Petty things that have put you off a book

[RosieLemonade]

I have just finished a book based in 2017. Teenagers called Tim, Paul and Sarah. It really took me out of it.
Anyone been put off a book for a petty reason?

I had an audiobook one that didn't stop me listening because it was a great story but did make me twitch a bit. There was a character named Archimedes which I would pronounce as ARK-eh-me-des but the narrator pronounced as ar-KIM-eh-des. I managed to convince myself that neither I nor the narrator were around in ancient Greek times so anyone's guess at pronunciation is as good as anyone else's in order to continue without twitching. There was a lot of feedback on Audible about it though, so in book 2 and 3 of the series the pronunciation had changed.

@Sundances

I started listening on audiobook to The Thursday Murder Club by R Osman, I couldn't get into it, the characters sounded a bit dated/unbelievable, it reminded my of Crossroads for some strange reason (shows my age) - so stopped after a a few goes.

But I don't normally like whodunnits. (who cares who killed an imaginary person for an imaginary reason). Though Anthony Horrowitz's the Word is Murder was good. Audio again.

Yes I found this really slow going. I had it from the library on audiobook so I didn't pay for it. I didn't really understand the hype.

As someone else said - the police woman wouldn't give out that info why would she? I'm NHS and the inaccuracies around procedures and care pathways are shit.

I read one - the authenticity project. Old man gets a urine infection but the whole thing about him being at home with a doctor doing a home visit and friends helping clean up was nonsense. That was my pettiness showing through!

I had to Google comma splicing but yes, that is annoying - I have definitely cringed at it when reading.

“Couple things” grates on me a bit too but AFAIK it is how it’s used in the US. So if it’s dialogue I’d forgive it :o

I own one of my favourite books as a paperback and an audio book. I can’t listen to the audio book as it sounds like Alan Titchmarsh is reading it, and the way he (?) over pronounces his G’s at the end of words makes me want to chew my own ears off.

I splice commas all the time in my mumsnet posting though I expect. 😳😂

@GreenSlide

I once put down a book because it included a description of the protagonists co worker as a woman of about 17 stone, who didn't even seem to notice or mind her weight at all! Fuck me, the horror of a 17 stone woman existing and going about her business like everyone else! Couldn't enjoy it after that.

OMG so big people can't have a life???

@BrimfulOfBaba

I keep reading books by Haruki Murakami but his obsession with breasts really ruins it for me. Every female character he writes seems to be very aware of her breasts at all times!

Aaaargh. I read one of his books where the main character/narrator keeps hanging out with a 13 year old girl and randomly bringing up the subject of her periods while internally musing on how beautiful she is. And this isnt meant to be creepy at all.

I once read a short story set in Yorkshire where a character got off the train at Bradford Interchange and immediately got on a train to Skipton at the same station. Shoddy research.

@RaraRachael

If a book is set in the USA or told in the first person, I won't read it

Set in the USA? You're ruling out some of the best novels ever written if you exclude them for this.

@JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn

I can't stand it when a male writer tries to write from a female point of view. Never works.

Excepions to that rule: Hardy and Kazuao Ishigaro. In both cases they seem more interested in character and arent massively trying to make a big deal about the fact they are writing about a WOMAN with BOOBS. Plus they were/are extremely good writers

The book Timeline states categorically that the language Occitan died out centuries ago. There are books written in it, dictée competitions and I think Firefox has an Occitan version. Spoilt it for me

@Arbadacarba

I'm not Scottish but I find with Irvine Walsh I adjust to the dialogue pretty quickly. Obviously I can't comment on its authenticity but it doesn't come across as contrived.

I read a book recently where the main character was in Scotland but she hailed from Yorkshire. The action took place in January. It jarred slightly that the character kept being surprised that it was still dark at 6am where she was in Scotland. If she was from Yorkshire, it's dark at 6am until at least mid-February there too! Overall the book was very good, though, so I forgave this.

As someone who moved from Yorkshire to Argyll I can tell you the difference in day lengths is noticeable. Not sure about 6am in January though, it's a time I'm convinced only appears in fiction.

*RaraRachael
If a book is set in the USA or told in the first person, I won't read it

Set in the USA? You're ruling out some of the best novels ever written if you exclude them for this*

Exactly. Some of the greatest classics ever written have been set in the USA- To Kill A Mockingbird. The Colour Purple. Little Women. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Even more "modern" literature has had some great American writers.
I get that "good" is subjective, but honestly it seems a bit daft to write off a while country!

