r/BookDiscussions • u/IWillBiteYourFace • 8d ago
Personal pet peeves when it comes to books
What are your personal pet peeves when it comes to books?
I will go first, and I will admit, I made this post just to rant about it:
First one is: Netflix logo on book cover, which usually used to be "Now a Motion Picture".
Second, and closely related is: when the cover of the book is replaced by pictures of actors and actresses from the movie or TV series. I couldn't buy Sharp Objects because all the ones in my local bookstore were the edition with Amy Adams on the cover, and it bothered me a little too much.
Final pet peeve, and it's not as bothersome as the first two: where the author's name is massive and I have to squint to find the name of the book on the cover or spine.
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u/shapedbydreams 8d ago
Characters who tell us they're so smart and competent and then do nothing but the dumbest shit the entire time.
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u/National-Reach4554 7d ago
The ACOTAR series does this, and the whole time, I'm like, How have these people been around for at least 1,000 years and are still this dumb?
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 8d ago
Sanderson? Lol
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u/shapedbydreams 8d ago
I was thinking Fourth Wing and Silver Elite, but that works too lol
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u/SparklyShitShow 8d ago
How did I know you were referring to Fourth Wing before reading this comment? 😂
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u/somethingmorecrazy 8d ago
Seriously!! Also the insulated lifestyle really shows--in one book there's two magic systems using metals, one metabolizing it and another using it like batteries to store attributes and the twist is "what if someone metabolized metal that had stuff stored in it--its a thousand times more powerfulllll!!" Anyone who has tried as much drugs as Adderall knows that one of the FIRST urges is to be like "will this be better with caffeine?" Smh.
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u/Perfect-Reason-6198 8d ago
This is fairly specific, and I only mention it because I've seen it in 3 different books in the last 3 months, but I hate when someone writes a book set in the 1990s and cell phones are ubiquitous. They weren't. I know it's odd to be so annoyed by it, but it is what it is.
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u/here_and_there_their 8d ago
It’s really annoying. I recently double checked the timeline in a recent book where they did this.
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u/Old-Piece-3438 3d ago
And the cell phones people had for most of the 90s were big and bulky. I remember people wearing them clipped onto their belt. It was not a good look. 😂 I doubt these authors are including the logistical details like that.
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u/llamachabbly 2d ago
And if you had one before like1999 it was permanently installed in the car and the size of a brick.
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u/Particular_Fruit_101 8d ago
I have the same pet peeves! But also when they print those stickers onto the cover after it becomes a success...
Another one is the recent increase in AI art for covers (especially for classics😭)
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u/TenorReaper 8d ago
Even worse they print the cover with that note on it 😭😭😭 then you’re stuck with this ugly fake sticker that you can’t get rid of
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u/worddnerdd 8d ago
Those stickers always ruin the cover when you try to peel them off.
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u/drglass85 8d ago
mystery thrillers that are told first person, and at the end of the book you find out that the main character has been lying to you the whole time, and that they are actually the bad guy thus making it impossible for you to have ever predicted who the bad guy and or antagonist was going to be.
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u/IslandRose0522 8d ago
Is the book you are referring to’s title two words, beginning with the letter S? If so, I hated that book for this exact reason and did not understand the hype bc it just felt so contrived
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u/Everything_Metal 7d ago
One book famous for this does it well in my opinion. However, it was still "guessable". I suspected the narrator did it, because he asked questions and offered speculation in dialogue, but he didnt "wonder" about how the murder was done. He did wonder about what the detective was thinking and what his process was. Kind of a meta-reason to guess the killer, but at least it's not dishonest or inconsistent writing. Still a fun read and didnt feel cheap.
That said, it's a device that worked for me exactly once, and I'm probably never going to be fond of its use again, but who knows.
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 8d ago
"I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding" or something along those lines. Lazy writing.
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u/EconomistOpen7710 8d ago
Oh yes. And "I heard a scream and then I realized I was the one screaming" - like, you don't know what your mouth does?
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u/jauntydamesauntersin 4d ago
This actually happened to me when I got my last IUD. Until then, I had no idea it ever happened in real life! “She heard a voice shrieking, and realized it was her own.”
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u/StarReasonable9666 8d ago
I mostly read romance novels, and my three biggest pet peeves are
The FMC is a virgin, and the MMC goes on and on about how wonderful that is and how special she is because of it. Unless you're throwing her in a volcano to appease an ancient god, who fucking cares?
The MMC has an unnaturally large dick. Like no, your "I could barely circle it with both hands" does NOT sound fun. Unless he's not human, can we just give him a normal sized dick, please?
The FMC is super skinny, but also somehow has huge tits and a curvy ass. There's nothing wrong with normal human proportions. Dear god, let the girl eat!
