15 of Your Biggest Book Pet Peeves

10 and 15 but mostly 10 or when books from one series aren't the same addition

Typos. Do publishing companies not have spell check? Or editors? Or proofreaders?
I have found typos, grammar errors and the wrong character name.

All of these!!!!

Plus:

-maybe it's just existing in my country, but I LOATHE it when there are big spelling mistakes on the cover of the book just because that way it looks better in design

-when a publisher stops translating a series mid-series because of low sales figures

-typos in books

E. wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "when you lend a book to a friend that looks brand new even though you have read it a few times and they sit in front of you and crack the spine until the book can lay open for the..."

Agree, I won't even lit my husband borrow books from because of how he treats them. Folding down corners, reading in the toilet.....
We have 2 copies of all the Harry Potters because if this.

While I hate all of these none more so then 6 and 8, often you see these two together as well which RUINS the book.

Oh and I've got a pet peeve of my own, when the authors name is printed so huge that you can barely see the title.

#15 has always been major for me.

Why dog-eared pages? İ just memorize the page number XD The thing İ hate most is when people borrow but don't return my books!

My biggest pet peeve is movie covers. I particularly despise them if they have the sticker that says "NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE" (and extra hatred if they list the lead actors names). Is the book suddenly more worthwhile to read because someone else deemed to turn it into a movie?? No. It is a moneymaking gimmick for people who only follow the crowd.

Other contenders are:

-Poor writing and editing. As it has been stated previously in this thread, the bulk of this responsibility falls on the original author, not the editors. Take enough pride in your own work to run the darn spell check.
-Authors that drag a series out instead of having the dignity to end it firmly. Either they are trying to suck more money out or they can't come up with any other ideas. Rewriting a book from a different character's point of view is particularly pathetic.
-Books that use heavyweight, overly glossy paper. That is for magazines or coffee table books. Not novels.
-Books whose back covers and/or jackets only contain plugs from reviewers or other authors. I want to know what the book is about, not how many people were bribed to like it.
-The vast majority of celebrity memoirs. Just because you are famous does NOT mean that you know how to write or have anything interesting to say!

To all the people complaining about cigarette smell in library books... what about the traces of fecal matter and the herpes virus found on some library books? I'm just saying, man. Pick your battles.

ollie wrote: "Emily wrote: "Hollie wrote: "Emily wrote: "Stickers on books bugs the crap out of me as well"

Agreed!"

And then when you try to take it off it rips the book. "

They always use the stickiest of s..."

When that happens i take a damp paper towel and eith scrub the rest of the sticker off, or just wet it enough to scratch it off with my finger nails. Stickers on books are annoying.

Goo-Gone or a lotion tissue will remove sticky residue from a book. (Librarian trade secret. LOL)

The biggest one: people who don´t return my books - least of all, lending a book in perfect condition and have it returned looking like it survived WWIII!

The other pet peeves: broken binding, small print, stains and stickers - urgh!

I hate dog-eared pages, stickers on covers those who do not take care of their collection.

Nərmin wrote: "Why dog-eared pages? İ just memorize the page number XD The thing İ hate most is when people borrow but don't return my books!"

That's what I've done since I was a kid (because I could never find any of my bookmarks), but I've only gotten strange looks when suggesting it to others. I definitely use more bookmarks now than I used to, but they're usually receipts. I still can't seem to keep track of bookmarks!

incomplete trilogies - the ones that take forever to be released or the trilogy that suddenly becomes 5 parter!

My biggest Pet Peeve is when the books are mess up or
the pages are missing.

When you borrow Margaret Thatcher's "Memoirs" from the public library to write an essay, and discover something looking suspiciously like pubic hair between two pages...

15. "Movie edition book covers…shudder."


God, the worse! Double shudder

Cynthia wrote: "People who 'edit' library books; crossing out words to insert one they think is better; underlining long words (to look up later?) etc. Hello! It is a public library book! "Edit" your own person..."

THANK YOU!!!! I SOOOOOO CAN NOT STAND WHEN THE GRAMMAR NAZIS COME TO TOWN!!! I mean I get the editing in most books out there already sucks. I could likely look over it. But for those that borrow library books and cross words out or re do the sentence structure throws me even FARTHER out of the book than the ACTUAL lack of editing done in the first place!

And I for sure can't stand the dog eared pages thing either. I hate it from the library books or when I lend someone a book. And get it back all folded up. What is wrong with you?!?! It's not yours to overly personalize it that way.

Same with people folding the darn books in half. Wrapping it all the way around on itself. That is just weakening the spine all the more and by the time someone else gets around to reading it. The poor book is so broken and the pages are so about to fall out after so many uses. :(

I definitely agree on the stickers on the cover. Especially when it's covering up a really interesting part of the book! I soo hate that one.

