Monday, September 30, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Turn-Offs

This weeks' Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, is Top Ten Book Turn-Offs.

I feel like we did something slightly similar a few weeks ago with the Top Ten Topics That Will Make You NOT Pick Up a Book, but since this is a lot broader, I will create a new list.

1. Excused unfaithfulness: Unfaithfulness is a sad part of life, but it happens, therefore I expect to see it in books.  What I hate is when authors portray the unfaithfulness as justified or excused, as if it was okay.  That bothers me.  I will stop liking a book immediately if I feel that the cheating is justified.

2. Sexual abuse: I know this happens in life, but I hate reading about it.  Its even worse when its graphic.  I can't handle it.  The scene will haunt me for weeks, so I avoid it.

3. Dropped plot lines: Have you ever read a book that has a few storylines and one seems to be dropped and never mentioned again?  By the end you are like, "Hey, what happened to so-and-so?".  Ugh, annoying!

4. Recommendations that start with "If you liked.....": I find that these recommendations are for copycat books.  The first was good, so why read a subpar version?  And if it is a good book you are recommending, let it stand on its own.  Don't compare it.

5.  Unnecessary sexual details: If I walked in on a sexual encounter, I would close my eyes and run out.  Awkward!  So why would I want to read about it?  It feels intrusive. If the details are applicable to the story, okay, I get it.  But if not, you are adding sex to get more readers.  Its a cheap tactic and I lose respect for writers that do it.

6. Too much detail: Do you ever feel like the story gets lost in the details?  I find myself yelling "I get it! Now get back to the story!"  Details are necessary but too many makes for a bored reader.

7. The phrase "Modern Day Classic": A classic is a classic because it stands the test of time. Modern Day Classic is a contradiction in terms.

8. Twilight: Just....no.

9. Grammatical errors: I will stop reading if there are more than a few grammatical errors.  Too distracting.

10. Really thick accents written out: I get that some characters have really thick accents and you want to convey that the listener is likely struggling to understand just like the reader, but the more complex it is, the more likely I am to get frustrated and stop reading it.

10 comments:

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    1. I will find myself reading without actually retaining a thing when that happens!

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  2. Really thick accents is a brilliant one. I often struggle to read books with too strong accents.

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    1. I loved Dracula, but there was one character that I still have no idea what he was saying.

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  3. I didn't think about dropped plot lines, but I fully agree with you. I hate a book leaving unresolved issues, it is really annoying. Thanks for stopping by my TTT post :)

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  4. I hate throwaway storylines too. Why make a big deal over something like discovering an important character has an eating disorder, only to never mention it again?

    Vernacular speech and accents written out can work, but I don't like them too thick. One of the reasons Uncle Tom's Cabin was a big fat DNF for me was because the slave vernacular was almost unreadable.

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