# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![GirlFace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@GirlFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GirlFace)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/81 "2000-07-19T12:58:43Z")
Well…I didn’t actually throw the book (actually, I loved it)…but my rather straight-laced aunt was reading “The World According to Garp” and got all the way to the blow-job scene and actually THREW THE BOOK INTO THE FIREPLACE! I laughed my ass off over THAT one! ---
**Author:** ![Soda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Soda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soda)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/82 "2000-07-19T13:59:22Z")
Three books come to mind; the first one was _The Collector_ by **John Fowles**. The book is actually brilliant but I hated it. I couldn’t stop reading but I was just sickened by it. Then there was some dumbass book by **Patricia Cornwell,** I think it was _Cause of Death_. It sucked. I honestly don’t know why so many people like the garbage. The heroine is so full of herself it made me want to smack her. “Ooh, I made lasagna and it was so perfect because I added real parmesan and left it in the oven for just a little longer than the recipe said so that it would taste just wonderful. My guests all loved it and wanted the recipe…” Yuck. The plots are totally retarded, how the hell does an ME get involved in all that shit? I hated it. Last but not least, anything by **Virginia Andrews**. In my defense I must say that I’ve only read one book by her and that was when I was 13 or something but I still hated it. How did she ever become so popular? Are people really that dumb? Anyway, these days I’ve learned to just put a book down if I don’t like it. No sense in pissing myself off over nothing. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/83 "2000-07-19T14:39:22Z")
**The Shootist**. Utterly bleak. Made the movie look good. **Little Big**. Goes on forever, leads nowhere, senselessly screws the only sympathetic character out of any reward in the end. **Sword of Shannara** (as noted earlier, by Trim). Worst piece of plagiarism I have encountered, and horribly badly written, to boot. Then Ballantine(?) makes him an _editor_? They should have forbidden him to submit another word to any publisher–forever. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/84 "2000-07-19T14:41:21Z")
Trip (as in Trip Fall), not Trim. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/85 "2000-07-19T15:06:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Catrandom \* > \*\*John Sandford’s “Rules of Prey” is the last one I remember. > > Sandford gives the most revolting play-by-play of each murder, which is not a style I’m fond of in any case. But he’s an okay writer and I was tolerating it, right up until he started in, with every evidence that he was going to go into glorious detail, on the torture/murder of a woman in a wheelchair. I quit reading. > > Catrandom \*\* This sounds like a book i simply must read ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/86 "2000-07-19T15:15:44Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by TN_hippie \* > \*\*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. \*\* Interesting. My dad read Atlas Shrugged a few months ago and not a weekend goes by (I go home on weekends) where my dad doesn’t go into an (at least, mostly longer) 10 minute speech about how it is the greatest book he’s every read and I just have to read it, and I should just drop everything right now and get that book in my hands, and “What? you haven’t started it yet? well you may as well just die, because you’re wasting your life until you read it” etc.etc. Any other opinions on it? I still haven’t started it yet (still truckin through On the Road though it does get more interesting near the end). Also, must agree with whomever (was it Daniel?, I forgot) disliked the Metamorphosis by Kafka. I don’t get it. Why is it such a classic? or is it as overrated as I think it is. I don’t like any of kafka’s short stories, though “the Penal Colony” is better IMO. However, by contrast, Kafka’s full length novels “The Castle” and “The Trial” I though were very intense. I loved 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Philbuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Philbuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philbuck)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/87 "2000-07-19T15:26:51Z")
The most recent one I can think of was Jon Krakauer’s _Into the Wild_. I’ve spent a lot of time working in outdoors jobs with people who seemed to worship this book…but the kid was just an ignorant, selfish prick who got himself killed! That’s it, people! Krakauer’s little interwoven stories about himself were far more interesting than that McCandless (sp) fool. As far as textbooks…my first quantum book came with, as many do, an errata sheet. It was four pages, each front and back, single-spaced. And we found a lot more errors during the semester. Of course, one leaves oneself very open to errors when one’s book is essentially nothing but equations cover to cover. And offered without commentary: Dickens’s _Hard Times_ and Steven King’s _The Green Mile_. ---
