TTT: Things I hate related to books/writing

Top Ten Tuesday: Things I hate that are related to books and writing.

1. I hate it when all the conflict in the book is solved and tied up with a bow by book's ending. I don't mind happy endings, it just irritates me when everything is all sparkling and lovely. Life isn't that way.

2. It really bugs me when I start noticing that authors don't trust my intelligence or my memory so they keep repeating the same facts/details throughout the book. I especially dislike it when it happens in nonfiction books. Honestly! Authors, trust your readers.

3. I never, ever select a book with a hunky, bare-chested man on the cover. Nope. Not for me.

4. I tend to avoid super long or big books. If a book is over 400 pages I have to think long and hard about it before I will pick it and give it a try. Recently I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I liked it but at over 1200 pages I thought I'd never finish it. In today's market I'm sure that editors would have spread that book out into a trilogy at least.

5. I dislike it when I realize that myths are being perpetuated in the book. Eg: Blacks aren't as intelligent as whites; women need men to be actualized; gays have more emotional problems than others; dogs are better pets than cats...

6. This used to be a non-starter for me, but now I am not as worried about this as when I was managing a high school library -- authors writing YA books in a series that go on and on. Students are only teens for a few years. If a YA series has more than four books tops, the readers age out and are no longer interested. Publishers should be mindful of the readers age as well and publish the books in the series no more than a year apart.

7. When character names are too similar. This is especially difficult for audiobook listeners. Or unpronounceable names/words in fantasy/sci-fi series. I end up struglling over them the whole time.

8. Believe it or not I actually think about the font styles and color of the print. I prefer fonts with serifs and just plain old black ink. I usually don't know until it is too late, however, about fonts and ink color, but I'll complain about it.

9. If I am reading a print version of a book, it drives me bonkers if no quotations marks are used. If I'm listening to the audiobook, I can't tell the difference. 😏

10. I generally won't read books in the horror genre. Why, you ask? Because I get scared.

-Anne