# What books would you like to erase all memory of from your brain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752 "2009-07-02T23:25:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/21 "2009-07-03T05:33:12Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Speculation about what book it was, so if you don’t want to possibly be reminded, don’t look… > > _Let’s Go Play At The Adams’_ by Mendal W. Johnson? Yep, that was it. Don’t worry, I’ll forget again, then a few years down the road you’ll have to tell me again. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/22 "2009-07-03T07:10:55Z")
I think I’ve actually been pretty lucky, as far as printed literature goes—even the _worst_ stuff I’ve read at least makes me think: “man, if _that_ can get published, I might have a chance, after all!” That said, I could probably live without having to remember Robert Zubrin’s Mars exploration novel, _First Landing_. As much as I support the Mars Society, and manned space exploration in general…well, maybe the story would have been salvageable, in the right hands. And by that I mean “anyone with equal or greater skill than a 1930s pulp detective serial author.” God, that book deserved to be beaten with a tire iron. Beaten, robbed, then dumped from a moving car into a drainage culvert. Without it’s shoes. I’ve seen some fanfic, though, that I’d sure like to get out of my head. With a sharpened icepick. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/23 "2009-07-03T07:30:28Z")
Stephen King–I’d just as soon forget I ever heard of him or his books. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/24 "2009-07-03T09:36:34Z")
Anything by Jodi Picoult. ---
**Author:** ![CrowJane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@CrowJane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrowJane)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/25 "2009-07-03T10:23:59Z")
_American Psycho_ Utterly revolting in some parts, and mind-numbingly boring in others. Okay, so it’s meant to be like that, but it’s unreadable rubbish nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/26 "2009-07-03T14:12:21Z")
The Bible. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/27 "2009-07-03T14:38:45Z")
S. M. Stirling’s first book in the _Nantucket_ series. Chock full of strawmen politicals and unappealing protagonists, I put it down after reading 2/3rds of it. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/28 "2009-07-03T14:50:07Z")
A dragonlance book called “Tas el incorregible” in spanish, thankfully it was so bad that my mind seems to have already forgotten it, no doubt in an attempt to prevent trauma. I remember the title, and nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/29 "2009-07-03T14:51:16Z")
I know there are some, but I seemed to have already erased them without the use of a neuralizer… ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/30 "2009-07-03T15:09:48Z")
The only one of the Gor books I ever read. I understand all the others are much the same. Fortunately I have forgotten the author’s name and the title. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/31 "2009-07-03T15:20:45Z")
Spoiled regarding a mystery novel by Dennis Lehane. The Dennis Lehane book in which the dog gets poisoned. I’m not sure which one it was, I just know it was the last book of his I read, and I’m not reading any more. I finished the book to make sure the bad guy got it in the end, and he did, but didn’t get it nearly bad enough. I don’t see any point in blanking out just plain boring regrettable reads, like _DaVinci Code_ and _Great Expectations_. I guess I prefer being able to speak knowledgeably about their defects. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/32 "2009-07-03T16:46:09Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I tried rereading the series again, just to see if I could figure out where Auel got so damn full of herself. I think it has to be Mammoth Hunters. Clan was good, and Valley of the Horses was actually very sweet, what with Jondalar showing Ayla what sex was supposed to be. But I ended up giving up halfway through Plains of Passage. I don’t know when she’ll finish the series, and at this point, I really don’t care. > > I tend not to finish books I don’t like, but if you can erase from my mind the memory of Star Trek: Reboot, I’d appreciate it. The more I think about it the madder I get. This thread is about books, dearest, but I’ll make an exception because (a) it’s you and (b) you’re dissing that inexplicably popular movie. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/33 "2009-07-03T16:47:31Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Wait, you didn’t like the Marquis de Sade? And if you read one book and were too disturbed…why did you read on?! Read 'em (well, not all of Juliettes) for my undergrad senior paper. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/34 "2009-07-03T17:01:50Z")
Robert Anton Wilson wrote a buncha books (_Schrodinger’s cat_ was one). I read one of his books in my youth. I didn’t understand. So I kept hunting down and reading book after book, thinking that eventually it would all come together and make perfect sense. That never happened. Erase away. /fnord ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/35 "2009-07-03T17:23:05Z")
I’m tempted to ask to be rid of _Battlefield Earth_, but it did have one good effect, at least: That was the book that finally convinced me that some books really are so bad that it’s OK to not finish them (a lesson learned too late to benefit me for that book, alas). If you can edit the warning message to include that, too, it’s gone. Quoth **dangermom** : > [@](#): > > Everything by Piers Anthony. I dunno… None of his stuff is particularly good, but some of it’s at least kind of fun. I don’t regret at all reading the five _Incarnations of Immortality_ books, and the first several _Xanth_ books were OK. But I see no harm in erasing _For Love of Evil_, _And Eternity_, _Macroscope_, _Mercycle_, _Race Against Time_, or _Battle Circle_. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/36 "2009-07-03T17:30:46Z")
LOST SOULS by Poppy Z. Brite Gay vampires- OK Incestuous vampires- OK GAY INCESTUOUS VAMPIRES- ESP. PARENT/CHILD- NOT OK!!! ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/37 "2009-07-03T17:47:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m tempted to ask to be rid of _Battlefield Earth_, but it did have one good effect, at least: That was the book that finally convinced me that some books really are so bad that it’s OK to not finish them (a lesson learned too late to benefit me for that book, alas). If you can edit the warning message to include that, too, it’s gone. > > Quoth **dangermom** :I dunno… None of his stuff is particularly good, but some of it’s at least kind of fun. I don’t regret at all reading the five _Incarnations of Immortality_ books, and the first several _Xanth_ books were OK. But I see no harm in erasing _For Love of Evil_, _And Eternity_, _Macroscope_, _Mercycle_, _Race Against Time_, or _Battle Circle_. I actually like the first three Apprentice Adept books, where he actually stays on topic and remembers that the story is about the protagonist and not merely a frame for puzzles. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/38 "2009-07-03T18:35:38Z")
_Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. Unless, of course, I need to battle off a sudden bout of “not feeling nearly suicidal enough.” ---
**Author:** ![Free\_Range\_Otter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Free\_Range\_Otter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Free_Range_Otter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/39 "2009-07-03T19:33:11Z")
I know everyone thinks it’s great, but I just hated _On the Road_ by Jack Kerouac. I remember finishing it, and thinking what an awful, enormous waste of time it was, considering the other books I could have been reading. This was about 15 or so years ago, so maybe I’ll give it another shot someday. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/40 "2009-07-03T19:50:29Z")
I have suppressed the name of this book and am grateful of it. I believe I read it about twenty years ago. It was Science Fiction set in the distant future with Earth at the center of a Japanese-styled Empire. The Emperor was an evil, amoral SOB, and the author took way too much delight in describing the crap he did. He kept naked little children in his throne room to fondle and had their forearms pierced to put a shackle through so he could chain them up. He also took his latest concubine, an improbably luscious crystal woman, and had her frozen solid so he could chisel her apart while she was conscious, starting with her breasts. Looking back on it now, I realize that it was torture porn, and the author was probably getting off as he wrote it. Me, I was getting sick. I think that’s the only book I’ve ever owned which I chose to destroy instead of donate or sell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752.md?page=3)