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!
I literally burst out laughing at "sweet baby Jesus" - I have a friend who says that all the time!
ReplyDeleteI agree on the authors trying to please their readers/chickening out instead of making hard decisions, homemade covers (yeah, I'm a cover snob too :) ), and characters that miss the obvious. With cliches, it depends on which one it is - some bug me more than others.
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Lending out my e-reader? Nope never. I dont think i would trust anyone with my tabletron.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and kritika, i really dislike authors who cant write a hard choice for their MC. So what is Team X is sort of upset, make them see why Boy Y was a better match.
I couldnt think of 10 things this week. Nice list
Ashley
Well I knew a few people who say it. And while friends tend to pick up each other's words and phrases, not everyone you meet speaks the same way or uses the same phrases, so I always pick up on that when reading a book. It's a small thing, but indicates a bigger issue sometimes I think.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally get you on the cliches. I just read two books (books one and two of a series) and there were some cliches in there, but they didn't really bother me because I felt like the author just did the whole thing right if that makes any sense.
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Haha...it's only happened with two different friend so far and only because I have two kindles so I can just read on the other while one of my friends has one of mine. It's not something I part with lightly though even though I do have two of them. :) That's just how much I love my friends and I reading the same books. Plus both of these people have loaned me their kindles, so what kind of friend would I be if I didn't return the favor? :)
ReplyDeleteUgh! Tell me about it. That was my biggest frustration with this series I was loving. The ending...why oh why! I'd tell you which series, but if you haven't read it, I don't want to ruin it!
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