Reading reactions

[cimorene]

I've never thrown a book across the room when it made me exclaim "Are you fucking kidding me?!", but I've pictured it a lot. Is that just me? Do other people literally throw the book? Reading on one's phone makes it all even more difficult. I can't even firmly set it down in disgust. Firmly closing the app or deleting the epub in disgust doesn't have the same drama and pathos, does it?

Comments

[yvannairie]

I've definitely thrown my phone. Never a real book though.

[cimorene]

I have accidentally thrown my phone, but never on purpose. If I set it down after reading something annoying, I just pick it back up, usually, to do something else...

[twistedchick]

I have literally thrown a few books. I threw the first volume of A Game of Thrones at about page 50, when I figured out that the whole series was going to be sadistic games with the lives of innocents, and I just didn't think that was entertaining at all. I pitched it hard against the side of my century-old tall piano (used to be a player piano in about 1900 but the works were taken out before it was in my uncle's restaurant for the piano bar guy to play). Piano wasn't hurt at all. Neither was the book.

[cimorene]

Yeah, I've thrown books for other reasons - mainly to just move them efficiently from place to place - without any untoward effects! I suppose the idea of throwing the book just occurs to me slightly belatedly and it feels affected or silly and so I don't end up actually doing it?

[bonibaru]

I threw the last published book of GoT at the end because I was really tired of getting attached to characters only to have them [spoiler]. MAD

[cimorene]

Of course with this series it's usually death that's the most common complaint, but I can definitely think of other canons where I've given up because characters kept, like, cheating on their partners, or turning evil. You could make a fandom mad lib with this.

[princessofgeeks]

The only book I literally threw was The DaVinci Code. I should have just seen the movie.

I have thought about throwing other books but that's the only one I really did throw.

[cimorene]

Well, the movie was unintentionally funny, and it was probably a LOT less painful than the book. Especially as I gather the narrative style itself is inept and insufferable.

[princessofgeeks]

Srsly, it was utter dreck from the first page!!!

I have no idea why the book was so popular. I found it literally unreadable. But it was a huge bestseller! Millions loved it! I am clueless!

I really like Tom Hanks so maybe someday I will see the movie.

[cimorene]

Unfortunately things like this can be said in every area that's susceptible to taste and some that aren't...

[princessofgeeks]

So true.

But of course I Am Among the Right Thinking People!

[cimorene]

I know, and I definitely am too. It's just unfortunate that there are so many people whose, ah, idea of what reading and writing etc. is all about are so very incompatible with mine and it's impossible to usefully filter them out.

[phosfate]

I was forced to go to the movie along with a pal of mine, and we ended up having a great time because it was so very, very stupid. "Why has Teabag got a portrait of Major Kira on his mantel?"

2nd Ender series

[ironymaiden]

I threw Shadow Puppets across the room when Petra turned into a baby-crazed liar. Never finished it, I think that was my last Card book since he went off the far right deep end not long after.

Re: 2nd Ender series

[cimorene]

My dad gave me Ender's Game to read from his collection when I was about 12, and he waited until I told him what I thought about it and we were done discussing it to tell me he thought I should know about Card's politics and provide a long detailed list of of why the guy was problematic. Then he explained he wanted me to enjoy that book first because it was so iconic in the genre, in case I decided not to read any more of them after he told me, but he thought I would want to know. LOL. Sure enough, I never read any of the others...

[bonibaru]

I very recently wanted to fling a book across a room but it was an audiobook and I was listening on my iPad so I simply clutched it tightly and gave it a tiny shake.

[cimorene]

I like that. A ceremonial stand-in for flinging. Was it satisfying?

[bonibaru]

I felt kind of guilty because it wasn't my iPad's fault the book created a beautiful found family and then killed each one of them horribly and unfairly by the end of the book. My iPad was an innocent third party lol

[phosfate]

I haven't thrown a book, but more than a few e-books have gotten, "Okay, that's enough of that" and a quick delete.

Turns out that the refund period for a lot of e-books is surprisingly long, and kicks in automatically if you delete the book from your library. "We are processing your refund and you should receive $1.99 within 5 business days." "Thanks, man. Sorry it took me five years to start."

[cimorene]

HAHAHA, that's an unexpected bonus!

I do definitely delete ebooks I don't like, but it's a kind of matter-of-fact and practical action, not really a "then I BANNED the book with extreme prejudice" or even an "UGH, take that!" And I've never done it inside one of those kindle-or-whatever-store environments.

[which_chick]

I have thrown a book. An actual book, because I have the olds and when I was reading the book, "e books" were not a thing. It was the late eighties and I was in college. The Airborne Literature was Lolita by Nabokov, which I was reading for a class. And I threw the book *twice*, both in moments of F T S (swears for "I cannot be having with this"). But I picked it up and finished reading it because it was for a class. For what it's worth, I got an A.

[cimorene]

I didn't have an ebook reader until my 20s, so that's not particularly old. They've been widespread for less than twenty years, so I'm sure a lot of us grew up swimming in paper books. I just didn't throw them when I got angry.