Ep 101: What bookish things would you like to put in Room 101

[Thomas]

We babbled for an hour about bookish pet peeves. What are yours? Or which ones did you disagree with?

[Cindy]

I'm almost finished this toe-curlingly good episode. I agree with everything - maybe not so bothered by italics, but big quotes in foreign tongues got a particularly large 'Yessss' from me. Dreams...oh God, yes. No chapters, long paragraphs...you boys have been reading my mind. Those titles, too. Though The Chimney Sweeper's Boy is one of my favourite books, it probably helped get the ball rolling. And I know what you mean about the slew of cutesy titles after Guernsey Whatsit and Thingy. Pukesville.

Now I'm worried that para was too long...

[Whitney]

That episode was great! I feel like sharing our bookish peeves tell so much more about us than talking about what we love, haha. So I found this episode really fun and amusing. I agreed with you both so often!

One of my big pet peeves are book covers that try so hard to look angsty. All those YA books with sad girls on the cover or dark roses or angels. Bleck! If a cover looks like that I will never read it. (I know, tsk, tsk...but I can't help but judge a book by it's cover!)

Or when authors try really hard to put symbolism into the story. This kind of ties in with the dream sequences that Thomas talked about. If symbolism is important to the story it should be subtle feel natural.

[Alanna]

I agree with pretty much everything said. Heck, my purse has a pocket for a tablet but I use it for my Nook and a paper book. But I have a special hate for stickers. My local secondhand store is a place I buy heavily from because they're close and they have the largest selection because they're owned by Books-a-Million. The stickers would come off of a CD just fine but I'm afraid to even try to get these off, because every time I try it leaves sticky bits and takes paper off!

[April]

I haven't finished listening to the episode yet, but I'm sure there will be a few words about italics. They drive me bonkers. Hate, hate, hate italics!

[Eric]

I agree that bits of untranslated text within a novel can be annoying and alienate you from the book you're reading. However, I just read a new novel called "I Am China" which shows short sections of Chinese text that a translator is working on. Although I couldn't read it I think it's interesting to have those marks on the page because the novel is self-consciously about translation and the meaning of words. Also the text is in particular characters' handwriting so it shows something about their emotion even if you can't read the words.

I always thought #amwriting meant they are writing in the morning (as opposed to writing after noon or PM) but I guess that's wrong as they mean "I am writing" I thought it was author's boasting how much writing they were getting done before lunchtime. Either way it is annoying.

[Jennifer]

I'm with you on the untranslated text. I just recently read The Secret History and it was peppered with untranslated text in French, Latin and of course, Greek (though less of Greek as the characters' Greek conversations are written in English but italicized!).

I've got other pet peeves similar to Simon and Thomas' like the books without chapters, etc. With book covers, I hate those re-issues of classics that are made to look like chick-lit covers. But my biggest bookish pet peeve are those people who assume that just because I'm female I read nothing but romance novels. I'd like to banish those people to Room 101.

[Elizabeth☮]

One thing I find annoying is when a different font style is used when the story is told from varying perspectives. It is jarring when switching from chapter to chapter and often doesn't really help differentiate between narrators.

What a great episode. This may be one I listen to multiple times.

[Louise]

I really don't like books where the characters just meet an abundance of historical characters (with no very good description of them)(yes The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared I'm talking to you!) it's also used badly in a lot of YA literature.

And books where a young male or female character just happen to come up with an (obvious) solution to the problem that the CIA code experts, military generals etc. on the case simply had not thought of!

[Thomas]

I love it! I was worried we might have been too negative but I guess connoisseurs like to pick apart the details of the objects of their affection.

[Shona]

I loved the discussion about pet peeves with books. It just goes to show how wonderfully different we are in our tastes and that we all have our little eccentricities. I have a couple of pet peeves that I wish could go in Room 101 and I really can't explain why I dislike them so much but here goes....I absolutely hate the term palate cleanser when people talk about books, I hate when publishers put a move tie-in cover on a book and for some reason I really want to hand somebody a bookmark when they put a little scrap of paper in a book,to mark the page. Weird I know.

[Ruthiella]

Shona wrote: "I loved the discussion about pet peeves with books. It just goes to show how wonderfully different we are in our tastes and that we all have our little eccentricities. I have a couple of pet peev..."

I also hate movie tie-in covers. I also dislike the versions with the orignal cover but with text like "now a major motion picture" or "Hit series on HBO". I will only be seen reading such a copy if it is the ONLY option available to me and I REALLY want to read the book.

[Elizabeth☮]

I am going to add the word "like" used as filler.

seems to have permeated all aspects of our culture and I find it distracting.

I just finished reading a book that used it in dialogue between three sixty year old men. I'm not sure that generation uses "like" as a filler word. I find when I see people interviewed on television all I can do is count how many times they use the word "like" to connect one thought to another or to preface dialogue.

And now it's in my reading!!!

[Aurora]

I have just caught up with this episode today, Simon taking about stickers lasting through the apocalypse made me chuckle all day. Stickers is top of my list. And Thomas - I agree 100% with all you said about The Help, I abandoned it pretty early on and "treacle" is the perfect word for the film version.