Sunday, March 15, 2009

How can anyone throw away books?


The new law went into effect banning children's books which were printed before 1985. Why? Because there might be a trace of lead in them. The law, which is to make everything for children safe, fails to take into account books. So many wonderful, out of print books have been discarded by book shops in order to keep in line with the law. Its a very wrong thing to do, in my opinion. It reminds me of the book and movie Fahrenheit 451, where all books were banned. People had to memorize books and pass them down for future generations. Sure, this isn't the same thing but its a step in the wrong direction. We can't make blanket laws without considering all of the implications of it. I've been an insatiable reader for as long as I can remember. I'm middle age now and am quite healthy, according to my doctor. The minute amount of lead in my books and toys hasn't seemed to cause me any problems that I know of. I am all for protecting children from dangerous toys. Too many products produced in China have had an unhealthy level of toxins in them, all to save money. We need to promote a "buy American" slogan, where we can buy safe products and save jobs. However, the great historic literature from long ago days should be protected. This is our heritage and as such, deserves to be exempted form annihilation. Just think, all of those wonderful hardback editions of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys would be a thing of the past. Is that what we really want?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How awful! Can't anything be done to put a stop to this? I need to check into that.

Anonymous said...

Write your congressman. Write letters to the editor, etc.