# Books that \*should\* be out of print **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360 "2006-04-26T21:17:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/1 "2006-04-26T21:17:13Z")
Every time I see it, I think, “Die, awful book! Die!” This book, of course, is “Battlefield Earth” by ol’ L. Ron himself. Awful book - Hugo would’ve loved it - straight-up space opera in the “and then another thing happened” vein. I’ve always wondered if the reason that it was still on shelves is the the Scientologists are buying the books to keep the churn rate up as a sort-of gateway into dianetics. What else should be on this list? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/2 "2006-04-26T21:35:22Z")
_The Catcher in the Rye_. To this day, I cannot figure out what the BFD is about this book. Was this supposed to be edgy or insightful? _Was_ is edgy or insightful 50 years ago? Take it out of print. Everyone who wants a copy probably has one, or can get one used. Taking it out of print would prevent school systems from making it assigned reading. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/3 "2006-04-26T21:45:26Z")
[_The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion). It’s done and continues to do enough damage, thankyouverymuch. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/4 "2006-04-26T21:50:40Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > [_The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion). It’s done and continues to do enough damage, thankyouverymuch. I just saw a movie about that. That’s some tinfoil hat(e) fodder there. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/5 "2006-04-26T22:14:05Z")
All of the “Left Behind” books. ---
**Author:** ![Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bag_of_mostly_water/32/1029_2.png) [@Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bag_of_Mostly_Water)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/6 "2006-04-26T22:31:14Z")
This is going to be fun! Michael J. Behe, “Darwin’s Black Box : The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution” Everything by Ann Coulter David Kupelian, “The Marketing of Evil” I can’t wait to see what others say. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/7 "2006-04-26T22:54:10Z")
The Horse Whisperer. Just awful. I didn’t think they could make it worse by turning it into a movie, but I’m told they managed. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. What is it about Russian novelists? There’s no depressing situation that they can’t make suicidally depressing. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/8 "2006-04-26T23:08:05Z")
Maureen-- Kundera’s Czech. Are the Protocols “in print”? Not by a reputable company!? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/9 "2006-04-26T23:29:06Z")
More books than I can to enumerate. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/10 "2006-04-26T23:30:11Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > More books than I can to enumerate. That really ought to be “Care to”. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/11 "2006-04-26T23:43:31Z")
> [@capybara](#): > > Are the Protocols “in print”? Not by a reputable company!? [Wal-Mart was supposedly selling it on their website until 2004.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion#United_States) It most certainly is in print in Middle Eastern countries, often funded by governments. There have been TV shows based on it made in Egypt and Iran in the past five years. Saudi Arabian schoolbooks summarize the _Protocols_ as fact, or at least did as of 2001. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/12 "2006-04-27T00:39:04Z")
I’ll join you in the Pit by adding _Little Women_ to the list. I read this aloud to my kids, since I had loved it as a girl. No and no and no. I kept stopping and saying things like, “a woman can do more than have kids and stay home”; “it’s ok to be angry and express yourself appropriately” and stuff like that. It is a horrid book, really. Any version of the Bible that is dumbed down with watered down language (how’s that for a matter of taste). Oh, and all the books that proclaim HP et al to be “evil”. hey, I’m all for freedom of the press and speech, but some of this is too stupid to be believed. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/13 "2006-04-27T02:21:54Z")
Based on [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368217) thread, I shall say: the “board book” version of _Go Dog Go_. And then I shall go on to say: the vast majority of abridged, dumbed-down, kiddie versions of classic books. I’ve seen a horrid picture book version of _Alice in Wonderland_ that totally misses the point, for example. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/14 "2006-04-27T03:12:54Z")
_The Bridges of Madison County._ I could not convince my neighbor that this tiny piece of dreck was fiction. She insisted it was biographical and it was “the best book I’ve ever read” :rolleyes: I gave her “_The Ditches of Madison County_” for Christmas. 😛 We are still best friends. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/15 "2006-04-27T03:26:14Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > I gave her “_The Ditches of Madison County_” for Christmas. 😛 We are still best friends. Followed, of course, by _The Bitches of Madison County._ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/16 "2006-04-27T03:44:32Z")
Going back to ol’ ElRon again, I’d swear I still see that awful, neverending piece-of-crap series “Mission: Earth” on shelves. I tried to read a volume once (before I realized just how twisted his ideas were) and simply couldn’t get past a page or two. And I actually managed to finish the original “Battlefield Earth” novel! ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/17 "2006-04-27T04:20:02Z")
The entire "Chicken Soup for the - B L E E P ! ! - " series ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/18 "2006-04-27T10:52:18Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > And then I shall go on to say: the vast majority of abridged, dumbed-down, kiddie versions of classic books. I’ve seen a horrid picture book version of _Alice in Wonderland_ that totally misses the point, for example. Yes! This is so true. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dan Brown on a printing break. By now there ought to be enough copies of the Da Vinci Code to build smaller towns of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/19 "2006-04-27T11:48:09Z")
_Anything_ by Piers Anthony. OK, with the possible exception of **Macroscope.** ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360/20 "2006-04-27T12:05:34Z")
And of course there is [this list](http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheBookshopSketch). But of course most do seem to _be_ out of print … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-be-out-of-print/354360.md?page=2)