Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme posted by The Broke and the Bookish. A new top ten question is posed every week. I encourage you to start your own Top Ten Tuesday list. This week:

Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves
(all those things that annoy you in a story, with book covers, bookstores, etc)

Oh I can't express just how much I love this topic. As shown by my bio I definitely have a number 1 pet peeve and now I can think about others that really get to me.

1. Bookstore section titles (aka "Teen" rather than "Young Adult")

Look at the variety of book blogs on the internet and you'll discover that women between 20-40 LOVE young adult books. People of all ages really. And when I walk into an aisle labeled "Teen" I feel like I'm out of place and should be embarrassed. It has gotten to the point that I'll refuse to shop at places that label their young adult section as such.

2. Typos.

I don't mind a few. Sometimes it's just unavoidable. J.K. Rowling had her share. I loved that when reading Glass Houses by Rachel Caine I only found one typo in the entire book. Bravo! However, there is one book series that I couldn't forgive and I won't list. There were multiple glaring typos. And sentence structure? Hor-ri-ble! Example: "the glass's shattered surface," no thanks I hate pluralizing inanimate objects, let's try "the shattered surface of the glass" please.

3. Slow and unexciting first half.

There are two books I have read so far that I almost put down until I got to the middle. The first was because the writing was juvenile and hard to follow. An elementary student could have written it better. However, by the middle of the book I was hooked IN the story and stopped caring. The second, is Matched, in which I was stuck in not knowing what was going on until the middle of the book and the drama finally arrived and again I stopped caring about everything else. The whole point of a book is to catch the reader's attention as quickly as possible, that failed, and both are lucky that I have an inability to put down a book even if I have to force myself through it, and even luckier that they eventually won my heart.

4. Too many issues that don't get resolved.

I was in love with a series that I didn't want to put down. That is, until the third book. The first book was cut and dry--introduce drama, resolve it, leave opening for sequel, done. The second book same thing with a reasonable cliff hanger ending as well. Book three? Waiting for the cliff hanger drama to resolve and then another dramatic plot twist is introduce, still waiting for first twist to resolve, third major plot twist introduced, one chapter left in book and first twist is finally resolved, and then it ends. I'm sitting there going "WHAT?!" The fourth book comes out and at that point I didn't even want to read it, but I did. The two remaining plot twists were resolved near the end of that book and another introduced, and a linger of a twist from book two I might add. Book five came out last summer, it's still sitting on my shelf, any wonder why?

5. Picking up where we left off.

Doesn't sound like a bad thing, right? Then let me explain. Most books when you pick up a sequel and you're reading through it, the author reminds you of background info, details from the past books, etc. Now I used to hate this because I was reading a series all at once and didn't need the reminders. And then I came to a point in which a series I was reading didn't have a subsequent book until a year and a half later and I realized that those reminders were pretty awesome because I don't usually re-read something. Then one day I picked up a sequel book to one I had read a year or two before and it started right in the middle of the action where the other one left off. I have NO idea what was going on and realize I have to re-read the first one if I even want to know. Thanks for the waste of time, I have other books to read.

6. Cliff hanger chapters.

I don't necessarily mind cliff hanger endings because then I'm excited about the next book even though I'm impatient as well. However, cliff hangers at the end of chapters? Not so good. I read before bed, only a chapter or two at a time. And then there are books where I reach my two chapter limit and it's a freaking cliff hanger so I start reading the next chapter, and then it happens again and gah next thing I know three hours have passed and I have to get up in only a couple hours. Many times I've been forced to stop in the middle of a chapter, which I hate, just to avoid the cliff hanger and get to sleep.

7. Real people on book covers.

I can't imagine characters the way I want when that happens. And many times the person on the front of the book has absolutely nothing in common with the descriptions in the book. Example: Rachel Caine said that for one of the books from her Morganville series the cover was shown to her including a girl with pink hair, she couldn't argue so for it to make sense she added a scene at the end of the book where the main character wears a pink wig. I would rather have an artistic cover with filigree or such. My favorite cover: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I love the cover for their sequel too.

8. Photoshopped covers that look like an amateur did on the first try.

I totally judge a book by its cover. If the cover looks amateur I imagine the writing is too and I have no need to read it. Even if I see a review or recommendation for the book that is wonderful I will question its integrity.

9. A series that starts in paperback and then suddenly the next one is hardcover.

I like my books to match thank you very much. I began reading the Harry Potter series in paperback because they were cheap and once I was hooked I gave all my paperback copies to a young girl I knew and went out and invested in the hardcovers so that everything would match and look great on my shelf. I have one series in which the first three books were released in paperback, the next two in hardcover, now my shelf is uneven, but I don't feel like going out and buying the paperback versions when they come out almost a year later. Another has similar numbers. And I've seen others that have the first six to eight books in paperback and then suddenly a hardcover.

10. Uneven prices.

When a book comes out I can find it at Walmart for around $3 off the cover price. Yet Barnes & Noble sticks to the cover price like they're afraid of sale stickers. And then they wonder why they're losing business. Even Amazon has much cheaper prices and often even with the shipping they come out cheaper than B&N. Especially with their pre-orders when they refund you the difference if the price drops even more after you already pre-ordered. While I love sale prices, I wish that they'd be more even so I wouldn't have to troll the internet and Walmart for the books I want just so I don't have to sacrifice the extra money and gas for a trip to B&N.

Well I didn't think I'd make it to ten, but look at that I did. This industry is insane. And you know what, I want to add a.....

Runner-up: Kindle/e-books
The price isn't much different than the price for the book itself and you know what it's easier to read from a page than it is for me to read from a screen. I like having a bookshelf to look at everyday instead of a "playlist" of sorts.