Book Reviews...

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Peter B.

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Feb 27, 2008
453
SW Wisconsin
In what may very well be my last season of burning wood (after 30 odd years or so), I am also trying to clean house... and have found - in some respects - that my tactics need be ruthless and brutal.

I was left quite a number of books by relatives on their deaths. I have 'housed' these books in boxes for twenty and more years... anticipating I might actually read some of them. In the meanwhile, some have fallen prey to mold and must. Most have no resale value anymore, if they ever did. A scant few have been set aside in the hope I might make a dime from them at auction or otherwise.

My stove is a venerable antique. Some years ago, I modified it internally for improved combustion efficiency. The piece de resistance was an added catalytic combustor... which I know (for a fact) helped clean up the exhaust. But the other mods I made helped considerably as well, and with a hot fire, I see little or no smoke outdoors from the chimney... and I have dutifully removed the catalyst for the duration.

To get to the point, I have been burning the occasional book. Some may be shocked, but the alternatives appear to be to drop them off at a used book store in the dark of night... or landfill them... the former likely presaging the latter in many cases.

I have not been keeping careful records, but today I noted that a 1900 cloth bound edition of Wuthering Heights produced a nice soul soothing fire, while a Grainger catalog from the mid '80's limped in a distant second.

And, in this shoulder season, I have been warm. It takes a split or two of 'honest' firewood to support the book burning, but - as noted - some tomes offer a warmth of their own, while others seem to need a crutch.

I wonder if others have reviews of books which burnt well and books which did not? Favorites?

(Hoping - even though it is true to life - there is some humor to be found in this.)

Peter B.

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my first thought is: damn sorry to hear this might be your last year burning wood.

pen
 
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