It was a novel idea. Just cold dump your unwanted old books onto the highway, just toss ’em right out your car window as you speed on by. Unless you get caught, then you get a humilating nickname like the “Literary Litterbug”. A Colorado state trooper witnessed 62 year old man, Glenn Pladsen, dumping thousands of books onto U.S. Highway 287. He pleaded guilty to charges of littering, and yep, he had the book thrown at him, and was sentenced to 30 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fee of $1,725.
Pladsen had acquired the books—most of them romance novels—from a used bookstore that had closed eight years prior. After trying to sell the books online, a failed attempt at giving them away ( I suspect the LL really didn’t try very hard. People looking in the ”free” section of Craigslist will come pick up damn near anything), and long work hours that made it difficult for Pladsen to donate them to a thrift store or take them to a landfill, Pladsen decided the best way to free himself of his literary burden was to send them out onto the highway.
Pladsen lives in Arvada, a town just outside of Denver. For several months before he was caught, locals were trying to figure out why so many books were being discarded. Some of the orphaned books were titled Rogue Angel Sacrifice, Taken by the Viking and Rocky and Bullwinkle: The Movie Official Joke Book. The Literary Litterbug apparently threw thousands of books out on the highway over several months.
Let’s hope he turns over a new leaf. Hardy-Har-har.
