of wrong for me personally.
What do you think about this? I’m sure quite a few will agree (based on many things I’ve read), but if you agree with it, I’d love to hear why!
Omg i could never burn a book, wether i like it or not. Great post.
😡 I can’t understand why anyone would think this is okay!! I totally agree with everything you’ve said.
Gemma @ http://www.gemmasbooknook.blogspot.com
Yeah…It really hurt….
My heart! Well done!
Hi, I understand why you were so appalled at me burning my Harry Potter books. However, I think you misunderstood: I was not burning the books because I don’t like them – I was burning them because of the message the Harry Potter series promotes. Magic is evil and not something to take lightly. Just as you, in good conscience cannot continue to follow me (which is fine) – I, in good conscience, cannot give away a series which promotes and glorifies magic. Hope this cleared everything up. Have a great weekend!
Thank you for your comment! I guess I slightly did misunderstand part of where you were coming from. However, I personally don’t really agree magic being terribly evil. Don’t get me wrong, I understood the quotes that you used completely and, being a religious person myself, avoid things with magic in them most of the time because I’ve been taught, just like you, of the evil that some things can bring forward. But I don’t really think that books like these are a threat as they’re completely harmless YA reads. Sure, I avoid Wicca books and things that involve actual spells in them as those can be dangerous, but these books which don’t bring anything that could be remotely dangerous in them, as it’s completely made up, I don’t personally see as a threat to anything. But of course, I do know that people did have an uproar after the books came out. I just, I guess, really don’t agree with burning of the books no matter the reason behind it, especially with what history has to state about burning books.
Wow I can’t believe someone had burned their books. I always donate mine once I’m done with them.
J.K Rowling made a wonderful comment about someone burning her books and DVD’s I cannot remember it word for word but the gist was. ‘Burn them if you must, but there are still millions of people that love Potter. I will still have your money and the fumes might get you.’
It sickens me when people burn any art that someone has worked hard on. I am not about to become religious because you burned a book. It is a ridiculous fiery tantrum from people who should know better. They won’t donate them because they believe their weird theories that the boy wizard will make you seek out the devil to sell your soul and get to Hogwarts. (or something like that.)
It me it’s just a blatant disregard to books in general.
I actually remember seeing that a while back! Forgot about that quote. Such a beautiful way to put it, because it’s so true!!!
That’s terrible! I could hate a book but I wouldn’t burn it! I don’t even know what to say:(
I absolutely agree. While art has a certain leeway, no one should use any of those acts (or words!!) that were so central to that dark time and its message.
If you don’t like magic, don’t buy a book about a wizard school.
Seriously, magic isn’t real, just like vampires, werewolves etc aren’t real. How people can call something that isn’t real evil is just beyond me. I doubt JK Rowling is that bothered by their book burning.