Wednesday 28 September 2022

What puts you off a book?

We were booked to hear this author talk, this afternoon at the library, unfortunately she is not able to make it and it has been postponed till October 26th, will I still remember the story by then? I had 3 starts because I kept forgetting what I'd read the night before and to my way of thinking there were too many character names, so I kept getting muddled! 


As well as that it was set in Ireland, with some colloquiums and.....other things.

So, these put me off a book.

A lot of character names to start, and where they are police, some christian names and then referred to by their surnames. 

Not clearly defined chapters, when they are in different time zones.

Too faint and small font.

Too big a book, so heavy.

Local colloquiums or dialect.

Swear words and blasphemy.

Overtly sexual antic descriptions,

Too much dull description of scenery.

A Mills and Boone type book, basically 'chick lit.'

And these reasons are before I even look at what the story is about!

So, I found this book a hard read for me, but I read it because we were to hear the author talking about it. Dh read it too and came across several typos! But he liked it. 

Basically, and ex-policeman comes out of retirement to investigate old cases where the original cases had unsolved crime, as a hobby.  It was ok, but not my usual choice of book and I only read it because of the Author 'talk.' 

What puts you off?

Chrisxx




8 comments:

Sue in Suffolk said...

All the things you've listed would put me off too. Well done for reading it.
Sounds as if it might be privately published with an editor!

Tracy said...

My list would be very similar to yours. One thing I hate is too many characters with similar names and descriptions. I recently tried a book where every other character was a young man with dark hair and their names all began with the same letter. Infuriating! I also think that stories told from multiple points of view can only work if ALL the characters are interesting. One dull one and I start skipping entire chapters. Another thing that makes me put a book on the charity shop pile is a story set in the past and the present where it is not made clear at the start of each shift that it IS a shift. Don't get me started on lazy editing and typos....

Eileen H said...

I would have found the title intriguing but couldn't struggle on with it to the end from what you've said.

Maggie said...

Foreign words I can't pronounce, too many characters, lengthy descriptions.
and chapters that go on forever!

Jules said...

I don't often get to read just for enjoyment, so I am shallow enough to say an unattractive cover puts me off :)

Sandra said...

I might have to look for this book since I live in Co, Tyrone in Northern Ireland. I too don't like it when there are lot of characters introduced too quickly, in fact the last but one book I read, I wrote them all on a piece of paper describing who they were and what their job was etc and then I used that as a bookmark so I could keep referring to it. I like thrillers mostly and don't like sexual content either. The other thing that annoys me is when the author keeps starting a new chapter, often less than a page long, when a new sentence would suffice.

Rosie said...

Small font would definitely deter me from reading a book as I struggle with my eyesight if I really wanted to read it I'd look for it in the large print section of the library. This is where e-books and knindleshelp. I don't mind local dialects but don't like some of the really foul swear words, others I can cope with. I also put a book down if it's genre is science fiction, fantasy, utopion or vampires.

Sue said...

Don't like heavy books,swear words with sexual explicit scenes, definitely small font.
I related to having to reread a chapter, this happened to me this week as I began a new devotional book.
Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comment.
Sue