# Did you ever throw a book across the room?



## Violanthe (Nov 16, 2005)

Or want to? Was there ever a book that had a devastating plot twist? An infuriating storyline? A deviously shocking moment that it made you want to throw it across the room?


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## Alcuin (Nov 16, 2005)

I knew a guy in college who threw his organic chemistry book out the window “to knock the lies out of it.” I doubt it accomplished anything other than breaking the spine and front cover of the book.


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## e.Blackstar (Nov 16, 2005)

Um..ever wanted to? Occasionally. Ever done it? Er.....yeah. Once or twice. Can't remember specifics, though.


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## Talierin (Nov 16, 2005)

Tale of Two Cities went across the room after the first chapter, couldn't stand that book.


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## Thorondor_ (Nov 16, 2005)

> Was there ever a book that had a devastating plot twist?


The resurrection of the good guys in Eugene Sue's Wandering Jew ; never read any further than that. It had such a wonderful plot so far; imo, this move ruined it.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

Talierin said:


> Tale of Two Cities went across the room after the first chapter, couldn't stand that book.



How come? Any special reason, or just plain ole Dickens tediousness that I experienced with Oliver Twist?


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## Alcuin (Nov 16, 2005)

Ithrynluin said:


> Talierin said:
> 
> 
> > Tale of Two Cities went across the room after the first chapter, couldn't stand that book
> ...


“It was the best of books, it was the worst of books…”

My pick for worst book in the English language is _To Kill a Mockingbird_.


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## e.Blackstar (Nov 16, 2005)

Really? I didn't think it was _too_terrible...


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## Hammersmith (Nov 16, 2005)

I wanted to throw Atlas Shrugged across the room but it was too heavy.

First day of GCSE English class, our teacher entered the room. Cheerful smile, unassuming thirty-something lady. Smiled at the class, let out a bloodcurdling scream and threw a book with all her might across the room.

And that was our introduction to our English teacher.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

Which book did she throw across the classroom? _An Introduction to Customary Teacher Behaviour_?


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## Gabba (Nov 16, 2005)

Schoolbooks yes, my book in filosofy wich I must read even though I study for engineer.


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## Talierin (Nov 16, 2005)

Ithrynluin said:


> How come? Any special reason, or just plain ole Dickens tediousness that I experienced with Oliver Twist?




Yeah, I HATE Charles Dickens. My mom ( I was homeschooled) wanted me to do a character contrast between the two main guys, and I couldn't even understand what was going on in the first chapter, made noooooo sense at all. So I threw it across the room, said I wasn't reading it, and got to read Jekyll and Hyde instead, which is like 100 times better


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## Ingwë (Nov 17, 2005)

I throw my textbook of biology 2 years ago. I hate botany. It is boring. But I'd like to mention that books are thrown across the room at me...


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## Gothmog (Nov 17, 2005)

Ingwë said:


> I throw my textbook of biology 2 years ago. I hate botany. It is boring. But I'd like to mention that books are thrown across the room to me...


Is that *to* you, or *At* you?


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## Hammersmith (Nov 17, 2005)

Ithrynluin said:


> Which book did she throw across the classroom? _An Introduction to Customary Teacher Behaviour_?


If I remember correctly, it was _Of Mice And Men_, though I can't be certain. She then wrote on the board "The teacher entered the room, screamed and threw the book across the room." She asked us which of the two were more dramatic. Then she asked us how we could make the written word more dramatic. She was a good teacher.


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## Elbereth (Nov 18, 2005)

I know I threw a few text books across the room in college...I think mostly because I had finally finished reading them and wanted nothing to do with them after it was done. 

I also threw across my bed a copy of "The Tropic of Cancer". I was about half way through the book, but the language and subject matter was so foul that I couldn't read on.


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## HLGStrider (Nov 19, 2005)

I'm not that physical.

I rather liked _To Kill A Mockingbird._
Dickens you can toss for me though. . .

Anyway, I was six books or so into one drawn out series when that sort of happened to me. It was the _Wheel of Time._ I had never considered these books great, but I liked them enough to keep going through almost the whole series, mainly because I liked the character Mat.

However, when Rand seduced Elayne, or really the other way around, Elayne seduced Rand, I just got really ticked off with the both of them and I just didn't want to read if Rand was going to continue to be the main character and go around getting girls pregnant and flying off into who knows where. . .I didn't get the next book when it came out.

