Books : Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

The Studs Terkel Reader. I asked for it, not knowing much about his work. Reading it was as interesting as watching paint dry.

New Yorker Book of Cartoons - the book is fine but it's impossible to read the captions on a lot of the cartoons on the accompanying CD-Rom.

A Lee Child book. I think I got this because I asked for a Lincoln Child novel. To be fair, I didn't really read this one, but don't have much interest in the series.

"Worthington, we're being attacked by giant bats!"

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

I'm not usually ungrateful when it comes to gifts or books...but the worst gift of a book I ever got was Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.

I just can't even.


Another sexist "literary" horror:
Not a book exactly, but one year in my office Christmas grab I got a Rule-A-Day desk calendar...kind of like those Word-A-Day calendars, but this one was based on the book The Rules.

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

Was someone dropping a not-so-subtle hint? That's kinda weird for a gift.

"Worthington, we're being attacked by giant bats!"

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

That's so funny....2 yrs ago I got a lee Child novel in a work secret santa / Kris Kringle because the person heard I like to read.

It was part of the Reacher series I have no interest in. I dropped it off at a community book swap same day. I was so disappointed because I'd made it clear to the team to just get me alcohol.

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

Once as a teen I got Digital Fortress by Dan Brown as birthday present from a friend of the family. Not only it was a book and an author I never had interest in reading (although I didn't hate the author and his books as I do today, I just ignored him) but also my sister who was a big Dan Brown fan at the time already had this same book. If only I had told the presenter that and asked her how I could exchange the book, but unfortunately at the time I didn't read as much and was too shy to refuse gifts from other people so I kept the book. Didn't even remove the plastic wrapping. It must still be hidden somewhere in my house, with plastic and everything.

"I know one thing: that I know nothing" - Socrates

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

The Alchemist. I get that it was a big-deal book at the time, and that the person who bought it for me most likely had not read it herself, but when I attempted to read it I was actually a little offended that anyone thought I might either enjoy or need that piece of crap book.


*Formerly Nothin_but_the_Rain*

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

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The only thing I can think of is when my jackass elder brother -- who as usual did his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, at a drug store -- gave me a recently published book called Washington Is Leaking by Art Buchwald, merely because I was living in Washington D.C. that year.

Needless to say I did not read it.

Otherwise, I rarely get books as gifts. I guess people know books can be difficult to match up to a person, and it's also hard to know whether the person has already read the book or not.
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Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

Art Buchwald was a really funny political satirist in the 60s and 70s. I read his column in the Chicago Tribune almost every day. It's funny though how contemporary satire really isn't funny 20+ years later.

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

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Yeah, he was pretty famous back then but nowadays that book is a wasteland of no reviews on Amazon LOL.
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Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

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Yeah, no one was surprised. As the oldest of four children, with a wider gap between his age and the next kid (me) than the rest with each other, he was sort of a law unto himself, reckless, and did as he pleased. I'm slightly surprised he even got us presents LOL.
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Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

...I have never received a book as a gift that I did not like...

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

i received three jeffrey archer novels. i havent even taken off the plastic wrapping.

I get melancholy if I don't write. I need the company of people who don't exist

Re: Bad books you received as gifts (asked for or not)

A history of Buckingham Palace.

Not my thing.




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