# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**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, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/81 "2003-01-15T06:26:23Z")
Ooops, I was trying to quote **Wang-ka** there…guess I did it wrong…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/82 "2003-01-15T07:00:40Z")
Since I get most of my reading from the library, buring and mutilation aren’t really options. However, when I was reading _Wizard’s First Rule_, big chunks of pages started falling out of the binding. This book was so bad that it wanted to self-destruct, and I can’t say I blame it. ---
**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 15, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/83 "2003-01-15T15:28:26Z")
At an SF/fantasy convention I attended in early 1983, an author was giving out free copies of the first book in his _Warrior of Vengeance_ series (titled _Sorcerer’s Blood_). It was worth every penny I spent on it. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/84 "2003-01-15T18:24:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vivalostwages \* > \*\*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. \*\* I wouldn’t burn books either, but I figured this was all hypothetical. I was going to say the collected works of Danielle Steele and VC Andrews. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/85 "2003-01-17T13:46:00Z")
\>I’d burn Mein Kampf for what it advocates. Well, I bought Mein Kampf, and has it here on my bookshelf, for no other reason than it was illegal to own where I live (well it wasn’t as it turned out, but it is in some other European countries). Haven’t gotten around to reading it yet though, but I will someday. Here is a man who orchestrated the death of millions – I think it’s pretty important to know what went so terrible wrong in that little mind of his. I also bought The Satanic Verses for much the same reason – but will probably never get around to reading that. Never did throw out a book, but if I should some books by Piers Anthony comes readily to mind, or that awful book: Thomas Covenant, White Gold Wielder argh! White Gold Wielder my arse, that little miserable, self pitying bastard stole many hours of my precious youth that would have been better spend drinking hard liquor and smoking pot. Also the books of The Illuminatus Trilogy, which I have read back to back for some obscure reason, I hate them with a passion. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/86 "2003-01-17T15:00:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WinstonSmith \* > \*\*Never did throw out a book, … \*\* I’ve never thrown away a book, either. I give them to Goodwill and the Salvation Army, though. I love picking through their shelves for books. It’s fun to find a good book there sometimes. But they have WAY too many Harlequin paperbacks and Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Ugh. More stuff that should hypothetically be burned. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/87 "2003-01-17T15:09:43Z")
I’m just as opposed to burning books as the rest of you, but if I had to… Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Don’t get me wrong, I **love** Dickens. I was overjoyed when the teacher started to hand out the books for the semester. Oh goody I thought, a Dickens book I haven’t read yet. It’s the only assigned reading that I didn’t finish in my entire life. God it was awful. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/88 "2003-01-17T18:05:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dejahma \* > \*\*Yes Wild in the Streets was a book in the 60’s. Every other word was the F word. Basic premise was that 16 year olds should get to vote. This was when voting age was 21 and draft age was 18 and in real life people were trying to get the voting age reduced to 18, “If I have to die for my country don’t I at least get to vote on it?” No and you don’t get to drink either, lol. > > I think I may be the only person to ever read the book, lol. But I still remember it as one of the stupidist books I’ve ever read. Eventually everyone over 21 got sent to concentration camps. LOL, who would do all the work? \*\* Oh, is that like _Teenocracy_? I’ve never read the book, but I did read about it in the Curiosities section of _F&SF_ a year or two ago. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/89 "2003-01-17T18:33:46Z")
Has anyone mentioned the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? My lord! I caught a friend reading “…for the teenager’s soul” in high school (when they didn’t have the really specialized versions e.g. “…for the British lesbian albino’s soul” no, wait, lesbians don’t have souls, do they? And albinos, well, I’ll have to check the WWJD site) and hit her in the face with it. Whenever I find one in someone’s house I open it up and read all the last line’s in a slow, tearful voice, one after another “…and that’s when she realized Tommy had given her the best gift of all- the gift of friendship.” “…and I knew right then that Mom wasn’t coming home at all, but would always live in my heart.” Mwaaaah! ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/90 "2003-01-17T22:49:54Z")
What about just parts of books? Like the last page or so of Grisham’s \* The Partner\*. Good book with a ridiculously stupid ‘twist’ ending. And based on the 1 Danielle Steele (?) book I read (I believe it was \* Silent Honor\*), her books would be a lot better if every other sentence were removed (ones such as “He knew from the first moment that he saw her that he loved her.”) ---
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404/91 "2003-01-18T01:59:55Z")
The novelization of the movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. I actually shocked a friend one night by throwing it into the fire. (Yes, we had been drinking.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-deserve-burning/147404.md?page=4)