Here’s a simple fact of the publishing industry: many more books are printed than are read. In the UK, for example, according to data compiled by theInternational Publishers’ Association, in 2014 UK publishers released more than 20 new books every hour.The Brits published more books per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world.

This is “either a sign of cultural vitality or publishing suicide”,Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown literary agency told the Guardian. “Of course, it is utter madness to publish so many books when the average person reads between one and five books a year…”

So what happens to the many books that aren’t sold? Retailers return the remainders to the publishers, and many of these books are pulped. Yes, destroyed.

Now, when it comes to pulping, emotions run high for many people. Currently, for instance, Manchester Central Library is hitting the headlines amid fears of mass pulping to make room for a renovation. When authors learned of the plan to pulp 240,000 books, they began a campaign to save the books, calling the pulping “cultural vandalism on an industrial scale”.

What happens to such books after the pulping? A memorable example emerged in 2013, when building materials suppliers Tarmac announced that the M6 Toll motorway in the UK had incorporated 2.5 million pulped Mills & Boon romance novels (apparently, the pulp helps hold the Tarmac and asphalt in place and acts as a sound absorber).

Useful as the pulp may be in road construction, many bibliophiles detest the thought of a book being destroyed. Enter the growing empire of the bargain book sellers. Once upon a time, bargains were to be found only in those treasure troves known as second-hand bookstores, and on stalls (I have always loved the stalls on the Southbank in London near the National Theatre). But in recent years it is digital that has exploded, and with it a marketplace for buying second-hand and remaindered books online.

In a recent article in the Guardian, Calum Marsh explored the world of the penny books. Go on Amazon, find a book you like, and it’s a pretty good bet that you can find a used copy for sale for little more than a penny plus postage. How on earth does the seller make money? The answer is volume. As one seller explained, he makes only a few cents on such sales, but then he sold 11.5 million books last year – that’s a lot of pennies!

Such sellers are rescuing countless books from their fate at a pulping plant or landfill site. As Marsh explains, “These used book sellers are providing an indispensable public service: they’re redirecting the world’s flow of used books from extinction to readers who can care for and appreciate them.” And it’s not only sellers who are saving the books; charities have weighed in as well. Better World Books, for example, has donated more than 50million books and reused or recycled more than 153million books.

The point is that books are to be treasured. Destruction is so fast, so easy, but irreversible.Whenever I think of books ‘dying’, I feel so saddened and I am reminded of Khalid Masood’s words: “A moment of time can destroy the universe.” 

Save the book. Save them all!