# Books you have thrown against the wall?



## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

I am not talking here about books that you merely disliked.  I really mean those books you would have thrown against the wall if you could have spared the expense of the kindle. So folks, what are your anger-fueling books?


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

The Doomsday Book, mainly.
I got about halfway through before I just couldn't stand it anymore. Cardboard characters and terrible research. I really wanted to like it because I kept reading great things on it from people on a book forum I was in, but in a short while I was wondering if I was reading a different book.


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## smallblondehippy (Jan 20, 2012)

The only book I've ever thrown was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't like Twilight but kept with the series in the hope that the horrid, snivelling Bella would grow a back bone. But she never did and by the time I got to Eclipse, I'd just about had enough! Needless to say, I never read Breaking Dawn.


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## Math (Oct 13, 2011)

The Power, by  Rhonda Byrne.

And I felt happy afterwards.


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## jumbojohnny (Dec 25, 2011)

The Last Train to Scarborough by Andrew Martin; it's so badly written he makes Dan Brown seem like Dickens.


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## TessM (Oct 18, 2011)

smallblondehippy said:


> The only book I've ever thrown was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't like Twilight but kept with the series in the hope that the horrid, snivelling Bella would grow a back bone. But she never did and by the time I got to Eclipse, I'd just about had enough! Needless to say, I never read Breaking Dawn.


OMG YES! I just wanted to strangle that stupid girl. I don't understand how many people love that series.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk


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## DGFall (Jul 7, 2011)

Stephen Hunter, " Soft Target"

Normally I don't get upset over books. I usually don't write reviews, but I paid a premium price for this book based on what I had read previously from this author. This book was so poorly written that had it not been a Kindle I would have thrown it against the wall.


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## Beth Dolgner (Nov 11, 2011)

Phillipa Gregory's Wideacre. I really enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl and a slew of her other books, but I hated the protagonist in Wideacre. When she had a kid with her brother, I gave up on trying to finish the book.


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

Books, back in the day, that I simply disliked got passed on to used bookstores or even friends who I thought might like them. A few, really not many, were so bad I wouldn't pass them on. I tossed them in the garbage which I thought was what they deserved.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

1984
Wuthering Heights 

Assasin's Apprentice (or something like that) by Robin Hobb

Devon Monk...I don't remember if that is the series or the author's name

Really, really LOATHED and HATED And STILL would throw against the wall, Embers by Laura Bickle.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

The Twilight scene when Bella finds Edmund watching her sleep all fluffy and sweet.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Small Death in Lisbon was a book I loathed with all my heart - fortunately, a paperback, so I was able to throw it away. It has good reviews, so maybe there is something wrong with me.


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## ZiKehimkar (Dec 10, 2011)

For me, it was New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. I'd read the first book and thought, "Well, maybe it gets better" because friends of mine actually like the series. It doesn't get better, and I was highly disturbed by the popularity of the series and what an abusive guy Edward is, not to mention creepy. And then, how pathetic and stupid Bella is in her "depression." Ugh, just ugh. I couldn't stand it, so I actually did throw it across the room, even though it was a library book.

I'll never understand those teens who swoon over this character, calling him the "perfect boyfriend." It disgusts me, just my opinion. I don't mean to offend anyone.


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

_Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_

The character of Umbridge pissed me off to the point I actually ended up hating her more than I did Voldemort. It is the only book I have ever thrown against a wall but it happened probably 5 or 6 times before I finished the book.


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

The Shack


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

*"Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon*



But throwing it against the wall wasn't violent enough.

Here's what really happened:

After enduring as much as I could take, I marched outside to the dumpster behind my apartment at the time...

...and tore it page from spine, litter to litter.

Terminated.

With extreme prejudice.

Todd


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines. It was required reading for a class and after about five pages in, I heaved it across the room. Horrible book.


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## Paul Reid (Nov 18, 2010)

"The Quest" by Wilbur Smith. I'm a life-long fan of Smith so was very disappointed with this one. I think he definitely took his eye off the ball.