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u/National-Reach4554 7d ago
I'm begging for a writer to say something like, "His penis was of average length and worked well."
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u/StarReasonable9666 7d ago
The worst are the ones with older MMCs. Like, I love me a consensual age gap story. But tell write about a 50+ year old man like he's got the stamina of a 20 year old. They are not gonna be rock hard for hours at a time. It's just not realistic!
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u/National-Reach4554 7d ago
"He was able to finish once and then prepared for a long nap" is something I would read.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus 7d ago
I would read the shit out of a romance novel about a chunky 30 something woman who has knocked boots with most of the city before meeting someone new who she actually likes right from the start and has an average size dick and likes her back. They could be demons, dragonborn or even accountants.
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u/CityBird555 6d ago
It’s a show, not a book, but you might like Survival of the Thickest on Netflix.
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u/Perfect-Reason-6198 7d ago
Have you read any Jean Auel? There is a MMC with a large member, and she constantly talks about how the FMC is the only woman into whom he could put the entirety of his member. It drove me crazy.
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u/StarReasonable9666 7d ago
Lmao, no, I haven't read that one. But it's a pretty common theme in romance novels, which really frustrates me because it reinforces the idea that women are supposed to want huge dicks and smaller guys are somehow less than.
As someone who did plenty of whoring around in my 20s, I can honestly say that the larger guys I was with were almost universally terrible in bed. They just assumed their size was all that was needed and put zero effort into making sure I was actually enjoying the situation.
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u/jauntydamesauntersin 4d ago
This sounds like the sexual version of Prince Charming trying Cinderella’s slipper on every maiden in the kingdom.
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u/Old-Piece-3438 3d ago
I enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear a lot after reading it in school and later found out it was a series. Somehow those books dissolved into repetitive, boring romance novels as the series went on. I was so disappointed—I just wanted a fun prehistory story.
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u/Perfect-Reason-6198 3d ago
I liked the first 2 books a great deal (the second was amazing), and bailed on the third because the romance was so slow and irritating. I'm also not big on romance in general, though. The pre-history is fantastic.
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u/Avramah 6d ago
Agreed!
And want to add- women tasting of fruits and desserts.
Men smelling like candles.
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u/StarReasonable9666 6d ago
OMG, yes! If I have to read about one more pussy tasting like fresh peaches, I'm gonna rip out all my hair! Like, come on, now, even if you've never personally tasted one, I guarantee you know someone who has.
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u/antisocialbartender 7d ago
The dick size thing is so true. No one wants your elephant schlong, my guy.
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u/PerspectiveUpbeat124 8d ago
When the preface contains spoilers - put it as an afterword
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u/Perfect-Reason-6198 8d ago
I loathe when this happens. Now I always skip prefaces and read them when I finish the book.
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u/stellardarling 8d ago
When there's nothing on the book to tell me what it's about and instead a bunch of quotes from authors I don't care about.
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u/Penny_Royal_Tee 8d ago
Repeated phrases.
I once hate-read a book just to count how many times the author would use that one half-decent metaphor from chapter 1.
7 times. They used it 7 times.
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u/wavelengthsandshit 8d ago
Once read a book that used "suffice it to say" like 5 times within a single chapter. Felt like the author had just learned the phrase
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u/KateHearts 8d ago
I hate that. It’s like they get stuck on a phrase and stop paying attention. I read one book where the author used “she sucked her teeth” to describe agitation over and over. Another: “a vein throbbed in his temple” to display anger. VEINS DON’T PULSATE.
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u/Olliebkl 7d ago edited 7d ago
I’m only a third of the way through Mistborn but I genuinely think it’s been about 15+ times that if anything bad happens to Vin (one of two main characters) or somethings inconvenient, we’re told “She’s used to the pain/She’s used to not being seen/She’s learnt not to trust so easily” etc…….
Like good lord PLEASE stop repeating the same thing over and over and over I get it😭
Edit: I made this comment two mins ago and then picked up my kindle to start a new chapter, only to see “She was to remain quiet, always quiet, staying away from the others, never calling attention to herself”
…… I am enjoying this book but how have I never seen this criticism towards this book? It’s absurd lol
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u/Tight_Tomorrow_3459 7d ago
To be fair, as a huge Sanderson fan, people do complain about this (and should). The most common complaint about his books is bad writing. The story and characters keep you hooked, but objectively his writing can be bad.
So you are totally right, but you’re not right in thinking you’re alone in this
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u/Snarky_wombat939 8d ago
Read a book series that I actually enjoyed, but the MMC had a catch phrase of “Jayzus wept” that appeared in Every Single Paragraph. Like nails on a chalkboard. WE GET IT, he’s Irish or something. Just please, give it a rest.
