The sin of book desecration has a new convert and the outrage has spread through the world of social media like a video of a cute kitten playing with a ball of yarn. We have seen people cut books apart to create “artworks,” or treat them as mere physical objects. People will display them backwards, fore edges exposed, or by color coding. The infamous “books by the foot” enables you to buy them by your favorite color, content be damned. Some people actually buy old books to collect them, ignoring their purpose of being read. Can you imagine?
The latest horror comes through TikTok, the newest favorite social media. The benefit of TikTok is that it enables China to clandestinely learn everything about you. Why they want to know this is unclear. TikTok enables you to create short videos in case you find creating a YouTube video too demanding on your time. This one took only 31 seconds to outrage book lovers. In it, TikTok user rosekaylee transforms three books into something other than they were when she started.
In the wordless video, the unseen Ms. rosekaylee starts by painting a book. She paints the cover of one black, the next white. Next, she paints on a layer of varnish. The final step is unseen as it would take more time than a 31-second video allows. Off camera, she paints the name of high-fashion brands on the spines and covers. At the end, she displays her work, three books, lying on a table, with the names “Chanel,” “Dior,” and “Louis Vuitton” written on their spines.
Why did she do this? Who knows. Remember, there are no words with this video, just some incredibly annoying music. Whatever the reason, a lot of people either love or hate this idea. As of a few days ago, 7.8 million people had viewed the video.
Some people consider the destruction of a book a desecration, the equivalent of book burning. However, assuming rosekaylee is not doing this to rare and valuable books for some incomprehensible reason, these books are likely of little value and easily replaced. The reality is today thousands of books are being trashed probably everyday, as there are just too many unwanted and unneeded books in circulation. Others may be displeased with the sense of crass commercialism, using these books to promote some brand name. That's an understandable reaction, and yet crass commercialism can also be art. Ask Andy Warhol. I can't even imagine how many millions of dollars his Campbell's Soup can is worth. I'm sure rosekaylee would be happy to be recognized as the next Andy.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
