The mother in Halsey who made national news after claiming that she would burn a local library's copy of The Bunny Suicides has come to her senses. Today she decided to return the book but, had she gone through with it, I wonder if her actions would have started a chain reaction of other outraged locals burning books they find offensive. While I'm a pretty staunch advocate of the First Amendment, the debate got me to thinking: if I was pressed, like if a hypothetical someone put a hypothetical gun to my head and demanded that I burn a library book, what would I select?

I guess I would go with Walden. I've hated that book since I was forced to read it in junior year English class. I can't think of anything as incredibly dry and meandering as Thoreau's tedious wankfest. On the other hand, naw. At least that book has merit and inspired better works. Now that I think of it, I don't think anyone would miss a copy of a random Dan Brown novel or The Bridges of Madison County.