These are some of the "repeat offenders" I find particularly irksome.
- Whoa is not spelled w-o-a-h!
- Lightning, the atmospheric occurrence, being misspelled lightening.
- Qualifying "unique" with very, more, really, etc. Unique means something is one of a kind; it can't be more unique than something else!
- The words "floor" and "ground" should not be used interchangeably!
- The verb needs to agree with the subject. For example, "One of the boxes is open." "The woman with all the dogs walks down my street." "All of the books, including yours, are in that box."
- The excessive overuse of some words is highly annoying (e.g "core" in romance novels), particularly when listening to audiobooks.
- Using "zip" as a noun instead of as a verb. In the U.S. it's a zipper, folks.
- First person internal monologues should not contain excessive descriptive adjectives! Do our inner voices actually say things like the following? "I brush my long, curly, blonde tresses..." or "I drive my large black custom SUV..." or "I clean my beautifully decorated monotone apartment..." These fabricated examples seem silly, yes? Well, I've read much sillier, believe me.
- When asked something like, "Do you mind if...?" the answer, if it is okay, should be NO!
- If a book represents more than one character's point of view, each change in narration should be obviously attributed to whose voice it is. Sometimes it's just not obvious!
- Book covers should be representative of the story and/or characters. If the hero's and/or heroine's physical appearance is mentioned in the book, the cover models should at least resemble them. Things like hair color are obvious, yes?
- When authors use initials in lieu of their given name(s) and don't use periods, it can appear to be a two (or more) letter name. I know the modern trend is straying away from periods, but it can be confusing. I mean, I see a name like AL JEFFERSON as AL (short for Albert, Alfred, etc.) and not A.L. Although, maybe it's just my preference and doesn't matter to others.
- In dialogue exchanges or conversations, the character should be rather easily identifiable.
- A character's idiosyncratic personality and verbal language patterns should belong to one character only and not every character an author creates.
- When characters who the author repeatedly emphasizes intelligence and articulateness in don't live up to those standards at all.
Comments
I love series books, Outlander, Harry Potter, almost any Nora Roberts. So here's my peeve... Not identifying the series order. You can't tell if it's book two or twenty and it only makes sense if you read sequentially. If you are able to buy as they come out no problem but my life does not lend itself to that most of the time.
I generally refer to Goodreads, where I can pretty consistently count on the correct reading order. Thanks for the comment!
Some other peeves--
Improper Grammar: this drives me crazy, when in the narrative. If different characters utilize language which separate them (such as a "pidgin", creole, or patois) from the societal norm, then please be accurate in it's usage & context.
Misuse of historical or cultural context: I'm a huge fan of historical fiction. Historical and/or cultural context is useful as a frame of reference in crafting an engaging story. But its use must be tempered by an intentional attempt to communicate the perspective of the character's experience, rather than perpetuating a justification.
I'm wondering—as I think you probably read mostly traditionally published books—do you notice MORE errors slipping through the editing process these days?
I am hindered by a punctuation rule memory problem, but it's fairly rare that I notice misspellings or other errors in traditionally published works. Generally, I'm impressed by the editing in the self-published books I read, too. Thankfully, the few I find issues with don't ruin my overall indie-reading experience.
I normally enjoy regional dialects attributed to characters to help individualize them. However, sometimes they are quite difficult to understand. (Tess of the d'Urbervilles comes to mind.)
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer, Cousin!
Amy L
When authors just rush to wrap things up it sometimes seems too neat. That bothers me sometimes.
Toni, as usual, you expressed your thoughts clearly. Thank you! If a book has more sex than story I usually stop reading. Some of the phraseology is ridiculously over-the-top.
As far as bulging body builder cover models...I like looking but would prefer seeing one occasionally in real life. ;)
Happy reading!
I've actually noticed more errors in e-books, as compared to the printed word. It's one of the things that turned me off to them. When considering errors in printed books, it actually adds to the material value of the misprint, as they are usually of a low number with corrections in later editions. But, I do think that with the recent shift towards e-books, the quality of editing in "traditional-type" of publishing houses has diminished, resulting in errors at a higher frequency.
As far as reading books printed with dialects, you're right, they can be difficult to read. I think that with my linguistic training in college, in addition to real-life experience living in a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic society, I appreciate them as part of realistic context in books.