# Did you ever find a book so bad that...



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

...you threw it away?

I've done this, more than once.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

Literally throw it into the garbage?  No.  Never.  It's still a book; somebody still labored over it and loved it.  I wouldn't actually toss it into the trash, or throw it across the room.  Maybe if it were horribly racist or otherwise offensive, I'd be tempted to, but not just because it's poorly written.


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## harpwriter (Sep 28, 2010)

Yes!

I won't name the title, but the conquered warrior queen gets marched naked through the streets, raped by the general of the winning side who just humiliated her with the march, and somehow ends up madly in love with him?  Even the warrior queen's own son (obviously the author had a little intuition here) says WTF??  But saying, "You are a humiliating, abusive, rapist creep," didn't fit the storyline the author apparently wanted, so WQ continues her passionate nights with him 'cause she loooooooves him.  I think I gave up halfway through and threw it in the trash.


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## ASparrow (Oct 12, 2009)

J Dean said:


> ...you threw it away?
> 
> I've done this, more than once.


Yup. Some books are just not worth keeping, or inflicting on others. I must not be a nice person for feeling this way.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

I've had books I've wanted to, but they were always in digital format, so instead I ANGRILY deleted them from my Kindle.

David Dalglish


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

Yes. (and I felt guilty for throwing it away, even if it was garbage...)

Now I just happily delete it from my Kindle.


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## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

I want to clarify.  I bought a horror book by an author whose other works in other venues I have admired, and thought I would like this one.  Instead, it turned out to be pure garbage in the beginning.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Yes I have. I have also deleted from the Kindle and Amazon a few books that were very bad. And a couple that were unread because becoming disenchanted with the writer.


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## Guest (Oct 27, 2010)

The Time of Man by Elizabeth Maddox Roberts is the worst book ever written. I had to read it for a class, and after 500 pages of nothing happening, I threw it across the room to get it out of my hands and away from me as fast as possible. I have no remorse for this. That book took several hours of my life that I'll never get back.



intinst said:


> Yes I have. I have also deleted from the Kindle and Amazon a few books that were very bad. And a couple that were unread because becoming disenchanted with the writer.


Konrath?


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

Yes. I've done it before and I'm sure I'll do it again.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

I did throw one book away... once.  I usually don't, but this book was reaaaaaaalllllly bad.

And I have deleted ebooks as well.  That doesn't make me feel as guilty, obviously.  

Vicki


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## Markus_Kane (Sep 10, 2010)

J Dean said:


> ...you threw it away?
> 
> I've done this, more than once.


I've thrown books across the room, but I don't throw them away. I keep the really bad ones in a metal box I keep by my writing desk. Every time I need inspiration, I take one of them out and I am reassured that I have written better than that, am writing better than that, and can write better than that.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I've never thrown a book away. I have given really bad books to friends. It's sort of a reading variation of tasting or smelling something awful and reflexively tell your friend to "Smell this!"


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Do you mean bad like Michael Jackson did as in, "I'm bad, I'm bad!"  Or do you mean bad as in, as the kids say, "this sucks!"?


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

Famous author, second book, was paid a huge advance for the book ($500,000).

I found the book so disgustingly pornographic (I am not a prude but draw the line


Spoiler



at graphic descriptions of what his hero did with body parts


) and repetitive that I threw it away about half way through.

I then decided to write my novel because I felt that I could do better. Of course, he was published and a movie was made of it.

And, me? well that is another story.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

J Dean said:


> ...you threw it away?
> 
> I've done this, more than once.


Yes. Both times because the material was offensive.


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## kcmay (Jul 14, 2010)

I usually donate books I dislike. The only books I remember throwing away were out-dated computer books, like Mastering Windows 3.1, or Excel 1.0 Power User's Handbook.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

kcmay said:


> I usually donate books I dislike. The only books I remember throwing away were out-dated computer books, like Mastering Windows 3.1, or Excel 1.0 Power User's Handbook.


