# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/61 "2009-07-11T11:31:46Z")
> [@Risha](#): > > [The book that actually gave me a phobia.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10871578&postcount=69) I was going to say there couldn’t possibly be a book so bad that I didn’t want to remember it at all. But then I remembered that a book gave me a phobia as well. The book is _Tangerine_ by Edward Bloor. It’s YA fiction and I read it in an 8th grade English class. The true cause of the main character’s near-blindness and the great reveal of the novel is his brother and another boy held his eyes open and sprayed spray paint into them. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/62 "2009-07-11T13:16:03Z")
> [@Rysdad](#): > > _Great Expectations_ and _A Separate Peace_, > aka, > Great Defecations and a Suppurating Piece of Shit. > > I was forced to read them in high school, and, even to this day, I loathe them both. > > Garbage. Trash. Worthless drivel. > > Miss Wolff stills owes me about 2 weeks of my life back. _You went to my high school?_ I hated those books with a passion, and Great Expectations is what I came in here to have burned out of me. If you tell me you also had to read _The Pearl,_ by Steinbeck, I’m going to have to ask you where you went to school. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/63 "2009-07-11T15:19:28Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > _You went to my high school?_ I hated those books with a passion, and Great Expectations is what I came in here to have burned out of me. > > If you tell me you also had to read _The Pearl,_ by Steinbeck, I’m going to have to ask you where you went to school. Oh god, I had almost forgotten _The Pearl_. That and _The Red Pony_ almost turned me completely off of Steinbeck. Fortunately he redeemed himself with _The Grapes of Wrath_. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/64 "2009-07-11T15:30:52Z")
“Lisey’s Story,” by Stephen King. “Lisey took the smucking smuck and gave it to the smucker, who smucked it while smucking the smuck. Smuck smuck smuck.” ---
**Author:** ![D.Fenestrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@D.Fenestrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.Fenestrator)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/65 "2009-07-11T15:51:30Z")
I’d like to erase all of the Jean Auel books, except the first one, which I read so long ago I have forgotten it anyway. Also Anne Rice’s vampire books (a “friend” encouraged me to read them back when they were really new and trendy, and I read the first two or three and just never saw the appeal). And the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series. Bought it all second-hand, and when I actually slogged through it I was mad at myself for wasting the money. Oh, and the Sword of Shannara. Is that too many? I was going to opt for the Da Vinci Code, too, but I agree with the poster who says it is fun to be able to discuss why it is so bad. 😃 ---
**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 11, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/66 "2009-07-11T18:50:35Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > _Lord Foul’s Bane_. I was so upset by the rape scene that I put the book down. A year or so later I picked the book up again and finished it. Why did I do that? I still don’t know. Just out of idle curiosity, what is it about the rape scene that so disturbs you? That is, is it the simple act of rape itself (as the scene isn’t that graphic); what the rape reveals about Covenant’s character, or the idea that you’re being asked to sympathize with a rapist as the protagonist? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/67 "2009-07-11T20:32:18Z")
A TIme to Kill. I still have nightmares about the rape scene, and since having the Celtling they are particularly, well, nightmarish. Also Lord of the Flies, which might have been fine except that they assigned it to us in the 5th grade. I mean come on, we were advanced readers, not mini adults! And Pet Sematary. ewww! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/68 "2009-07-12T01:19:02Z")
\*My Sister’s Keeper \*by Jodi Piccoult–she is an author who betrays her characters to fulfill some kind of weird agenda of her own. That’s my take on it, anyway. I’m not going to defend or explain further, but I will say that as a healthy child in a family that had 2 chronically ill sibs, Piccoult knows nothing about how those kids (and their parents) react to stuff. _We All Fall Down_ by Mike someone–it was only published on demand online and it’s by some fundamentalist nutjob. I read it for my bookclub–it’s a horrid book that has nothing to do with redemption, compassion or Jesus’ teaching re tolerance and love for one another. Reading it was like drinking dust. All I can say is thank god we none of us wanted to buy the book, so we chipped in to buy one copy and passed it around. I would not want to contribute to this jerk’s profit margin any more than I need to. I’m sure there are more, but those 2 come to mind immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/69 "2009-07-12T01:48:53Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I read \*\*Twilight \*\*all the way through. > > I know people bash authors for be bad writers, but most of the time, I can’t honestly say that I could do better. > > I could do better than Twilight. I’m much the same way. I’ve read some pretty bad books, but I usually think “Well, this may be bad, but at least the author managed to write an entire book, something I have never and probably will never do.” With _Twilight_ though I thought “If I were writing a book this bad, I would have stopped. I would have realized that I wasn’t meant to be a writer and quit.” If I’d read _Twilight_ in the usual way I probably would want it erased, but I read it (actually not even the whole thing, about 1/3 of it) out loud with friends during a weekend visit. We had a lot of laughs over that book – one of my friends actually fell off the couch at one point – and I wouldn’t want to forget that. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/70 "2009-07-12T01:58:26Z")
