# Reading Pet Peeves



## TexasRanger (Feb 2, 2010)

Are there somethings an author does that just ruins your reading experience? Here's a few of mine:

-Characters who are the embodiment of perfection. Characters with the perfect figure/long gorgeous hair/stellar personality/IQ of 1,000.

- Names that are really hard to pronounce. I understand that some foreign names may be hard, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. I'm good with Jacques, but not something with fifteen letters and a comma. 

- Romance/dating scenes that go on forever. If I wanted romance I'd choose one in that genre. Nothing spoils a horror/action/war novel then a 15 page dinner date. 

-Glaring anachronisms. I'm not too picky on these, but if you have potatoes/corn/chocolate in Europe before the 1500's we have an issue. 

So what are yours?


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Same!


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Must name a kid Pet Peeve.


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

Oh, another bookworm!  I love reading!
I can generally find something to like about any decent story. But yes, there are definitely some things that bother me!

-First and foremost, the characters have to be consistent. My family coined a word: _Beno_. It's pronounced BEE-no. (Don't ask me where it came from - long story). It describes a character that is so _himself_ that you could never mistake him for anyone else, to the point that he seems real to you - and will sometimes even make you laugh at how _himself_ he is. Several awesome examples are the Nine companions in the Lord of the Rings movies - Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo. They're _beno._ If the characters aren't consistent, then the whole story is worth very little to me.

-Another thing that really annoys me is that in the old Victorian children's novels, the good children so often die. Seriously? Is that the lesson they're trying to teach - "Good children always die"? That's not a very effective way of teaching children to be good, lol!

-A character that is the embodiment of perfection bothers you. Same here! But there are "good" characters and there are _good_ characters. I don't like the one kind and I do like the other. I think the difference is very subtle, and it's caused by the author's attitude toward the character - an interesting study.

-Probably my worst peeve is when someone does some glaring crime - like Max in _Rebecca _by Daphne du Maurier_-_ or even a small bad thing, and ultimately gets away with it, without repenting or being punished.

I think this will be an interesting topic!


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## PiccoloGoat (Sep 10, 2008)

I love reading too  but I'm also very unadventurous, in that I often just reread the same favourites over and over. Mainly because I'm scared of bad books? Haha
Anyway my favourites are the inheritance series (Eragon) and Clan of The Cave Bear series. 

The only thing I dislike is suuuuper long conversations that go for like a whole chapter. In the second Eragon book I found myself skipping whole chapters because it was so so so dull.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

Lately I have read a lot of books that are great up until the end, then it seems like the auther just got sick of the book and hurried up the last chapter without much thought into it. Ruins the whole story.


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

Any type novel where a character uses a "silenced" revolver. 

Any medieval type journey where the person/people travel hundreds (or more) miles on fruits and cheese they've carried along. You know they're gonna poach a deer, rabbit, possum, etc for some fresh meat every chance they get! 

Bob


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

I'm big on reading, all types of books including fantasy. 

My worst thing with fantasy books in particular is the type where they dump you right into the story/world, and dont actually explain anything about the way that world works, who the characters are, how they relate to each other etc. etc. and you are supposed to just figure it out as you go along. Like learning a foreign language by immersion. 

I've done a fair bit of studies in literature so I understand it is a literary technique and why some composers choose to utilise it, but for me personally, I hate it, it doesnt work for me and I'm not likely to pursue reading a book that is written this way


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

haha, I have to agree with what others have said.

I think the most irritating ever though was a series that a lot of people told me to read, raving how good it was.

All I can say is.... 'Oh My' .... I wanted to slap someone lol


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## JaLyn (Oct 10, 2012)

I LOVE to read historical Romance novels..the only thing that makes me downright mad is when it has an abrupt ending..i hate it when they don't leave you with know what happened..I also hate books where there is too much narrating and not enough talking or when they go over the top describing something to the point where your like ok..i get it all the flowers in teh orchard were pink yellow and blue that had bumblebess all over em lol..


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

JaLyn said:


> I LOVE to read historical Romance novels..the only thing that makes me downright mad is when it has an abrupt ending..i hate it when they don't leave you with know what happened..I also hate books where there is too much narrating and not enough talking or when they go over the top describing something to the point where your like ok..i get it all the flowers in teh orchard were pink yellow and blue that had bumblebess all over em lol..


Stephen King is the worst at that. Every time he brings up a character from chapter to chapter he has to tell you about that certain squint, wart, eye color, etc. Tells me he's getting paid by the word!

Bob


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I agree with all the above! I also don't like novels that are in an ongoing series. I don't mind the same characters, but 
when they continually talk about an earlier story- it gets annoying! Our library will have all but one book in a series- Usually the first one! So, I 
never get to find out why or how the whole thing started! Grr- By the time I find it to buy it, I am done with that particular series!


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## JaLyn (Oct 10, 2012)

Now i love series book i just hate overly describing stuff..get to the good stuff lol


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