Nowdays,we can say that, well, the publisher got their money so it's not so bad. And because you can digitize them, books can be reproduced an infinite number of times. That's not what the symbolism is though.
The symbolism is pretty damn medieval; and back in those days before the printing press, this would have been a pretty big thing.
Imagine going to a medieval monostary and telling the monks you were going to set a match to their whole life's work. You might as well kill them all and desecrate their corpses.
The modern equivalent would be what the Taliban did to those giant stone Buddhas in Afghanistan.
Modern printing technology and abundance might have changed the effect of this guy's desired actions but it doesn't change his intentions or thier symbolism.
Breedlove is the kind of guy who would have gleefully razed the Library of Alexandria.