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## slandon36 (Jan 24, 2012)

Nights in Rodanthe.  I hate to speak badly about a fellow South Carolinian but could he please give us a happy ending?


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## me3boyz (Jan 10, 2010)

Um... A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One by George R.R. Martin

Killed off one too many characters and that was it for me. Sold them to Powell's the last time I was in Portland.



MariaESchneider said:


> Assasin's Apprentice (or something like that) by Robin Hobb


Yep, me too. He irritated me to no end!


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## J R McLemore (Apr 2, 2011)

Ugh. The first books that come to mind are _A Feast of Snakes_ by Harry Crews. Absolutely *hated* the characters in that book. I couldn't care if they lived or died. The other was _Last Exit to Brooklyn_ by Hubert Selby, Jr. I couldn't get into the story and wasted time reading nearly half of it hoping it would get better. I'm a slow reader, so that time wasted really ticked me off. I could've spent that time writing!!


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## JEV (Jan 7, 2012)

The Help (oddly, liked the movie.  A tribute to fine actresses).  The Hours.  Maybe I need to avoid two-word titled books where the first word is The and the second word starts with a "h".


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Beth Dolgner said:


> Phillipa Gregory's Wideacre. I really enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl and a slew of her other books, but I hated the protagonist in Wideacre. When she had a kid with her brother, I gave up on trying to finish the book.


It's funny you should mention Wideacre because it's one of only a half dozen or so books I've thrown at the wall myself. I've enjoyed other Phillipa Gregory books but this one was just unspeakably bad because of the heroine. According to the Amazon reviews, most Gregory fans agree with me.

An interesting side note, I've read other books where the heroes did more unforgivable stuff than the heroine of Wideacre and nobody seemed to have a problem with it. I've come to believe people have a higher tolerance for some types of behaviors when they come from a male character. Especially if he's hot.


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## Laura Lond (Nov 6, 2010)

I've never thrown a book against the wall, but I've felt like doing it to some characters (Catherine from Wuthering Heights, for example) and, in one case, an author. The unlucky author was Rudyard Kipling, and I hated his guts for killing nearly every character I grew to love in _The Jungle Book_. (I was in my early teens.)


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## DH_Sayer (Dec 20, 2011)

kindlegrl81 said:


> _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_
> 
> The character of Umbridge p*ssed me off to the point I actually ended up hating her more than I did Voldemort. It is the only book I have ever thrown against a wall but it happened probably 5 or 6 times before I finished the book.


I totally second this. Leaves a big dent, too.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Pearl by Mary Gordon

I wanted to slap just about everyone in it.

Edit: Normally when characters...and that many characters...annoy me that much, I dont finish the book. I think I'm more annoyed at myself for finishing it.


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## theMillersTale (Jan 25, 2012)

me3boyz said:


> Um... A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One by George R.R. Martin
> 
> Killed off one too many characters and that was it for me. Sold them to Powell's the last time I was in Portland.
> 
> Yep, me too. He irritated me to no end!


I agree, Game of Thrones. I threw my book when the third major character died unexpectedly.

But then I picked it up again.


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## flipside (Dec 7, 2011)

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. Girl goes to hell because she wears pants.


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

Two books.  One, Memnoch The Devil, I flung it across my apartment when Lestat drank from Christ.  It was pointless.  Then I finished the book and just about had a stroke when he ... oh god it makes me gag.  When he went down on the nice girl 'cause she was menstruating.  I mean, do we have to get that nasty.

I read A Game of Thrones in paperback, and I got the icks when I realized my mother in law read it in bed.  And there was enough - just enough sex in there.  So then I bought the books on my kindle, problem solved, it's not icky if it's my kindle.  And the fourth book, right near the end, when the ... god what is her name.  The blonde queen bitchy lady had some kind of violent, psychotic fisting session with a woman... I wanted to throw the kindle, but was glad I wasn't reading my mother in law's copy then.  It might not have survived.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Ah! But there are some great books that people hate.

For me the most vivid throw this book against the wall moment occurred on a bus in a foreign country reading _The Wyrm_ by Stephen Laws.


