Defenestrating books
It is said that Basil Boothroyd, the famous editor of Punch magazine, was on a train one day and noticed that a fellow passenger was sighing about a book she was reading.
"Something wrong?" inquired Boothroyd.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just can't get on with this," said the woman, ruefully. "I've been struggling with it for hours!"
Boothroyd asked politely if he could look at the book. She handed it to him. He took it, peered at the cover and turned it in his hands — and then, with one swift move, he threw it out the open train window.
"There," he said. "That's better, isn't it?"
Here's one we should have thrown out the window. Which book would you defenestrate?
Comments
You may not like Panic but as soon as it was published Bob and Harvey Weinstein optioned the film rights. The Weinsteins may not have your sense of literary taste but they know what people like.
Posted by: Dan Young | March 7, 2008 1:08 PM
I tossed Tom Clancy's "Patriot Games" into the trash can. I suppose I got about 3 pages into it just before I went out the door to see the movie. I saw the movie for free (company outing) and concluded the movie was a waste of my time. Didn't want to get back to the book because of disliking the movie. Felt better later that year when my sister said she hated the book and threw it out when she was half-way through.
Posted by: Gina | March 10, 2008 6:32 PM