Books you have thrown against the wall?

[fizixgeek]

For me, Cormac McCarthy's The Road was like that. It's not that the book wasn't viscously effective. That was the problem. That little boy said exactly what my little boy would have said. How (and why) would I raise a moral son in a world stripped of its humanity? Stop, Cormac, just stop. You had me at "one bullet."

I did pick the book up, finished it and was glad.

[Neil Ostroff]

Ha! Ha! I bought THE ROAD with the greatest anticipation and excitement. Halfway through I tossed it into the trash. What a snoozer.

[fizixgeek]

Ha! Ha! I bought THE ROAD with the greatest anticipation and excitement. Halfway through I tossed it into the trash. What a snoozer.

Ok, but when you want to write a scared 7-year-old boy, study that one again.

[ErikHyrkas]

I think my enjoyment of YA books survives due to my patented combination of endurance and selective amnesia.  I was in pain most of the way through Twilight, but Eclipse had me writhing.  Incidentally, I did finish the series.  I was tested many times.

[tkkenyon]

The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen. Left a big hole in the wall but was so worth it.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Man, I hated that stupid book. I could go on and on about why, but I felt ripped off because Lev got all his literati buddies to talk it up, even though it was terrible. That book was one of reasons that I started indie publishing, because the NY nepotistic system made his very, very bad book a bestseller. There is a reason why over 1/2 of his reviews on AMZN are 3 stars and lower, which is wildly skewed to the low end. He wrote an article a couple years ago about how he hates Amazon reviews because he is subjected to the middlebrow tastes of the hoi polloi. 

TK Kenyon

[ErikHyrkas]

I really wanted to like The Magicians.  I felt like there was something wrong with me whenever I tried to give up.  I survived the sequel The Magician King, also.  The comparisons to C.S. Lewis in favorable reviews made me sad.  Yes, Grossman borrowed heavily from Lewis, but it is a pale imitation.

[Ann in Arlington]

I really wanted to like The Magicians.  I felt like there was something wrong with me whenever I tried to give up.  I survived the sequel The Magician King, also.  The comparisons to C.S. Lewis in favorable reviews made me sad.  Yes, Grossman borrowed heavily from Lewis, but it is a pale imitation.

I wanted to like it too.  Didn't.  Thought it was basically about teen angst and kind of rambling.  Didn't bother with the sequel. 

[barbara elsborg]

I've had a few I'd like to have thrown. I had one I actually ripped up on a plane and made the grave mistake of being provoked into revealing what that book was on a forum like this. The author popped in. All the other authors on the forum - who were largely unpublished - got all smoozie with her-him - not giving anything away here and I came out of it looking  bad, even though my reasons for disliking the books were reasonable ones. Trite plot, shallow characters etc etc So I learned my lesson and I don't name names anymore! It can come back to bite you. But since Faulkner is dead - Absolom, Absolom proved too much for me. LOL

[Betsy the Quilter]

I've never felt the urge...I've never taken a bad book personally...there are so many to choose from!

Betsy

[Lambert]

The book "How to Know when Your Spaghetti is done".

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

The book "How to Know when Your Spaghetti is done".

Did your spaghetti get all clumpy? 

[Lambert]

Yes it did until I figured out that I was suppose to throw the spaghetti against the wall and not the book. LOL

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

Yes it did until I figured out that I was suppose to throw the spaghetti against the wall and not the book. LOL

It said the wall?! Terrible book then. Everyone knows you're supposed to throw it against the refrigerator.

[R. Doug]

It said the wall?! Terrible book then. Everyone knows you're supposed to throw it against the refrigerator.

I thought that was underwear . . . so that you'd know when it was time to change to another pair.

Oh, wait.  Did I say that out loud?   

[Iain Manson]

The London Telephone Directory. I tried the first volume of this multi-volume work and found it quite unreadable. Can't understand why it was so popular.