Saw a Writer's Market book from 1984 at a garage sale. Reeeally wanted to say something to the owner, but decided that I might end up re-opening a bunch of old wounds and just moved on.


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## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

I give books I don't like to the local library for their book sale fundraisers. Sometimes I trade them at the used bookshop--but the owner is savvy, so he won't accept junk. The only books I've thrown away (recycled really) are outdated manuals. Rarely have I bought a book I hate, and even if I want to, I won't throw a library book. (My mother was a librarian--I always turn pages from the top right-hand corner.)


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## CIBond (Aug 28, 2010)

harpwriter said:


> Yes!
> 
> I won't name the title, but the conquered warrior queen gets marched naked through the streets, raped by the general of the winning side who just humiliated her with the march, and somehow ends up madly in love with him? Even the warrior queen's own son (obviously the author had a little intuition here) says WTF?? But saying, "You are a humiliating, abusive, rapist creep," didn't fit the storyline the author apparently wanted, so WQ continues her passionate nights with him 'cause she loooooooves him. I think I gave up halfway through and threw it in the trash.


This wasn't necessarily a bad book. This was just in the wrong category and you didn't realize you were reading B&D erotica.   Surprise!! This is why I'm not sure I can rate books in genres that are unfamiliar to me&#8230; my attitude would be why is there so much sex in this erotica? Where's the plot? Where are the werewolves?

I try to separate bad writing from poor author choices. Bad writing is infuriating because I have to work to understand what is going on but I usually hang on. Poor author choices will cause me to throw the book across the room. I will usually sell them to the used bookstore because someone else might like B&D errotica, I just get confused.


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## WilliamEsmont (May 3, 2010)

I've angrily (like half-Orc) deleted books from my Kindle (both trad and indie) that I just couldn't make it through for whatever reason. As for DTBs - if I purchase something that turns out to be a dud, I'll donate it or pass it on to a friend, etc.. Sometimes tastes are radically different..  I wish I could do that with eBooks


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## keithdbz (May 19, 2010)

I've never thrown a book in the garbage. All books I don't plan on putting on my shelf permanently are donated, handed out. Now, the one book I have bought that deserves to be in the garbage can is proudly on my shelf as a reminder to myself when I feel down about my writing, there are far worse than me out there.


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

Yes. And some I've used for kindling. I've deleted a lot of samples from the Kindle but very few books (probably because I sample them all first.)


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## Judi Coltman (Aug 23, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Saw a Writer's Market book from 1984 at a garage sale. Reeeally wanted to say something to the owner, but decided that I might end up re-opening a bunch of old wounds and just moved on.


You were at my garage sale? You should have said Hey!


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Seriously, I would never throw a book away because I couldn't get into it, or because it wasn't my cup of tea.  Like some others have said, I would donate it to the library or just give it away to a friend.


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## chiffchaff (Dec 19, 2008)

I'm another one who would donate rather than throw away.  In a weird, probably irrational way it feels like censorship to put a book in the garbage.  Somebody somewhere might get something out of it.  But I would take pleasure in putting it in the box I keep for thrift store stuff, out in the cold, dark garage.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

The only fiction novels I want to toss back is the stuff I had to read in college, and usually, I resold them on Amazon. I would never throw away a book, that just goes against my hoarding instinct!


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## arshield (Nov 17, 2008)

I have made a commitment to myself to not keep any more paper books.  So I give away books that I am finished with.  And I review books for my blog.  I have a couple that I have thought were so bad (and I reviewed them as bad) that I don't know how to give them away.  I can't post on my blog, "hey this book was so bad I recommend no one ever read it, but I will give you my copy!"  And I don't want to give it to a friend.

I have a couple that are sitting on a shelf that I just haven't done anything with.  Some I will toss, some I will give to goodwill.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

I've stopped reading lots of books. If nobody around wants it, I just leave it somewhere. Bus stop, restaurant, gym, doctor's office...


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

I've thrown away a few bad ones. Don't see a point in contributing to someone else's suffering. But they have to be really bad.


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## ASparrow (Oct 12, 2009)

I burned my biochemistry notes. Does that count?


