At the book scanning facilities they slice the spines off of the books so they can be fed into the scanner faster. These books, often obscure, often, books that have never been read by any person for decades are then thrown away.
The symbolism in incinerating them is obvious, but perhaps the paper is recycled not burned. Perhaps it is packed into a landfill.
Fresh human written text untainted by the AI generated content that fills the internet now is very valuable.
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Replying to @futurebird@sauropods.win
Last year my mother wrote a book. I helped her with it when I could but I found the subject extremely boring. Part of this is going back to arguments we've had since I was little. I never wanted to go to the graveyard to take rubbing of the gravestones or listen to the old people we'd meet on these trips talk and talk.
I can recognize a kind of immaturity in that so I wanted to help my mom complete her very boring book on the Black Civil War veterans of this tiny county in PA.
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Replying to @futurebird@sauropods.win
The book she made is exactly the kind of book that would be "shucked and scanned" in one of these operations. There are fewer than 100 copies. I have one, and the local historical society, and a few libraries. But no one is looking for this book. Not now at least. But in the future someone may be desperate to find it.
"Local family histories" are a pain for independent bookstores. They take up space on the shelves and never ever sell. But I do think they are important.
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Replying to @futurebird@sauropods.win