CJ Samson's Shardlow series - someone will be "smiling sadly" about every five pages.

I’ve read all the Shardlake books and never noticed that

Not sure about 6am in January though, it's a time I'm convinced only appears in fiction.

If only! I usually get up at 6:30am so I am always desperate for it to be light at 6am. Sunrise where I am in Yorkshire was 8:22 on 1 January and 07:52 on 31 January. I understand there'd be a noticeable difference in daylight hours overall, but no way would a native Yorkshirewoman be surprised at it being dark at 6am in January.

@dementedma Shardlake, of course! I thought I had it wrong . .

@worriedwithhindsight

I once read a short story set in Yorkshire where a character got off the train at Bradford Interchange and immediately got on a train to Skipton at the same station. Shoddy research.

Ha ha! Amazes me when they get that sort of thing wrong - it would take 5 minutes, if that, to check the route on the internet (either walk to Forster Square or stay on the train to Leeds and change there for those interested).

In historical fiction, I find it really irritating when authors confuse being able to write rich, descriptive passages with having done actual research.

Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet is a good example. I liked lots of it but no, no one in Shakespeare's England is going to be gobsmacked a woman has a kestrel. And I wasn't sold on the twee bit about the mother who was a bit otherworldly and the going to the woods to give birth.

This isn't books, but since a few people mentioned Outlander - in the TV show Claire's dull husband declares that she can't be pregnant by him as he's infertile (this may be in the books too but I require the eye candy to get past the truly shocking plotting). Does anyone know if that's realistic? I had a raised eyebrow about it for the early C20th, but maybe I'm wrong?

Book starts in the USA Deep South, moves to Dublin. A native child of Dublin’s favourite meal that her ‘mom’ cooks her is creamed corn.

It’d be mammy and NOT creamed corn.

Also (reminded of this by driving to pick up DD from nursery and meeting a pissed-off guy in a tractor and a winding past all the gruesomely squished pheasants), authors whose entire knowledge of The Countryside is based on reading Country Living. There's a chicklit book called 'Goodbye Jimmy Choo' that's like this.

@Arbadacarba

Not sure about 6am in January though, it's a time I'm convinced only appears in fiction.

If only! I usually get up at 6:30am so I am always desperate for it to be light at 6am. Sunrise where I am in Yorkshire was 8:22 on 1 January and 07:52 on 31 January. I understand there'd be a noticeable difference in daylight hours overall, but no way would a native Yorkshirewoman be surprised at it being dark at 6am in January.

Neither would anybody in London.

Sunrise is 8.06 on New Year's Day. and 7.40am on the 31st.

Source: Google and getting up for work by 5.45am/walking into work down the mostly unlit drive at ten to seven .

Neither would anybody in London.

Oh, for some reason I thought it was miles lighter down there in winter. Goodness knows why the author thought 6am darkness was surprising in that case.

@Arbadacarba

Not sure about 6am in January though, it's a time I'm convinced only appears in fiction.

If only! I usually get up at 6:30am so I am always desperate for it to be light at 6am. Sunrise where I am in Yorkshire was 8:22 on 1 January and 07:52 on 31 January. I understand there'd be a noticeable difference in daylight hours overall, but no way would a native Yorkshirewoman be surprised at it being dark at 6am in January.

Just to bang on about this a wee bit more. Moving from the East Coast to the West will add to the lateness of the sun appearance in the morning. I'm currently at around 5.5 degrees longitude on the West Coast of Scotland so the sun 'rises' approx 20 minutes later than it would have done at my home on the East Coast of Yorkshire some 5 degrees East (and would do even if I was on the same latitude).

Whatever time the sun comes up it appears much later than that to me because there are some fecking mountains to the east of me which block it out till much later in the day.

@Arbadacarba

Neither would anybody in London.

Oh, for some reason I thought it was miles lighter down there in winter. Goodness knows why the author thought 6am darkness was surprising in that case.

I think the Scots New Year sunrise of 8.47am would be a bit of a shock to most of us further south, but not 6am being dark.

Somebody who tried to shove in a reference to it being dark but forgot to read and ensure they understood the explanation of why/when it's noticeably darker.