Everyone has something in their life that annoys them. Some people can’t handle people who chew with their mouth open. Others can’t take it when people click their pens constantly. Many people – myself included – get irrationally annoyed when people don’t use their turn signal when they’re driving. It’s just a fact of life. And it’s one of those things that you live with.
Over the years, I’ve developed quite a number of pet peeves, and seeing as I’m a pretty avid reader, a lot of them are book related.
Here are 10 of those bookish pet peeves:
1. Dog-eared or folded pages
I know a lot of people who do this, but is it really that difficult to just…find a bookmark? It doesn’t even have to be an actual bookmark. Literally, a piece of paper works just as well.
2. Changes in the cover
This is the actual worst. I’m the type of person who likes to have matching books, I can’t help it. So, when the publishing company decides two books into a series that the covers need to be changed, I have to go and spend money on books that I’ve already purchased. This becomes an even bigger problem when the cover change is worse.
3. Books that use movie covers as their cover
I do understand why this happens. When a book becomes a major hit, it’s a smart ploy to shove the movie cover on there so that everyone can see that the book they are holding is the same as the movie they really enjoyed, but I often think it makes the book look cheesy.
4. Stickers on the covers of books
Trying to take off those “Barnes and Noble exclusive” stickers that say they are easily removable and aren’t on the covers of my books are one of the reasons I have trust issues.
5. Spine cracking
I was guilty of this a lot growing up, mainly because I bought a lot of small paperback books and it was really hard to see the words closer to the spine if I didn’t. Now, however, I cringe anytime I see someone doing it.
6. Character names
Personally, I read a lot of fantasy. What this means is that every character and their mother has some unpronounceable name with like thirty different vowels. When I think I’ve finally figured out how to say the name correctly, the movie comes out and I realize I’ve been saying the name wrong the entire time.
7. Love triangles
I get it. I do. Love triangles are probably going to be in every book ever because they supposedly add more substance to the plot, and on the rare occasion, I do enjoy a good love triangle. But, for the most part, they need to stop. Why should I care that the main character can’t pick a boyfriend when the entire fictional world she lives in is about to go to war?
8. Book blurbs that give away nothing or everything
There is a fine line with book blurbs. If it says too little, I’m not going to want to read the books because I literally have no idea what’s going on. If it says too much, I’m not going to want to read the book because I feel like I’ve already been told everything. It’s a slippery slope, and only some authors have managed to grasp it.
9. Excessive explanations
I understand that sometimes it’s important to take several pages and give the reader the layout of the land/the important backstory of the main character/the reason why the villain is being a terrible human, but under no circumstances do I need to know the exact shade of green that the grass is or how many leaves precisely there are on a certain tree. I do have an imagination, and I will use it to envision the woods as long as you tell me that’s where your character is at.
10. Cliffhangers that serve no purpose
There have always been two types of cliffhangers for me – the good ones that wrap up a lot of the plot points in that specific book but still leave a good chunk out in the open so that you can theorize about it and drive yourself crazy, and the bad ones that are just there for the soul purpose of making the book seem more interesting.
