Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Pet Peeves


Today I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl which is all about lists.  Since lists are one of my favorite things this is one of my favorite linkups!  Today's topic is Bookish Pet Peeves.


1.  When pages fall out of a binding - It drives me crazy when pages fall out of the binding.  Some of Agatha Christie books with the very best covers have bindings that have unfortunately started to fail and it makes me very sad.

2.  Strong smell - There's a few times I've gotten used books that smell like they've been soaking in heavy smoke or perfume or mold.  There's a few that I've salvaged by having them live out in the garage for a couple of weeks but some prove to be unreadable.

3.  Pages super thin - I hate when the pages are almost see-through they're so thin. It makes the book hard to read.

4.  Book size is impossible to hold - This frequently happens with the above.  The book should never have been published in a paperback format and it is impossible to hold.  

5.  Clinch Covers - They've gotten better over the years but I hate clinch covers - especially when they're weirdly missing random articles of clothes in scenery that is not super conducive to nudity.


6.  Love Triangles - Unless it is incredibly short lived and there are no real feelings engaged a love triangle will kill a book for me regardless of genre.  

7.  The solution to a mystery hinging on a coincidence - I hate when a mystery is unraveled just because a character happens to overhear something randomly or something like that. They've done no investigating and no clue putting together and then wham mystery solved.

8.  Super-immature characters - I hate when a character acts like a teenager.  And not just a teenager but a whiny teenager.  Especially when the character is supposed to be an adult in some kind of position of authority.

9.  The Perfect Character - It drives me crazy when a character is absolutely perfect.  They're the best looking.  They're good at everything they've ever done.  Everyone loves them.  They're the smartest person in the room - in every room.  It gets old especially in a series.  I can only take about a book and half of this.  

10. The Know-It All Character - Need to know something about old books?  This character knows it.  Arcane history about some river valley in some out of the way country that no one else in the book has ever heard of?  They know it.  Found an old button?  Not only does this person know where the button came from but they know something pivotal about the button that solves the case.  It gets a teensy bit old.  

What are some of your bookish pet peeves?

7 comments:

  1. Your list made me smile -2,3,4, and 8 are irritants for me as well. LOL

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  2. I completely understand your first few, but unfortunately older books have all of those. I've always found it funny that many people don't get why libraries have to 'weed' their collections. Books deteriorate and get yucky and smelly and then they have to go out the door forever. Ha! I think I've been running across several characters lately that have some of your #8 peeve. Ha!

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  3. I have bought used books and found crumbs scattered in the pages. I just couldn't do it and checked out a copy from the library. I do not want to deal with the previous readers chip crumbs! Great list!

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  4. Making me smile and yes all so true. I especially hate pages falling off their binding and yucky smelly and yellowy pages. I won't read them.

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  5. I hate thin paper - especially in a purchased hardcover.

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  6. Great list! #8, 9 and 10 are especially annoying to me.

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  7. I am one of the seeming few book bloggers who doesn't like old book smell. Ha ha. My son likes it. I've had really good results with putting books in snap-lid storage totes with kitty litter in the bottom. 📚

    I was so sad when my 1970s Dune paperback totally fell apart. You're right, those old covers are priceless. 📚

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