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I don't want to ruin every book you're going to read from now, but have you noticed they all have the word

239 replies

Cify · 28/03/2018 09:06

Detritus.... in therm?

And now I've noticed it I can't stop seeing the word in everything I read.

And yet I've never heard a single friend complaining about the detritus in their kitchen.

Please tell me I'm not alone? Do you notice certain words or phrases (that people don't actually say in real life) being used over and over again in novels?

OP posts:
ArcheryAnnie · 29/03/2018 14:40

It always grates when books have two characters eating dinner and the meal is over after a page of dialogue.

To be fair, Alistair, if you eat as fast as I do, then a paragraph would do! (I eat like a labrador - it doesn't touch the sides. It's not attractive but it's a difficult habit to get out of.)

StealthPolarBear · 29/03/2018 07:49

Archery something I hate on here is "for dipping"

I give my toddler houmous, sliced cheese, ham, bread sticks for dipping.

What if they don't want to dip them? Are they allowed to eat them un dipped?

StealthPolarBear · 29/03/2018 07:46

Yes agree padding is aspirational. No one can pad in a kitchen where the floor is slightly sticky

Nannyplumssillyoldelf · 29/03/2018 07:45

Second line of the first page of my new book and someone is padding.

I don't want to ruin every book you're going to read from now, but have you noticed they all have the word
AlistairAppletonssexyscarf · 28/03/2018 23:47

I always yearn to 'pad'. It sounds like the sort of thing you do in a warm, clean and tidy house while wearing cashmere. No one who 'pads' has to clean up cat sick first thing in the morning.

It always grates when books have two characters eating dinner and the meal is over after a page of dialogue.

ReversingSnail · 28/03/2018 23:46

More on products than in books but I can't stand "mouthwatering". It's TMI so makes me feel ill and puts me off the food they're trying to promote.

FinnegansCake · 28/03/2018 23:42

The heroine always steps out of her clothes. Lucky her. Mine are all so tight that I have to wrestle them off Sad

MsMalcontent · 28/03/2018 23:39

Arching, lifting, raising a quizzical ... my most hated one is ‘quirking’. ‘Janet quirked an eyebrow.’

I had to read this a couple of times as my brain interpreted quirking as twerking Grin

FinnegansCake · 28/03/2018 23:38

Have you noticed how the baddie always gives a wolfish grin before sloping away?

Izzy24 · 28/03/2018 23:37

Women seem to be forever getting into a bath in the books I’ve read recently.

And every cup of tea/coffee they have has to be sipped because of course the liquid is scalding hot .....

Llareggub · 28/03/2018 23:30

Someone is always languidly doing somethinf.

ArcheryAnnie · 28/03/2018 23:30

CaptainNelson I have a completely unreasonable, utterly disproportionate hatred of the word "munch". I especially hate it when it's used in this type of sentence: "I gave my LO a bit of toast to munch". (I also hate LO but that's a different thread.)

SnooSigh · 28/03/2018 23:30

Almost as bad as estate agents and their ‘oozing’ I don’t want my house ooze anything, not even fucking charm!

ReversingSnail · 28/03/2018 23:28

I've read far too many books where the main character is a 20-something woman called Maddie who works in London, does yoga and ends up with a different man than the one you are supposed to expect. Also why are all books about women in rural areas actually about homesick Londoners who moved to the Cotswolds to open a tea shop, but don't like mud?

Urubu · 28/03/2018 23:25

@MorrisZapp
You mean ç ?
The sign underneath is used in French, it means you pronounce aper-s-u and not aper-k-u.

cupoflemontea · 28/03/2018 23:24

Oh and someone replies 'acidly'

I think it means she was rude. Always a female.

afrikat · 28/03/2018 23:22

Someone mentioned all the Outlander books containing the word 'alacrity' and now I keep seeing it everywhere. People keep doing things with alacrity. I don't even know how to say it 😂

FrozenMargarita17 · 28/03/2018 23:20

I once went to a hotel that had such lovely thick carpet that I thought 'this must be what they mean by padding' so perhaps they all have lovely luxurious carpet ;)

sycamore54321 · 28/03/2018 23:17

Not specific to literature but "garment" is a word that is only ever exists written down. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it in conversation.

cupoflemontea · 28/03/2018 23:11

She 'scraped her hair back into a ponytail'as opposed to what?

StealthPolarBear · 28/03/2018 23:07

Mealy. That's what I do. I'm generally considered a bit of a scruff :o

CaptainNelson · 28/03/2018 23:05

Love this thread! I am obviously reading the wrong kinds of books... Grin
When I was a child, I always used to wonder how the Famous Five managed to munch on their sandwiches, as my sandwich-eating never produced a munching sound. I was very jealous of their munchable sarnies...
Now I think it would just drive me bonkers, like pretty much everything else about the famous five.

3EyedRaven · 28/03/2018 23:04

I’m reading a book at the moment, and have read about three different characters ‘rheumy eyes’. It’s really jumping out at me.
I’m only about a third of the way through, wonder if they’ll be any more?!?

FrozenMargarita17 · 28/03/2018 23:02

Why is a cup of tea always 'amber liquid' ?!

MealyPotatoes · 28/03/2018 22:59

Women in crime fiction always step out of showers, throw on jeans and a sweater and pull their hair back into a simple pony tail.

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