# Books you threw across the room in disgust **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006 "2000-07-18T19:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/61 "2000-07-19T00:03:30Z")
I’m not surprised at people being pissed off at Moby Dick - it’s a hell of a long book, and the fact kids are forced to read it, and that their teachers often don’t have any idea what the point of the book is, ruins it for most people. That said, it is a brilliant book if you treat it like an encyclopedia the first time around, and then reread it for the action skipping the in-depth descriptive chapters. I would say the last ten chapters include some of the most amazing passages I’ve ever read - of course, I had a brilliant Literature lecturer who actually had some understanding of what Melville was on about. I think On the Road is overrated, but it’s not terrible - I found it fun to read on the bus/train - it seems to fit the rhythm of movement well. I also love Heart of Darkness (and thought Apocalypse Now was crap - the doco on the making of it was much closer to the spirit of the novel). I guess it’s down to strokes for folks. I have to agree with ‘Men are from Mars …’ - I bought this for my mother as she had been convinced it would help her marriage (which actually was fixed up, but more in spite of this book than because of it) and I took the time to read it. I didn’t throw it, but I nearly tore it up - what an absolute load of crap. HenrySpencer ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/62 "2000-07-19T00:20:48Z")
The worst book I ever finished was _Chicago Loop_ by Paul Theroux. It’s about a guy who is a complete dick, and by the end he transforms into a completely different dick. The story reaches its moral, aesthetic and logical conclusion in the worst possible way – the plot has nowhere to go when the guy sucks so bad he can’t possibly suck any harder, and he kills himself just so the book can end. ---
**Author:** ![Or\_n\_ry\_Oscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Or\_n\_ry\_Oscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Or_n_ry_Oscar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/63 "2000-07-19T00:37:07Z")
Bar none, the worst book that I have ever read was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was requred for a general humanities course in college and was roundly decried as a pretentious piece of garbage. Fortunately great strides have been made in psychotheraputic drugs in the twenty years since it was written. So all I have to say is, “Dude, take your Xanex, remove the wrench from your ass and quit annoying the freshmen.” I also agree with Slackergirl: Tristram Shandy is Sominex in pasteboard. No way it could ever be thrown, though. It’s too boring to get annoying enough to throw. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/64 "2000-07-19T00:54:45Z")
I must have been extremely susceptible in English Lit because I really like many of the books on this list. I like Dickens, although there are plenty of stinkers in his book list, notably Oliver Twist; Pride and Prejudice is my absolute favorite all time novel; and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is my favorite all time non-fiction work. And I really like Melville, including Moby Dick. There have been a few books I wanted to read all the way through but just couldn’t do it. Henry James comes to mind. The only time I ever threw a book was not because it was bad – it was just too emotionally involving at the time: Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy. Never, ever, ever read Hardy if you are already depressed. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/65 "2000-07-19T01:11:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\*can’t believe no one’s mentioned those favorites of 1970’s high school teachers: ANYTHING by Charles Dickens, and/or James Fenimore Cooper. Writing styles may have changed substantially, but I have a hard time believing that even contemporaries could deal with those… > \*\* It’s not quite contemporary, but I have a copy of an article published in the _North American Review_ in 1895 which is a scathing criticism of Cooper’s writing ability. From the author’s list of “rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic fiction”: > [@](#): > > 1. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has oven been overlooked in the _Deerslayer_ tale. > > 2. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the _Deerslayer_ tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together. I never was made to read Cooper, yet I love this stuff. Someday I’m going to start collecting great reviews of really bad things. (I was entertained for days reading reviews of _Battlefield Earth_!) ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/66 "2000-07-19T01:18:31Z")
You know, a little bit of internet searching can go along way. That article was written by some guy by the name of “Mark Twain.” heh. [http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html](http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html) ---
**Author:** ![ultress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7c8e57/32.png) [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/67 "2000-07-19T01:21:16Z")
The 13th Warrior was absolutely horrible. I read the book all the way through simply because I can’t stand to start a book and not finish it. I burned it when I finished. I wouldn’t dream of passing it on to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/68 "2000-07-19T01:21:29Z")
The bell curve. I tried, but just couldn’t handle it. Yech. ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/69 "2000-07-19T01:27:14Z")
But gave it second chance: _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand. Still hated it. _The Fountainhead_ was considerably better, but it still pissed me off a lot. I could go on for hours about my love/hate relationship with Rand, but my belly is already burning, so I won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/70 "2000-07-19T01:42:11Z")
