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Reasons to throw that book across the room!
I've never thrown away a book. The one book I would have, is sitting on my book shelf as a constant reminder not to go six chapters in a novel without something happening. It is officially the worst book I've ever read. I've put down books for being too descriptive. Thirty pages of telling me about the local vegetation is not a good read.
Incorrect expressions and jargon would be up there on the list with most everyone above. These are offensive but I won't toss a book unless it's blatant.
Great discussion Juliet.
I agree with Arch on the accuracy thing.I get to some people this may be important, but I don't read for historys sake. I read to enjoy a good *fictional* story and to get away from the real world for a bit. If I wanted to read to get to know my history better I would take some classes or get some history books.
I think a lot of authors take history events and mold them into their own stories. I actually like it when authors do this as it makes it interesting.
Take mythology for example (yes I know its not *history* as in real events but still) - Kenyon does a really good job with incorporating mythology in her Dark-Hunter series and it makes me love the books even more because of it.
I also agree with Suzette in that if a book is *too* descriptive it tends to get annoying fast. Don't get me wrong, I love an author that knows how to word build and be very descriptive - when it needs to be.
But as Suzette put it - we do not need tons of pages describing vegetation! lol
When an author does that it shows me they are lacking in other areas and needed to fill pages with something so they decided to describe things *in detail* that we really don't want to read about.
I also agree with Dawn regarding the sex. And I want to say I LOVE me some good sex scenes and an no where near being prude. But a story without plot just bothers me (though it depends on my mood, I do read all types).
From time to time I enjoy reading erotica.. but I hate picking up a book that is NOT labeled as such, expecting a good story with some romance and sex involved and finding out its all sex.
I can't say I've ever thrown a book, but I've complained loudly about a few. My pet peeves are:
1)Books that have NO likable characters. If I'm going to spend a week or so with a set of characters I have to like at least one of them. And likable means three dimensional, someone I could see being friends (or lovers) with.
2)Plots that are forced and unbelievable.
3)Hollywood endings, where you KNOW that the author was thinking 'movie deal' as they wrote the book. "My Sister's Keeper" springs to mind.
4)Author's voice intrusion. I want to hear the story from the characters' voices. If characters' voices are weak I lose interest.
That's my two cents!
My complaint is a little more specific than most. I hate books wherein all the characters we meet are in touch with themselves and the world around them. Most authors have that gift themselves, the gift of being in tune with things that the majority of the world is not. That is one reason why they are story tellers, but when every character in a book has that ability it is all I can do to keep myself from tossing the book into the fire. A person in tune with life is one in a hundred, maybe on in a thousand or more, but you won't find five, ten, twenty of them coming together in the same community. That drives me mental.
I can't find a reason to throw a book across a room unless you want to kill a dangerous insect :D
I can think of three books I put down and all for different reasons: the first was simply poor writing. Lots of telling, TONS of backstory...by the end of the 3rd chapter absolutely nothing had happened and I couldn't even tell you the name of either hero or heroine. The next was just plain boring. Dialog was stilted. Plot was pretty flimsy.
And the 3rd had to do with subject matter. The love scenes were borderline rape and neither hero nor heroine had many redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, this last one is highly acclaimed for it's "Regency Noir" style that seems to be taking over the market. Thank goodness I have a ton of Regency-set historicals on my backlist that are not noir!
I understand Eman's view. Those are the books I might throw across the room, but they never make it home with me--unless I was careless and placed it in my book bag. That's why blurbs are so valuable--I can tell right away if the author is writing so he/she can have an audience to whine and carry on about an event that he/she "wants to make sure no one else goes through." (There's an over-used term if I ever heard one.)Celia
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books is when I lend it to someone and they bend the pages as a bookmark! I really hate that because now my book has about 15 bent pages in it!! Grr
I have to agree with PrincessJewel on the 3 reasons to toss a book - I've never thrown one (away or across the room) but there have been times... Poor storytelling is a major peeve of mine. I'm okay with telling, if it's done in a way that is alluring, intricate or emotional. But if the overall writing is messy, immature or simply unthought, the book won't last past chapter 2 or 3, depending on the length. There have been plenty of books where the blurb looks good enough and then disappointment jumps out like a prank can of worms. That's the biggest let-down for me; A strong blurb based of false pretenses of what's inside the actual book.Dog-earring pages??? That should be illegal.
