"Did you ever just throw a book out?" Topic

Have you just tossed one into the trash? I've dropped some off at Goodwill that I no longer wanted. In this case the book is such piece of trash that I would not want it inflected on anyone else.

Never thrown any away. Anything I haven't enjoyed go to the charity shop, someone else might enjoy them.

Throwing books away just seems wrong.

You can recycle paper with even the most worthless and distasteful print on it.

Once, it was a book about Sherman Tanks called "Deathtraps", I think. I also considered removing Chariots of the Gods from the library but since it wasn't mine I let it fester. 😆

I drop them in the recycle bin. Have done that with old magazines that I no longer need.

Nope.

Yes. Has to be a real loser though. I've done so maybe three times in my life.

Yes, just tossed 20 or so last week.

I am completely incapable of throwing a book away

I will give to a friend
or to goodwill

when I was very young
this scene made a profound impression
YouTube link

I will take a dead tree over a pdf any day

What book, specifically, prompted this thread? Aren't you sort of obligated to warn us?

Luckily for me (and others who live near Manassas, Virginia,) there is a local store that allows trade-ins mckayusedbooks.com and is of sufficient size that I'm likely to find something to apply the discount to.

I read "Deathtraps". Not joking. Why did you toss it?

If I do toss it (now more likely to recycle) it will be the first time I have ever disposed in this way of an undamaged book.

Flashman14,

The book is called "Vietnam on Film" by Gilbert Adair.

link

The only review on Amazon is actually far to kind.

Never!

I shredded a paperback book I found particularly dumb.

Sounds cathartic, Bill.

Yes, I have, though I count tearing the cover off and pitching into recycle bin as what you mean.

***blue fezzed***

Doug

Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.
I tossed it so hard it bounced.

I've thrown out a couple. Generally though if it isn't too bad, or they're just outdated, or I no longer have room for them I'll donate them to a library or give them to Goodwill. There are a couple more that I probably should toss or recycle but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Yup. Very rarely, but I have.

I have thrown a few in the recycle bin.

I tossed out an Macroeconomics book in college because I couldn't sell it back (moved on to a new edition…what a racket!)

Damon.

The Gor series. After the author had a nasty breakup with his wife, he took it out on the characters in the books.

I normally give surplus books to charity shops. I put books which I reckon are unsaleable because they are tatty in the recycling bin, on one occasion I recycled a book in good condition because it was awful and I wouldn't want to inflict it on someone else and I've recycled obsolete text books.

Yes, threw out Peter Hofschorer's 'Wellington's Smallest Victory' a long time ago. I knew it would be biased and spiteful, but I hadn't bargained on the sheer tedium of the writing! Got about a 1/4 of the way through it, then recycled, hopefully into something more useful, like hamster cage lining.

I always donate, typically to the Rotary's international literacy project.

However, I have shredded a few "dangerous" books and used the results as packing materials. The last one was that farcical book on Brooklyn, 1776.

Libraries being so wonderful for me through the years I did my best to pay them back by donating unwanted books. The librarian told me they went through them all and if it was something they did not have it would go on the shelves. The rest they sold at a big annual sale. I had the pleasant surprise more than once of finding a book I donated on the shelves. Times change though. The system was to stack donations in the entryway. One day I hauled stacks of books inside and as I was coming out a grey haired old lade was coming in. At my car I looked up and there she was scurrying out clutching an armload of my books to her chest. This puzzled me since everything I donated was military, primarily heavily illustrated technical books on equipment that were very outdated. Then it dawned on me, the old witch raided the library regularly and hauled her take to "Half Price Bookstore". So I now cut out the middleman and get pennies on the dollar but better me than the likes of her.

The only books I literally hurled against the wall were novels. Otherwise I go by the creed that "one man's trash is another man's treasure". I have found some real treasures at "Half Price" and like to think I make someone's day with what I have let the bandits have for pennies. Got $60 USD out of them once which created a monster in that my greedy little wife wanted to haul a lifetimes accumulation of books over there and sell them all! When I croak someone is going to find the mother load at "Half Price" because I have some rare books. Life truly is a tragicomedy.

