Who needs books when you have mass media to dull your brain, and mob passions to keep you enraged?
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is famously a novel about a world where books are banned and burned as a method of social control. The story follows Guy Montag, a "fireman" who sets books aflame. He's an agent of the state tasked with destroying literature that might spur people to think for themselves. Eventually, he is awakened to great writing's power to engage and enliven the mind.
