Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Book Turn-Offs.
I feel like I'm repeating myself. See my Top Ten Words that Make Me Put Down a Book and my post here about deal-breakers.
- 1) Cliches - I know this one is hard to avoid, afterall there is "nothing new under the sun," but repetitive themes, characters, plot, conflict, etc get so old.
- 2) Errors - One or two is fine. We're all human. But please hire an editor.
- 3) Covers that look homemade - I'm not a snob (okay, maybe a cover snob), but you guys know how homemade commercials look. Well that's how I feel about covers that don't look very professional. We all have differing tastes in cover art, but I think we can usually all agree when one looks unprofessional or homemade.
- 4) In books with multiple POVs, when the narrators voices aren't different enough to know they're different. I need the author to know that the characters are different, and therefore they don't always happen to use the same words and phrases. They need to sound distinct. Not every person in the world is going to use the phrase "sweet baby Jesus."
- 5) Characters studying for the SATs - I LOVE when a book has a word thrown in that I don't know what it means and I have to look it up. That my friends is expanding my vocabulary. I don't love when I feel like I'm going to have a vocabulary test at the end of the book because the character is either trying to learn their SAT words or any other reason. Especially when the sentence feels forced. Not to mention that in my area of the country, the ACT test is the standard for college acceptance/scholarship testing. IJS.
- 6) Continuity Errors - Don't tell me that they left on a road trip without packing anything and then mention a suitcase later. Or that they've fled to an island that's hidden but there is not only an entire civilization on this island but also resort hotels. This could probably go under number 2, but it feels like a different beast entirely.
- 7) Authors trying too hard to please the readers - When the characters never make any hard decisions--like making a choice out of the members of a love triangle because we don't want Team X fans to be angry if MC choose Hotty-Y but also not choosing Hotty X because we don't want Team Y fans to be angry. Make a decision.
- 8) Characters that miss the obvious - I like to read about smart characters. Enough said.
- 9) Tiny print - I don't come up against this often, but I don't want to need a magnifying glass to read the book, else risk a massive headache.
- 10) Books not loanable on Kindle - I know this is probably a hot button issue for some people. But I love loaning my friends my books, and I love borrowing theirs. I really hate that this feature isn't there for each and every book. There are work-arounds. As much as it pains me, I will actually loan my kindle out to some of my friends to borrow in order for them to read the books I have that aren't loanable. Can you imagine parting with your e-reader? Not to mention that since I don't loan it often, it usually takes a while for my friends to give it back since by the point that they borrow it, there are usually a long list of books they want to read.
So that's mine. What are your book turn-offs? Let me know!
