The DeKalb Public Library is hosting a book burning this month.

A pyre of literature will be set aflame in Hopkins Park on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. The DeKalb Fire Department will be present to ensure the inferno destroys the books and nothing else.

The torched tomes will be discarded and unsellable stock from a local publisher’s warehouse, each copy lit will serve to remind participants of the value of their favorite text, said Dee Coover director of the DeKalb Public

Library.

The idea is out of the pages of Ray Bradbury’s science-fiction novel “Fahrenheit 451,” where the government represses its citizens by limiting their knowledge. The novel will be the focus of more library events to come, Coover said.

The book burning is part of the “Big Read” program which will have events all through September.

“Big Read” is sponsored by a country-wide grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to try to rekindle routine reading with both children and adults.

There will be free copies of “Fahrenheit 451” offered at the burning.

“The idea is to take a book, read it, and pass it on — the whole point is not to let it sit on the shelf but to get people to read,” Coover said.

More events are listed on the DeKalb Public Library’s Web site, www.DKPL.org.