Books You've Thrown Away

[Smilla]

Hated it? Couldn't finish it? Tossed it out your window, into your trash can or your favorite used book store's Free Box? This is the thread in which to air your frustrations.

[BinkyBetsy]

I gave Ellen Foster to a co-worker and told her she needn't bother to return it.

I deliberately left How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at my MIL's house. I'd been drawn to it because I'd read a chapter in a short story anthology. Turned out that chapter was one of only two good ones; everything else was zzzzzzzzzzzz...

I put Permanent Midnight in the freebie box at a bookstore after the owner told me he already had all the used copies he needed. I'd read the author's story (see a pattern here?) in a free weekly. The reporter for the free weekly was a better writer than Stahl!

Bastard Out Of Carolina also ended up in the freebie box. It seemed like an okay story at first, but the author took dozens and dozens of pages in tiny tiny print to get the simplest idea across. I like detail in a book, but I don't need to know about every crumb on the oilcloth.

In fact, after that, I swore off the Suffering but Strong Southern Women genre. Enough already.

[vacationland]

After letting them mock me from my "to read" pile (and later, from a bookshelf) for three years, I finally offloaded a couple of Anne Rice's Vampire books. I'd sort of liked the one she'd done about the family of witches years ago and had high hopes for the vampire ones when I discovered them in a 25-cent paperback bin at a thrift shop. I think I got about 2 chapters into the first one and....no. Just...no. Donated them back to the same thrift shop.

Add Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone and Jacqueline Michard's (? it's been a while) The Deep End of the Ocean to that donation pile. Could not get through them...seemed like totally pedestrian dreck. Thanks a bunch, Oprah.

[shiningstah]

Ayn Rand's The fountainhead. Words don't begin to describe how much I hate that woman! I despise her.

[Smilla]

I put Permanent Midnight in the freebie box at a bookstore after the owner told me he already had all the used copies he needed.

Once again, not to regurgitate too much, but that reminds me of a story I never tire of telling about taking Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones to my favorite used book store and having it rejected. It wasn't because they already had enough copies, the store owner just didn't want it, and then we chatted for a while about what a bad novel that is and how much we both dislike Ms. Sebold. I really have no idea what happened to the copy I tried to turn over because that place didn't have a Free Box. Kindling, perhaps?

In fact, after that, I swore off the Suffering but Strong Southern Women genre. Enough already.

Sometimes there isn't enough word in the world.

[marmie]

"Bastard Out Of Carolina also ended up in the freebie box. It seemed like an okay story at first, but the author took dozens and dozens of pages in tiny tiny print to get the simplest idea across."

Thank you, BinkyBetsy. I haven't read the book but saw the movie some time ago and thought it was very well done. It left quite an impression. I was wondering about the book but won't bother to read it now. This is one of those rare cases where the film is better than the book. Apparently "The Horse Whisperer" is another example - good movie, lousy book.

[materialgirl]

I finished college in May and upon graduating promised myself that in my post-college life I'd be sure to finish every single book I started (something I definitely didn't/couldn't do while in school). I made it about nine months before reneging on my promise. I could not stomach the thought of finishing Vernon God Little. Smug, try-hard piece of dung.

[tmi]

She's Come Undone? I'll join you on that one, Vacationland. That book really bugged. Be glad you didn't read Lamb's next opusI Know This Much Is True. I heard an unconfirmed rumor (from a very reliable source) that he edited/made changes to the story before publication based on a book chain's demands to make it more sellable-- maybe that's part of the reason it just blew.

Here's one to hate in advance: the new Robert James Waller, High Plains Tango. an enigmatic drifter. . .passion for carpentry. . .solitude. . . local woman thought to be a witch. . . long auburn hair. . .high plains. . . The awful thing is this revolting crap will FLY off the shelves.

Prepare your catapults now.

ETA: Maybe this doesn't technically count as a book I've thrown away but I'm acting pre-emptively and trying to warn others in case you unwittingly cross paths with this tome. Don't pick it up in the first place.

[Smilla]

Prepare your catapults now.

Hee. I'll do that tmi. Maybe I'll use my catapult to hurl Mr. Waller copies of Bridges of Madison County or anything Alice Hoffman has written in the last decade, because he obviously missed those.

[tmi]

Oh god, Alice Hoffman. Holy overratedness. I wasn't going to post again, b/c I'm about to go to sleep, but she's another writer who should be gently led into seclusion and weaned away from the keyboard, perhaps introduced to a nice hobby like crocheting.

There is nothing like working with books to make you super-cranky about bad ones that are far too popular AND critically well-received. Maybe their publicists send out packets of drugs with the ARCS (except I never get any!) (drugs, that is)