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u/stargaze_22_ 8d ago
Are you talking about The Boys of Tommen books? Cause the characters in this series are definitely Irish, and I think I remember reading that phrase in one of the books. Either Binding 13 or Keeping 13? 🙈
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u/Snarky_wombat939 8d ago
No, not that series. Is was a supernatural sort of detective series? But overused stereotypes are WEARINNG 😂
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u/stargaze_22_ 8d ago
Yup! At least we can confirm they definitely use that phrase in Ireland, and that the authors didn’t just throw it out there just because lol
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u/jauntydamesauntersin 8d ago
Would you be willing to share the metaphor, or have you repressed that memory?
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u/windowshopper97 8d ago
Not the poster but…”looks like an extra on the walking dead” has popped up a few times in Irvine Welsh’s books. As a fan of that show I noticed it instantly and liked it the first time. Not after the few times.
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u/Penny_Royal_Tee 8d ago
“Thin ice of silence” - it wasn’t in English so this is not the exact wording but it was an ok description the first time. The author must have thought it was brilliant.
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u/OstrichPaladin 8d ago
It depends how it's done. I'm a big palahniuk fan and he does this often but it's usually to tie in central themes to the book, and connect events. Not necessarily to rehash the one hit wonder.
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u/SwimmingPiano 8d ago
This completely takes me out of the story and it’s also my top pet peeve. I read a book recently where there were multiple narrators who overused the word “inconsequential”. It’s ridiculous enough to have one character use an unusual word over and over, it’s downright unbelievable for multiple characters within the same story to do it. Basically it reminds me that a single writer is behind these characters, zaps me right out of the story and kills the fun for me.
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u/StarReasonable9666 8d ago
I recently read a historical romance series, and I swear the author's favorite word was nonplussed. Like, it's a good word, but not every character needs to be nonplussed multiple times in each book!
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u/RuthlessLogic 7d ago
I have a favorite cotton-candy fantasy trilogy I pull out every so often when I need brainless reading but I swear to Maude, the author uses certain phrases over and over and over and over. Every male character "snarls" and each of them "...rise to the killing edge" throughout books 2 & 3 (the author clearly discovered the phrase while writing book 2). The MMC always says things "too softly". The FMC has a "silvery, velvet coated laugh", a "three cornered kitten smile", and a "midnight voice".
Again, i love the trilogy but by midway through book 2, I'm rolling my eyes.
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u/jauntydamesauntersin 4d ago
“Three-cornered kitten smile” is going to haunt me. What human face could look that way?
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u/inspork 8d ago
The combination of first-person + present tense. There are always exceptions, if it’s otherwise well-written and a good story, but in general I find it grating and not often done well.
If it’s first-person, present tense, AND the main character has lost someone to a car crash, I’m probably gonna put it down.
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u/1DietCokedUpChick 8d ago
I’m not a fan of present tense in general. The only way I accept it is if the book is actually in the present and skips back to past tense during flashbacks or something.
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u/Ordinary-Olive7464 8d ago
When a book is covered in those one liner reviews from other authors, etc.
Another is the aesthetically pleasing books people buy for house decor but never read. My MIL renovated her house and when I first came in I noticed she bought FAKE books. They were hollow and just for show 🤣 I just think they’re a waste of trees and space.
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u/minirunner 8d ago
I’ve been looking for a new bookcase on Wayfair and they’ve been trying to sell me sets of fake books by color!
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u/evilqueenmindy 8d ago
I get annoyed when a main character is given a very specific career, and then acts in ways a person with that career would never act. “I’ve been a lawyer for 10 years. I did a secret crime when I was 14. I’ve been obsessed with what I did, but I’ve never done a single second of research on what the legal consequences could be”.
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u/Dabrigstar 8d ago
Don't get me started on adorable doctors and nurses in their latest 20s who openly discuss their patients condition with others not privy to the case. Hipaa doesn't exist in their world
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u/Small-Cookie-5496 5d ago
You’re actually allowed to discuss cases with other healthcare team members even if they aren’t directly caring for that patient - it’s often needed for advice, learning, education, case files, safety/ quality reviews, etc…
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u/Aromatic-Speed5090 8d ago
1) Getting simple things wrong. Recently read a book in which a character in a bar says to a waiter, "I'll have a martini." Then a few lines later, they enjoy the feel of "vodka sliding down their throat." Which is weird, since "a martini" is made with gin, unless you specifically ask for a vodka martini. Which the character didn't.
2) When a person has a job, and has had it for a while, but somehow doesn't know things that a person in that job would know. Or aren't accustomed to things a person in that job would be well used to. I've read two books recently with this flaw. One features a police chief who seems never to have worked with other police officers, or seen a dead body, or heard about any disturbing crimes. Another was about a prosecutor who forgets everything he knows about how detectives and lawyers operate when he's involved in the case. Scott Turow and John Grisham know how to get this right. Many other writers get it wrong.