Spoiler



A cast of characters are running away from somekind of vampirish/zombie type of monsters when they get tapped in a church. A sweet little girl stands in front of the horde and proclaims the protection of "Jesus meek and mild" and the monsters cringe away, allowing everyone to escape. Maybe Christian readers would have accepted that scene, but it made me want to hurl the book.



Also, _The Hunger Games_. A shining example of the "Emporor's New Clothes" of books. Bad writing, bad characters, bad world building, and an extremely bad ending. The idea of forcing kids to kill kids is great, though heavily borrowed, so add little originality to the list of bad things about the book.


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## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

I do remember reading God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. And after wading through the self-conscious prose and the non-linear narrative. I got to the a curious bit of child abuse.  That was it for me.  I threw it against the wall.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Non-fiction books are more likely to be thrown!

Something called  "Raw Food" - I wanted to stomp on it.  So patronizing and smug, so sure that this ONE solution is going to work for everyone. Also bad science. 

For fiction: Isabelle Allende's "House of Spirits" where the woman falls in love with her rapist. Makes me furious.


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

olefish said:


> I do remember reading God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. And after wading through the self-conscious prose and the non-linear narrative. I got to the a curious bit of child abuse. That was it for me. I threw it against the wall.


I never got far enough into that book to throw it against the wall...it bored me after the first couple of chapters. I do love Roy's non-fiction work though.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Geemont said:


> Also, _The Hunger Games_. A shining example of the "Emporor's New Clothes" of books. Bad writing, bad characters, bad world building, and an extremely bad ending. The idea of forcing kids to kill kids is great, though heavily borrowed, so add little originality to the list of bad things about the book.


Personally, I think that if a book/series has been that embraced by readers, esp. young people, that it would be hard to declare it badly written. Esp book after book.

And as a reader of a great deal of dystopian fiction, the only reason *I* read the books was because of the decent job the author did in developing and describing Panem.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

John Hawkes' The Lime Twig:

It was so non-sensical, so difficult to follow -- and the capper came toward the end. A Hawkes partisan wrote the introduction and it tipped to the fact that one of the characters dies at the hands of her torturer. But as I got toward the end of the book, I realized: Wait, are you sure she died? And then a few pages later, her captors took her to the race track! Even one of the book's apologists couldn't keep track of the fate of the characters. (Unless the introduction was written for an earlier edition.) Just a bad, sloppy book.

Now I've put down books before that I just couldn't get through. And on occasion, I've picked them up again years later and really enjoyed them! I guess the time just wasn't right, I guess I just wasn't ready for them.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Elizabeth George's last book. I can't remember the title and don't want to even look it up. The ones before that had me wary enough I got it from the library, so I didn't actually throw it, but I'm sure glad I didn't pay a dime for it.


Spoiler



She has Lynley covering up for a drunk supervisor and having sex with her. Before that she had a character who, along with friends, killed a toddler for fun as a teen. After 10 years in prison, he gets out and the poor darling could have made a wonderful life as a decent person if nasty people didn't hold his past against him. He's even shown as a responsible pet owner. Oh, year, that's how that kind of twisted psyche works all right.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Steve Silkin said:


> John Hawkes' The Lime Twig:
> 
> It was so non-sensical, so difficult to follow -- and the capper came toward the end. A Hawkes partisan wrote the introduction and it tipped to the fact that one of the characters dies at the hands of her torturer. But as I got toward the end of the book, I realized: Wait, are you sure she died? And then a few pages later, her captors took her to the race track! Even one of the book's apologists couldn't keep track of the fate of the characters. (Unless the introduction was written for an earlier edition.) Just a bad, sloppy book.
> 
> Now I've put down books before that I just couldn't get through. And on occasion, I've picked them up again years later and really enjoyed them! I guess the time just wasn't right, I guess I just wasn't ready for them.


Is that author also an actor? There is a John Hawkes that was in Deadwood and also nominated for an Oscar in Winter's Bone 2 yrs ago (last yr?).


