What books would you destroy to avoid them falling into other hands?

by Wilhelmina Lyre
3rd September 2015

We all know the evils of censorship: not ALLOWING people to read the books of their own choice.

But have you ever owned a book that was so BAD that YOU didn't want to be responsible - in the slightest way - for it to fall into other hands? A book that you'd rather burn or rip to shreds than donate to a charity shop... or even risk somebody else' pulling it out of your rubbish bin?

"If people WANT to buy it, I'm certainly not going to stop them. But I'm not going to FACILITATE their reading such a load of:

crappy plot;

evil values;

godawful writing style;

(other)."

Please give examples and reasons. Be as nasty as you wish.

I'll start off with a non-fiction book: "Duérmete, Niño" ["Go To Sleep Child"] by Eduard Estivill and Sylvia de Bejarby.

This is a cruel piece of shit that assures new parents that the best for their child is to cry themselves to sleep until they get used to the idea that nobody's going to come comfort them. ("You've got to keep firm. If you give in once and pick up your crying child, you set the whole learning process back by weeks.") They reassure parents that it's healthier for children to rock themselves back and forth rhythmically, banging their heads against the wall or the bars of the crib, than to be "spoiled" by being cuddled past their official bedtime. They KNOW that they couldn't convince parents to try this method for their own convenience, so they tell them that it's better FOR THE CHILD!

I first read about this book in Carlos González' EXCELLENT "Bésame Mucho: Cómo Criar Tus Hijos Con Amor" ["Kiss Me!: How to Raise Your Children with Love"], the BEST book on child-rearing that I've ever read. I later found the Estivill/de Bejarby book in a 2nd-hand shop. It was quite cheap, so I bought it... in order to burn it.

Reason for burning: a book of pure EVIL!

Replies

The Bible. The Quran. any other similar religious book. The proof of their destructiveness is evident everywhere.

Profile picture for user sharla.c_14438
Sharla-Cavonn
Bean
270 points
Developing your craft
Sharla-Cavonn Bean
06/09/2015

Didn't the Nazis print 'children's stories' (amongst other propaganda) that depicted Jews, well, in the way you'd expect the Nazis to? (I think their rationale was to indoctrinate anti-semitism in them young to stamp out any liberal feelings).

I expect a lot of those books were burnt, but would it be useful to keep a few in a museum? Only if labelled and with appropriate contextual explanation, of course. Who'd want a child to come across one in a public library?

Maybe there's a museum of bad books out there somewhere...

Profile picture for user KatyW_
Katy
W
270 points
Ready to publish
Short stories
Fiction
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Adventure
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Middle Grade (Children's)
Picture Books (Children's)
Comic
Historical
Speculative Fiction
Katy W
05/09/2015

Ghost-written autobiographies of celebs/footballers, who are two young to have their life-stories told. I have seen many on supermarket shelves.

Profile picture for user Adrian
Adrian
Sroka
19900 points
Ready to publish
Fiction
Historical
Middle Grade (Children's)
Young Adult (YA)
Adventure
Adrian Sroka
05/09/2015