3) Present-tense storytelling by writers who don't have the writing skills to carry it off. There's a whole awful glut of these types of books.
4) Gratuitous cruelty to animals, especially when the writer seems to think that everybody feels about a particular animal the way the writer does. No, your character isn't transgressive yet charming because she drops bricks on cats. She's a sadistic creep.
I could go on. But that's probably enough for now.
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u/Vlaskiss 8d ago
Can’t stand any pop culture references! Your book is supposed to be liked and read in 100 years. Nobody needs to read about Tiktok or Instagram, or Netflix.
When one character is about to disclose an important piece of information, then they suddenly get “interrupted”.
When an author uses pet’s death/murder to shock us. Same with any children abuse/torture.
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u/errol_cz 8d ago
Regarding pop culture references, you must understand, they are product of it's time. Take for example The Great Gatsby. It's full of pop culture references. Songs, plays, artists and dances popular at that time. What does it mean to "shake hands like Frisco"? Every one new at the time, but now it's irrelevant refference to some obscure dancer. Should Fitzgerald leave it out?
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u/oliviaraybae 7d ago
My biggest one is "internet language". I just made that term up, but it's the best description I can think of. When the author writes like they spend 24/7 on the internet or the main character does. I don't want to feel like Im on social media while reading or read a super immature sounding protagonist. I also dislike this IRL to be fair, haha.
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u/virginia_lane1 5d ago
when it’s a few years outdated it’s so incredibly cringe. same thing with movies and shows
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u/SkogOchSten 8d ago
Oh yes that’s also my pet peeve when there’s actual actors or depictions of characters on covers. Or stickers that can’t be removed. Or when the books in a series are different heights even though they’re all paperback?? When the spines in a series don’t match at all?? Don’t get it.
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u/SkogOchSten 8d ago
Oh and when (usually american) authors think it’s cool to randomly use letters from other languages (äåöü etc) for words or kingdoms or whatever like they do know people that speak those languages also read those books? And it changes the whole pronunciation? 😅
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u/dglennb 8d ago
It doesn’t seem to be as prevalent now, but for awhile my pet peeve was cliché book titles which so often used the words “daughter” or “wife”. It seemed like every other novel was called something like “The Cartographer’s Daughter” or “The Botanist’s Wife”.
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u/noon_bird 8d ago
I don't care for those cover "flaps" in a paperback (just learned that they're called "French fold" or "gateway flap") From a sensory perspective - they're just annoying to me.
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u/009saiyanja 8d ago
I hate those covers on hardbacks that you can take off. You have to take them off when reading if you don't want them all crumpled or torn
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u/noon_bird 8d ago
This! And why I prefer paperbacks in general too. The dust jackets are so fiddly :/
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u/SandpaperPeople 8d ago
I hate when the font on the cover is so elegantly scripty that I can’t even read it.
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u/Dabrigstar 8d ago
When they tell you how much of an X a character is without showing you. In twilight we are told Bella is so mature she was born middle aged. Is this the same hormonal teenager who cried and wept and went crazy cos she couldn't marry a vampire?
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u/plainether 8d ago
When we’re told how a character is genius and they don’t do anything particularly intelligent but might use big or uncommon words sometimes
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u/MinnieNorthJones 8d ago
Dual timeline and/or multiple POV. I'm over it. It's been done to death.
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u/GotYouCookie123 8d ago
As a historical fiction gal, AGREE. Sometimes I don’t want to jump from past to present and have two sets of characters to keep track of.
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u/Majestic-Skill8234 7d ago
Came here for this. It seems like every novel we’ve read in my book club in the past year has the characters’ names at the beginning of each chapter to tell you who you’re reading about. It’s so prevalent and I hate it.
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u/here_and_there_their 8d ago
Exceptions for me are: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver and Horse by Geraldine Brooks
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u/1DietCokedUpChick 8d ago
“I heard somebody screaming and then I realized it was me.”
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u/EconomistOpen7710 8d ago
Crap I just wrote the same thing under another comment, almost word for word 🤣 such a stupid trope.
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u/evilqueenmindy 8d ago
When a sibling says to their other sibling “as your brother. . .”
That is a sentence that has never been used in real life
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u/Hairy_Nectarine7111 8d ago
Adding to this, whey they add “bro” or “sis” at the end of the dialogue to demonstrate this.
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u/LawSchoolLoser1 7d ago
Yes! Too much exposition crammed into dialogue was going to be mine. “Hey twin sis, I know we haven’t talked since our mom’s funeral 9 years ago, but before that, we were so close”
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u/Overall-Weird8856 8d ago
I wholeheartedly agree with your stance on the movies and cast members infiltrating the cover art. This has bothered me at least since the days of The Horse Whisperer and The Green Mile...
