Could you read a book with intentional speling and grammar errors?

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Brad wrote: "It can just be risky."

I like risky. No author has ever been remembered for playing it safe.

[Tony]

The character presented is a fifteen-year-old girl. I would not want to categorize all teens who are fifteen in the same way. Some might write poorly, while others might not. I have been working with teens many years and have noticed they might not write in the same manner as they speak. I am not sure they intentionally make spelling mistakes or compose sentences improperly for the fun of it. In their writing some of them use words such as "whatever" in disgust, or "like," with which I do not have a problem because that might be their normal.
That being said, I would likely have problems with a teen diary in which spelling errors were purposely made. I think the teen's voice can still be heard without purposeful errors.

[Sarah]

Oh, absolutely. I'll read books with UNintentional errors. :o) I think intentional errors are an artistic choice, and just as acceptable as any other subjective writing decisions.
Depending on how it's done, it might distract me. That's possible and probably needs to be taken into consideration. :o)

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

A little update, since this thread is still getting comments.

The story is finished and published. I had six people read it. In most cases, I didn't tell the reader ahead of time anything about what the story was about, about the style, etc. One person said she was confused by the misspelled words for the first paragraph. After that, she was fine with it. No one else complained.

I'll leave the thread active in case anyone else is wondering about this issue. I guess the lesson I learned is: My gut told me to let this character have a strong, unique voice through poor writing skills and it worked out very well. Sometimes our instincts can be the best writing instructor of all.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Tony wrote: "The character presented is a fifteen-year-old girl. I would not want to categorize all teens who are fifteen in the same way..."

I hope I didn't come across as thinking all teenagers write poorly. I don't believe that.

Tony wrote: "I am not sure they intentionally make spelling mistakes or compose sentences improperly for the fun of it."

A lot of the misspellings are intentional on my part, not on the part of the character. It's a diary, not a school assignment. She's writing her entries very quickly and not worried about if it's proper or not, as she does not expect anyone to ever read it. Some of her mistakes are intentional on her part, as she's trying to be cute to amuse herself.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Sarah wrote: "Oh, absolutely. I'll read books with UNintentional errors. :o) I think intentional errors are an artistic choice, and just as acceptable as any other subjective writing decisions."

Thank you. After the feedback I got from my readers, this is more or less what I concluded, too.

[Jenny]

Wonder has a whole chapter (Justin) with no capital letters. It makes my eyes bleed... but used sparingly so it doesn’t impede meaning, but is enough to appear intentional is ok.

[Bill]

I think the OP is on the right track. By presenting the diary verbatim, the reader is presented with the direct POV of the diarist in a non-omniscient fashion. This is a good way of setting up the "why" of a conflict.
As for misspellings in dialog, sometimes it's vital as a way of creating the persona of a character. For example, the best articles I've ever read about a guy named Junior Johnson, all work in that, in Johnson's words, his first name is pronounced "Jooner", or that he leaves the "a" off of "about", despite being one of the greatest minds in racing.
Accents can be inferred with just one word sometimes, like how Stephen King has his New Englanders say "ayup". I don't think there's a proper spelling for that.

[Doug]

That's a funny way to draw questions out, but I'd say that most of the people responding mised the irrelevance of the question. I'd say that makeing errors is not a good praktice.

[jamako]

Bill wrote: "I think the OP is on the right track. By presenting the diary verbatim, the reader is presented with the direct POV of the diarist in a non-omniscient fashion. This is a good way of setting up the ..."

Yep, I agree. I think misspelling something is fair game as long as it is clear that it is part of the character's voice. Maybe do not go overboard with let us say twenty different mistakes but give the diarist two or three noticeable, recurring errors that should help to sharpen 'her' writing.