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

Lursa (was 9MMare) said:


> Is that author also an actor? There is a John Hawkes that was in Deadwood and also nominated for an Oscar in Winter's Bone 2 yrs ago (last yr?).


No, John Hawkes who is author of Lime Twig died in 1998. I just looked it up and saw that the introduction I referred to was written by Leslie Fiedler (!) and that Flannery O'Connor was a friend who loved the book. Maybe I'll have to read it again. The Wiki article makes it sound interesting; maybe I just wasn't ready for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lime_Twig


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Steve Silkin said:


> No, John Hawkes who is author of Lime Twig died in 1998. I just looked it up and saw that the introduction I referred to was written by Leslie Fiedler (!) and that Flannery O'Connor was a friend who loved the book. Maybe I'll have to read it again. The Wiki article makes it sound interesting; maybe I just wasn't ready for it.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lime_Twig


Ah, thanks very much and sorry for being so lazy!


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell. I read the paperback and wanted to burn it. The only book of hers I've ever read and absolutely dreadful.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

JFHilborne said:


> At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell. I read the paperback and wanted to burn it. The only book of hers I've ever read and absolutely dreadful.


Same thing happened to me...altho it was probably a different one of hers.

I actually blamed her editor....those sentences should NOT have made it thru any decent editor. Good lord, sometimes I could barely follow the story.

Havent tried another one since.


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## Brad Murgen (Oct 17, 2011)

me3boyz said:


> Um... A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One by George R.R. Martin
> 
> Killed off one too many characters and that was it for me. Sold them to Powell's the last time I was in Portland.


Good thing you didn't get to Book 3, _A Storm of Swords_... that was throw-inducing for me.



kindlegrl81 said:


> _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_
> 
> The character of Umbridge p*ssed me off to the point I actually ended up hating her more than I did Voldemort. It is the only book I have ever thrown against a wall but it happened probably 5 or 6 times before I finished the book.


Agreed, I hated her in that book.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Lursa (was 9MMare) said:


> Personally, I think that if a book/series has been that embraced by readers, esp. young people, that it would be hard to declare it badly written. Esp book after book.


Just because a book sells well and it's well liked by young people (and some adults) doesn't mean it is actually well written. If sales and popularity were a true measure of what's good, by analogy, Lucky Charms would be a good breakfast cereal, George Lucas would be a great director, and Ringo Starr would be an excellent drummer.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Geemont said:


> Just because a book sells well and it's well liked by young people (and some adults) doesn't mean it is actually well written. If sales and popularity were a true measure of what's good, by analogy, Lucky Charms would be a good breakfast cereal, George Lucas would be a great director, and Ringo Starr would be an excellent drummer.


Actually, I'm pretty sure that it does mean that. Of course there are many ways to judge writing, but many people reading it, understanding it, deriving meaning from it, and enjoying it (in this case) certainly does mean that, IMO. If it was poorly-written, they'd have to work too hard to read it and it would not have gained its popularity.

Well-written may not mean 'great' or 'excellent,' but the fact that so many read and absorb the story and choose to read further in the series...pretty good indication.

Also pretty sure that the fact that so many people eat Lucky Charms does mean it's good. Not good for you..but tastes good. That's all I ask from fiction myself....that I like it, not that it's good for me.


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## Scribejohn (Jul 2, 2011)

Tom Clancy's Executive Action I could only get a third of a way into, and I suppose I should have realized that at 1,100 pages 70% of it was going to be overblown prose and padding. 

However, it's a heavy book and might have put a dent in the wall. I also had a logistical problem because when I wanted to sit outside and put my stereo speakers by a window so I could hear the radio on the back terrace, the bottom four inches of plaster and window frame partly blocked the sound. 

So along came Executive Action to the rescue: it's the ideal thickness to raise the speaker above the window frame. Most standard books wouldn't have been thick enough. So, you see, even bad books have their uses!


