Have you ever thrown a book in the bin?

[HopSpringsEternal]

I did yesterday for I think the 3rd time in my life.
The first was that book by Gina Ford when DS1 was about 2 weeks old. It was all the rage at the time but DS definitely didn't want to follow the rules. In fact it was DH that threw it out and I was definitely a lot more.content.
The second was when I got out my old Doctor Dolittle books to read the kids and I realised they were littered with the N word. In a sort patronising racist way "the nice n man". Didn't want that word seen or normalised by any other kids so in the recycling it went.
The last was yesterday. Lying in bed realised their was a Neil Gaiman book on my book shelf. Didn't not want a book of that vile bastard staring at me so into the bin he went.
Foot all other books if I don't want them anymore.I just take them to the charity shop. But I didn't want to inflict the above three on anybody else.
Has anyone else?

No, unless it was damaged and past being donated or passed on to a family member.

Used to work in a library so have thrown out a good number of books, the brand new hardbacks that lost a fight with a German Shepherd are quite memorable. The poor bloke had to pay full RRP as damages which annoyed me as ultimately our council got a massive discount from the supplier. That was one reader who never came back then the management wonder why libraries aren't getting the footfall.

I’ve read some absolute crap on holiday.

i usually take about six books with me and aim to swop three of them but you really are at the mercy of what the other people have.

my DD hates Neil Gaiman and as her act of protest will not buy any of his books new but does buy them second hand. She loves his writing just hates the person.

if he is into Warhammer, and maybe likes modelling, perhaps he can do what i have done with some books i wanted to dispose of? Shred (or rip up) and papier maché a model or something? a landscape for the armies?

One time only - a book called X by Bill Drummond and another bloke. Was interested as I like Bill Drummond’s music.
Eye-wateringly filthy, sexist, paedo stuff.
But not the bin - it went in the recycling!

He already has landscape (bloody huge!) but doesn't like the craft side of it - he bribes his dad to paint them in return for garden labour. It's the strategy he loves.

Very creative suggestion though!

I'd nearly always send it to the charity shop if I didn't like a book.

But I ready a hypno birthing book when pg with DS and it contained such woman-blaming shite that I couldn't inflict it on an expectant mother lest she feel as awful as I did. I chucked it on the fire.

I've got that sitting on my bookshelf. I haven't reread it since I bought it years ago but remember enjoying it at the time.

Mummy laid an egg, I think it’s called. Like, I enjoy the lighthearted way it approaches the facts of life but wasn’t keen on the bit showing different sex positions, to be honest, and couldn’t in good conscience give it away. So it went in the bin.

If a book bores me or I think it's badly written, I'll donate it to a charity shop as it might bring pleasure to others and make a bit of money for the charity - I've done that with both The Time Traveller's Wife and Eleanor Oliphant (mentioned earlier in the thread).

I struggle to actually throw books away. I'm autistic so rule following and find it hard to break away from long term habits. My mum and dad taught me at an early age that books are special and should be cared for. That's deeply ingrained.

I once threw out a book that was physically damaged but it was hard. I've still got old o level revision guides in the loft. I know in my head that they are only pieces of paper and that nobody would want them but it still feels a bit wrong to chuck them in the recycling.

I love Babette Cole and think that Mummy Laid an Egg is great. I picked up a 2nd hand copy in a charity shop for my dd when she was young.

I think that the sex positions (eg on a Spacehopper) are humorous and child friendly rather than explicit.

Cold comfort farm. Wanted to like it but didn’t.

Once because the cat vomited on it. If it's offensive the paper can still be recycled.

So why not just donate to a charity shop in case someone else enjoyed it?

I read this - load of codswallop!

I think I did! I didn’t really bin it.

My late mother's OU course books as they were over 30 years old and so could not be of use to current OU students.

It’s fine to do what you want to do with your own belongings. I’m not in the habit of throwing books away but I feel like it after reading the pious remarks on this thread!

A book recommended on here about coming to terms with csa. The first chapter asked me to consider the abuser's motives, and think about it all from their point of view. First and only binned book.

That is a wonderful book. My mum bought it for me as a young-ish teen and I so vividly remember reading it. I had forgotten all about it but you’ve inspired me to buy a new copy! Thank you 🙏

ETA: I think I leant my copy too, which is why I need to buy another!

I’ve bought loads of books from charity shops of the sort where you get a whole bagful of about a dozen random books for a fiver. Quite a few of those have gone in the bin as they’re just pulpy, unknown rubbish that were only so cheap because the shop couldn’t get rid of them any other way – like poorly written UFO books from the 70’s written by a person who claimed to have been abducted by aliens. So quite often I’ve thrown out ten books and only kept the one or two that are decent.

I don’t feel bad about it in the slightest. I also throw out books that are too damaged for charity shops to want.

If I owned any Neil Gaiman (which I don’t, as he’s wholly overrated and a bit of a shit author, frankly), I’d bin them too. It’s not as if there’s a limited supply of books, and me binning them will prevent people from reading them – new ones are being printed all the time, and available digitally either for purchase, or for free on, erm, particular websites.

I’m not in favour of the state banning books, but if as an individual you buy something, then you have no moral obligation to donate it instead of binning it.

I feel the same.

I have never binned a book that I can recall, but i did once throw one out the window of my flat (there was nobody walking below, I checked). It was just a bad book, not "offensive". I can't even remember what it was. Something about flamingoes in the title. It had been annoying me more and more as I read it, and I finished it and just got up and went to the window and out it went.

Some poor soul must have picked it up as it wasn't there the next time I went out.

I volunteered in a charity bookshop. You can’t sell most of what people want to donate. Charity shops are no more a suitable last resort dumping ground for books than any other sort of rubbish that you can’t bring yourself to throw away.

At the time I was doing it people would try to give us lots and lots of mint condition Fifty Shades Of Grey books. So often everyone hates the same book.

Me too. It was The Da Vinci Code. It annoyed me so much I got out of bed, picked it up and threw it again. I've "disappeared" a few kids books in my time. Never risked (that cunt) Thomas as AS ds1 would have torn the house to bits to find it.

I used to have an aversion to throwing books away. It was a legacy of books being relatively expensive when I was young, many years ago, and my parents weren’t well off but had a reverence for books and reading.

But I’ve overcome the book awe and just chuck them in the recycling whenever I want to clear out. Most books are shite anyway and I re-read very few. Plus I love my Kindle!

Wow!

It gets a 5/5 for me - wonderful story structure and character portrayal. Also won and been nominated for a number of awards. I wasn't expecting to like it as it's in the sci-fi/fantasy genre but was recommended it.

Odd to find two people so vehemently against it.