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?

American Psycho. I hid it for a while (think Joey from friends putting The Shining in the freezer) and then eventually threw it away.

No but I threw Kes across the beach in a rage.

If you’re going to bin a book because the author was abusive, you might as well start with Charles Dickens who tried to have his wife committed to an asylum.

I have actually binned quite a few books, as a librarian and at home - I don’t think the physical form of a book is sacrosanct, as long as the content is preserved somewhere, which it normally is, in a legal deposit library.

A Martina Cole book I happened to pick up and read. Utter bilge.I was embarrassed for her

Yes, this is the only book I've ever thrown away too. I didn't read much of it but the bits I did read have stayed with me for decades. I really wish I'd never read it.

I was a student at the time. It disturbed me so much I was scared to leave my flat for months afterwards.

I don't think 'bad people do bad things in a book' means its immoral - I wouldn't read any novel about nice people being nice. I don't believe in moral or immoral fiction to be honest. Non-fiction perhaps.

Martina Cole...yikes. I want to like her so much - her back story is so fascinating, she seems interesting and I love a thriller. But no, not a good writer. Lots of telling, no showing.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Just be thankful you weren't born in the 60s with grandparents who were born in the 1800s they had all kinds of horrors hiding in their bookcase alongside the harmless victorian fashion annuals.
There was a whole series of books about a kid called "Little black Sambo" illustrated with ghastly pictures of the kind of charicatures that would be banned now.
I remember when my grandma went into a nursing home the books .mysteriously disappeared, I suspect they went on a bonfire.

What a shame. It's a lovely book. It wasn't the original Women's Press edition was it? It's even more of a shame if so.

Colleen Hoover.

I was so disturbed by the description of the child being repeatedly raped by her drunk father, following the death of her mother, and the sympathy towards this monster. It was horrific.

I do most of my reading on my Kindle nowadays so the question doesn't arise. Binning a Kindle or flinging it across the room has expensive consequences. 😁However, I'll happily chuck out old reference books, especially the sort of thing Reader's Digest used to put out, which dated very quickly, eg, The Complete Guide to the Law, often leaving those who relied on them at a severe disadvantage. As I've worked in the law I'd rather not inflict inaccurate information on people, so in the bin they go.

I only rarely want to get fiction off my hands. One example was Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin, not because it was bad, but because it was powerful, compelling and creeped me out from here to next Friday. I wasn't going to read it again! A family member wanted to read it, I muttered "on your head be it"...and passed it on

I’m also a librarian, and same - to me, if books don’t serve the purpose of the collection they’re in, they need to go, and Betterworld won’t take everything! If it were a rare edition, I would see if it could be sold or donated somewhere, but for the vast majority of mass market books, the recycling bin isn’t an unreasonable end point.

I had to confiscate this from a year 7 once and ring her Mum to explain why...

I'm all about children choosing what to read, and heaven knows I was reading unsuitable stuff (obsessed with Catherine Cookson!) at a young age, but that is a whole other level!

In answer to the original question, Purple Hibiscus, because the cat peed on it 🙈.

Old books that are no good for charity, passing on.

I donate most stuff!

Had to look at a few editions to see which cover I recognised and yes, it was.

i think my grandparents had Little Black Sambo

I was born in the 70s but with a grandpa who dealt in antiques. He'd often buy "job lots" for particular items, which would be bulked out with vintage school stories. The girls always got scarlet fever, TB or fell off swings and found religion! (Well, that last one's still quite famous...)

Before the days of Kindle I took 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' on holiday with me. Luckily I took a couple of others because it was so awful I threw it off our ba!cony!
Then being a librarian I felt guilty so went down and retrieved it and left it in the hotel library 🙄

There's a few books that I have felt like setting on fire though...

The only book I’ve binned (other than obsolete factual ones) was one called (iirc) The Tennis Players Balls by Stephen Fry. It was just horrible. (I liked his time travelling counterfactual book which I can’t remember the name of though).

Yes. In the recycling bin though, our council confirmed it was ok and they recycle them. I figure it's better than them gathering dust in a charity shop.

A couple of kids books that were just odd and weird were chucked. And the Anthony Kiedis autobiography because he's a creep. I didn't have the patience to finish it.

Gina Ford. I think this book should be banned

Yes it was a book by Julie Burchill that was the most badly written, awful crap I have ever come across.

Fifty Shades of Grey. Absolute dross.

What Katy Did?

Was it Sugar Rush?