Jo.
I tend to get frustrated by authors or stories that will have characters stop and "navel gaze" on the events that have occurred to this point in the story--even if it's just happened three or four pages ago.Maybe it's that I read faster than some people or the average reader, but I hate it when half the book is this "recapping what's coming until now" simply for the sake of recapping. If a character is thinking back and some new insight occurs, it can be forgiven so long as it doesn't take up half the stinkin' book! I find this happens a lot in current "epic fantasy" and some sci-fi novels--esp. the Dune prequels by Herbert's son and Kevin J. Anderson. Herbert's original novel was so good in that it assumed readers have a scintilla of an ability to follow the story and keep things straight over the course of the novel without spoon feeding it to us.
Good morning everyone! I love the topic and reading these responses. I agree with refraining from hurling a book across the room unless you are defending yourself and your loved ones :) Other than those writing "irregardless" or "alot" instead of "regardless" and "a lot", I get annoyed if the author repeats information too many times that does not require repeating. If it has something to do with a code and I may not recall the code without flipping back to a section in the book, repeat away. But if it's something minor in the story like rereading a lost letter aloud to the 20th person, I get a little annoyed....
J.R. Reardon
author, CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS
I throw books across the room when I am forced to deal with a ridiculous plot. One book comes to mind... Nobody True. I wanted to throw it, stomp on it and then burn it because it was so far out there.
I received a book several Christmas's ago from a well-known writer and by the end of the first page I was ready to pitch the book. The writing was horrendous...run-on sentences, every other sentence beginning with "But" or "And". It ticked me off that just because a writer is "famous" that they can get sloppy with their writing. I will NEVER buy or read another of this author's books.
Pet Peeves that lead to hurled books and broken lamp shades: 1) "Smart" characters who act stupid because it's in furtherance of the bad plot structure. 2) Annoying, out-of-place verbal/mental cues, either because of anachronism or simple loss of cohesion in characterization. 3) Sudden, unsupported plot bombshells. 4) Extended bouts of naval gazing on the part of the characters. 5) Long, pointless information dumps. 6) Helpless, hopeless victim characters who don't ever act in their own defense and have very few admirable traits to commend them. (Literary fiction features these jokers all the time.) 7) Begging the question. (Saying a character is a certain way while all evidence is to the contrary...for the whole book.) 8) Lazy plotting and all its fallout (Lack of good foreshadowing, logical inconsistency, Deus Ex Machina, the "Big Reveal" ending, etc.)...There are more, but I imagine that I've probably said enough.
There is a growing trend in literature, although it is such a grand word to apply to this writing, wherein the characters depart from an understood likelihood of actions and move into the somewhat bizarre. It is usually explained by the fact that these traits have been hidden from the reader heretofore. I confess that this does not so much make me wish to throw the book as it does make me push it onto the floor from my nightstand in disgust.I believe that this characteristic, which is becoming all too common, believes readers won't much care if things take a sharp turn into the unlikely. I still do and I find it a mark of a bad writer.
These writers tend to treat linearity like too much Ellery Queen wherein certain clues are kept from the reader until something is required. Recently I read a story which won a contest which was written in exactly this way, so perhaps I suffer from a quirk here. Perhaps it all began long ago when my grand mother and so many others demanded to know "Who shot JR?"
Another thing that does tend to bother me is a writer who isn't consistent with time in his or her books. I read a lot of series books -- mostly fantasy -- and occasionally an author comes along who either does not have any kind of time-line or who doesn't pay attention to it ending up with a couple of books on one line, then a sudden switch to another calculation in another group of books. If it were small errors, that's one thing, but when it ends up that a certain event happened either 10, 15 or 30 years before; or a character whom you know is only 7 becomes 27 due to a time-line error, it becomes very annoying.
