# Books that deserve burning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404 "2003-01-09T00:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/61 "2003-01-09T17:15:50Z")
The Anarchist Cookbook. Not because I don’t think people should read about how to make drugs and explosives and such (you should see my library - I have more books in my gun safe than guns) but because most of the contents is simply false. The author admits to having made up some of the recipies out of thin air. I don’t want anyone trying these and getting hurt. There are plenty of other books on the subject that are at least somewhat more accurate, and which place more emphasis on understanding what you’re doing and taking the appropriate safety precautions. ---
**Author:** ![Alto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/62 "2003-01-09T17:16:13Z")
When I was in graduate school (for English literature), I burned a book by Derrida with a friend. We ripped out the pages one by one and toasted each other with the flames. Then we threw the charred hulk of the binding out the window into the snow. Given the extreme respect I have for books, this was a really powerful moment for me. I felt like we’d sacrificed an animal. Then I quit graduate school. ---
**Author:** ![DrNick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DrNick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrNick)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/63 "2003-01-09T17:49:29Z")
I wouldn’t stop at half of The Wheel of Time stuff, I’d burn it all (I got to book 7 before I twigged it WAS NEVER GOING TO END). Burn all of Eddings’ stuff after the first series…all Terry Brooks’ stuff…in fact, any fantasy series with no end in sight could do with a torching. Waverly and Ivanhoe. Tom Jones. Tristram Shandy. Was brevity a recent invention? Gone With The Wind - ugh. Sympathise with the Derrida burning - I gave my ‘Of Grammatology’ away after repeated lobbings across the room. ---
**Author:** ![lout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@lout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/64 "2003-01-09T18:12:59Z")
On the day we finished final exams in law school, I got together with some friends, got drunk, lit a big fire in the fireplace and physically mutilated all our textbooks before heaving them into the fire. Then we threw up. ---
**Author:** ![greenphan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@greenphan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenphan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/65 "2003-01-09T19:25:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NailBunny \* > \*\* > Seriously, you know how other people make you read their poetry sometimes, and it’s a whole page of just random gibberish but you feel like you should really be getting something out of it but you’re totally not? Imagine HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF THAT, and you have _Naked Lunch_. \*\* Yes, but where else are we going to read the story of the man who taught his asshole to talk? I hate, I hate, I HATE anything by Emily Dickinson and while I wouldn’t want to burn any of her books, I would enjoy taking a large knife to her collected works. –greenphan ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/66 "2003-01-09T20:08:21Z")
So, um, I’m detecting a lot of anger here … 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/67 "2003-01-09T20:53:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lukaspriest \* > \*\*I’d burn Mein Kampf for what it advocates. \*\* Funny coincidence… I’m on a Bay Area Jewish mailing list, and at the precise moment I was reading this post, an email popped up in my inbox entitled “Jews, beat those winter blues” ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/68 "2003-01-10T01:17:16Z")
I don’t hold with burning books (though I once burned a GRE study guide). I have thrown a copy of that compendium of sexist, homophobic misinformation, _Everything you wanted to know about sex… but were afraid to ask,_ out a window. ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/69 "2003-01-10T04:55:59Z")
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. Utterly terrible self-congratulatory drivel. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/70 "2003-01-10T05:02:10Z")
I’d never burn any book, but anything by V.C. Andrews or the ghost writer who took over after her death really doesn’t need to take up space on anyone’s shelf. ---
**Author:** ![kali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e57/32.png) [@kali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kali)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/71 "2003-01-10T05:17:23Z")
i tend to have dramatically negative reactions to books that others say “changed their lives” and then when I read them, they just seem like recycled philosophy or watered down spirituality. For example, I hated “The Celestine Prophecy” … garbage. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/72 "2003-01-10T06:23:47Z")
that was a favorite late night movie on TV when I was a kid & when I saw there was actually a novel (or was it a novelization?) a few years ago, I had to get it- sadly I can’t find the video. Btw, I was also glad to find a novel/ization of THE WICKER MAN!!! ---
**Author:** ![Bubba\_Ray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bubba\_Ray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bubba_Ray)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/73 "2003-01-10T08:33:50Z")
Personally I burned Ed Greenwood’s ‘Elminster, Making of a Mage’ it scarred me so much that I never picked up another of his books but it was so bad that it justifies burning at least three more of his books without reading. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/74 "2003-01-13T17:45:18Z")
I wrote: > [@](#): > > I found the book _Red Dragon_ to be a big disappointment. If I pick up a book titled _Red Dragon_, dog gone it, there ought to be a red dragon in it somewhere! Preferably a huge ancient red dragon with 88 hit points (1st Edition) that still has its full complement of 3 breath-weapon usages per day when he meets the hapless adventurers. … to which **Smeghead** replied: > [@](#): > > Geek. > > 😃 You’re just jealous because my 17th-level ranger has _+5 plate mail of etherealness_, a +6 intelligent broadsword, and a _girdle of titan strength_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/75 "2003-01-13T18:41:38Z")
I once ran out of toilet paper in a public restroom and wound up having to wipe my ass on Edmund Spencers’ The Faerie Queen. It was a Norton Anthology (with the really nice and comfy rice paper 🙂 ). I spent far too much time deliberating upon who would receive the honors, too… ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/76 "2003-01-13T19:02:58Z")
One day a few years back, I went to the library and checked out _The Statanic Versus_. I put it on my bookshelf, intending to read it later as I was in the middle of some science fiction book by Larry Niven, and went to work the next day. When I got home, I found that my dog, Maya, had bypassed the easily accesible Niven novel, the first shelf books, the second shelf books, and pulled _The Satanic Versus_ out of all the books on the third shelf. The teething labrador pup utterly destroyed it and I had to pay the library to have it replaced. I never got to read it at the time (because my dog destroyed it), but finally read it about two months ago. I agree with Maya’s critique. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/77 "2003-01-13T19:04:04Z")
Jeez, what’s wrong with me? “_The Satanic Verses_” there, see I can spell. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/78 "2003-01-13T22:21:56Z")
\ “Fire bad!” \ ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/79 "2003-01-15T04:29:36Z")
_The Total Woman_, by Marabel Morgan. Has anyone else read it? If no, then good. If yes, then I’m very, very sorry. It’s Christian antifeminist backlash with the general message, “Lie down and let your husband walk all over you! Give up all your own opinions, lose your personality, and act like a twit and he’ll love you more! And give you expensive stuff!” On the back cover, the author looks **orange**. I still have my copy, but I am planning on burning it. I almost threw a copy of Peter Singer’s _Should The Baby Live?_ out of a car window on the highway once, too. I refrained because it was a library book. Things that advocate killing babies because they have Down Syndrome make me ill. ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/80 "2003-01-15T06:23:24Z")
…and stuff like “Mein Kampf” and “The Turner Diaries” need to stick with us… to remind us of the madness in men’s souls, and the need to keep an eye peeled for the loonies BEFORE they blow stuff up, instead of AFTER… \*\* [/QUOTE] Well put! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404.md?page=5)