Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish.  They  love to share their  lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!  So, every week, a topic is posted. Bloggers create their Top Ten List based on the topic. 

This week's topic : Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves.

I am not sure if I can come up with 10, but I am going to try. 

1. Spelling and grammatical errors -  I feel that these should be caught and corrected by an editor.  If there is one, ok maybe a typo, but really when there are more than that it irks me!  I recently started a book, and while I was enjoying the storyline, I had to stop reading it due to the fact that there were so many grammatical/spelling errors .  (made me kind of sad since I had heard that it is a really good series!)There must have been at least two places that I noticed a word printed twice in a row, and a few times there were words that did not belong in the sentence at all.  With those words in the sentence, the sentence just didn't make any sense. Of course, I knew (or could figure out) what the author had intended it to say, but I shouldn't have to. While it may not seem like a big deal to some people, it bothers me. It makes me wonder how the books even got printed with these errors, and if they had been edited at all.    Another example, in a novel written by one of my favourite authors about 100 pages into the book a character's name suddenly changed from Sharon to Susan, and then about 100 pages later she was Sharon again! That really annoyed me- the first time I saw the name Susan, I was thinking who? Susan- who is that? It didn't take long to realize it was an editing error- a big one!

Any book that is published should be free of spelling and grammatical errors, with the exception of ARCs of course!

2.  Writing in books -  I just hate when I get a "new to me" book, and discover that it has been written in, or had words underlined or circled or whatever! It drives me crazy! (the only exception to this is a BCID#)  The book that I mentioned in my first point was so poorly edited, that I REALLY wanted to get out a red pen and correct all the errors.  Of course, I didn't. I just think that books were meant to be read, valued, treasured, and writing in them is disrespectful to both the book and the author.

3.  Dog- earring pages in a book that is not yours- Ok I am not a big fan of dogearring pages, but if you want to dogear the pages of YOUR books, whatever it's your book!  A book that you have borrowed from me, or the library, is NOT your book-DON'T dogear the pages!!

4.  Food particles in books -  GROSS!!EWWWW!!YUCK!!  I recently borrowed a book from the library, after waiting on the waiting list for about 4 months,  and had to return it without reading it!  I started reading it, and after the first 5 pages or so, I started to notice orange staining. You know, the orange stains you get on your fingers when you eat cheetos. Those will transfer to the pages of a book, when you use your fingertips to turn the pages! About 10 pages in, 2 pages were stuck together by something that had been dropped in the center of the page, once the page was turned, it stuck to the one in front of it. I am not sure what it was but I am leaning towards jam, jello, or even worse snot! I stopped reading there, but did a quick flip through and noticed that there were more pages that were stuck together! I returned the book, and pointed it out to the clerk and mentioned that not only was I disgusted by this, but I was disappointed that I had waited so long on a waiting list and because of someone else's lack of respect for library books, I didn't get to read it, so I would like a different copy. Of course I had to go back on the waiting list (at the bottom of course).  I also suggest that she make a note on the account of the previous borrower, so that next time her card is swiped it would come up, and that maybe they could give her a gentle reminder that if she can't eat while reading without making a mess of their books, she should refrain from eating while reading,  because other readers like me think it is GROSS!!    (Rant over!)

5.  Too much description- Obviously the setting and characters need to be described, and yes I love description, especially when it is done so well that you can really picture it. However, I HATE when so much time is spent describing an object that I start to get annoyed and want to skip over it. I once read a book where the other spent so much time describing an ashtray that I wanted to be able to reach in and smash the damn thing!! I got it after the first paragraph, and if I hadn't I would have after the first page, I really don't care that much about the ashtray, and now that I have spent ten minutes reading about it, I am not really that interested in what was going on before that, as I am now annoyed!

6.  Price/Sale Stickers- I hate when  stickers are placed on the cover of a book! I don't like the look of it when there is a sticker on the cover of one of my books, and I hate when I try to peel it off and it either leaves a little bit of the paper or just the adhesive on it!
7. Library Barcode Stickers - I just hate when the library barcode sticker is placed on the back of the covering part of the synopsis. I mean, can it not be placed over the UPC code and ISBN number. If I want to know the ISBN number, I can look in the book and find that with all the copyright and publishing info. I can't find the text on the back cover anywhere else in the book!! 
8.  Spoilers- Sure, sometimes I want a bit of a spoiler, so I will look for one. However, when I am reading a review I would like to know that there are going to be spoilers so that I can decide whether or not I want to read the review at that point. If I decide not to read your spoiler, chances are once I am done reading the book, I will come back and read your review. Chances are I won't come back and read any of your reviews if I just read one that spoiled a book for me because you didn't warn me that it would contain spoilers!
9. hmmm, not sure what to call this one, it is  similar to number 8, but has nothing to do with reviews online, or in papers etc.   I just hate when I am talking to someone, or even chatting online, posting in a discussion thread in a group I belong to on goodreads.com,  and I mention the title of a book I am reading and they ask " Did you get to the part where........."  My first thought is always " No, I didn't and am not so sure I will! Now that I know what happens, why keep reading this when I have hundreds of books on my tbr shelf!  
10.  Characters that start every sentence they speak with the name of the person they are speaking to.  I didn't realize how much it bothered me until I read (or partially read) the book that I was referring to in my first point. 


So, I was able to make it to 10!!  I think I might even be able to come up with another 10!  Since it is Top Ten Tuesday I will stop here. I will stop as soon as I point out that tiny text drives me crazy too!  

What are your book/reading related pet peeves??