I haven't literally thrown a book, but I have dropped a few in disgust. I'm distracted by books that sound like they are being dictated. Like, "She walked across the room. Slowly. Cautiously. Wondering what would happen next." Maybe not the best example, but I thinking of strings of incomplete sentences. And the book that throws in a sex scene for the heck of it, but it doesn't fit in the rest of the story. A couple of things I find off-putting.
Stories with twists seem popular today, like Rhonda says. I like twists as long as I can reread and see some foreshadowing. Twists that come out of the blue make me wonder why I bothered reading the rest."Sex scenes for the heck of it" frustrate me too, especially when they go into detail overload.
Sheila, I agree with your comment about twist and turns must be plausable, and most importantly properly foreshadowed. While I was writing my novel, my thought process kept adding new twists and for every one I imagined, I always went back to try to reconstruct the events that would make it possible and believable.I think it's lazy not "reverse engineer" your plotline if the twist you implant is worth keeping.
Yale R Jaffe
author, Advantage Disadvantage
I can't stand a book that has not been edited properly. When peple are interested in my work, I tell them upfront if it has been professinoally edited yet so they know what they are getting into. But today, so many authors get away with toomuch because they are big names or have a lot of business to bring in. Pet Peeve numero uno!
My pet peeves: books that distort history, books with flat, "goody goody two shoe characters," and books where the characters have radical personality changes (unless they're psychos) in the middle of the book (smile).I hate TV shows & movies with all of the above too.
Dawn wrote: "Another thing that does tend to bother me is a writer who isn't consistent with time in his or her books. I read a lot of series books -- mostly fantasy -- and occasionally an author comes along w..."LOL Dawn. Soaps tends to age the children.
My biggest peeve is with a well-known author, whom I used to love and read all of her books when she began writing about 25 years ago. As she got famous, her work became sloppy; run-on sentences, sentences paragraphs long, sentences beginning with "And" or "But" and just rambling. As an author myself, I found it frustrating that her books sold millions, where I and many other not-so-well-known authors make sure we cross every "t" and dot every "i". Then when I learned she no longer writes, but has a corporation writing for her, I refuse to buy or read any of her books.
I have to say that animal cruelty will do it for me. Second to that is when an author's political agenda has take over in a work of fiction.
Nancy wrote: "My biggest peeve is with a well-known author, whom I used to love and read all of her books when she began writing about 25 years ago. As she got famous, her work became sloppy; run-on sentences, s..."An author has other people writing her work? She's not the author of the books that are being written under her name.
If a writer is tired of writing, then he or she just quit writing and don't have other people write for them.
I'm a writer. Not a published writer, because that's not my desire. I just write for fun and I have been enjoying my fun writing for 22 years.
I don't write for people. I write for myself. I do share my work with some people, but still my work is for me.
Arch wrote: "Nancy wrote: "My biggest peeve is with a well-known author, whom I used to love and read all of her books when she began writing about 25 years ago. As she got famous, her work became sloppy; run-o..."There have been several well-known authors who died and others took over their writing. For example, V.C.Andrews. She wrote very few of her books herself prior to her death. If I remember correctly, the last few Louis L'Amour books were also ghost written.
Mary Sues all the way. I found Twilight's Bella to be the biggest of all time thus far. Second for me was Ayn Rand's heroes and heroines--those books went flying!
I read mysteries, thrillers and I also like Historical Romance and Romantic Suspense. I've never thrown a book across the room but I've WANTED to!Reasons being:
Boring
Excessive, pointless description (I don't need an author to describe in full detail how a tree looks if it isn't important to the plot)
Bad writing
Bad dialogue
TSTL (too stupid to live characters), mainly if it's a woman. I hate stupid and weak female characters
Sappy and depressing writing (if the book isn't supposed to be sappy and depressing)
Too many adverbs in dialogue tags (I don't like the writer TELLING me how someone feels after dialogue and it becomes distracting)
No editing and being full of errors
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
I agree with most of the peeves already described. But if the story is good, I can forgive a lot of things - poor characterization, lack of editing, bad grammar, run ons and POV shifts.Reading a book requires a suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader. Less, if it's a contemporary work, more for historical, fantasy, horror or SF.
