6. a small strip of coloured cloth signifying membership of an order or award of military decoration, prize, or other distinction. 7. a small, usually looped, strip of coloured cloth worn to signify support for a charity or cause: a red AIDS ribbon.
The books burned were Jewish, Marxist, Bolshevik, or other disreputable or non-German books. These included the works of Heinrich Heine, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Albert Einstein, Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Jack London and Margaret Sanger.
Specifically, Montag wonders why books are perceived to be so dangerous and why some people are so loyal to them. What power lies in books? Driven by his increasing uneasiness, Montag steals a book from a collection he is sent to burn. At the scene of the burning, Montag is shaken when the owner of the books, an older woman, refuses to leave her home. Instead, the woman sets fire to her kerosene soaked house and remains there as it, and she, are destroyed by flames. The woman's dedication to her books makes Montag realize that perhaps the happiness he lacks can be found in books.