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

Absolutely, I have destroyed a few and for the same reasons I did this I won't name them. I've done the same with some DVDs as well.

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Renee
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Renee Paule
05/09/2015

No

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Barbara
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Barbara Thompson
04/09/2015

I should explain that "Unfortunately (for me), I didn't own a computer at the time, so was working during stolen moments on others' machines (incl. public libraries')".

I KNOW than pen and paper exist. Dr. González gave me a digital copy of the original Spanish to work with. I suppose that I COULD have printed it out and written out my translation, but the job also included searching English equivalents of some of his footnote links to web-sites in Spanish. He had also quoted from English-language writers, translating them into Spanish. I had to look up the original text. (You don't quote from Dickens and Melville using your translation into English of somebody else' translation from English to Spanish: you look up the original.) It's so much easier to do all this on a computer. Especially if you're in Spain and have limited access to books in English.

Sorry: back to the topic...

If I HAD a copy of The Lord Of The Rings, I'd burn it. Same for Harry Potter.

But I'd wait until winter so the heat - at least - would be appreciated.

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Jimmy
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