**Author:** ![Myndephuquer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Myndephuquer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myndephuquer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/88 "2000-07-19T15:41:01Z")
**The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan** by Stephen King I just read it over July 4th vacation, hoping for a somewhat scary, suspenseful read, but _nooo_! It is a slow, stupid read. If you want to read about girl lost in the woods who doesn’t even encounter the ‘bumps in the night’ that might provide a wee bit of suspense, then this is the piece of crap for you. If you want to punish someone, make them read this. If God just gave you just too much time on this earth, here’s a way to waste those silly extra minutes. It sucked. I hated it. The ending would tick off a fourth grader. King owes me. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/89 "2000-07-19T15:42:08Z")
I have really liked all Ayn Rand’s books… especially Atlas Shrugged. I also liked Catcher in the Rye. On the other hand, I can’t stand any of Jane Austin’s stuff… aboslutely deplorable! I don’t think any book has made me hate it enough to throw it though… ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/90 "2000-07-19T16:04:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Then there was some dumbass book by Patricia Cornwell, I think it was Cause of Death. It sucked. I honestly don’t know why so many people like the garbage. The heroine is so full of herself it made me want to smack her. “Ooh, I made lasagna and it was so perfect because I added real parmesan and left it in the oven for just a little longer than the recipe said so that it would taste just wonderful. My guests all loved it and wanted the recipe…” Yuck. The plots are totally retarded, how the hell does an ME get involved in all that shit? I hated it. **Thank you, soda.** I was just thinking about how much she sucks. I read her first book and I thought, “gee that was different.” Then I read book 2–which was surprisingly just like book 1. The pattern–hardworking, upstanding Medical Examiner fights "The System"™, which is always trying to sabotage her and get her fired. She spends an enormous amount of time falling in love with the wrong people and talks incessantly about her super-Lesbian niece Lucy. Damn she sucks. ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/91 "2000-07-19T16:11:01Z")
The fifth book (that shall not be named) in Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series. I can’t imagine any more annoying characters. It seemed to me that all the characters were a bunch of catty bitches with either the male or female agenda with no end in sight. Halfway through that book I realized that it was not going to end in the forseeable (sp?) future. I then realized that I wasted about 4 1/2 weeks of my life reading the books. (I believe I read the several thousands of the pages in about that span of time stretched over a stretch of several months.) I have been told by people here that it gets better again but I am just not willing to go through 10 million pages of horror and boredom just to get there. HUGS! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/92 "2000-07-19T16:22:06Z")
Alessan, I missed your post earlier. As you can see above, I wholeheartedly agree. Another book that I have managed to wipe from my memory until now was Master of the Five Magics. I gave it to some pyromaniac friends and we burned it. We burned it good! I remember in the beginning it was talking about some splinter flying around. Puh-leaze! It was one of the most poorly executed pieces of swill that I have ever swallowed on equal par to Jordan. It even made the Death Dealer series look original, well written, and interesting. HUGS! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/93 "2000-07-19T16:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Myndephuquer \* > If God just gave you just too much time on this earth, here’s a way to waste those silly extra minutes. Or you could attempt to insult everyone in the universe one by one in alphabetical order. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cygnus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@cygnus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cygnus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/94 "2000-07-19T17:00:41Z")
**Reservoir Dog** - agree wholeheartedly about “Men Are…” What a load of crap. I generally avoid the self-help book-of-the-month like a case of malaria, but I heard about this book SO constantly, and in such effusive superlatives (you couldn’t turn on the tv without hearing someone on one show or another raving about how it saved their marriage and transformed their lives) that I finally told myself I should be fair and check it out myself instead of condemning it with the same broad brush as every other queasy-making “relationship” book out there. I wasn’t able to get too far before resigning in revolt and disgust. I’ve seen the author in some kind of seminar on tv, and he’s just as incredibly awful in person. Like you said, it’s just, “If you’re female, this. If you’re male, this.” PUHLLLEEEEEEASE!!! **JosephFinn & Quadzilla** , I’ll join you in the stockade of shame and admit that I hated “Catcher” too. Boring, boring, boring! And even when I was a teenager myself I though Holden was a jerk. **TN\*hippie** , I was never able to make it all the way through “Atlas Shrugged”, although I’ve given it a few tries. Just couldn’t get interested. On the other hand, I