Will add too that although I haven't ran into it a lot(thank the lord), but when you get a big book or a pretty decent novel sized paper back and thinking the reading and everything is going to be good and easy. Only to flip it open and the font is uber tiny or the spacing is all so close together that you are nearly reading the same sentence more than once cause you can't tell where one ends and the other begins! Editors need to be smacked for that big time!

I'm not overly opposed to the movie covers on books. But I just hate it when there is no clear distinction if the book is following after the movie version or if it is still the original version just with the movie cover. Cause after all there could be some differences or things having been cut or changed and I wouldn't know if that is true or not or the WHOLE actual story after I finished reading it.

Definitely not a fan of the cover models not matching ANY characters in the book. I mean I know there are many stock images out there that are shared amongst publishing houses I suppose. But dude try and work with the authors better, even read the story to get and idea what the characters might look like.

Covers with a dead-eyed picture of the protagonist staring you down.

Stickers on the front or spine.

When the back has a bunch of quotes instead of blurb about the actual plot. Or worse, just a giant portrait photo of the author.

Lending a book and getting it back in worse condition: water damage, weird stains, bent pages, missing the jacket.

With pre-owned books: intentional damage to the outside of the book.

Of the above: Publishers changing the style of book covers mid-series is the worst.

When it is a long time between book in a series and the author doesn't include a short, separate synopsis of the series so far. Even if you're an avid fan of the series, you can easily lose the thread of the story between novels.

Dead spiders smashed between the pages. I suppose I should be grateful they aren't live ones.

Aubrey wrote: "Dead spiders smashed between the pages. I suppose I should be grateful they aren't live ones."

Now that is kind of creepy lol.

Forgot another one that always annoys me the most about books. When the author starts a brand new series and in the first book they are writing in a tone like you already know the characters. Like if the main character is going back home to fight some big evil whatchamacallit, and is staying with her mom. Having the main character address their parent by their first name is NOT a given for everybody! So sometimes it is good to I don't know SAY this is the character's parent or something, before the chapter goes too much further into other things would be great.

Or in general, write it like you are showing the reader a whole new world(which you are). Cause no one knows all the rules and regs of what is going on in book one. So don't make the tone imply that we do. I hate that.

Dog ear is number one in my list. then next is the changing of book covers

When a bookstore decides they need to plaster some big sticker like "Heather's Pick" on the front cover. Or when a barcode or ownership sticker is placed in the middle of a map or pic on the inside cover.

Hollie wrote: "Emily wrote: "Hollie wrote: "Emily wrote: "Stickers on books bugs the crap out of me as well"

Agreed!"

And then when you try to take it off it rips the book. "

They always use the stickiest of s..."

Eucaluptus oil gets the sticky off :)

Lots of people have already said it but broken spines. That's the number one reason I don't lend people my books even if it's just my sisters. No one seems to really appreciate when you try and explain that it damages the book and you'll eventually have to re-buy another copy because the pages will start falling out once the glue is cracked beyond a certain point. I've trained myself over many years not to break spines anymore since I was old enough to know better. :P

I don't buy former library books for the above reasons.

I also don't loan my paperbacks to my oldest brother because he totally destroys them - a new paperback will end up looking like it's 20 years old. I've even had pages fall out of them. I have a friend that I loan hardback books to on occasion, but that's it. Some people have the attitude that if it's not their book, they can do whatever they like to it.

I hate mass market paperbacks. They're not easy to read and no matter how careful you are, the spine creases and sometimes even cracks, so you end up with an awful looking book. I buy hardbacks, trade paperbacks, and ebooks in that order.

Poor editing and proofreading in ebooks - this is why I'm leery of free books, even classics. I've read classics where the text had some very obvious OCR errors - for example, "3" instead of "E." Very distracting.

I collect vintage paperbacks, but try to avoid ones with laminate covers. No matter how careful you are, they will start to de-laminate and then they look terrible.

when people give a five star rating on a book and it turns out the book is awful.

Adrienne wrote: "when people give a five star rating on a book and it turns out the book is awful."

Oh, heavens, yes! You just know that they're the author's friends and relatives. I always look for books that have a mix of ratings - good, bad, and in-between. They're much more likely to be true ratings because not everybody will like the same thing.

I used to work in the book dept. of an "entertainment" store(sold book, movies and music) and one night I looked over and saw a guy sitting in one of the chairs, reading a book with the cover bent back. I went and asked him if he planned to buy the book. He said, "No." My response was, "Would you then please stop bending the cover back and damaging the spine?" He was like, "Oh, sorry." He thought it was perfectly acceptable to damage a book that he wasn't going to buy. We did have to write off book sometimes because people damaged them while reading them.