How did I neglect to mention Twilight? It was so stupid, it was actually a kind of marvel in its amazing degree of stupidity… ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/71 "2009-07-12T04:13:43Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Just out of idle curiosity, what is it about the rape scene that so disturbs you? That is, is it the simple act of rape itself (as the scene isn’t that graphic); what the rape reveals about > > Covenant’s character, > > or the idea that > > you’re being asked to sympathize with a rapist as the protagonist? Both. Mainly it’s because i don’t like rape scenes in anything. I refuse to watch movies like _The Accused_ and I’ve marked the rape chapter in _Mists of Avalon_ because I will never read it again. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/72 "2009-07-12T04:16:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Lisey’s Story," by Stephen King. “Lisey took the smucking smuck and gave it to the smucker, who smucked it while smucking the smuck. Smuck smuck smuck.” WORST.STEPHEN.KING.EVAR!!! Smuck you Steve-O for writing that horrible piece of trash. Anyone care to wager that Lisey’s favorite jam is Smuckers? Also whatshisface constantly referring to Lisey as babylove just seemed so…trailer trashy.And yes, I 100% agree on Jodi Picoult. Her books are just so…Lifetime Movie of the Week. Although I think they’re more along the lines of the semi-decent Lifetime Movies, like the Pam Smart/early 90’s ones, rather then My Fat Daughter Is Beingn Beaten By My Pschotic Alchyholic Husband. ---
**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 12, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/73 "2009-07-12T19:09:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Just out of idle curiosity, what is it about the rape scene that so disturbs you? I put the book down at that same place (and never picked it up again), primarily because I just can’t sympathize with a rapist. A rapist isn’t a hero, or even an antihero-- If I read a book with a rape scene, the rapist is automatically the villain, regardless of what the author intends. ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/74 "2009-07-12T19:34:40Z")
Ugh… how about anything by Kurt Vonnegut? Since one of my friends really loved his work, he convinced me to read a number of them, including _Slaughterhouse Five_, _Breakfast of Champions_, and _Cat’s Cradle_. Utterly worthless drivel, all of it. I fail to see how poor misguided souls can eat up such rambling and non-sensical literature apparently written by a schizophrenic mental patient. Where do I sign up for the neuralizer treatment? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/75 "2009-07-12T19:57:34Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > Ugh… how about anything by Kurt Vonnegut? Since one of my friends really loved his work, he convinced me to read a number of them, including _Slaughterhouse Five_, _Breakfast of Champions_, and _Cat’s Cradle_. Utterly worthless drivel, all of it. I fail to see how poor misguided souls can eat up such rambling and non-sensical literature apparently written by a schizophrenic mental patient. Where do I sign up for the neuralizer treatment? OMG yes. Especially the one about the incestuous genius twins. While I understand what he was going for, the ultimate societal good at the cost of the ultimate taboo, I still just found it disgusting. And not a terribly good exploration of the conflict and society’s response. ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/76 "2009-07-13T02:34:31Z")
The Name of the Rose Seriously. I heard people rave about it, so read it and wondered “what’s all the fuss about?” I’d not erase The Da Vinci Code, because I read it specifically to find out what the flaws were. I kept hearing people say things like, “I didn’t know there were secret societies” etc. Boy was that book a doozy. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/77 "2009-07-13T03:17:49Z")
Not a whole book, just an excerpt posted here on this board about the book “Hogg” by Samuel Delany. The short excerpt posted (I will not link to it here, not only because I still don’t know how to do that, but also because I will spare the unsuspecting) made me nauseated, and STILL makes me nauseated when I remember reading it. I’m feeling like I’m going to throw up right now. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/78 "2009-07-13T03:46:32Z")
The Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving. Also the World According to Garp, same dude.Both disturbing, probably made worse by the fact I read them around age 13 or 14. I like quite a lot of his other work. Prayer For Owen Meanie, Cider House Rules, (disturbing at times, but I wasn’t haunted by it) Widow for One Year, also enjoyable. But the Hotel New Hampshire, and all the sad Vienese post war dispndency, bears, (what is it with John Irving and bears?) and naming the baby “Egg” I just couldn’t stand it. At that age I read books right through, begining to end and never considered stopping because the story was terrible or disturbing. Also all those VC Andrews books, the Flowers in the Attic, and Sweet Audrina… I got that out of my system even younger probably age 12. Evil evil books. Incest, abuse, locking children up… rape, abortions… was nothing untouchable? However they probably mostly cured me of reading trashy paperbacks. (My mother had an odd view of censorship. If I could read it, I was “allowed” to read it. she figured if I didn’t understand it or wasn’t ready for it I would put it down. Infact the only book I ever remember her not wanting me to read was a trashy pree-teen girl meets boy book. I read it anyway, but she really didn’t think it was my style. She was right. It was an odd capitulation to peer pressure, is all) ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/79 "2009-07-13T05:30:59Z")
Og help me, now I actually want to read _Twilight_. There has been only one book that I pissed myself off for reading. _The Nanny Diaries_. Made me swear off chick lit right out of the gate. Everything you need to know about the book: Whine, whine, jellyfish spine. Everything’s everyone’s fault but mine. Hee, I like the rhythm of that. Can I have that burned into my brain instead? Please, Mr. Rhymer? _bats eyelashes_ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752/80 "2009-07-13T13:18:03Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > I was going to say there couldn’t possibly be a book so bad that I didn’t want to remember it at all. But then I remembered that a book gave me a phobia as well. > > The book is _Tangerine_ by Edward Bloor. It’s YA fiction and I read it in an 8th grade English class. The true cause of the main character’s near-blindness and the great reveal of the novel is [spoiler removed] No fair! I actually had forgotten that book! I didn’t even read the spoiler (and deleted it in the quote) and I still remember too much of it now. My 9th grade civics teacher had the weird habit of reading us books during free time, and this was one of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-would-you-like-to-erase-all-memory-of-from-your-brain/501752.md?page=5)