Today’s question:
A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.
Bookish Sarah asks:
What are your literary “pet peeves”?
A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.
Bookish Sarah asks:
What are your literary “pet peeves”?
My answer:
hmmmm.. pet peeves? I have a few but some of them depend on the book.
hmmmm.. pet peeves? I have a few but some of them depend on the book.
My biggest 2 irritations are waiting for that “pulled in” feeling and too many characters.
I think that, and an author once told me that if by page 20 or so, and the book hasn’t grabbed you, it probably won’t. That’s why I changed my review policy that I would at least read the 1st 50 pages and then see if it goes into the DNF pile. Because are too many books in my TBR bookcase, 2 Ereaders and new ARCs that are being published, that I want to read, I decided not to struggle anymore to finish a book. That type of book will always put me behind because I just don’t have that “pick me up, need to read” feeling.
The other “pet “peeve” is characters. Especially when too many characters are introduced in the beginning of the book. When that occurs, I find myself making a cheat sheet with the names, their roles, etc and then on some occasions, to find out later down the road, that some of those characters didn’t play a vital role in the story.
And one last thing, I know I said 2, but this is just a quirky issue that I have. Anyone else share it? Number of pages. I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by the cover nor should you with the number of pages. But it is a subconscious personal problem I have. Or maybe it’s just that, even though I will enjoy what I am reading at that moment, I am also thinking what the next book I’m going to pick up is going to be. When I see that a book has more than 300 pages or so, I have this nagging feeling that it is going to be a “chore” to get through and tend to start thinking that it is going to cost me extra time to read to get to that next book. However, I have read books that do have >400 pages and has taken me just a couple of days to read because it is a “grabbed me” book. Like I said, it’s not a “pet peeve”, it’s just a peculiar way in my thinking.
What about you? What are your “pet peeves”?
Good peeves! I am paying attention to the one about number of pages, lol. The books I now have out there (published) are lengthy, close to 500 pages on one of them and 600 on another. Then my shortest ones are almost 400 pages.
My current WIPs will come in at 300 or less when published. I think it’s important to pay attention to what readers want.
I agree, too, that the readers need to connect with the story right away….I might give a book 50-100 pages.
Here’s MY THURSDAY MEMES POST
I agree about too many characters!
Here is my BTT post!
Oh Cheryl you made me LOL this morning…I too have trouble with to many pages. However, some of them are by my favorite authors and when I take the time to read them I find I really enjoyed them and then ask myself, why did you put off reading this book, it was so good.
Thanks for your visit today.
Too many characters is one of mine.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/04/booking-through-thursday_19.html
I don’t mind a long book if it NEEDS to be long, but I’ve read quite a few that are long that would be better if they’d been pared down.
Both of those are good ones. Someone else mentioned too many characters, I agree. Too many characters can get confusing.
I have set up a policy about abandoning books. If the book doesn’t grab me by the time I complete 20%, then I move one to something else.
Yes! I have the 50 page rule as well. There are just too many books out there to waste time on reading ones that don’t pull you in.