like “Fountainhead” very much and have read it several times. But I agree that Rand is a mixed bag. **Philbuck** , I also agree with you about “Into Thin Air”. I plowed all the way through because I kept thinking it would **have** to get interesting eventually, but it never happened. I can’t think of a recent read of my own to contribute (I’ve been on a pretty good roll literarily, ranging from “really good” to “not too bad”), but I do remember that in school the top prize winner would have to be “The Red Badge of Courage.” It was the smallest book we were ever assigned, and I couldn’t believe how many months it seemed to take to get through. Not to be repetitive, but Boring! Boring! Boring! I always wondered who Cooper’s estate paid to get this thing designated a “classic”. ---
**Author:** ![LocalLoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@LocalLoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LocalLoop)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/95 "2000-07-19T18:11:27Z")
There have been ample books that have irritated me on many different levels - only one has warranted actual destruction however. “Rainbow Six” by Tom Clancy. I don’t like books where the authors personal agenda overrides what might have been a decent story. Half the book is good guy stuff, professional men with guns blowing stuff up, entertaining army man action for us civilians. It then turns into a vile environmentalist bash-fest, where the only good outdoorsmen are the rugged hunters who appreciate nature so long as it doesn’t interfere with their economic needs . ( I have nothing against hunting, I hunt myself. I don’t think that is the only way to appreciate the outdoors, however). I loved all the Jack Ryan books (Red October, Clear and Present Danger, etc), but I won’t read another Clancy book after this mean-spirited piece of claptrap. ---
**Author:** ![Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/96 "2000-07-19T18:13:03Z")
_Ulysses_, by James Joyce. I gave up trying to make sense of it twenty-five pages into the book. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2000, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/97 "2000-07-19T18:31:10Z")
Funny all the people who have mentioned _Moby Dick._ I keep trying to read it, then putting it down with a headache. It’s been a couple of years; time to try again. Re the Krakauer books, _Into the Wild_ and _Into Thin Air_ – different strokes for different folks, I guess; I loved them. I don’t think you have to have an appealing lead character to appreciate good writing that evokes a fascinating setting, but naturally it helps. I may have enjoyed _Into the Wild_ more because it was a big part of filling up the first four very-rainy days on my honeymoon… Oh, and I noticed one omission: I guess nobody here read [Newt Gingrich’s novel](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671877399/o/qid=964030956/sr=2-3/104-1392640-2415157), then? ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/98 "2000-07-19T18:41:46Z")
**Moe** , you wanted opinions about _Atlas Shrugged_. Here’s mine: I read the _Fountainhead_ first, and enjoyed it. But, it’s not the type of book that you can just enjoy. You have to think about it. And the more I thought about it, the more I hated it. So, I read _Atlas Shrugged_ and realized that I was correct in my Ayn Rand hatred. Perhaps your dad is thinking that _AS_ is a great book now. He might change his mind about it later, though. I’m shocked at other people in this thread who are criticizing books like _The Sound and the Fury_, _Moby Dick_ and _Ulysses_. I don’t want to sound pretentious or anything, but I would think most people would have the dignity to say they weren’t smart enough to understand the book, instead of saying it was crap. But I guess not. Gotta save face at all costs, even if it eventually makes you look like an idiot, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Philbuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Philbuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philbuck)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/99 "2000-07-19T18:49:32Z")
Ooh, I’d forgotten about _Rainbow Six_! I’ve read all of Clancy’s books, and absolutely devoured them (even the ones that read as much like textbooks on economics or politics as a novel), but R6 was just terrible. The action set-pieces were great, but everything in between was horrid. By about the 26th time he called vegetarians “vegans” I was ready to go hunt Clancy down and smack him (and I’m neither). I did like _Into Thin Air_, and it becomes an interesting study in comparisons if one then reads Anatoli Boukreev’s _The Climb_ about the same series of events. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/100 "2000-07-19T18:56:20Z")
Uh, i think Philbuck hated Into The Wild, not Into Thin Air - didn’t read first, read latter higher than they were… (bought to read on plane) - if you liked Everest IMAX film, read this. Baen books had some chapters of Gingrich’s book for free reading online, if anyone wants. Soporific! I see a lot of SF here… Worst book ? Maybe Ivanhoe. Honorable mention - Vonnegut’s Mother Night. Not a bad book, just had it in an English class in HS, sat next to window, tossed book on radiator, didn’t notice window was open…went a LOT further than across the room… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006.md?page=6)