OK, so I make the effort, get sucked into the story, and suddenly get hit between the eyes with a blatant error.
The author used a light year as a measure of time rather than distance.
The book went on a little aerial journey. It's the only time I've actually thrown a book.
Christy wrote: "Those NYT bestsellers that are poorly written. Hate paying money for something the publisher assures the world is the best book ever written.
Poor editing.
Any book where an animal or child i..."
Ditto.
I don't think torture, child abuse or animal abuse makes good fiction for any reason.
This is all too real and there is no reason to make a fictional story. Most of the time it is used simply for shock value. The only shock it gets from me is when the book lands in the trash and I post negative reviews.
Otherwise, what really will turn me off on a story are rampant typos or when the author violates their own rules. IE. When they have a character do something completely out of line for the world they have created.
Lousy endings. Ugh! I realize that a good ending can be the most difficult part of the story, but some authors just cop out and end up ruining the entire story.
One last thing that will REALLY get me going is when an author is rude and disrespectful of their fans. The fans are what support the author and it's pretty tacky, not to mention stupid, to intentionally alienate them.
There is a specific author whose books I stopped reading years ago after seeing him treat his fans like idiots at a signing. I really liked his work but every time I try to read any of it, that image comes back.
Hmmm...I DO tend to ramble on, don't I? -grin-
LuAnn wrote: "Arch wrote: "Nancy wrote: "My biggest peeve is with a well-known author, whom I used to love and read all of her books when she began writing about 25 years ago. As she got famous, her work became ..."As have the 'Bourne' books by Robert Ludlum. In this case though, the new writer, Eric Van Lustbader, is just as good, IMO, and I am enjoying the books.
My dad just got me an e-reader for Christmas so I REALLY can't throw books now or I'll mess up my reader! But I can can push a delete button like nobody's business, LOL!Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
Eric Van Lustbader is a good author in his own right. I remember reading several of his a few years back - The Ninja,The Miko, Dai-Shan - a few others, all with Oriental or Oriental-myth themes. Excellent stuff, and he knew his material really well.
Glenda wrote: "I just have to respond to this one...I really have problems with calling a book a literary achievement just because the book is well written, most times using $100 words instead of those $9.99 ..."
Glenda, that almost sounds like censorship. Where should the line be drawn? If the author's intent was to shock or disgust you, then he or she succeeded. I'm more concerned with whether or not the writer brought the scene, as appalling as the situation the characters are in sounds, to life and made it real without having to "sensationalize" it.
I once threw a "bestseller" across the room because the protaganist was a teenaged girl whose voice was so contrived that the book was flying through the air before I finished the second page. I'd never done that before, nor have I done it since. It wasn't so much the poor writing that caused me to hurl the book, it was the fact that the author who wrote it is no doubt a millionairess because people actually BUY that crap. I'll take big words over cheesy dialogue any day.
Come to think of it, I'm reading a book now that's frustrating. It's a book from an author with an epublisher. It's an okay book, the story is all right and the author has a smooth writing style. But the book has tons of mistakes and typos like it hasn't been edited the best it could be. It's a short book, not even 100 pages and there are typos everywhere. I also can't understand how this lady who has been writing for a while doesn't know the basics of how to write a story!The big thing for me was:
She doesn't put commas before a person's name in dialogue. For example:
"How are you today Karen?" should be, "How are you today, Karen?"
What author doesn't know this and if they don't they shouldn't be writing! She also writes incorrect dialogue.
"It's almost 1:00 o'clock Louis." is incorrect. It should be "It's almost one o'clock, Louis." What writer doesn't know that people do not speak in numbers? In dialogue you have to spell out the words! That's like Writing 101! Stuff she should know.