Anyway, I would say a more common response is the at the end let down where I say, "That's it?" 

_The Island of the Day After Tomorrow_ was like that . . .I think I have that title wrong. . .
So was _House of Stairs_. . .that one really let me down in the end because it was going so great and then it ended with a major anti-climax and no real resolution.


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## Ingwë (Nov 19, 2005)

Gothmog said:


> Is that *to* you, or *At* you?


Edited  
I have problems with the prepositions  However, I am a lucky guy. The book missed me. If it didn't do that I would have an awful headache, because the book... Hm: http://www.pedagog6.com/p9.jpg That is the book. It has 300 pages.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 19, 2005)

I don't think I have ever flung a book anywhere, but I certainly came close to doing it when it came to Gustave Flaubert's _Madame Bovary_, which was horribly dull and annoying. A more recent example includes Terry Goodkind's _Wizard's First Rule_ which is the first book of the _The Sword of Truth_ series. I rue having spent 10 or so bucks for the book because it is such a dragged out piece of tripe, and am perplexed how the guy, being a mediocre writer at best, managed to retain (or perhaps even increase) his audience as recently the ninth (!) book of the series was published.


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## Elbereth (Nov 20, 2005)

Ithrynluin said:


> I don't think I have ever flung a book anywhere, but I certainly came close to doing it when it came to Gustave Flaubert's _Madame Bovary_, which was horribly dull and annoying. QUOTE]
> 
> And I thought I was the only one who thought this. I agree Madame Bovary was one of the most boring books that I had to read in college...maybe even worse than studying my International Economics text books.


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## Alcuin (Nov 20, 2005)

Elbereth said:


> ...Madame Bovary was one of the most boring books that I had to read in college...maybe even worse than studying my International Economics text books.


Gee, I loved international economics. Anybody up for the three legs of currency translation relationships?


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## Violanthe (Nov 21, 2005)

Text books seem to be the most popular literary projectiles.


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## e.Blackstar (Nov 21, 2005)

And well they should be.


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## Turin (Nov 25, 2005)

Not many books have sparked my anger enough for me to hurl them away. For one, Animal Farm by George Orwell really pissed me off. The entire book was extremely annoying and the twist at the end pushed me over the edge. After throwing the book at various walls, rubbing it in dirt and concrete and bending the back, the book went into the trash. That is, until I had to return it to my english teacher.


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## Hammersmith (Nov 26, 2005)

You...did that...to...*sniff* A-animal...Farm?


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## Alcuin (Nov 26, 2005)

Turin said:


> Not many books have sparked my anger enough for me to hurl them away. For one, Animal Farm by George Orwell really pissed me off. The entire book was extremely annoying and the twist at the end pushed me over the edge...


I thought _Animal Farm_ was ok, but I did not enjoy it, so I can understand your reaction. 

Humphrey Carter quotes Tolkien in his biography as saying,


> I dislike allegory whenever I smell it.


 and


> I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think many confuse “applicability” with “allegory”; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.


 _Animal Farm_ is a blatant allegory; _1984_ is a feigned biograph of Winston Smith. Did you try Orwell’s _1984_?


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## e.Blackstar (Nov 26, 2005)

Don't remember which point in the story it was, but I just about threw "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok across my bedroom. Utterly infuriating.


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## Beleg (Nov 27, 2005)

I came pretty close during 'A Feast For Crows.'


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## Violanthe (Dec 1, 2005)

Feast of Crows? I'm still on the waiting list for it at my library.

Can you tell us what bugged you about it without any major spoilers?


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## Beleg (Dec 3, 2005)

I can't. 

But IMO this is Martin's best book todate.


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## Fugitive1992 (Dec 3, 2005)

I threw my math book acossed the room severel times . I was PO-ed
and i threw my science twice(same day) not to mention my HUGE biology book. it was extreamly heavy.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 3, 2005)

Violanthe said:


> Or want to? Was there ever a book that had a devastating plot twist? An infuriating storyline? A deviously shocking moment that it made you want to throw it across the room?


When I got to the end of Captain Correlli's Mandolin. No, it doesn't end like the film!


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## Rhiannon (Dec 16, 2005)

I threw _To Serve Them All My Days_ across the room (fortunately I didn't leave a dent in the wall of the hotel) when a certain thing happened...I've had the urge to throw _A Game of Thrones_ when certain things happened, but couldn't because it was my brother's copy.


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