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

Well, while we're mentioning Mr. Clancy-_The Sum of All Fears_. I got to the ridiculous part about how the Israeli's supposedly lose that atomic device, and it was SOOOooo silly that I tossed the book aside and never picked it up again. It was laughably bad and totally unbelievable plotting.

Several years later I viewed the movie. Also by far the worst of the many screen adaptations made of his works.

But, in all fairness, I'm not much of a Clancy fan anyway. I've read or attempted to read three, and the only one I recommend to anyone is his first, _The Hunt for Red October_.


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## Michael A. Boyadjian (Jul 23, 2011)

Many years ago, I had to read William Faulkner's _Absalom, Absalom!_ for a class. By the end of it, I found the story somewhat enjoyable, and dare I say clever. However, that book, without a doubt, was one of the most troublesome books I've ever read. It was utterly, painstakingly difficult to get into. At the time, I didn't actually throw the book against a wall, but now I feel like grabbing it and doing so--just for good measure.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Michael A. Boyadjian said:


> Many years ago, I had to read William Faulkner's _Absalom, Absalom!_ for a class. By the end of it, I found the story somewhat enjoyable, and dare I say clever. However, that book, without a doubt, was one of the most troublesome books I've ever read. It was utterly, painstakingly difficult to get into.


I read it in the early 80s, also for a class, but absolutely loved it. The prose stunned me. At the time I'd never encountered stream of consciousness like that before, but I've been hooked ever since. And nobody is ever gonna say Faulkner is an easy read for kids to enjoy.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

I generally enjoy Tom Clancy, but gave up on _Clear and Present Danger_ for one simple reason. Clancy will take several pages describing a new item of technology. And then he describes a politician's secretary deciding to commit suicide -- and doing it -- because information that's been weaseled out of her by her lover has been used to kill her boss ... and he takes half a page over it.

I didn't throw the book against the wall, but I certainly did throw my hands up in the air.


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## AnitaBartholomew (Jun 27, 2011)

Atlas Shrugged. 

I read it when I was 15 years old and STILL remember how much I hated it.

I wanted to debate the author. I had no idea at the time that the author would be influencing politics in 2012. Narrow, ugly, self-congratulatory nonsense in fictional form. 

And, today, one of my closest friends is an objectivist, i.e., a follower of Ayn Rand.

Anita


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## fizixgeek (Feb 2, 2012)

For me, Cormac McCarthy's The Road was like that. It's not that the book wasn't viscously effective. That was the problem. That little boy said exactly what my little boy would have said. How (and why) would I raise a moral son in a world stripped of its humanity? Stop, Cormac, just stop. You had me at "one bullet."

I did pick the book up, finished it and was glad.


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## Neil Ostroff (Mar 25, 2011)

Ha! Ha! I bought THE ROAD with the greatest anticipation and excitement. Halfway through I tossed it into the trash. What a snoozer.


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## fizixgeek (Feb 2, 2012)

Neil Ostroff said:


> Ha! Ha! I bought THE ROAD with the greatest anticipation and excitement. Halfway through I tossed it into the trash. What a snoozer.


Ok, but when you want to write a scared 7-year-old boy, study that one again.


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## ErikHyrkas (Dec 24, 2011)

I think my enjoyment of YA books survives due to my patented combination of endurance and selective amnesia.  I was in pain most of the way through Twilight, but Eclipse had me writhing.  Incidentally, I did finish the series.  I was tested many times.


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## ErikHyrkas (Dec 24, 2011)

I really wanted to like _The Magicians_. I felt like there was something wrong with me whenever I tried to give up. I survived the sequel _The Magician King_, also. The comparisons to C.S. Lewis in favorable reviews made me sad. Yes, Grossman borrowed heavily from Lewis, but it is a pale imitation.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

ErikHyrkas said:


> I really wanted to like _The Magicians_. I felt like there was something wrong with me whenever I tried to give up. I survived the sequel _The Magician King_, also. The comparisons to C.S. Lewis in favorable reviews made me sad. Yes, Grossman borrowed heavily from Lewis, but it is a pale imitation.


