Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish pet peeves.
The first time I answered these questions I was a working librarian. My answers have changed a bit since I've retired. Check out my 2011 original list here.
Pet peeves about the care of books:
1. Dogeared pages. What is wrong with using a bookmark? My daughter uses post-it notes if she wants to "highlight" a quote, or sometimes as the bookmark itself.
2. Bending back a paperback so far that it breaks the book's spine
so that it can be held in one hand. I'm always shocked when I see books in used book stores with broken spines. Ugh.
3. Marking one's place by laying the book face down and open. If I ever see this when I'm visiting someone, I find a bookmark and close the poor book.
4. Using a book as a coaster. Water damage is a serious issue for books in the Northwest where mold grows so easily.
Pet peeves related to the writing:
1. Not following typical literary conventions! I get really irritated when an author does not use proper punctuation, grammar, spelling and so forth. Quotation marks! I especially hate it when speech isn't identified by quotation marks.
2. Repeating facts or statements throughout the book. I often feel like an author insults my intelligence when they repeat facts already introduced earlier in the text.
3. Characters with similar or hard to pronounce names. I hate it when I can't seem to keep track of characters or have to stumble over their names each time I see them.
Pet peeves about the plot:
1. Stereotypes. (Dumb blondes; Geeks wearing glasses; etc.)
2. Derogatory comments made about minorities, women, races, religion, etc.
3. When the action description is cut short because the main character faints or is removed for some reason. This was especially true in Mockingjay. I want all the gory details of battle rather than a glossing over of them.
Pet peeves about covers and book promotions:
1. When publishers plug their book by saying it is just like some other famous book. And it isn't even close. You know what I mean?
2. Switching book cover mid series. I even hate it when the covers in a series are switched between hardcover and paperbacks.
What is a bookish pet peeve you have?
-Anne