This article is classified "Partly real, partly fictional"
A 'throwing book' is a horrendously bad novel which one can use to overcome writer's block. When you start fearing that your stuff is no good, you just read a page or two from the throwing book, shout "My *dog* could write better &%$@ than this!" and fling it and go back to work. This technique can backfire. I did it, and now my dog has a successful career writing under the pseudonym "Piers Anthony." He has a six-bedroom doghouse that he paid for himself and he doesn't come when I call.