I wanted to like it too. Didn't. Thought it was basically about teen angst and kind of rambling. Didn't bother with the sequel.


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

I've had a few I'd like to have thrown. I had one I actually ripped up on a plane and made the grave mistake of being provoked into revealing what that book was on a forum like this. The author popped in. All the other authors on the forum - who were largely unpublished - got all smoozie with her-him - not giving anything away here and I came out of it looking  bad, even though my reasons for disliking the books were reasonable ones. Trite plot, shallow characters etc etc So I learned my lesson and I don't name names anymore! It can come back to bite you. But since Faulkner is dead - Absolom, Absolom proved too much for me. LOL


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I've never felt the urge...I've never taken a bad book personally...there are so many to choose from!

Betsy


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

The book "How to Know when Your Spaghetti is done".


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Lambert said:


> The book "How to Know when Your Spaghetti is done".


Did your spaghetti get all clumpy?


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

Yes it did until I figured out that I was suppose to throw the spaghetti against the wall and not the book. LOL


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Lambert said:


> Yes it did until I figured out that I was suppose to throw the spaghetti against the wall and not the book. LOL


It said the wall?! Terrible book then. Everyone knows you're supposed to throw it against the refrigerator.


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

Lursa (was 9MMare) said:


> It said the wall?! Terrible book then. Everyone knows you're supposed to throw it against the refrigerator.


I thought that was underwear . . . so that you'd know when it was time to change to another pair.

Oh, wait. Did I say that out loud?


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## Iain Manson (Apr 3, 2011)

*The London Telephone Directory*. I tried the first volume of this multi-volume work and found it quite unreadable. Can't understand why it was so popular.

*The "Little Books"*: Are they still churning out those godawful "Little Books"? You know, _The Little Book of Calm_, and so on. I hated them more than I can say. All those trite platitudes, oozing syrup and fudge. And all for the purpose of selling 10,000 words for the price of a 100,000.

I especially remember the first of the genre which, if I recall correctly, was a collection of potted homespun wisdom presented by a father to his son on the latter's birthday. Something like that. I recall cocking my arm in readiness to propel the thing with great velocity against the wall... and then I recall the hospital, the tubes, the nurses... I have never fully recovered.


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## Matt Larkin (Sep 27, 2011)

kindlegrl81 said:


> _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_
> 
> The character of Umbridge p*ssed me off to the point I actually ended up hating her more than I did Voldemort. It is the only book I have ever thrown against a wall but it happened probably 5 or 6 times before I finished the book.


So you threw it against the wall...then picked it up and started reading again?

It would have been funny to see the first time. It would have been hillarious the fifth time.


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## Phyllis Lily Jules (Dec 5, 2011)

James Frey's bestselling "A Million Little Pieces".  

I hated that book. I wanted to like it, but the ego of the author just came slamming through and slapped me in the face. I just didn't get why Oprah fell for him. Later she found out the con. I felt better then, but still had thrown the $25 book in the garbage. Happily.


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

Just read a "Victorian" (quotes intentional) romance novella I would have thrown across the room except it was on my Kindle. Modern people doing modern things in period costumes and settings, not to mention doing them nonsensically. Anachronisms piss me off, but anachronisms AND ridiculous unrealistic characters? REALLY pisses me off.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

tkkenyon said:


> _The Corrections_ by Jonathon Franzen. Left a big hole in the wall but was so worth it.
> 
> _The Magicians_ by Lev Grossman. Man, I hated that stupid book. I could go on and on about why, but I felt ripped off because Lev got all his literati buddies to talk it up, even though it was terrible. That book was one of reasons that I started indie publishing, because the NY nepotistic system made his very, very bad book a bestseller. There is a reason why over 1/2 of his reviews on AMZN are 3 stars and lower, which is wildly skewed to the low end. He wrote an article a couple years ago about how he hates Amazon reviews because he is subjected to the middlebrow tastes of the hoi polloi.
> 
> TK Kenyon


Try Franzen's _Freedom_. It's better. I liked _The Corrections_, too, but the story, the writing, everything about _Freedom_ is better and more engaging.


