Century!

A Universal History of the Destruction of Books
by Fernando Baez

I'm very happy that this one became the 100th book on my list for this year, but I'm not too happy that I read it. It was, as it says, a history of the destruction of books, from the burning of the Library of Alexandria and the flooding of ancient Sumerian temples full of clay tablets, to the recent looting and burning of the national archives in Iraq, performed by angry Iraqis as American soldiers looked on and did nothing. It was not, however, insightful or interesting -- more of a simple list of bibliocausts, as the author terms them. It was depressing, sure, and it told me something of the respective scales of assaults on knowledge, but it didn't really tell me anything new other than several facts. And I know enough of those. Lots of people have burned lots of books, generally because they were trying to wipe out an idea, or a cultural heritage. But beneath this mask is an idea, and ideas, Mr. Creevy, are bulletproof.