The first person who called the newspaper on Monday about the helter-skelter mess was horrified by the prospective abortion.
What About Them?
So many people, so many institutions could have benefited from the books that were destined to be ground up into logoburgers.
From New Orleans to Biloxi, he said, look at all of the libraries victimized by Hurricane Katrina that would have done anything to acquire them.
Where is the compassion, the creativity of Culver City?
Friends to the Rescue
Mayor Alan Corlin, the No. 1 member of the Friends of the Library, said his extremely active club spent hours on Sunday retrieving the most salvageable copies for the clubs next book sale, on Saturday, July 14, at the library.
Logistically, he said, their only choice was to allow the books to be hauled away to an unseemly grave.
Capacity-Plus
We did not have room anywhere, the mayor said.
Everyplace inside of the library was jammed with books.
The mayor joined Friends members Kevin Commins, Steve Wieber, John and Nancy Kuechle, Vince Motyl and Steve Rose in carefully sorting through the treasury of no-longer-appreciated words.
Belching Books
You should have seen the scene that greeted us, Mr. Corlin said.
It looked as if the library had just thrown up.
Everywhere there were books. The dock behind the library must have been five feet deep with books. Completely full.
He said the books had to be swiftly disposed of as a safety factor.
Condition of Books
Mr. Corlin insisted that the majority of books were in unredeemable condition.
But that was not my experience on Monday. From an original inventory of about 6,000, perhaps 60 percent remained.
Just before the lunch hour, kind of on tiptoes, I approached the dock.
Little Had Changed
It still was groaning with thousands of volumes. Thousands more were inside two dumpsters, one marked for recycling.
The feeling was eerie. For a moment, I felt as if I had broken into someones home.
Quietly and quickly as I could beneath the serious noonday sun, I began to stack up as many books as would fit in my two arms without causing me to at least obviously stagger.
For Sale, for Steal, for What?
I gathered history books, a classic novel from the 19th century, an American Heritage dictionary, a Spanish-for-dummies book all hardcovers. I probably doubled my weight.
I took one step toward vacating the dock when the dreaded worst happened.
A door behind me cracked open.
I turned instantly catatonic.
How Can I Explain?
Not, however, before thinking about the lead I would write for a story to be dictated from a jail cell where I would be held for book-homicide or book-napping.
Why hadnt I gone inside and conducted business the right way?
I could have sprung for the several dollars I usually cough up for sale books and been done with it.
But no.
Who Could Walk Away?
Here was a delicious new pool of tomes to choose from. An irresistible temptation.
Once the library called the cops, would anyone in the squad car recognize me?
Could I plead a case of mistaken identity?
You are right. There is not anyone else who looks like this.
She Shouldnt Have Known
By this time, the apparent library employee had strode past me, unaware of the close brush she was having with a near criminal. I reached in my pocket for a 10-dollar bill.
When I was obviously trying to make a slippery but awkward getaway, would she accept the money in payment for what I found on the Kill pile?
Luckily, she kept going.
Gratefully, so did I.
Think It Over
The mass destruction of these books is, worthy of further reflection.
Where is the heralded sensitivity of our leaders?
To everyone who values American culture, who is raising children, who worships the written word, this is a tragedy of rebukable proportion.
Within walking distance of wherever you live, children and adults are starving, intellectually, because they cannot raise even a modest sum to purchase the book(s) they crave.
Learning Too Late
What is the lesson for the impressionable among us?
When you are finished reading a book, toss it into the nearest receptacle?
Seventy years ago, Nazi Germany massively burned books to teach Jews a lesson.
Did not we learn from that experience?
No. 1 Valuable
My proudest possession is my book collection. On those rare occasions when Diane and I agree to surrender excess volumes because they are outdated or we have multiple copies, they are delivered to the nearest National Council of Jewish Women or Goodwill store.
Inappropriate Burial
Since I never put any of my sons into a trash barrel, neither would I so maltreat a book from which I had derived immeasurable knowledge and pleasure
When my sons were young, one value I stressed was the sacredness and fragility of books. I taught them to embed three words in their minds:
Books are precious.
Just not to everyone, unfortunately.