Diane wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "when people give a five star rating on a book and it turns out the book is awful."

Oh, heavens, yes! You just know that they're the author's friends and relatives. I always look f..."

Well doesn't always have to be the author's friends or relatives. As there are just some peeps that are that hardcore of fans for most authors at times. And rate it higher just because they enjoy the author regardless how the story pans out. I sorta of see them on par with the early raters in that regard.

Rachel wrote: "I used to work in the book dept. of an "entertainment" store(sold book, movies and music) and one night I looked over and saw a guy sitting in one of the chairs, reading a book with the cover bent ..."

Oh man that has to suck. Cause I'm totally of that old school saying. "You break it you buy it". So dude would totally be buying that book and anybody else just sitting there bending the covers back.

When people deface a book by writing in it, especially in pencil and someone else tries to erase it and leaves the rubber eraser remnants on the page. Yuck!

I'm okay with writing in books and dog earing, but no annotating library books.

Also, I HATE, HATE, HATE when the cracks in the books keep you from closing the book evenly.

Ugh, I hate movie editions of book covers!

Kris wrote: "Especially stickers that block information on the cover."

My library always does this. They put a library bar code sticker and a library sticker on the cover, which is fine. But often they put it right over the title or other piece of information you want to read. Why?!

When you read a really awesome book but the cover is horrible! So it's kind of embarrassing to read in public. Plus when you try to recommend it people will judge it based on that awful cover! oh it annoys me!! Another thing is when a movie adaptation gets everything wrong. So people end up judging the book based on the bad movie. I'm thinking of you Percy Jackson!

Rachel wrote: "I used to work in the book dept. of an "entertainment" store(sold book, movies and music) and one night I looked over and saw a guy sitting in one of the chairs, reading a book with the cover bent ..."

One teacher once accused me of not having read a book because it didn't look like a herd of cows ran over it. I had to manhandle the poor thing to make him finally believe I read it.

When an older book is reissued with a new cover as if it were a new book.

F.P. wrote: ""Those strange mystery stains that are usually found between the pages of library books. Did someone spill coffee? Or slash their fingers open with a paper cut? Who knows?"

--I don't want those my..."

For moldy books, wrap them in paper towels and zap them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. For books with gilt edges, there's apparently a treatment involving clay-based kitty litter...you might try an Internet search for that recipe.

No.10 is the most common things libraries did in my place :D

I hate when libraries place barcode stickers over a title, book number, or blurb! Like I want to read what's there!

Cynthia wrote: "People who 'edit' library books;
This one drives me crazy also!! Or they insert their opinions in non fiction books. I don't care what YOU think I am reading to find out what the author thinks.

Poor editing and typos. If I have to re-read a sentence or paragraph 3+ times to figure out the meaning it turns me off. When there are multiple sets of these it takes away from the reading enjoyment for me. Sometimes I don't even finish the book.
Also... regarding the mystery stains and FIFTY SHADES... I wouldn't even think about reading a borrowed copy of that series unless it was through my Kindle! (not sure if it's even lendable thou)

Carol wrote: "I work in a library and one woman informed me 'There was too much swearing and sex in this book, so I've crossed them out with a black felt tip'! I would have made her pay for a new book as that is just straight vandalism.

Mon wrote: "When publishers use the back cover as a list of reviews instead of a description of the book. Now THAT is my
pet peeve. Inevitably you will find that the reviews from other authors are simply all the authors in the publishers stable and they give each other's books fantastic reviews. Who cares what they think? I want to have some idea of the plot.

Karen Floyd wrote: "1. Misleading titles
2. Books are increasingly full of spelling and grammatical errors, misused words and sentences that don't make sense. Where was the proofreader/editor?! It's distracting and ..."

Totally agree on both. Proof reading is done by any good word processor. It highlights what is wrong. Why can't they go through and fix the red bits in the text before going into print?
Same with misleading titles. I read a book about how to fix your diabetes and all the man said was to pray and be a better Christian and God would fix it. What an idiot. And he even wore a white coat on the cover to give himself the look of a health care professional. Totally misleading.

Dog-eared pages drive me nuts! Who would do such a thing??

You people are far too picky. I'm more concerened by what is writen in the book than how it looks or how it smells. Read it anyways!

I think that it is fine to not like spoilers, and I respect that and I would never spoil a book for anyone, but I do not appreciate it when someone actually yells at me and is about to practically strangle me for "almost" spoiling a book for them.

When I am having a pleasant conversation with someone else who has also already read the book, please just walk away from our conversation instead of telling us to stop talking.