The "Little Books": Are they still churning out those godawful "Little Books"? You know, The Little Book of Calm, and so on. I hated them more than I can say. All those trite platitudes, oozing syrup and fudge. And all for the purpose of selling 10,000 words for the price of a 100,000.

I especially remember the first of the genre which, if I recall correctly, was a collection of potted homespun wisdom presented by a father to his son on the latter's birthday. Something like that. I recall cocking my arm in readiness to propel the thing with great velocity against the wall... and then I recall the hospital, the tubes, the nurses... I have never fully recovered.

[Matt Larkin]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The character of Umbridge p*ssed me off to the point I actually ended up hating her more than I did Voldemort.  It is the only book I have ever thrown against a wall but it happened probably 5 or 6 times before I finished the book.

So you threw it against the wall...then picked it up and started reading again?

It would have been funny to see the first time. It would have been hillarious the fifth time.

[Phyllis Lily Jules]

James Frey's bestselling "A Million Little Pieces". 

I hated that book. I wanted to like it, but the ego of the author just came slamming through and slapped me in the face. I just didn't get why Oprah fell for him. Later she found out the con. I felt better then, but still had thrown the $25 book in the garbage. Happily.

[MeiLinMiranda]

Just read a "Victorian" (quotes intentional) romance novella I would have thrown across the room except it was on my Kindle. Modern people doing modern things in period costumes and settings, not to mention doing them nonsensically. Anachronisms p*ss me off, but anachronisms AND ridiculous unrealistic characters? REALLY pisses me off.

[Jon Olson]

The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen. Left a big hole in the wall but was so worth it.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Man, I hated that stupid book. I could go on and on about why, but I felt ripped off because Lev got all his literati buddies to talk it up, even though it was terrible. That book was one of reasons that I started indie publishing, because the NY nepotistic system made his very, very bad book a bestseller. There is a reason why over 1/2 of his reviews on AMZN are 3 stars and lower, which is wildly skewed to the low end. He wrote an article a couple years ago about how he hates Amazon reviews because he is subjected to the middlebrow tastes of the hoi polloi. 

TK Kenyon

Try Franzen's Freedom. It's better. I liked The Corrections, too, but the story, the writing, everything about Freedom is better and more engaging.

[mgohearn]

I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter. It was like walking into an ambush. I expected an adventure novel along the lines of the earlier Bob Lee Swagger books, which I had enjoyed; I got a diatribe demonizing me for my politics.

[digibooker]

Catch 22 - just did my head in after about 100 pages... endless characters with no depth. Funny at first but oooooohhhhhh....

[JimC1946]

Pride and Prejudice (sorry, but there, I've said it)

The Celestine Prophecy

[Jorja Tabu]

The only book I've ever thrown was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't like Twilight but kept with the series in the hope that the horrid, snivelling Bella would grow a back bone. But she never did and by the time I got to Eclipse, I'd just about had enough! Needless to say, I never read Breaking Dawn.

So true...  I didn't understand why people loved them so much, but I read Breaking Dawn anyway--and it is by far my favorite (not because of the story, but because of the camp factor, which is insane)!

Also: The Magicians didn't make me want to throw it against the wall, but I can completely sympathize with anyone who did.  I just loathed all the characters in it; the heroine of Twilight made me feel violently angry, if that makes sense.

[Selina Fenech]

A recipe book made me throw it across the room! "Four Ingredients", which supposedly had recipes that used four ingredients or less.
An example of what they thought fit in the book-
"Recipe for Profiteroles- Ingredients: 1 packet of X-brand profiterole mix. Directions: Follow instructions on packet."
THAT DOES NOT BELONG IN A RECIPE BOOK 
It had more than one recipe in it like that, I couldn't believe it.

[Z.R.]

I don't even remember the reason, but at the end of Stoker's Dracula I chucked it across the room. Unfortunately I was at work (at the time I was in college and working behind a bar), I narrowly missed some poor sod's head. Needless to say, people thought I was a bit off center.