No, never.

Thomas Covenant. Other books I no longer had use for were donated to the library or sold.

Have shot a poorly organized microbiology text book that was awful to read, was being phased out with new edition – so school wouldn't take back – $75. USD
.44 mag hunting, jacketed, (not plinking) round from 25m through a 6" Colt Anaconda.
Confetti Catharsis. One round, not your N Korean ZPU excess.

Though view any other book destruction as almost sacriligious. Even dropped off 'Battlefield Earth' rather than destroy it(!).

Great story Hockler!

No.

YES!

I read a lot. Every day for several hours. I give a book every chance, often reading well past reason.

Some are just so poorly written… that they do not deserve to live on. It feels really great to slam a terrible unfinished book into the trash can!

I've thrown out 2 books in my life.

Patriot Battles by Stephenson
Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Usually every book has some redeeming features or value. These 2 not so much.

The only one I ever literally threw out was Victor Hanson Davis' book in the Cassell History of Warfare. I found his views on Alexander to be ungracious, untenable, and unendurable.

Sure.

I learned an important lesson from Thomas Covenant – some books can go unread.

Rubber Suit Theatre, LOL. I as well.

Not thrown out, but I did pass on a couple of books I'd picked up on the bargain rack at B&N. I gave them to friends to see if they thought the books were as bad as I thought. One of them was a book written by some university professor called "Spear, Sword and Bow" or something along those lines. It was so poorly written that I would not be surprised if it were the professor's freshman history papers cobbled together with his name on it.

The name of the other book's name I can't recall, but it was nearly as bad. Didn't finish either book.

Asside from those that are damamged, I think the only books I've tossed (into the recycling bin) were religious texts that I found particularly heretical.

I may have made an exception for Ringo's "The Last Centurion", though it pretty well fits my initial criteria for book tossing.

This is what comes under the Biblical category of "Abomination." That is an offense against God, man, and nature.

Books are all we have to extend our memory and our minds. It is our only record of the past and our only means of thinking about the future. It is our only record to leave so that future ages can see where we guessed right and where we guessed wrong.

Even books which are themselves "abominations" must be kept. Perhaps sequestered and hidden. But never destroyed.

A book that comes to mind was a supposed history of the US occupation of Haiti from around 1915 to 1930. I have seared the title from memory but the author I think was Hans Schmidt or something like. The book was a hatchet job on the USMC with PC dripping from every page. Bias was the author's entire premise. The less said about it the better. If it had not been a library book I would have burned it in the fireplace (I had one then…sigh). A military mirrors the society from which it is raised, warts and all. The interventions in the 1920s were thankless tasks handed off to the USMC in our first spasm of "nation building". The author makes much over the local Marine band seeing off a particularly troublesome President into exile by playing the then popular song "Bye Bye Blackbird". The lyrics refer to the blackbird as representing "cares and woes" and the blackbird flying away with them. Look it up. It is anything but a racist rant.

One, and one only.

Thanks all.

hocklermp5 – This book falls in the same pile as the one you were referring to.

I'm still on the fence, but if it goes, it will be to the recycle mill.

Vince

Recycled.

Does going through thrift stores' book selection and "recataloging" copies of "Dianetics" into spaces _behind_ the book rack count?

A couple of rule books, yes, bloody awful things they were too. I won't relate because I really don't want to start a poo throwing you said this no you said that sort of drivel

Give them away.

NEVER throw away a book!

Yes. I threw Phillip Tucker's, "Exodus From the Alamo," in the recycle bin. It's so abysmal that I couldn't bear to donate it to Goodwill or foist it upon some unsuspecting person.

Morrigan- Gor series was a bit repetitive (don't they all get that way?) but throw them out?
I have given quite to few books to the library if less than a year old. They are always in good condition as only I have read them. These are usually historical fiction (Empire, Warrior of Rome etc.) or fantasy books (Dresden)