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 to stop an audio book once because the lead character's name was Fleur and the narrator made it two distinct syllables - floo-ur. It was an author that I like and the story was sounding good but I couldn't make it through the first chapter.

I hear you. I love robert greene books but he really changes gear for french words. Backs up, changes gear and accelerates

Oh no I just bought the Morse set to read...

I felt the same about Lovejoy although only tried one book but I loved the TV series back in the day.

Meant to quote @RaraRachael about Morse books

Any sort of geographic inconsistencies do it for me. Eg a book set in the town I live in during WW2 where someone strolls to a place in the countryside in the space of a few minutes that would take the best part of 2 hours in the dark. Another book set in the city I went to uni in, where the wrong street name is used for a location that is described in detail & would be well known to anyone who had lived there. And someone living on the coast driving to a market in the city (2-3 hours away) to buy fish!!

It is a shame books are "doctored" for different markets. As a pp said I read a lot of American fiction as a teen and became enriched for it if a little confused sometimes but you can work it out and obviously we now have the internet to make it easy as we go along. I've just read a book written and set in Derbyshire last century and loads of words and phrases I didnt understand but have learnt loads from looking them up.

I recently stumbled across a website for American Harry potter fans that explained English terms (and there were a lot I didnt realise!) But that's much better than actually changing the text just because people are too lazy to look it up and pu lishing houses are too scared to lose revenue.

It's so insulting to readers and authors to change words in a text!

I agree!

I definitely feel more immersed in a book if the words are appropriate. It’s just patronising otherwise, and jarring when the words clearly don’t fit

Male authors writing in the first person as a female. Anything written in the present tense.

It’s been a long time since I read a book where a male author is writing in the first person as a woman, but in such cases, the ‘female’ character is often appraising herself naked in front of the mirror or at least admiring her own breasts.

Yeah, er, we don’t do that.

I’ve never known the reverse situation where a male character admires his own willy.

Fingers crossed Embroideredstars that you enjoy the Morse books more than I did

@Arbadacarba I'm not into witchcraft, it's a bit of a sore point for me

I’ve just sacked a book off today because the author kept describing mouths like gashes, or open wounds, or faces split open etc. It was a pretty crap book but all the split open faces did me in the end.

This isn't trivial, actually. it's usually an important plot point.

Crime fiction books where the cop becomes a target of the serial killer cop is trying to catch. Or cop's family gets targetted. What a profoundly stupid plot device. I feel personally insulted for being treated like an idiot when authors do that.

I've been reading a new series of crime books which have decent stories but desperately need a proof reader.
"The woman wasn't phased by it at all" being one of many examples. Although there are around 8 books in the series I think I'll stop at 2 as I can't stand much more.

Very petty but.... something set in Scotland in the late 70s / early 80s that gave a telephone number as starting 01..... whatever it was. I remember when all the phone numbers changed in the late 80s and there’s no way the number would have been 01 anything when the book was set. The author had clearly google a phone number now and dropped it into the text. It was so pointless, the number wasn’t needed for any plot reason and it just really bugged me.

Oh yes and Jodi Piccoult’s latest one with the main romantic male lead being British aristocracy but called Wyatt. I mean it’s not impossible but not exactly likely, is it? Especially given the character is about 40 now so would probably have been born late 70s early 80s....

Similar to Decorhate, set in a location I knew very well. A character got the bus from the station to my old place of work. My old place of work was closer to the station than the nearest bus stop!

Brand names!! Really lazy writing that totally limits the reader’s own visualisation.

@Embroideredstars I agree. Bought a Quentin Blake book for my son and the American version arrived. He’s only 2 so doesn’t know/mind but I find it really annoying/jarring to have words like fender, hood, trunk etc in the text that are just clearly not the original Blake.

One of the main characters loses an arm, but still manages to lean his elbows on a farm gate as he watches a sunset in the last chapter. I can’t remember the name of the book!

Reminds Pilcher has skies the colour of a robin's egg. European robin's eggs are cream with speckles. Presume it's intended for the American market as it's a different species over there.

Same author - flags snapping and shoes polished to a chestnut shine.

I do wonder where the editors were.

Rosamunde...

@Matildalamp

One of the main characters loses an arm, but still manages to lean his elbows on a farm gate as he watches a sunset in the last chapter. I can’t remember the name of the book!

Depends where he loses the arm. DD is missing her left arm, but from about 2" below the elbow so she can lean her elbows on a gate. Blow the elbow is the most common for congenital.

I'll put bets though there's other things that dd would roll her eyes at unless the person had close contact with an amputee.