Book destroying happened when people wanted to wipe out knowledge. When humans learned magic and then killed the elves that taught them, they rewrote history to say it was always them. Not banning so much as utter destruction.

And this is on the tail end of Istredd saying 'not all humans' but he never said he thought humans were good. They weren't the only bad ones, that's all. This is why most people on the continent didn't know about the elves being the root. And why the elves prophesized their savior. Their anger was justified. Other them, but not to make them seem better.

When Istredd thinks about how many books must have been burned to hide all kinds of truths, he gets sad about it. He thinks it's likely Thorne has done the same. They must have known more about High Magic earlier.

Giant rocks and books were my first true loves. He laughs and goes deep into the back shelving areas to pluck out a history book and look through it. He wants to see if there are any differences. Or I should say knowledge is. It always comes back to that. Monoliths and books are connected to the same.

He knows he can't take any of this today but he will note the ones he wants. And people who are pricks, attractive ones.