Throwing a book in the bin !

I have two relatives who wrote privately published books. They are so poorly written with silly plots. I would be embarrassed to be the author. I guess I feel that I "should" keep them since they were given to us as gifts.

rubysong, " We need to talk about Kevin" is one of my top ten Very Disturbing reads alongside " Rosemary's Baby"...
Oh and anything written by Martin Amis belongs in a bin for my money.

I put 'We need to talk about Kevin' on the bonfire. I was so freaked out by it I didn't want anyone else to read it.

A friend brought me a stack of Mills and Boons .

She told me that she didn't want them back and I'd love them .

The whole lot went in the recycling as the local charity shops didn't want them .

I recently binned a book that I picked up at a book swap. The blurb sounded like one of those fun 'witchy / paranormal' novels that are popular at the moment.
As I began to read it, I realised that it was quite sinister, as if the writer seriously believed some quite unpleasant stuff about witchcraft - I then noticed that it was privately published.
I put it on a shelf - as others have said, throwing it away seemed like a 'sin' but I did feel bothered by it being picked up by someone impressionable. I debated if I owed the same consideration to a 'privately published' book, and if policing the reading habits of others was appropriate anyway!

A neighbour and I were having the same conversation - and she is someone whose judgement I value, so I mentioned this book. She said 'oh, I have met that person, she is very strange and I think you're right to throw the book away'. When I remarked on the co-incidence of her knowing the author, she said 'not really, she lives locally, publishes privately and puts her books into swops and charity shops to get an audience'. After that I felt no qualms about binning it!

I chucked a gifted copy of Harry's Spare in the bin but usually surplus books go to the charity shop (though I find charity shops have too many bonkbusters and similar junk on their shelves).

If you delete a book from your Kindle it's still there in the cloud.

I will have to start throwing books away. There are only so many English books I can donate to charity or put in the cupboard on the market Square for people to help themselves. They won't go on eBay - tried that. Have asked all my English group if they want them.

DH can't throw books out. He'll probably fish them out of the bin. He once "rescued" half a dozen books from someone else's bin. They were in Polish!

Many years later I had a Polish girl come for English lessons. I asked her what they were and she said they were just trashy novels. I think I finally managed to jettison them during a house move.

I just wondered if deleting a book from a Kindle had the same moral attributes as throwing a book away?

M0nica

How about deleting books from your kindle or other e reader(for those that have them)?

I delete books from my Kindle. These days I know a few chapters in if I am enjoying it and just delete it if I am not, one was so quick I got a refund. It's a little too easy really. In the past, I would have struggled to the end.
I had a broken Kindle, DD took it and her DH mended it she ended up with a library full of books. Luckily we like the same type.

I was once recommended a book called ‘Shantaram’. It was a very thick paperback book. It was a really rubbish story of one persons life in India (I think). Sort of, then I did this and then I did that.

At that time I had never stopped reading a book until the end.

A couple of years later I met a chap poolside reading the same book we discussed it and he said he always finished a book so would plough on.

I knew he had finished it as I heard a grunt of disgust, he tore the book in half and threw it in the swimming pool!

(He did retrieve it and put in the bin).

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.

I read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy ( as it won the Pulitzer prize) but then I swiftly binned it - as I didn't want my children to read it.

Still, decades later, those images of the cellar 'food store' and spit roast baby haunt me.

How about deleting books from your kindle or other e reader(for those that have them)?

I ripped apart a couple books by a psychologist who was a super Christian anti-gay bigot who admired TRump. It felt good to throw them away.

I just couldn’t, however bad, books I’ve read or not go to the village charity shop.

Growing up in a rather poor household books were a luxury. The only books I had were readers from school and the few I got for Christmas presents. I loved books and treasured what I had I liked reading and gaining knowledge.
I have never thrown a book in the bin if I have a sort out which is quite often they go to charity.

dotpocka Banning books is not being discussed and no one is advocating it. All we are discussing is books we have disliked so much, we wanted them out of our lives on an instant.

There are plenty of books I have not enjoyed and possibly not finished, and sent to a charity shop. Only 2, one on kindle, that I have ever found so unreadably dreadful, I disposed of them instantly, and both are still widely available out there for anyone who wants to read them to obtain copies

i do not ban books of any kind
like anything else if you dont like it pass it on

terribull I have never (to my knowledge) met your DH, but we have something in common. I too chucked Martin Amis' Money in the bin. yes, it was the language, also its lack of any discernable plot.

I have often extolled the works of a 19th century woman writer Mrs Oliphant. When she is good, she is very very good, but when she is bad ........Oh, my God. I recently downloaded one of her books onto my Kindle and a few days later delated it because the plot was so ridiculous and far fetched.

Sparklefizz

Our council’s instructions are to put books in the black general waste bin, not in the paper recycling one, as the pages are often poor quality paper and not suitable for the process. I assume this is for paperbacks also.

It does suggest charity shops or similar if possible though.

I was given a carrierbag of 6 paperbacks by a lady at my choir once she knew I belonged to a Book Group.

The books were all by the same author and were full of extremely raunchy .... but badly written ... sex scenes. I'm no prude so wasn't offended by the sex - more about the complete lack of plot and poor writing.

I wanted to get rid of them so ripped off the covers and put those in a carrierbag at the bottom of my bin, and tore up the pages to dispose of in the paper recycling.

I viewed the lady donor slightly differently next time we met at Choir.

I threw gently in the direction of the bin ( as it was a library book) a copy of 'Must You Go' by Antonia Fraser; it was the bit about driving down to the country in the Mercedes with Orlando and Claribel and the wolfhounds, or similar, that finally finished me.

My husband chucked Martin Amis' "Money" in the bin, sorry to say that because MA has just died. I think I'd bought it for him thinking it would be some inspired holiday reading. He didn't like it all, felt that it was if the author had just discovered the "f" word and in doing so, meant to use it as many times as he possibly could, so that and plus he thought MA was massively overrated.

I threw the Lovely Bones in the bin, I really didn't like it one little bit, and I think I was miffed at the time as well because it was the overall winner of Richard and Judy's Book Club the first time they'd introduced that as a feature in their afternoon show. I thought the runner up, Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor was one of the best books I'd ever read just should have won

I probably should add once the book went in the bin, it usually came out, it was just satisfying hurling them in that general direction to get it into the receptacle in one go!

What I find strange is that most people (me included) have no problem binning newspapers or magazines but have difficulty binning books, no matter how bad or boring. I now do it occasionally.
Now I mostly borrow from library and if rubbish, return without finishing.

Oh no, I just couldn't throw a book in the bin! Even if I hated it, I'd have to give it to charity or something. Just couldn't bring myself to bin any book.