Throwing a book in the bin !

Growing0ldDisgracefully
I love Bill Bryson books and keep them rather than pass them on. However, I bought A Walk in the Woods and felt the same about it, did finish it, but can't remember what I did with it afterwards.

I started reading a book by James Herbert, and although I don't mind horror stories by such as Stephen King, the JH had such sick disgusting details of gratuitous violence on the first page I binned it immediately.

I didn't bin, but did launch a Bill Bryson book across the garden while sitting out there reading it during the first summer of lockdown. Nothing wrong with how it was written (apart from the tedious pages of statistics about how many types of trees etc) but it was about the author taking a long backpacking trip through mountains and woods, and the misery and mental torment of being 'imprisoned' at home (we didn't have picturesque places for the daily hours release for exercise), I'm afraid boiled over that particular day.
I did retrieve it from the bushes later!

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis - once I’d realised what it was about!

I started to read Coma, but it scared me so much I threw it out of my hands and had to get OH to dispose of it!

I would never throw a book away unless it was in such poor condition that it was not fit to donate to charity. As a lifelong book lover, binning books that are in reasonable condition is heresy to me. Just because you found the content disturbing does not necessarily mean others will feel the same way - we all have different taste in books. I do delete books from my Kindle but I do not look at digital books the same way and, in any event, its not like I can donate them to charity.

jeapurs54

Does anyone know if you can return purchased Kindle books back to the supplier (Amazon). I have read it and really enjoyed the book but never/rarely read a book twice.

I think you can return a Kindle book within seven days of purchase, but it does say that even if it has been partially read, you may not get a refund. And if you return too many books, they may block your account.

Does anyone know if you can return purchased Kindle books back to the supplier (Amazon). I have read it and really enjoyed the book but never/rarely read a book twice.

Someone I knew wrote a book and had it self published. It was dreadful and completely unedited. Some bits were disturbing to read (bearing in mind the writer's profession) and the characters names were actually real names of people we knew! Had to go in the bin.

Could never bring myself to bin a book unless it’s so fallen apart it’s unreadable !! All our read books either passed across to friends or to our local second hand book shop

I've thrown the odd intact book in the bin. Sometimes it has been because it is a subject about which I know a fair bit and have discovered that actually it is so inaccurate that if someone who picked it up and believed it they would be very misguided. Books that are well regarded by others but I find say horribly violent for no reason I'd pass on. I'd worry about sharing stuff that I'd inadvertently picked up that were horribly racist

I threw How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran in the bin. It was awful.

I could never throw a book in the bin, I would always pass one on in some way rather than bin it.

I was taught that books are precious, which is even more poignant nowadays with more and more people reading books on kindlesor similar platforms.

I do Kindle. But even at the Kindle price (not hardcover $), I’m disappointed in a few reads and don’t finish them, even though I read many reviews before each new book I buy.

I have 375 books on my Kindle. One of these days I’ll go back and start rereading some of them. I have never reread a book yet. But should. I have equal non-fiction to fiction.
You learn something every day!
USA Gundy

I use old paperbacks that have seen better days for papier mache. Charity shops don't want them. Most of the charity shops near me don't want any books unless they are something special as they are inundated.

We have 'swap shop' telephone boxes in the village that every now and again have to be fumigated as all the books go mouldy - they get pretty full and some books never get taken out so as soon as there is a spell of wet weather they start to get damp. The books get burned.

Paperbacks from the 60s and 70s often seem to have been poorly glued together, and I have had some which have fallen apart. As no charity shop could sell them, I have used the pages to line the compost caddy. The pages get composted and the caddy is easier to clean after emptying.

My copy of "The Dice Man" went that way too, even though it had not fallen to bits, as I found it so horrible I couldn't bear to pass it on to anyone.

MerylStreep

I think some here would be horrified at the amount of books that charity shops have to bin ( the charities have to pay for the skips)
We don’t want to but we all receive so many. We phone other charity shops near us to ask if they need any but they are in the same position.

