Reading/Book Pet Peeves

[AnnaJ]

  I actually stopped reading Stephen King for the longest time because of that. And he was my absolute most favorite author for years. Then I read one of his books, not sure which one now because of how far back that was, and thought to myself, "Wow, I can't believe they actually published this. Did anyone actually read it? It's garbage."

What brought me back to reading his stuff again was when he resumed the Dark Tower series.

I read all of his books up to It, when I realized I wasn't enjoying his writing at all and haven't read him since.  I've been thinking about getting 11/22/63 - have you read it?

[MariaE]

  I actually stopped reading Stephen King for the longest time because of that. And he was my absolute most favorite author for years. Then I read one of his books, not sure which one now because of how far back that was, and thought to myself, "Wow, I can't believe they actually published this. Did anyone actually read it? It's garbage."

What brought me back to reading his stuff again was when he resumed the Dark Tower series.

I read all of his books up to It, when I realized I wasn't enjoying his writing at all and haven't read him since.  I've been thinking about getting 11/22/63 - have you read it?

I am NOT a fan of Stephen King's earlier work at all, but I absolutely adored both "Under the Dome" and "11/22/63". Couldn't put them down!

[rose red]

I am NOT a fan of Stephen King's earlier work at all, but I absolutely adored both "Under the Dome" and "11/22/63". Couldn't put them down!

I have a copy of Under the Dome, but never got around to reading it.  I saw a commercial for the movie (mini-series?) and thought about reading it before it aired, but that thing is a big old monster.  My problem is that I like to read a book in one sitting so I'm trying to work up to it.  I don't think I'll be able to in one sitting, but maybe during a three day weekend will make it feel like one sitting.

[Reika]

I read all of his books up to It, when I realized I wasn't enjoying his writing at all and haven't read him since.  I've been thinking about getting 11/22/63 - have you read it?

I haven't read that one since I'm not a fan of time travel stories. Now that I think about it, I haven't read all that much of his stuff outside of the Dark Tower series. Cell was interesting, but went too much into weirdness, but From A Buick 8 was entertaining.

[MariaE]

I am NOT a fan of Stephen King's earlier work at all, but I absolutely adored both "Under the Dome" and "11/22/63". Couldn't put them down!

I have a copy of Under the Dome, but never got around to reading it.  I saw a commercial for the movie (mini-series?) and thought about reading it before it aired, but that thing is a big old monster.  My problem is that I like to read a book in one sitting so I'm trying to work up to it.  I don't think I'll be able to in one sitting, but maybe during a three day weekend will make it feel like one sitting.

It is a behemoth of a book - I completely agree with you there. I started Sunday afternoon, which was a huge mistake. I ended up getting to bed late Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and being "late" to work Monday and Tuesday (I don't have set times, but like to be at work at 8am - just a personal preference though, so I don't get in trouble for being late) because I kept having to read "just one more chapter". I finally finished Tuesday night.

In other words - saving it for a three-day weekend sounds like an excellent idea. I wish I still had my first read of it ahead of me.

[Lynn2000]

After doing some reading this weekend I came up with two.

1) Fiction. Really interesting story that was told from a child's point of view, but with serious things going on around her. At many points it was cute and clever. However, there were some important things that I felt like I was supposed to understand--like who the kid's biological parents were, what happened to the villain at the end, etc.--but didn't, because the kid could only convey what she heard and saw, and the adults tended to ping looks at each other in an attempt to be discreet. Great for the kid, not so much the reader. I'm not very good at reading between the lines.

2) Non-fiction. I was reading a book that relied heavily on illustrations. And the illustrations were not located next to the text that discussed them. This bothers me in a lot of books. These were black-and-white drawings that were embedded in the text, and they all seemed to be at least two pages away from the text describing them--like I'm reading the text and have to constantly turn a page, or two, forward to the figure, then back to the text. They always seem to be after the text describing them. I'd much rather have them before. Like, "Here's the figure. Now let me describe what you should notice in it." But most non-fiction books I read seem to be more like, "Here's a text description of an abstract phenomenon. Got it? Okay, now here's a picture of what you should have been imagining from the text."

