Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Pet Peeves


Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

This week's list is all your bookish pet peeves!


1. Stickers on my books! It's one thing if I can easily pull the sticker off but I DESPISE being stuck with a large '50% off' sticker forever covering the face on the cover. Even worse is when you try to pull it off and the top half comes off, leaving you with that lovely sticky white residue. UGH! I've used post-its and I know the technology is out there to make easily removed stickers so get on with it booksellers! 

2. Vampires! I personally have nothing against vampires themselves. I've read and enjoyed quite a few vampire books. However, I am SO over the recent proliferation of vamp lit. I swear sometime I think my 5 year old could write a novel and as long as she mentioned a hot vamp it would be a bestseller. (Hmm, might be a good way to pay for her college now that I think of it.)

3. Dog Ears. By my own admission, I am not a neat freak. Anyone who has been to my house could attest to that. When it comes to books I am a bit more particular. I like my books, neat and pretty and dog eared pages are NOT pretty! Seriously. buy a book mark or as I often do, grab a candy wrapper, spare piece of paper, little bit of string, etc etc. 

4. Bad Movie Adaptations. This is a love/hate issue for me as I am a big sucker for movie adaptations. If I see a movie and find out it's a book, I must seek it out and read it. If hear they are making a movie out of a book I loved I get beyond excited to see the story come to life. Unfortunately, too often I am let down. I understand that condensing a 300-500 pages novel into a 2 hour movie is difficult but when the end product is laughable at best and unrecognizable at worst it makes my heart sad. 

5. No quotations or punctuation to signify speech. Luckily, this isn't a huge problem but it's becoming a fad and that bothers me. I hate when I can't tell if the person is thinking or speaking and I have to interrupt the flow of my reading to go back and clarify what is going on. The good Lord created quotations for a reason people, let's use them! 

6. Too Much Coincidence. This one really, really bugs me and I feel it;s a bit of a cop-out. A little coincidence is fine to help the story along. However, when whatever your character needs happens to fall into their lap, it pushes the bounds of credulity. Jane Eyre threatened to push that envelope a little there, especially in the end, but the rest was so fantastic I let it slide. 

7. Perfect Characters. If you've read many of my reviews, you'll know that I am NOT a fan of perfect characters. No one is perfect, so when I read 300 pages of someone who can do no wrong it bugs me. Not to mention, perfection is boring and allows for no growth. Bring on the flawed individuals! I can relate to them.

8. Series That Continue Ad Nauseam Just To Eek Out More Revenue.  This really bothers me when the main story line never gets wrapped up just so the author can continue to put those characters in increasingly unbelievable situations just to make a few more bucks. Yeah, that's irritating.

9. Ridiculous Recaps. This is a big thing in series. To try and make it a stand alone book, the author feels the need to spend the first 2-3 chapters basically recapping the previous books. I don't know about you but I rarely pick up book #2 or #3 of a series without reading the first books. By books 2 & 3 I know what's up, a small rundown is all I need.

10. Teeny Tiny Text No real explanation is necessary here. I have been blessed with great eyesight. I'd like to keep it that way. Thanks!

17 comments:

Alexis @ Reflections of a Bookaholic said...

Perfect characters absolutely BUG me.

Great list :)

Anonymous said...

Stickers, dog-earing and no quotations made my list. I especially really dislike the no speech marks because it detracts from my reading experience whereas the other two just really bug me!

Awesome list.

Anonymous said...

Stickers and dog eared pages are totally at the top of my list!! Great list!

Laura said...

Oh my goodness, I HATE it when there aren't any quotation marks! I did a course at uni in 18th century literature, before they had standardised rules about such things, and I nearly went crazy trying to figure out who was speaking when! That, and the capital letters in random places made me really hate that unit...

My list is here if you want to check it out :) http://devouringtexts.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-ten-tuesday_22.html

Unknown said...

I definitely agree with 9. Rachel Vincent is the worst for that (I swear, all the way through the book) and I believe she fobbed it off as 'in case new readers pick up the second book etc.' If the reader is new to the story... they should be reading the first book.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with #5 (it's on my list too) and #9, who reads series out of order!?! Maybe I should have put that as a pet peeve! haha Also perfect characters are so unrealistic!

kayerj said...

Great list--I agree with all of them especially #4. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

Anonymous said...

Great list! 1,5,6, & 8 all spot on. The sticker thing especially. It makes it clear where the bookseller's priorities are - sell, sell, sell!

Geosi Reads said...

True, if there are no punctuations, it sucks. Love your list here.

Anonymous said...

good choices, stop and see mine.

Holly said...

Jean Auel's Earth's Children series does the recap thing and it drives me crazy. A little bit of background is ok but beyond that it is just annoying!

Once Upon a Twilight said...

Good Ones!

Yara @ Once Upon a Twilight!
Here is my Top Ten Tues
And check out my eReader Blogoversary Giveaway Ends 3/30

Bailey said...

Ugh perfect characters and vampires. I agree with you there! I also dislike narrators who jump out of their story to talk to the reader. So irritating! I'm your newest follower btw :)

LBC said...

I hate recaps in series books. And yet, I always feel badly skipping them. This might be why I don't usually make it to the end of many series.


Here is my list: http://hawthornescarlet.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-ten-tuesday-i-hate-that.html

B said...

I'm definitely with you on number 5. It makes the text hard to follow!

gautami tripathy said...

I too prefer flawed characters.

Love your list of pet peeves. I have a some more. Come see those: Top Ten Picks!

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