She also uses way too many italics that take away from the story. She had about six italic words on the first page! Some words are left out of sentences and there are a lot of mistakes. She made a mistake and screwed up the name of one character. It took me forever to figure out she'd made a mistake and was talking about the same woman!
It wouldn't be so frustrating if the book didn't have potential. If the story was terrible I wouldn't mind much but I kind of like the book and I am trying to stick with it and these mistakes are ridiculous and the sign of someone who doesn't know basic rules when writing novels. I also can't excuse a writer if they can't even bother to do a simple check of their work and I surely can't understand why her publisher wouldn't either. These mistakes only make her look bad and it makes me not want to check out more of her work. That's bad because if she hadn't had these mistakes, I'd really like her writing.
As an author I'm embarrassed for her.
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
I'd have to agree with that, Stacy. (Note the correct use of the comma.) If the story's good, I'll make an effort to overlook those sort of errors, but it is an effort. Much better to take the trouble initially and remove them. That sort of sloppy editing also adds to the bad reputation of self-published work in general.
--as of mainstream published work too as well.
Well, I tried to begin reading a book today but ditched it after the second page. It's a self-published ebook which I downloaded, thinking it sounded interesting. I try not to be snobbish and not read a book just because it's self-published. I know some SP novels shouldn't be lumped in with the crap but well, this book was crap.You won't believe why I ditched it. None of the dialogue was in quotations. I couldn't believe it! I was completely stunned. I can't believe that someone is trying to write and does not know that dialogue goes in quotations?
I know it's hard to believe but if you want proof, message me and I'll send you the name of the book and you can download the ebook yourself and see it. Out of respect for the author, I wouldn't dare embarrass him or ridicule him by putting the title and his name on this board. I don't think that's respectful.
I just cannot believe someone doesn't know dialogue goes in quotes? Has this person ever read a book before? What book have you read where dialogue isn't in quotes? How did the author think you'd know who is speaking if the dialogue isn't in quotes? I've never seen another blunder like this in a book and I doubt that there is another writer on earth who does not know that dialogue goes in quotes. There is no excuse for that.
A lot of SP authors think it's unfair when people pre-classify their work with others, but it's SP authors like this guy that gives them a bad name. When someone doesn't even know the basics of not only a book put the proper way to convey speaking, it shows that they couldn't care less about how their book is as a finished product. But I don't understand it for the fact that if this person has read anything they know dialogue goes in quotations. Or else it would be narrative!
Too bad the book had a fantastic title and is a thriller and mystery so that's why I downloaded it in the first place. This is proof that titles ARE important and can influence someone to become interested in a book! I got tricked and decided to read this because the title was so intriguing. I didn't know it was self-published but thought it was from a small press. I would have continued reading (even though there seemed to be hardly any editing), but I can't read a novel where dialogue isn't in quotation marks!
How the heck does the author expect someone to know who is speaking from line to line and character to character?
(Stacy slamming head on computer keyboard!)
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
I recently read a free download where the dialogue wasn't in quotes. Instead, the author prefaced every line of dialogue by -- for example--What are you talking about?-- he asked.
It threw me too, for a while, but I realised it was either some sort of character set mismatch transposing the book to PDF, or it was being done deliberately. Either way, once I'd got used to it, I read on. The dialogue was snappy, prose was minimal and fast paced. Imagine someone writing a novel where the protagonist is a vampire - but in the style of Mickey Spillane.
I enjoyed it, and after a while got used to the strange punctuation.
Wow, Paul. I hope this isn't a trend, LOL! I couldn't continue because I was too confused. He had some cops investigate a murder scene and they were talkiing to each other and it was like this:Did you question any witnesses? Ralph leaned on the ground. No but I did hear of a truck that was through here. Really? Get a make? Hal stooped over. Well no but...
(That was just my example but this is how his scene was going.)