Why don't you sell the excess books to World of Books (now calling themselves wob, for some reason which no doubt seems good to them)? They say that they get a lot of their books from charity shops where there are too many, and sell them online. I've found quite a few there that I have been unable to find elsewhere. They also say that they can pass on royalties to authors.

What, as you might say, is not to like?

Pippa22
I’d be interested to know if anyone else read ( or attempted to)
this book and their views on JE afterwards.

American Psycho - made me feel sick and faint - with good reason - started the woodburner with it - then discovered it was selling for a good price on ebay.
Plain brown wrapper. Also The Road, same fate.

I threw 'Blond Roots' across the room at one point - just one revolting atrocity too much. I'm not that keen on Bernardine Evaristo although that is probably considered sacrilege. Gave it to a charity shop (as an author I can almost never bear to throw a book away although one Mills & Boon went into the recycling) Only tackled 'Blonde Roots' because of our book group. When I was a teenager I needed to be informed on just how unutterably cruel, twisted and vile people can be. Now nothing surprises me and if I can't do anything about it I would rather forget it and read something heart-warming.

I have only once binned a book, it was by Martina Cole. It was horrific. I love a good murder/mystery/thriller but this was just gratuitous violence. I binned it because I didn’t want anyone else to read it.
I once took a bag of books to a charity shop, Barnardo’s, they refused to take them. Our local hospice shop took them gladly. Guess who gets my business now?

@Tiggersuki, a well-meaning but misguided aunt gave me Great Expectations when I was just nine. I was a very good reader and, as now, a complete bookworm but the book was far too old for me at that stage in my life for many reasons. It put me off Dickens in general for many years, not helped by my father when I was a young teenager who told me that l “should be reading Dickens by now. I read it many years later and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I am not a fan of nineteenth century literature for the most part as I find it is usually slow moving and verbose. I prefer film or tv versions. I read (a lot) for pleasure and there are far too many modern authors l enjoy and far too little time in which to read them for me to worry about what I “should” be reading. I am not studying English literature for an exam, after all.

grannysue101

Sorry All. I adored 'Crawdads'. One of the best books ever!

And me, adored it 🥰

Middlemarch is my top favourite novel, 3-dimensional characters in a carefully woven plot, beautiful writing. And a happy ending for some characters.
I wanted to bin The Da Vinci Code. I found it an insult to the reader stylistically, the plot sensationalist but clunky.

Sorry All. I adored 'Crawdads'. One of the best books ever!

Whiff

I am reading Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens . I am only reading it because it was brought for me by my best friend . I am hating it but will read it to the end because she choose it for me. It's driving me mad. Each chapter is a different year but it keeps bouncing back and forwards between years. Err. If I don't like a book I stop reading but if it's brought for me rather than loaned I feel I have to read it.

It read Philip Pullman's Amber spyglass trilogy years ago and did enjoy them. But his Dust trilogy is far superior read the first 2 quickly and looking forward to getting the final one when it's published in September. It's more about the people rather than weird creatures etc. Both books are over 600 pages but well worth the read.

Only books I have binned where some of my late husband's books he had as a children that had got mouldy in the garage I forgot I had left them in there and found them before I moved house.

I'm with you on 'Crawdads' - I got it from the library because of all the rave reviews from friends, family and the media - and was distinctly underwhelmed by it..!
I'm rarely a fan of books that leap between different stories (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is another one that everyone seemed to love - except me 🙄
I disliked Middlemarch (I kept wanting to slap that silly girl who married the doctor 😄) and although I ploughed through it to the end, I heaved a sigh of relief when I finished reading it. Similarly, I discovered (too late) that the raved-over 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen was actually a turgid and boring recital of the woes of a family - well, it was to me anyway - and off it went to the charity shop.
It's a good job we're not all the same, isn't it..? 😁