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I don't think I have thrown any away but I know I have wanted to. I usually just end up donating them hoping someone else will like it. 

I only keep books that I know I will reread or that I think my children will enjoy when they are older, usually this was due to space issues. With my Kindle I love that I can keep a whole library on there and not have to worry about it!


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

harpwriter said:


> Yes!
> 
> I won't name the title, but the conquered warrior queen gets marched naked through the streets, raped by the general of the winning side who just humiliated her with the march, and somehow ends up madly in love with him? Even the warrior queen's own son (obviously the author had a little intuition here) says WTF?? But saying, "You are a humiliating, abusive, rapist creep," didn't fit the storyline the author apparently wanted, so WQ continues her passionate nights with him 'cause she loooooooves him. I think I gave up halfway through and threw it in the trash.


Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome - it's a very real psychological coping method. I didn't read the book so I can't say this is what the author was trying to portray, just throwing it out there as a suggestion that it might not be as unrealistic as you think.


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## ClickNextPage (Oct 15, 2009)

Markus_Kane said:


> I've thrown books across the room, but I don't throw them away. I keep the really bad ones in a metal box I keep by my writing desk. Every time I need inspiration, I take one of them out and I am reassured that I have written better than that, am writing better than that, and can write better than that.


This is a _great_ idea! I don't have any bad paper books any more, having given them all to Good Will. But instead of deleting them angrily from my Kindle (LOL David!), I think I'll make a new category for them and highlight and annotate them for future reference as to what not to do!


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## ciscokid (Oct 10, 2010)

I have, twice.  I'm the type of person where if I see a movie based on a book and like the movie, I'll go buy the book to read.  Well, after I saw Forest Gump for the first time, I saw the book in a store and decided to pick it up.  Hands down, that was the worst book I have read in my life.  If I had read the book first, I would never have gone to the theater to see the movie.  The person who read that book and decided it would make a good movie....great movie, one of my favorites, was a genius.  Dumbest book I've ever read.

The other was a Dean Koontz book.  I can't remember the name, but , from what I can remember, it was about a man who kidnapped a woman, kept her in his camper....maybe?  It was bloody, sick and just plain terrible.  Now, I LOVE Dean Koontz. He's my favorite auther and I have every one of his books.....except that one.  It went straight in the trash.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Maybe not throw away in the rubbish bin, but on a few occasions I’ve been tempted to hurl a book across the room.  Pre-Kindle, I was reading a horror novel with a scene so infuriating dumb, I probably would have physically thrown it if I hadn’t been on a bus in a foreign country.  I didn’t want to create an international incident.  

Oh yes, I tossed a five or six volume box set of Windows 2000 Server/Programming into the recycle bin earlier this year.  Of course, maybe there was somebody somewhere running an obsolete server who could have used those books, but finding them would have been more trouble than it’s worth.


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## xandy3 (Jun 13, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> The Time of Man by Elizabeth Maddox Roberts is the worst book ever written. I had to read it for a class, and after 500 pages of nothing happening, I threw it across the room to get it out of my hands and away from me as fast as possible. I have no remorse for this. That book took several hours of my life that I'll never get back.


Ever notice all of the worse books are ones we have to read for a class? 

I have thrown books out that were laughably bad, but that was before I was an author myself. And, only things I thought were truly, truly terrible ....

I also almost threw a book out of the window of a moving bus once, because I was mad at one of the characters. LOL

Now, if I mistakenly buy a bad book I go back to Borders with my sales receipt so I actually get my money back. 

I liked the "what the...?" response from the salesperson when I returned a book I'd just bought the previous day. LOL 
Especially since at the time it was such a popular title.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I've thrown away a couple books, but that was just because my dog chewed them up and destroyed them! I don't think I've ever bought a book _that_ bad that I wanted to throw it away after just reading it.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

harpwriter said:


> Yes!
> 
> I won't name the title, but the conquered warrior queen gets ;....