See? LOL! I got confused immediately and I wasn't about to continue. These were just too characters! Can you imagine how confusing it would be if he wrote a scene of multiple characters? I think that there are too many books in the world to read for folks to have to sit through a bad or confusing book. I'll chuck a book in a minute, LOL.
I can't understand but it's common sense. How do they expect you to keep up? And you shouldn't use dialogue tags ALL the time. That's the point of decent writing. You should write your dialogue in a way that you don't have to hardly use tags and the reader can still know who's talking. How can an author who doesn't use quotes pull that off when you don't know who the heck is talking in the first place? I'm surprised HE didn't get confused while writing it!
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
Cormac McCarthy never uses quotes. It's a stylistic thing. That said, you have to be Cormac McCarthy to get away with it. virginianosky.com
Virginia wrote: "Cormac McCarthy never uses quotes. It's a stylistic thing. That said, you have to be Cormac McCarthy to get away with it. virginianosky.com"Huh, I guess it just didn't bother me when I read The Road by McCarthy. I think it's because he designs his pages so well that you can follow the conversations pretty easy.
I would be extremely curious to see the story you are frustrated with Stacy-Deanne. The layout or design of the books pages has a great deal to do with how readable it will be.
Yes, I realize that dialogue is technically supposed to be in quotes, but if the page is well designed with that in mind, you CAN do away with them. But...you have to know what you're doing. I think McCarthy does.
Hi, Stacy-Deanne. My book unfortunately has some editing and proofreading problems, which happened because I did not want to use the editing services offered by the publisher. I submitted a perfect copy for publication, edited by two writers. After I received the first galley, there were approximately five misspelled words. Once I submitted those corrections, I received a second galley with more typing and punctuation errors. This problem went on and on and became very frustrating. Each correction was postponing the publishing more than one month, not to mention the cost for me. After a delay of four months and new mistakes, I finally gave up and decided to have it published as it was.
Some readers comment me on the accurate and fluent translation, others speak of the negligible errors, but altogether I am still happy that it is out there.
Ha! It's amazing how many liberties authors take:-)I love Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but for the first hour of the book, I didn't know if I would make it through it because he changes point of view and character dialog in the same paragraph over and over. The story was so good that I got used to it and was able to ignore that it drove me crazy deep inside:-)
PAUL--Plainsong--can't remember the author--was a Hallmark presentation just recently. It's a wonderful story set on the Nebraska Plains about ordinary people coming to grips with oridnary problems. Fantastic movie. Then I found the book--hardback, with a gold seal on the front--one of the big literary awards--and I opened it, and tried to read--But it had not one punctuation mark. Not one. It irritated me so much, I did not read it. (I wanted to compare the movie with the book). So, some literary group thought the fact that was was written in this odd way was worthy of their biggest award. I could not keep up with the speaker. Annoying. Celia
Hi All,I've never read a book without quotations for dialogue so that's why I was so confused. I really didn't know some writers wrote that way. Never have I seen this. I've never heard of Cormac McCarthy. Is this a style he uses often or just for one book?
Brett, I'll send you the name of the book. It's ebook and that might be one of the reasons it was so confusing. With ebooks (when you're reading it on your ereader), sentences often come together anyway. I guess that just happens with downloading, so you can imagine how confusing this can get when in ebook format, a book is lumped into one big section and it's dialogue (minus quotations).
I was never frustrated with the book. I learned years ago not to let a book upset me, LOL! I'll just stop reading a book before I let it get me upset. Some books used to upset me then I'd try to finish them but there are too many good books to sit through one you don't enjoy. I was more SHOCKED than anything, but never frustrated. And I certainly wasn't aware that some authors really wrote without quotes. I'd never seen that before in my life.
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
I am not offended. I guess I should have been a bit more clear. No, romances set back in history would not have been as romantic given the lack of bathing and such. And general beliefs, such as you mentioned, are not a problem for me either. It is when a very specific historical event is so distorted that it takes me out of the story. This has only happened to me once. I didn't throw the book either. I just closed it and never finished it because I could not get back into the story.