I have 350,000 books...

Shaunna Raycraft, from Pike Lake, Saskatchewan, stepped in when her widowed neighbour began to burn her husband's collection of books. "There was a house floor-to-ceiling with books. He was the collector; she had tried to get someone to appraise the books but they wouldn't come out [to the rural setting]. She didn't know how to deal with them so she started to burn them," Raycraft told Canadian national broadcaster CBC.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/09/house-collapsing-weight-books

Pensioners burn encyclopedias

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/06/burning-books-wales

Things are pretty grim in Wales.