It reminds me of a Bulwer-Lytton contest entry some years ago. I can't find the whole quote so had to fill out the rest after the _while_:

"'No! A thousand times no!' poor Penelope squealed as her pixyish frame disappeared beneath the lust-engorged loins of Hector the hulk, mindful all the while she only had nine hundred and ninety eight nos to go."


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

The only book I've ever thrown away is Poppy Z Brite's _Exquisite Corpse_. It made me sick to read, and when I went to bed that night, I couldn't get the awful images out of my head. I generally enjoy horror, but there was something so hopeless about the story that I couldn't stand having it in the house or passing it along to anyone else.


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## miss_fletcher (Oct 25, 2010)

A physical book? No. It's a _book_, and I'd give it away to someone.

But with your experience, a book that affected you so badly, I can see where you're coming from. I've never had that situation... and I avoid horror since I frighten easy.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I might throw something like _Mein Kampf_ in the trash (not that I'd have it in my possession to begin with!) but otherwise, no. I have too much respect for books.


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## AJB (Jul 9, 2010)

Most of the books I read are from my local public library. I think they'd get a bit annoyed if I threw them away. When I do spend money on a printed book, it's usually on a recommendation or because I already know the author.

The only book I came close to trashing in recent years was a chick-lit one my mother-in-law left in our house after a visit. It was called _The Model Wife_ and was the shallowest thing I've ever read. It was that book, more than anything else, which made me think 'How did this get published?' and 'I can do better!' and spurred me on to write. I still keep that volume on my shelves - as Markus said earlier in this thread - as a source of reassurance and inspiration.

Amanda


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

Yup. Only one discarded in my lifetime. It was a book noir and it was so bad and vile that I couldn't be responsible for someone else feeling what that book made me feel. I do not remember the name only that it involved two brothers who were doctors and I believe they were drug addicts. It was many years ago. It was disgusting. I don't know if I finished it. I think I did. 

Now, I just archive it.


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## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

All of my books I dont keep even the ones I hated end up at the library or charity shop.  But as a first digital deletion of a book I have paid for step forward Mr Dan Brown for the Lost Symbol just a horrible annoying book!!  I still think most of his others are a fun read but that one was just horrible.


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Yeah, a bunch.  But only one counts for this discussion.  The others were placed in a box in a shed and became damp and moldy over the space of a few years.  This distressed me because I hadn't placed the books there and some were ones I quite liked.  The 'one' was a terribly misogynistic tome which disgusted me.  Writing wasn't that good, either.  I wasn't going to inflict that on anyone.


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## Robin (Dec 11, 2008)

Once - literally in the trash can at a roadside stop somewhere in Wyoming. The book was just so bad I couldn't tolerate it & refused to carry it all the way home from the trip. Generally I consider throwing a book away a "readers sin". But that time I just could not resist.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

Long ago I was reading a book that was so bad I threw it down in disgust and thought: _I could write a better novel than that._ Then the little nag in my head said: _Really? Let's see you do it. _I spent a week brainstorming and outlining a plot, then sat down to write my first novel. I had so much fun I did it again. Ten books later, here am I.

Yes, that bad book ended up in the garbage, and I wish I could remember the name. I owe the author some thanks.
L.J.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

The one that stands out is 'Boom' by Tom Brokaw.

It was an audio book from the library, so I couldn't throw it away, but I did experience a bit of glee when I deleted it from my mp3 player.


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

Books I've purchased that I didn't like, I've finished them (swallowing hard and forcing myself to), and then donated them to my library.  I could never throw a book away.  It just doesn't feel right.

Of the e-Books I've read, I'm going to keep them because they've all been top notch.  I've only deleted a copy of a book, because an update was available.    If I didn't like a book, I'd force myself to finish and would probably mark it as 'unreadable'.  This way, if my tastes every change (which they have, surprisingly), I could always try to read it again with a new perspective.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I usually donate the really bad ones to the local prisons or jails.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

I've thrown a book across the room because the ending was so lame, I couldn't stand it. Then I traded it in at the used book store. Little harder to do now with Kindle!


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