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Throwing Books Across The Room
What does it take for you?
I got 30 pages into Michael Robotham before it finally got started with the story that was featured on the blurb. Then there was the unneccesary detail (I don't need a info dump about a cold case crime thank you); and the last straw when he put a character from one of his other series, a psychologist who developed Sherlock Holmes type powers.
I got 30 pages into Michael Robotham before it finally got started with the story that was featured on the blurb. Then there was the unneccesary detail (I don't need a info dump about a cold case crime thank you); and the last straw when he put a character from one of his other series, a psychologist who developed Sherlock Holmes type powers.
Comments
To me, books are precious things, however good or bad they are, however great the match or mismatch with my own particular taste. Whatever you might think of a particular book, it will have been the result of someone's hard and lonely work and deserves respect. Somebody out there will have liked it, or it would never have been published.
No, if I don't get on with a book, then I will gently put it to one side and move on to another book. There are two types of book that I don't get on with. One is a book that bores me; the other is one that is so dark and depressing that I begin to see no hope for the main character (Ruth Rendell's non-Wexford books have that effect on me).
There are, though, some people whom I would gladly throw across the room - top of the list being book burners, book throwers, and those idiots who think they have the right to 'edit' library books, usually in blue ballpoint pen, and almost inevitably incorrectly.
So there! ;-)
I bought a (very expensive) rare copy of a set of John Drinkwater poems, from about 1918. The pages are brown and fragile, after all this time, as it was printed in the war years, it was not the best quality paper. Some idiot has marked virtually every poem with pencil and the paper is too fragile for me to attempt to rub it out.
You Mustn't Hurt Books! No Throw Zone!
Perhaps it does comes down to taste. All writers are not the same. We like a certain film, or we like a certain piece of music, and so it's the same with certain literature. As richt pointed out, someone worked hard to produce it, so we have to respect that.
The moral of the story: the book was so powerful that it created a strong reaction in me. That counts as a Very Good Thing. I don't think I've hurled a book since, except perhaps in a spontaneous outburst provoked by the target, not the missive.
Bad books: I tend to drop them limply, carelessly rather than hurl them.
I recently incinerated and entire encyclopaedia Britannica.
After unsuccessfully attempting to sell them, then leaving them on the wall outside my house with a big sign saying 'free books' (until it rained and I brought them in two weeks later), having had them returned to me from my local 2nd hand bookshop who usually accept anything they can sell for 10p or more (it's on my block and I'm friends with the owners), and having two other encyclopaedia (either more up to date or incredibly old) ...
I burnt half at Beltane and used the rest as filler for plant pots, and great fertiliser they made too.
And I don't even feel the slightest bit guilty. So there!
PS. there's something entrancing about watching the pages curl under heat.
the last book I did that with was 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' by Gregory Maguire - I liked his books based on the Wizard of Oz but I was only half way through this one when I started skipping chapters - so I abandoned it...I may return to it one day but it won't be anytime soon...
I think it's my growing editorial instinct that makes me short tempered with poor books.
but I get the feeling no one will want them
What about University libraries. Hey, I've used some books dating back to the 1950's! Surely they would of interest to historians and law students?
out of interest
They are increasing the number of books each month in some series; changing the covers YET AGAIN, and that always means a price rise six months later! Plus they have gone into e-books and other ventures. They are going the way of other companies expanding too quickly to compete.