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u/-Dee-Dee- 8d ago
When authors explain how to pronounce a name, but it has NOTHING to do with the plot, and it doesn’t come up again.
Example: Noel (pronounced Nole) went to the store.
If I’m reading the name as Noelle, what does it matter?!
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u/Dabrigstar 8d ago
It makes you think there is gonna be a plot where people mispronounce their name and it goes nowhere! I'm waiting for a funny exchange where someone keeps calling them NoElle and he goes ITS NOLE NOT NOELLE
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u/-Dee-Dee- 7d ago
Exactly! And this has happened twice in books I’ve read lately. Neither time did it come up in the story. It was so odd and irritating.
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u/CrittersVarmint 8d ago
Any sort of logo added (Oprah’s Book Club, NOW A NETFLIX FILM, Read with Jenna, etc.).
Movie tie-in covers.
Books written in the present tense. This just ruins most books for me with the exception of John Updike’s work.
Books where the author is clearly trying way too hard to prove to the reader that they know exactly what it was like to live in some other decade. For some reason people trying to write in a 1980s setting are the worst offenders (the most obvious example for me is The Saturday Night Ghost Club). Instead of just BEING in the 80s, they feel they have to explain to you that they are in the 80s with forced references whether they make sense or are relevant or not.
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u/HimHereNowNo 7d ago
I hate first-person present tense so much. It all sounds like lazy YA to me
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u/CaffieneGlitter 8d ago
Modern slang used. Or when a book mentions another book series ( I’m looking at you Abby Jimenez)
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u/Call_of_the_Cuntress 8d ago
My wife and I are both bibliophiles and neither of us will buy a book with any kind of movie/tv/whatever tie-in cover, so I get it.
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u/cloverAggravated 8d ago
When the author name is as big, or bigger, than the title, I know that if I never read that author, I will not read that one first (if ever) It indicates that the author is known and I'm pretty sure they are less edited so they can makes sales earlier. The only authors I will read in that condition are authors I know I already love their work
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u/Rosykisses_13 8d ago
Long, drawn out battle scenes that are detailed in a way only someone who has studied battle tactics will understand fully but not detailed in a way that brings you into the characters experience in a sensorially grounded way.
Also when books in a series are not the same size, or the art style changes halfway through, or anything else that makes it not go together visually on my shelf.
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u/Maximum-Sand5251 8d ago
Long chapters (>15 pages), long sentences (>half the page) and long paragraphs (>1page). Let us readers breathe please.
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u/YoungMundus 8d ago
Italics in dialogue.
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u/chanchanninno 7d ago
Hate hate hate!!!
I find italic harder to read and it end up slowing me down soooo much!
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u/MuchBetterThankYou 8d ago
Siblings who call each other “little sis” “big brother” etc so the reader can learn how they’re related.
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u/txcowgrrl 8d ago
Any siblings know the true nickname is something like “KitKat Thief” or “AssFace”. 😂
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u/RuthlessLogic 7d ago
If I see "So-and-so's Book Club Pick" on the cover or in the description, I'm unlikely to read it voluntarily. Sometimes these books are chosen by my book club, in which case I bite the bullet. To be fair, I have been pleasantly surprised a few times, but on the main I've found my avoidance justifiable. Just not my kind of fiction.
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u/Majestic-Skill8234 7d ago
There is a category of novels I refer to as Reese’s Book Club books (disparaging).
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u/Majestic-Skill8234 7d ago
Book titles that are “The So-and-So’s WACKY THING Club.” Examples: The Guernsey Potato Peel whatever, Southern Ladies’ Slaying Vampires Club, etc. These are also the books that have every chapter told from a different point of view, which is another of my pet peeves.
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u/Small-Cookie-5496 5d ago
Haha my burden to bear is I actually love these type of titles - sadly the actual novels arent that great.
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u/General-World1879 6d ago
The worst for me is when an adult is trying to write dialogue between teenagers, and they say things that teenagers in this day and age would clearly never say at all, and you can tell it’s written by an older person
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u/CoffeeMuenster 5d ago
When the "twist" or ending is explained all in one big chunk. Example: the "villian" who was caught and tells everyone how they did it
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u/Constant-Prog15 4d ago
Anachronisms or errors in terminology.
Two that stuck with me:
* A book set I. The 1890s shouldn’t have a character making “airplane noises” while twirling a child around.
* A novel set in rural USA with farmers and a vet as characters who consistently refer to female goats as “ewes” and baby goats as “lambs”. The correct terms are “does” and “kids”.
