Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Pet Peeves

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

---

Good morning friends! Was everyone at a loss for social media yesterday as I was? Thank goodness there is this community here that is hosted separately from all of that.

This week’s TTT is an interesting one and I’ve separated it into pet peeves specific to things found within stories, as well as general pet peeves related to books.

Story-related pet peeves

1. Love triangles

• I honestly get so antsy with love triangles, usually because I get so invested in the person the protagonist DOESN’T choose to be with. My poor heart 💔

2. Whiny/unlikeable protagonists

• Do you ever just not connect with the main person whose POV you’re stuck with for the WHOLE book? Yep, I really don’t like that. Because I Cannot. Escape. Them.

3. Unnecessary romance drama between couples

• Especially found in series where the main couple is followed for all the books, the authors just run out of interesting things or something to write about our couple so additional drama have to be introduced to keep their storyline intriguing. I personally prefer less drama (unless it organically worked for their story) – why ruin a good thing that was rounded out in book 1?

4. Middle book syndrome

• Related to the above point, middle books, particularly in trilogies, sometimes feel like the gap between book 1 and 3. All the exciting new stuff have already occurred, but all the exciting conclusive stuff have yet to come, so Middle Book is stuck with fillers if the author didn’t plan this well.
• And no one likes filler episodes.

5. Overdone Asian stereotypes

• I will address this more so in a separate post, but I’ve been reading so many Asian rep books this year (yay for more rep in general!) and found certain stereotypes in most of them. While it doesn’t mean it’s not true for some people, I wonder what that shows to everyone else if this is the main characterization other people read about us, which would also not be true for all Asians. It just hits me funny after the 7th time.

6. Insta love

• You gotta make me believe it! Most of the time, this romance trope doesn’t work very well and I feel the characters lack emotional depth with one another. If this was the main feature of the book…then it’s gonna be a long read.

7. Information dump at the beginning of the book

• No one wants to be super confused about what’s going on in the book, but reading a textbook of “facts” about the world (especially in fantasies) is not the best way to entice readers in the first few pages to continue.

Book-related pet peeves

8. Broken spines (on purpose!)

• Sacrilegious! No, seriously, I have books I lent to people and came back broken. Pages are falling out. We cannot be friends anymore! (Just kidding….sort of…this is strike 1 of 3 in our friendship).

9. Dog-earing the pages

• Just…just get a bookmark, okay? Or any random scrap of paper! Why harm the book irreparably? IRREPARABLY?

10. Losing the dust jacket on a hardcover (and dirtying the cover underneath)

• I understand some people like to read hardcovers without the dust jacket. Sure, that’s fine. But then you may misplace the dust jacket and it’s just gone in the wind.
• OR worse yet…is that a ring of liquid marked permanently on the cover that is now NOT protected by a dust jacket?

Okay, I may have gone a little heated in there, but they’re not pet peeves for no reason!

How many of these do you resonate with? Or…how many of these do you feel totally okay with? (I won’t judge you, mostly).

Let’s talk below!