Why were books simply burned instead of torn up or thrown away?

Burning was considered a more efficient and thorough method of destroying books. Tearing them up or throwing them away would leave traces of the text that could potentially be recovered and reconstructed. Burning, on the other hand, ensures the complete destruction of the physical content, making it more difficult to recover any fragments of information. Historically, book burnings have often been used as acts of censorship and suppression of knowledge, with the intention of preventing the dissemination of certain ideas or perspectives. Books were burned to effectively and permanently erase their contents, thus preventing their teachings or messages from being read or shared.