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Original poster

What's your pet hate in books?

141 replies

deweydell · 17/02/2007 14:38

Mine is when the writer foreshadows the action to come like when they say 'she crossed the road carrying her little dog who will get run over by a car in two years time'.

Anyone?

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expatinscotland · 03/03/2007 16:23

I agree, TheChi.

There are many great books out there, and I think part of what makes a great book is when things are left to the imagination - a commodity in increasingly short supply these days.

SSShakeTheChi · 03/03/2007 14:48

detailed descriptions of rape, murder, torture.

RoxyNotFoxy · 02/03/2007 22:21

Anything involving conspiracy theories - like the Da bloody Vinci Code. Or yet another one about the murder of JFK.

christie1 · 02/03/2007 22:03

I have when the lead character "giggles" especially when they are over 40. All of the mystery heroines I read "giggle". Girls giggle, women laugh.

KathyMCMLXXII · 02/03/2007 13:00

slim literary volumes about serial killers (can think offhand of 3)

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:48

here expat

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:46

I haven't, UD, because I purposely skip over anything set in London these days as I assume it will be the usual tosh.

I'll give that one a try, though!

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:45

Have you read "Dad's Life" by Dave Hill? That's a London-based novel but quite realistic and non-poncy.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:44

No one ever lives in an ex-local authority flat.

Even though from what I hear these sell for £200,000+ in some London neighbourhoods.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:42

I'm going to write one called 'Things about the UK You Never Learn Till You Live Here' and include an entire chapter on London-centricity.

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:42

I hate it when the characters have a level of middle-class affluence which seems to come from nowhere. Everyone I know who has a nice car, house, furniture etc, works their bloody arse off for them, getting up at 6am to go to work and sometimes working weekends, etc.

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:40

Authors come under pressure to write at least one "london-based" book or they are written off as a "regional" writer. So my sources tell me.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:39

And jobs.

The characters always have jobs which are glam but they never do anything at them.

No one's ever working a till at Tesco or driving a forklift, for example.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:38

With corresponding stereotypes for each neighbourhood, too, UD. How BORING and unoriginal.

I won't even get into the stereotyping of other groups of people from outside London in these London-centred piles of choss.

The typical Scotsman, for example [rolls eyes].

I notice there are never any Scotswomen in this books, much less Northern English women or Irishwomen. Of course not, they can't possibly be as bright, lovely or attractive as London women.

LadyMacbeth · 02/03/2007 12:38

And UnquietDad. Totally bored of London settings, Perhaps the authors think that Londoners won't buy their book unless it's set in their hometown.

LadyMacbeth · 02/03/2007 12:36

Agree with Expat.

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:34

And SO many books are London-centric.

Publishing is - and I can sort of see why it has to be - but there's no reason for all books to have London settings. With areas mentioned casually as if we should KNOW where they are. Crouch End. Camden Lock. Notting Hill. So what?

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:30

Another pet-hate. London-centricity.

Don't live in London. Never have. Never will. Couldn't care less about London neighbourhoods and what that means if you live in this one v. that one.

Move on.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2007 12:29

'(Having said that, they were probably chick-lits). '

They still could have done for a good campfire, Anne . I hate chick-lit because the heroine is always a doormat and a neurotic any stable person would only find attractive in a book.

UnquietDad · 02/03/2007 12:23

After browsing in Waterstones yesterday I have some more.

a) Books with "mother" in the title, brought out near Mother's Day in the hope that people will buy them for their mums. Because, of course, that's all they will read. If the book is actually called "Mother's Day", even worse.

b) Books with a Chapter Zero. Oh, how post-modern.

c) Books which have chapters beginning at 30 (or 40, or 50) and descending towards 1 (or, worse, zero).

d) Even worse - random chapter numbering. Chapter 11 then chapter 5 then chapter 32, etc. Like that is really clever.

SSShakeTheChi · 02/03/2007 08:52

phrases like "her hair shone like an advertisement for shampoo" - Maeve Binchy. Sorry dear if you're reading this, otherwise I love you but this phrase comes up in nearly every book. Promise me you won't use it next time round, ok?

RoxyNotFoxy · 02/03/2007 08:38

Books by Olympic gold medallists with titles like "Run for your life" or "Running Wild" or "Running Free" or bollocks like that. They win when they're 20, and have their autobiography out before they're 21, like they've lived a long and fascinating life which we can't wait to read about.

Sunyshineymummy · 01/03/2007 14:29

Can't bear dream sequences, almost always skip past them. Also really dislike books with unlikeable characters (Morvern Callar and Money are two that spring to mind). I also think Sebastian Faulkes is overrated and I found Birdsong really quite boring.

KathyMCMLXXII · 23/02/2007 15:46

I mean, there aren't many words in the 'That's not my' books, so it would only have taken them, what, 2 mins to get it right.
Lazy sods.

UnquietDad · 23/02/2007 13:55

"That's not my digger its front loader is too bumpy" oh God, yes...