Bad-tempered whine about a couple of books (6)
I believe the answer is:
crabby
'bad-tempered' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'whine about a couple of books' is the wordplay.
'a couple of books' can mean two substitutions for 'book'.
'whine' becomes 'cray' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'book' becomes 'b' (abbreviation for book).
'book' becomes 'b' (abbreviation for book).
'b'+'b'='bb'
'cray' going around 'bb' is 'CRABBY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crabby that I've seen before include "Ill-natured" , "In bad temper" , "Lrritable, bad-tempered" , "Bad-tempered, morose" , "like one playing with sea? Just so" .)