[MonteCristo]

Advertisements: The trilogy I just finished reading was rather enjoyable (Rho Agenda) but in the second and especially the third book, the author started using brand names a lot, and in really weird ways.  For instance, a female agent always refered to her handgun as a Heckler and Koch.  I'm actually kind of into guns, and I've only ever heard people say HK.  Another time while two guys are fighting they mentioned that one guys stomps on the other guys face with his "redwing" boots.  And every single time someone boots up a computer they mention the windows logon screen.  It started getting a bit ridiculous.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Advertisements: The trilogy I just finished reading was rather enjoyable (Rho Agenda) but in the second and especially the third book, the author started using brand names a lot, and in really weird ways.  For instance, a female agent always refered to her handgun as a Heckler and Koch.  I'm actually kind of into guns, and I've only ever heard people say HK.  Another time while two guys are fighting they mentioned that one guys stomps on the other guys face with his "redwing" boots.  And every single time someone boots up a computer they mention the windows logon screen.  It started getting a bit ridiculous.

I'll admit, even I'm guilty of referring to the booting up as showing the Windows screen.  But yeah, the others are annoying.

[Mental Magpie]

Advertisements: The trilogy I just finished reading was rather enjoyable (Rho Agenda) but in the second and especially the third book, the author started using brand names a lot, and in really weird ways.  For instance, a female agent always refered to her handgun as a Heckler and Koch.  I'm actually kind of into guns, and I've only ever heard people say HK.  Another time while two guys are fighting they mentioned that one guys stomps on the other guys face with his "redwing" boots.  And every single time someone boots up a computer they mention the windows logon screen.  It started getting a bit ridiculous.

I'll admit, even I'm guilty of referring to the booting up as showing the Windows screen.  But yeah, the others are annoying.

Once or twice wouldn't bother me, but continuously makes it seem like a deliberate product placement ad and would be way too overboard.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Advertisements: The trilogy I just finished reading was rather enjoyable (Rho Agenda) but in the second and especially the third book, the author started using brand names a lot, and in really weird ways.  For instance, a female agent always refered to her handgun as a Heckler and Koch.  I'm actually kind of into guns, and I've only ever heard people say HK.  Another time while two guys are fighting they mentioned that one guys stomps on the other guys face with his "redwing" boots.  And every single time someone boots up a computer they mention the windows logon screen.  It started getting a bit ridiculous.

I'll admit, even I'm guilty of referring to the booting up as showing the Windows screen.  But yeah, the others are annoying.

Once or twice wouldn't bother me, but continuously makes it seem like a deliberate product placement ad and would be way too overboard.

I hate the product placement as well. Worse was the first book in a series that kept referring to the protagonist’s phone, clearly intending for it to be iPhone-esque, but calling it an X-Phone or something. I think the author dropped some Ferragamo and other expensive brand names in as well. I didn’t continue the series, though.

[Allyson]

This comes up in other media, too, and I remember it aggravating me in books even years ago. Extremely cliche and overdone baby names. If I never read about another pregnant woman during a crisis who names her baby 'Hope' I will be a happy woman. Also having all the babies born be named after people. Sure, some of this is fine, but it is now done *so* much that I would love it if the main characters didn't name their kid a virtue name, a meaningful name, or after a mentor or grandfather. But rather just picked a name they liked the sound of. It'd be refreshing.

[Ms_Cellany]

"Two Dogs Fighting? I'd give my right arm to be called Two Dogs FIGHTING..."

[KenveeB]

This comes up in other media, too, and I remember it aggravating me in books even years ago. Extremely cliche and overdone baby names. If I never read about another pregnant woman during a crisis who names her baby 'Hope' I will be a happy woman. Also having all the babies born be named after people. Sure, some of this is fine, but it is now done *so* much that I would love it if the main characters didn't name their kid a virtue name, a meaningful name, or after a mentor or grandfather. But rather just picked a name they liked the sound of. It'd be refreshing.

Like in the Anne of Green Gables books, where every single child is named after someone in Anne's life? Not even her husband's, but Anne's alone. 

[nuit93]

This comes up in other media, too, and I remember it aggravating me in books even years ago. Extremely cliche and overdone baby names. If I never read about another pregnant woman during a crisis who names her baby 'Hope' I will be a happy woman. Also having all the babies born be named after people. Sure, some of this is fine, but it is now done *so* much that I would love it if the main characters didn't name their kid a virtue name, a meaningful name, or after a mentor or grandfather. But rather just picked a name they liked the sound of. It'd be refreshing.

Like in the Anne of Green Gables books, where every single child is named after someone in Anne's life? Not even her husband's, but Anne's alone. 

Wait, even her first baby (Joyce)?

[Allyson]

Joy(ce) had the first cliche though, of a virtue name. I see why authors do those things, but I've seen it so often now that it fails to resonate at all with me as anything more than 'oh this again'. Which is not the emotional response they want.