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## Martin OHearn (Feb 9, 2012)

_I, Sniper_ by Stephen Hunter. It was like walking into an ambush. I expected an adventure novel along the lines of the earlier Bob Lee Swagger books, which I had enjoyed; I got a diatribe demonizing me for my politics.


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## digibooker (Feb 18, 2012)

Catch 22 - just did my head in after about 100 pages... endless characters with no depth. Funny at first but oooooohhhhhh....


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

_Pride and Prejudice_ (sorry, but there, I've said it)

_The Celestine Prophecy_


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

smallblondehippy said:


> The only book I've ever thrown was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't like Twilight but kept with the series in the hope that the horrid, snivelling Bella would grow a back bone. But she never did and by the time I got to Eclipse, I'd just about had enough! Needless to say, I never read Breaking Dawn.


So true... I didn't understand why people loved them so much, but I read _Breaking Dawn_ anyway--and it is by far my favorite (not because of the story, but because of the camp factor, which is _insane)!_

Also: _The Magicians_ didn't make me want to throw it against the wall, but I can completely sympathize with anyone who did. I just loathed all the characters in it; the heroine of Twilight made me feel violently angry, if that makes sense.


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## Selina Fenech (Jul 20, 2011)

A recipe book made me throw it across the room! "Four Ingredients", which supposedly had recipes that used four ingredients or less.
An example of what they thought fit in the book-
"Recipe for Profiteroles- Ingredients: 1 packet of X-brand profiterole mix. Directions: Follow instructions on packet."
THAT DOES NOT BELONG IN A RECIPE BOOK  
It had more than one recipe in it like that, I couldn't believe it.


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## Z.R. (Feb 13, 2012)

I don't even remember the reason, but at the end of Stoker's _Dracula_ I chucked it across the room. Unfortunately I was at work (at the time I was in college and working behind a bar), I narrowly missed some poor sod's head. Needless to say, people thought I was a bit off center.


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## tahliaN (Nov 6, 2011)

Anything with a cliffhanger. I hate them. I have thrown print books across the floor and declared something I thought worth 5 stars up until that point, then worth a mere 3.

For full details of the reason for my passion and a chance to have your say on cliffhangers - there's a poll with some interesting results - have a look here. http://bit.ly/oPT3dD


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## tedkeller (Feb 14, 2012)

I see a lot of people in this thread 'hated' a book because the characters didn't behave the way they wanted them too. Well, that's emotional investment that is, means it got you by the throat. 

Me, I had two groan moments at the start of a book. One was at the start of the Da Vinci code, when the old guy is found dead on a pentagram with a code written in blood, and I was like "sheesh, I'd maybe enjoy this in a DC comix adventure or in a pulp horror, but in a straight thriller..? Come on."
And the second was Brad Thor's Last Patriot (I have to learn to stop buying books that have in their title 'last' 'ultimate' 'final' etc.), and the opening scene was an FBI agent talking to a Muslim informer, a woman, and the agent thought to himself deadpan something like "I shouldn't have allowed myself to become emotionally involved with her..." I burst out laughing in disbelief. And then it turned out Thomas Jefferson had figured out the truth about Islam and it was this terrible secret and this terrible conspiracy and good grief...


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## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

tedkeller said:


> I see a lot of people in this thread 'hated' a book because the characters didn't behave the way they wanted them too. Well, that's emotional investment that is, means it got you by the throat.
> 
> Me, I had two groan moments at the start of a book. One was at the start of the Da Vinci code, when the old guy is found dead on a pentagram with a code written in blood, and I was like "sheesh, I'd maybe enjoy this in a DC comix adventure or in a pulp horror, but in a straight thriller..? Come on."
> And the second was Brad Thor's Last Patriot (I have to learn to stop buying books that have in their title 'last' 'ultimate' 'final' etc.), and the opening scene was an FBI agent talking to a Muslim informer, a woman, and the agent thought to himself deadpan something like "I shouldn't have allowed myself to become emotionally involved with her..." I burst out laughing in disbelief. And then it turned out Thomas Jefferson had figured out the truth about Islam and it was this terrible secret and this terrible conspiracy and good grief...