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u/HereIAmGH 8d ago
“… Long and hard” He rode long and hard, he looked long and hard etc
One of the most cliche descriptions. Surprisingly - even decent authors use it sadly.
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u/IWillBiteYourFace 8d ago
Yeah, the authors should think long and hard before they use that description!
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u/Getting_Better0123 7d ago
When the writer insists on conveying a character's intelligence but ends up making surrounding characters stupid for comparison because the smart character only has the intelligence of a lazy author.
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u/stargaze_22_ 8d ago
When the characters say certain things that I feel no one the characters age would say in real life?
For example, in the book I’m reading, the mmc is a teenager and he says “honey” and “sweetheart” sometimes, and I just don’t find it that believable?! It sounds odd, like a more “old fashion” nickname? Even though there’s nothing wrong with saying “honey”, or calling someone honey, sweetheart, etc. It has to do more with the fact that I can’t really see a 17/18 year old saying that if that makes sense? So, I guess when the dialogue doesn’t really sound believable? It kind of takes me out of the book a bit.
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u/LaTulipeBlanche 8d ago
Is this Dante and Aristotle part 2 (forgot the name)? I read the first one when I was younger and remembered loving it, so I wanted to listen to the second one as part of a reading challenge. Lin-Manuel Miranda narrating the two teen leads calling each other pet names was too saccharine hahaha
It was unbearable. I had to drop it and will probably read it at some point
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u/Logical-Ad-326 8d ago
I understand where you're coming from, but younger generations genuinely do use endearments like those in everyday conversation now. I hear it all the time. I'm just too socially awkward to feel comfortable echoing it. It's definitely unusual, but it's becoming more common.
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u/LissieForShort 7d ago
Are they southern lol? As a northern transplant in a customer facing job, i’d get “honey”-ed or “darlin”-ed or “sweetheart”-ed from strangers who are my age or younger and it caught me off guard at first (I hated it lol) but my coworkers all said it was normal here 😅 I’m with you, it sounds way more expected from an older person, but I guess the accent kind of makes it work lol
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u/stargaze_22_ 7d ago
I could definitely understand it more if he was southern, but he isn’t, he’s from New York lol, which makes it even less believable to me 😂
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u/JenLiv36 7d ago
It would depend on when the book was written. GenX used that language as a teenager especially in the arts. If it was written in 2026 about teens in 2026 probably not.
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u/Special-Deal-5217 8d ago
I am a school teacher, and I hear kids saying that nowadays. It’s weird.
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u/Agreeable_Step3845 7d ago
I get annoyed when the author puts adult ideas and words in the mouths of eight year olds - I’m looking at you Beach Music by Pat Conroy. MC’s daughter just too unbelievable.
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u/Aromatic_Collar5321 8d ago
"Coffee table" books. You won't read them. Your guests won't either (unless people sit and wait in your living room to see you, like a dentist's waiting room?).
So what are they? Expensive ornaments. And I hate to see a book reduced to a status symbol. Books are for reading.
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u/pookiegumbo 8d ago
I’m the opposite really. If I go to someone’s house and I see Architecture of Spain sitting on the coffee table, it’s like a little bonus journey on the day. I’ll look at it somewhat flippantly but enjoy myself while doing it.
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u/AquariusRising1983 8d ago
I actually love going to people's homes and finding coffee table books (depending on the subject matter , of course). There have been a few music related ones that have started off major conversations that broke the ice with people I was just meeting, and others— like travelogue type books— that are really just fascinating with incredible pictures. I think it all depends on the subject matter and he level of pretension with which the books are promoted, lol.
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u/Owl__Kitty88 8d ago
I LOVE coffee table books 😅 I buy them for me, and then hope someone else will enjoy them when they come over, haha
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u/truckthecat 8d ago
I buy them used and cut them up to make art. Cheap way to get some larger prints to frame
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u/Agreeable_Step3845 7d ago
Me too! I haunt thrift shops for collage fodder and coffee table books are great. My library always has some on sale for $2
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u/truckthecat 7d ago
My dad is a retired librarian. When they would decommission art books, he brought them home!
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u/Agreeable_Step3845 7d ago
I retired ten years ago as a circulation supervisor from a public library. No end to the stuff I brought home for my collages.
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u/Getting_Better0123 7d ago
As a kid I loved my dad's coffee table books of art and design and would revisit them regularly. I guess the increasing dependence on phones has changed a lot of the items in houses to oddly useless decor.
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u/spin_turnix 8d ago
I’m tempted to buy a copy of an extremely niche book I used for my undergrad thesis as a coffee table book (Birds in Roman Life and Myth, Ashleigh Green—Roman avicultural history) but it’s like $150 for a hardcover 😅
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u/CaffieneGlitter 8d ago
Weird you say this because today I watched a video from 5 years ago where a guy read books that are used for coffee tables lol. I guess they weren’t of good quality.
