ON
DISTROYING BOOKS
J.C. Squire is British poet, critic and a well-known humorous writer. He
selects unusual topics and turns them in ridiculous situation to create humor.
“On Destroying Books” deals with a simple problem but he presents it in such
a beautiful way that it holds the reader in suspense till the end of the story.
In this essay, tea writer has told us about his adventure of throwing away the
unwanted collection of books.
Mr. Squire beings his story concerning news published in a daily.
According to it about two million books were presented to the soldiers. Most of
them were ordinary and quite book and old magazines. The writer suggests that
lose their charm gradually. These books must be destroyed to make room for new
ones. The writer does not consider it an easy task because these do not have as
many lives as a cat and they die-hard.
The writer says that he was living in a multi-story building in Chelsea.
His apartment was small and a heap of books was there which he had accumulated
during his literary life. These books were of temporary value and had become
useless. Due to those books, the writer was not able to live properly. He
seriously thought either to get them out or leave the place by himself. He
wanted to get rid of them but did not know how to do that. He had no kitchen to
burn so many books on the gas-cooker. It was not possible for him to burn the
books leaf by leaf in small fireplace in his room it. He pondered over the
matter and finally decided to throw the books into river.
The writer prepared a sack and stuffed all the books into it for their
disposal. It was almost mid-night and the sky was studded with starts when he
stepped into the street. There was slight cold outside and the streets were
presenting a deserted look. He turned up the collar of his over-coat, adjusted
the sack comfortably over his shoulder and began to walk towards the river. On
the way he happened to meet a few people but nobody paid any attention to him.
At last, he reached near the bridge of the river and, there he saw a policeman
who was throwing light on the catches of the basements with his lantern. He
trembled with fear of being suspected as a thief but he was not seriously
disturbed because he could face investigation. He felt relief, as the policeman
did not even look at him.
Then the writer started walking towards the river more rapidly and
reached the embankment. While standing there, the writer thought about the
complexities of his act. Suddenly he heard footsteps but the pedestrian passed
by him unconcernedly. The writer was worried of being watches. Then the writer
decided to avoid any further delay but, at the moment, he thought about the
splash. He thought that the splash might divert the attention of the people to
that place. The people would think that he had thrown and illegitimate baby.
This thought loft the writer in a state of agony for a while. But he did not
lose courage.
The writer says that he did not know for how long he walked up and down
making up his mind to throw the sack. At length, regardless of the consequences,
He heaved up the sack and threw it. There was a loud splash but silence fell
again. No one came there and all his fears proved base-less. As he walked
towards his apartment, he sadly thought about the books and felt sorry for
showing harsh attitude to the books. He consoled himself by saying that he
wanted to make room for new and better books that he was intending to buy.
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