But you kept reading it? I would have put the books down silently.


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## TLH (Jan 20, 2011)

I don't get angry or frustrated if I don't like a book. I just put it down and move on.


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

Whatever it might say about me, I do get attached to characters and I do occasionally have temper tantrums when stories and people I'm invested in let me down.

And, unfortunately, I have a new book to add to the list: _Dance with Dragons_, the fifth in the Game of Thrones Saga. It made me furious! I'm still mad, and I finished it the night before last!


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

tedkeller said:


> I see a lot of people in this thread 'hated' a book because the characters didn't behave the way they wanted them too. Well, that's emotional investment that is, means it got you by the throat.
> 
> Me, I had two groan moments at the start of a book. One was at the start of the Da Vinci code, when the old guy is found dead on a pentagram with a code written in blood, and I was like "sheesh, I'd maybe enjoy this in a DC comix adventure or in a pulp horror, but in a straight thriller..? Come on."
> And the second was Brad Thor's Last Patriot (I have to learn to stop buying books that have in their title 'last' 'ultimate' 'final' etc.), and the opening scene was an FBI agent talking to a Muslim informer, a woman, and the agent thought to himself deadpan something like "I shouldn't have allowed myself to become emotionally involved with her..." I burst out laughing in disbelief. And then it turned out Thomas Jefferson had figured out the truth about Islam and it was this terrible secret and this terrible conspiracy and good grief...


They do things I dont want them to all the time. It's when they do things that I dont respect, or did them in their past (depends on what it is...I hate desperate women, for example, so immediately lose touch with supposedly strong women characters that continue to do everything to get men back in their lives)...that I end up not having enough interest or respect for a main character. And often do not continue with the book.

Characters can have flaws, dont get me wrong. But certain things I just dont respect in a person...or dont fit into the rest of the way the character has been written. It's just me, I know.


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## Anjasa (Feb 4, 2012)

I've actually thrown away "Trio" by three authors about menage stories.

I have never been so disappointed with a book as that one. $25 and more time than I want to think about wasted trying to get through the first story "Hot Pepper". I never finished it. I feel bad for the two following authors as I was never even able to get to their stories - I was so turned off by the first story that I couldn't look at the book any more without feeling angry.


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

Lursa (aka 9MMare) said:


> Characters can have flaws, dont get me wrong. But certain things I just dont respect in a person...or dont fit into the rest of the way the character has been written. It's just me, I know.


This is the key for me--if something is totally off character, I need the writer to work hard to justify it. I'm willing to be convinced! But often, it's just that they want a certain kind of plot or scene, and if the character's previous...well, _character _is getting in their way, they just change it. It infuriates me.

GoT/Song of Fire and Ice Temper Tantrum to follow (I'll just use one example):


Spoiler



The most recent disappointment in this department was Catlyn Stark. This broad sets off a whole war because she impulsively kidnaps someone she believes is guilty; in almost every conversation with her husband she urges prudence. Okay, you might say, that's not necessarily a contradiction--we often say one thing and do another. So why does she spend weeks by her kid's bedside just to ditch and wander around with her oldest son's army? She's such a dedicated mother (something everyone constantly babbles about while she's sitting by Bran's bed, being worthless) but _she leaves her four year old child to turn feral? _ WTF? I can't stand that character, so that's just me beefing, but I was so angry with the books when this stuff happened because the _writer_--whose talent is incredible--disappointed me. Don't even get me started on the last chapter with Dany in DwD. My blood _boils_ just thinking about it.


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## Darrell Pitt (Feb 12, 2011)

What a great question! 

Okay, The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. I stayed up till late one night and I came very close to thowing my Kindle at the wall when I reached the end. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but I was VERY dissatisfied with the ending. 

Interestingly, the next morning I thought some more about the book and was a little more forgiving as I could appreciate what Mr King was trying to point out. 

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

Darrell Pitt


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