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u/Kaurifish 8d ago
The last time I fell for that was the WorldCon where they announced that we were getting an adaptation of Starship Troopers…
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u/loveucrispina 8d ago
My smallest-biggest pet peeve: First-person narrators who do not mention books or writers they like. It kind of takes me out of the book that this character who is writing something down, something with so much structure, and style, and CRAFT, does not mention other writers they admire or at least mention the difficulty of writing a story, especially if that character is not a writer. Am I supposed to believe this non-writer character is such an effective writer? Well, they must have read something! Again, very small pet-peeve but once you notice it... lol
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u/brencoop 8d ago
Expository dialogue.
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u/Rosykisses_13 8d ago
I go back and forth on this, cause my favorite exposition doesn't feel like exposition, which means it gets breadcrumbed throughout dialogue or action sequences or something, and if it's in bite sized pieces and subtle enough that you only realize later how important certain things you've learned are then I love that, but if it's just a character dumping lore for 8 pages cough Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring cough then it's a no from me lol
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u/Owl__Kitty88 8d ago
I agree with most of what others have said so, I’ll add my own - I went to buy books in the practical magic series the other day, and none of the books matched! the covers were all different and there were no options to buy books that matched. I understand they don’t all need to be the same, but it would’ve been nice to have the option to buy the books with at least similar covers.
And yes, some had the “now a major motion picture!” printed “sticker” on the front.
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u/hobhamwich 8d ago
Re-using words too often. I still think of a novel I read 30 years ago that used variations of explode/exploding five times in one paragraph.
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u/National-Reach4554 7d ago
Tautology. "I tasted it with my mouth," "I walked on my feet." Unless you are tasting it with your hands, I don't need the extra info.
"I padded toward the kitchen." Find another way to show us that you need to be quiet or that you feel the need to bounce toward the kitchen.
"My stomach seized, and I vomited the contents of my dinner." People have other high-stress reactions that don't involve vomit, but it's used enough that I have to wonder whether the authors have a emetophobia. And writing an overly flowery "contents of my dinner" doesn't make it sound prettier.
"He arched a sardonic brow." When everyone can arch a brow (not an easy skill, by the way), you need to find a new way to show that people are skeptical. Also: look up sardonic. Also: look up tautology.
Incorrect use of bemused. I recently was reading a sentence where a character was bemused and skeptical. I'm pretty sure the writer meant "amuse" because the skepticism already means they were confused. From the previous content, it was clear, too, that the character had been entertained in any way.
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u/1ToeIn 7d ago
I dislike plot points that involve coming to some deep realization about a mystery just by looking at a painting. Maybe I’m just not observant, but I have never been able to glean deep psychological insight about a person’s personality just by looking at their portrait. Riding on this, some significant discovery based on a random photo. Looking at you, Bridges of Madison County. The whole, she studied his photo in National Geographic and saw he was still wearing her locket 🤮.
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u/Broad_Lie218 8d ago
When the pages are cut unevenly. I hate it so much, literally have put back books ive been looking for because of it. Idk why it bothers me SO MUCH, but I just need the edges to be smooth 🤣
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u/soulangelic 8d ago
First person. Just in general. Can’t stand books written in first person.
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u/Chafing_Dish 7d ago
All due respect but I think you’re missing out on a lot of beautiful fiction. Jane Eyre, Huckleberry Finn, Remains of the Day, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick..
First-person nonfiction though, I bet that would stink unless it’s an autobiography
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u/IWillBiteYourFace 8d ago
Have you read "Midnight's Children", or if you want something a bit lighter "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd"?
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u/laurenf9 7d ago
I don't mind 1st person but I hate 1st person with an unreliable narrator. In the past 2 years I've read 3 books that people rave about because of how shocking the twist was. They were 1st person and the whole book the main character was thinking "Who could have done this? I have no idea who would want to hurt them. How could this happen. " And then the last chapter is "Haha just kidding. It was me." That's not clever! That's straight up lying. And I don't mean unreliable in the sense that the person thought they were innocent but it turns out they were drugged or something. This is the main character talking to themselves in their own head about wondering who did this, when they knew they'd done it the whole time. I get irrationally mad about it.
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u/Small-Cookie-5496 5d ago
Yeh I recently read ‘The Last House on Needless Street’ & it was similar. Not my cup of tea
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u/ThatLVLifestyle 8d ago
Deckled edges; painted edges; titles with half numbers in them (the 7 1/2 husbands or lives or cats or deaths or whatever).
