Thread: "it threw me a book"

throw the book at

Punish or reprimand severely, as in I just knew the professor would throw the book at me for being late with my paper.This expression originally meant "sentence a convicted person to the maximum penalties allowed," the book being theroster of applicable laws. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1900s.
See also: book, throw
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Does that have any sense? I actually can't remember where did I heard that phrase before..

Hi Adam

That phrase does normally apply to legal punishment but I suppose you could use it metaphorically to say somebody gave you the maximum in aggravation; as in "I came to work late again and my boss threw the book at me"; however, the subject sentence makes no sense to me:

"It threw me a book to see the file we had at the server looked way better than the one sent by our RTL resource!"

I suspect that it was a misuse, or misunderstanding of the use, of the phrase or a mixed up combination of two different phrases (it threw me for a loop) ... unless maybe it's new slang.

It seems pretty clear that he meant that he was really surprised so I'd find something that expressed that reaction. Like the Spanish equivalent of "took me by surprise"; or "It blew my mind"

If it were me I'd ask the person what the heck that meant...just to be certain...and just to see what they say

Oh, and report back to the foro!!

Cool!