Well, Hannibal, but that has already been os so deservedly thrown. Faded Sun-Krsih or something like that, by a good SF writer i will not nam: She required you to learn about 40 words of an alien language by page 5, all just by context, and with no glossary. COULD not read it. Actually DID throw it. And, for most overrated:the Metamorphisis by Kafka. At least it’s short. For some reason this is inflicted by honors english teachers on millions of underdeserving students, as an example of “european” lit. Crap. ---
**Author:** ![docandjean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@docandjean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/docandjean)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/71 "2000-07-19T02:16:16Z")
Contact by Carl Sagen. The rare case where the movie is better than the book. Much better. ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/72 "2000-07-19T02:41:06Z")
I don’t know about books I’ve thrown across the room, but I do know of books I’ve thrown in the trash. Boxes of books. My dad’s books. My dad’s boxes of books. His boxes of books that were cluttering my room. Well, they clutter no longer. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/73 "2000-07-19T03:15:07Z")
Let’s hear it for the whiny, swampy prose of William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams or any other writers or playwrights who inflict the rest of us with pointless whining about how decadent and dysfunctional their families or their neighbors might be. Deal with it and move on. These ghastly tomes are beloved by English profs of the Deconstructionist school because the authors throw enough Pointless Incidents so that any critic can prove his or her point by selectively choosing their favorite half dozen incidents. It is from a twisted sense of perversity that these authors are forced on innocent young minds. If you want classics worth reading, give them Twain. At least they’ll understand irony. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/74 "2000-07-19T03:32:58Z")
I almost threw _The Running Man_. The movie version was oh so shallow compared to the thrilling cross-country caper depicted by Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/75 "2000-07-19T03:40:25Z")
Wanted to throw: anything by Crichton. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/76 "2000-07-19T04:10:12Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by little_bit \* > \*\*I have only thrown 1 book in my life. And it had nothing to do with disgust. Never, and I mean never, sneak up on anyone reading “The Shining”. If you’ve read that book, you know the movie is a weak and watered-down shadow of it. > > I have never managed to get past page 27 of “Pride & Prejudice”. Am I missing something? Of all of Jane Austin’s books, this is the only one I can’t seem to make it through. \*\* I have to read _Emma_ for summer reading bullshit. It’s the most boring piece of shit I’ve ever read. I keep falling asleep two pages after I start. Hopefully if i read two pages every sitting twice a day, then i’ll be done soon. I have 2 other books besides that to read for school. ---
**Author:** ![Quadzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a4c791/32.png) [@Quadzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quadzilla)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/77 "2000-07-19T04:19:56Z")
_Angela’s Ashes_. Like I told the people in my travel group to France who had brought it as a “great new read,” I kind of stopped taking interest when Mr. McCourt started digressing more and more to talk about masturbating in the countryside. The two funny parts I heard on A Prairie Home Companion far outstrip the rest of the book, but it’s too bad that that only accounts for perhaps 1/250 of the book. Also _Catcher in the Rye_. Sorry, but Holden Caufield is the epitome of melodramatic teenage angst. I’ve had it explained to me in numerous classes, but if I ever acted like that, I’d be sent to my room to think things over without dinner for a while. To quote Holden, “F\*ck that.” Oh! How can I forget _The Last Temptation of Christ_? _shudder_ No, no, no, no. This book was not horrific and sinful as so many claimed, but it sucked. Plain and simple. Almost 500 pages of Kazantzakis’s idea that man is dirt that must sublime to flame to become truly pure…or something like that, it was full of obscure philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/78 "2000-07-19T06:48:13Z")
**Stars and Stripes Forever** , an alternate history of the Civil War, by Harry Harrison, and **Bring the Jubilee** , an alternate history about the US sixty years after the South wins the war, by some clod whose name I don’t remember. A few years ago, I got into Harry Turtledove’s alternate history (not drawn to his SF), and having read all his AH, thought I’d try some other authors. Either it’s only Turtledove that I like, and not AH as a genre, or those other guys can’t write. One reason I got fed up with Harrison is that there were numerous sentence fragments. I’m not a grammar harpy, but it made the style choppy, and since nothing was happening in the plot, and all this nothing was happening to characters that didn’t interest me, I tossed it. I don’t even want to discuss **Jubilee**. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/79 "2000-07-19T08:06:55Z")
Chalk up another for the texbooks. Mine was physics (advanced mechanics). Partly I was mad at the author for not writing explaining well enough, and partly I was mad at myself for not understanding well enough. I always meant to finish the damn book, but it’s been three years and I haven’t touched it. ---
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/80 "2000-07-19T09:13:56Z")
Rilchiam, I’m also a big AH fan. I love most of Turtledove’s work, but I damn near threw his collaboration with Richard Dreyfus, _The Two Georges_ into the ceiling fan. I was just so distracted by their (it must’ve been Dreyfus’ input) recitation of every item on their meal menus, _ad infinitum_. Essential to the story, I think not! The premise was interesting, British North America in the 20th century, 200 years after Washington’s surrender. I could’ve done without the attention to detail of every last food item each character ate throughout the story. That was weird. For the most part, his solo efforts are much more fascinating, like the _Great War_ and _Civilization, In The Balance_ series. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006.md?page=5)