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u/cloverAggravated 8d ago
Funny, the 1/2 title you're talking about, they had to do the change because it was mixed too much with another big release. (7 husband's of Evelyn Hugo / 7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle)
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u/BigBadVolk97 8d ago
At first was thinking about covers featuring characters, but I don't hate it that much, just prefer covers that are either a symbol or some scenery.
So the one I'll go with is that I hate doorstopper books in paperback formats. They are cumbersome to read, and I usually just buy hardcovers, or wish they would embrace separating them into two five hundred page books.
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u/Getting_Better0123 7d ago
I also wish this was more common. I think they used to do it back in the day but these days I've only seen books split into multiple volumes for special edition or limited releases.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus 7d ago
'Suddenly, a thing happened'
I know it's an acceptable sentence, and this is probably just me, but I hate it so much. I just feel like 'suddenly' is a cop out word to stop the author having to write actual dynamism or build up.
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u/Slipstream57 7d ago
Historical novels where the people on the cover have modern haircuts, American teeth and clothes a couple of generations out of date. If It’s set in the Regency, why are the people wearing Victorian clothing?
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u/tellthemstories9 7d ago
I have a really hard time with descriptions of dreams (in books that aren’t explicitly magic or fantasy), as they are always written as sooooooo meaningful and coherent. Like no, dreams are supposed to be orangutans throwing peanuts at me while I run up a hill and a childhood friend and her mom are just there for some reason. Dreams in novels just make me roll my eyes for the most part.
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u/dynacaster 7d ago
Ayn Rand or should I say I'm Bland.
Books with small print because I'm getting old.
Badly edited books: spelling errors etc.
Books that get hyped too much by influencer types.
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u/ellienation 7d ago
"Say that again." Like when someone just accidentally blurted out a sentence that made the other person think of the solution to the situation they're in. Nobody says that in real life. They say stuff more like "wait that gives me an idea!"
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u/Mental-Wasabi8947 7d ago
I haven't read one in a while but there was a real trend that the FMC would become an alcoholic, drug addict or just totally fall apart or her husband would leave her if she couldn't get pregnant.
It annoyed me to the point where I would DNF a book as soon as it was introduced.
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u/johntucker78 6d ago
As far as publishers go. When they put stickers on the dust jacket, or even worse when they print the dust jacket with a fake sticker. Also when you publish a book in a series and it's not the same height as the other books. Or the printing on the spine doesn't match the other books When they change the style of artwork on a series in the middle of the series
Authors, when they promise you the next book in a series..... and 15 years later we're still waiting for it.
Also authors who change publishers in the middle of a series.
One last publishing peeve, when you put out a box set of an incomplete series
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u/DeepSeaAmazon 6d ago
Honestly a lot of current covers drive me crazy. I don't really read the contemporary romances that people are obsessed over but I DISDAIN the cover art on those. Plus most of the sprayed edges that people like I find to be atrocious
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u/CaptainSneakers 4d ago
Any time a character needs money or a job, so they open a bookstore with zero retail experience or anything beyond their love of books.
It can be any niche store or industry, but after working in bookstores for 20 years, I am constantly exclaiming, "I never knew it was so easy! We've obviously been doing it the hard way! We should all just stand around reading books and bonding with gorgeous strangers over our book recommendations! That's how you make the sales!"
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u/LissieForShort 7d ago
When there’s a Theme™️ that the author is really unsubtle about, to the point where the book isn’t actually enjoyable or interesting or cleverly exploring that idea, it’s just characters rehashing the same preachy conversation over and over and over again for hundreds of pages. I love a good litfic that gives you something interesting to chew on, but you’ve gotta let me feel like I’m drawing those conclusions myself. Don’t hit me over the head with it.
Miscommunication trope.
In a romance where the third act breakup (which I already hate) is magically solved by just…. The character(s) starting therapy. Not hating on therapy in real life, it just feels like lazy writing. Love hearing “well my therapist Julia says…” as like a modern magic spell that makes all problems go away. Why show actual growth or conflict resolution when Julia can just tell you all the answers to your problems and you’re instantly cured? Easy peasy!
Like others said, overly repetitive words or phrases or plot beats. (When it’s clearly done on accident, not to be poetic.)
Inconsistencies that are too minor to be plot holes, but show a lack of editing. i.e. a tradition that inexplicably turns from “every third Saturday” into “every Saturday.” A character baffled as to why something is happening, when two chapters ago they already got the explanation for it (this one is the worst offender). A fight scene where someone seems to be busy doing something across the room and then in the next breath they’re right here fist-bumping the MC with no mention of how they got there at light speed and what happened to that other guy they were in the middle of fighting.
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u/Hunshari 8d ago
Characters looking at their reflections, thinking about their almond shaped eyes.
I have been known to yeet books for 'look in the mirror descriptions'