Thread: Book Burning!

I figured the title of this thread would catch most users' attention. I'll probably be demanded to leave the site for suggesting this, but I wanted to pose the question: If you attended a book burning, which books would you toss in?

Here's mine:

Silas Marner. I absolutely hated reading this book. The way it is written and the huge vocabulary make the book very, very difficult to read. But I did like the story about half-way through it.

The Scarlet Letter. Very boring to me. I cannot imagine or even begin to relate to the Puritan way of life. Another book I had difficulty reading and staying the least bit interested in.

Waiting for Godot. The worst, stupidest, most pointless, idiotic book, play, anything I have ever read in my entire life. Enough said.

A Midsummer Night's Dream. Very wierd.

There are a lot more, but these are the only ones that come to mind right now.

The Bible.

Originally Posted by tbs21

I figured the title of this thread would catch most users' attention. I'll probably be demanded to leave the site for suggesting this, but I wanted to pose the question: If you attended a book burning, which books would you toss in?

You must miss Middle Ages.

Anyway, it's your choice and I think there is nothing to worry about as long as you are not a government's official or in a powerful position of any kind.

In fact, I hope you're nobody trying to catch some attention. (No offence intended here).

Twilight. This is the only book I could throw in where, by its popularity-to-quality-writing-ratio, I would actually feel like I was doing the world a favor.

Also, the complete works of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen, if only for my personal satisfaction.

The Bible.

Scathing.

Waiting for Godot. The worst, stupidest, most pointless, idiotic book, play, anything I have ever read in my entire life. Enough said.

A Midsummer Night's Dream. Very wierd.

What're you, some kind of narc? And "stupidest"? Even on Beckett's most existential, creative days, he wouldn't accept that as a word.

I thought of another: Ethan Frome. I hated this book.

And, by the way, I didn't intentionally use book-burning to draw up images of Nazi and Midieval evils. I just wondered what books most people didn't like.

And for those of you criticizing instead of tossing in a book...you must have missed the point.

I can't believe someone would actually throw a Bible in a fire. (Maybe I just live a very sheltered life or something, but I know they're out there.)

The Twighlight Saga: I agree 100%! I've never even read them and I hate them. The hysteria they caused puzzles me, beacause for some reason, a romantic vampire story just doesn't interest me.

I wouldn't, but I'd happily execute anyone who did. Burning books is the most moronic concept since the dark-ages. It's like standing up to be counted when ignorance is being passed out.

But with mindless opinion like this:

Originally Posted by tbs21

I've never even read them and I hate them.

what the hell can we expect.

Much offence intended.

I agree with you Mike: Book burning is one of the worst forms of ignorance in history. And on the subject of 'Twilight', I will reiterate, "A vampire romance that seems to have turned everyone crazy doesn't appeal to me." Perhaps I hate them because I'm tired of hearing about them.

How about life imprisonment, instead. Place Silas and Ethan and Jane Eyre and (especially) Godot in a nice comfortable cell where they will never mindfuck school kids again.

I had to do North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell for A Levels. Afterwards I really did burn my copy. It gave me a great deal of pleasure. Then at university I had to read the damn thing again

Originally Posted by The Wrong Writer

How about life imprisonment, instead. Place Silas and Ethan and Jane Eyre and (especially) Godot in a nice comfortable cell where they will never mindfuck school kids again.

They tried that, but Godot never showed up for trial. Everyone waited, but eventually the prosecuting attorneys just started repeating the same evidence over and over again in different accents and the jury went into infinite deliberation. Then they asked the plaintiff for his name, and when he kept telling them, they stamped "LIAR" on his forehead and lead him around on a leash.

It was just a bad idea from square one. Jane Eyre's conviction went slightly smoother because her entire closing argument consisted of caged bird metaphors. And honestly everyone was just fed up with it by then.

Originally Posted by Dr. Malone

The Bible.

The Bible is full of beautiful language. You throw that in the fire and you should go in too.

Originally Posted by quarterscot

I had to do North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell for A Levels. Afterwards I really did burn my copy. It gave me a great deal of pleasure. Then at university I had to read the damn thing again

So you proved yourself to be a moron twice?

Happy Potter.

No wait. They did that and then everyone read it to see what the hubbub was about (talk about a super marketing scheme!), and that was when it really took off... and with it came the movies and the big money and... (Relax. I'm using HP as an example only. Sheesh, folks.)

I wouldn't burn any books. If I don't like 'em, I just don't finish reading 'em and don't recommend 'em.

Originally Posted by Dr. Malone

The Bible.

It starts off slow, but it picks up around the middle. Parts of it are boring. I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet, but I hear that the second half of the book renders the first half completely irrelevant. Something about a vagrant mystic and new wine.

The fact that anybody would burn a book on the grounds of "witchcraft" is pretty sick considering what the crime of witchcraft actually was and the disgusting measures implemented in order to punish those "guilty". Not many people know that witchcraft was essentially a thought crime and had little to do with sorcery or divination.