Reading peeves

[DopamineHits]

1 - I hate it when several characters in a novel have the same name. I know books like Wolf Hall can't help it as they were real people, but I'm halfway through One Hundred Years of Solitude and please, not another Jose Arcadio... There are twenty two Aureliano's! I know only five of them are main characters, but I'm getting confused!

2 - I don't like irregular page edges, like the ones on the Puffin Chalk editions and the Little Women Penguin Classics Deluxe edition. Not a good feature. I don't know the name for them but why make it harder for readers to turn the page?

3 - Trends that really outstay their welcome. For instance;

"The stamp collector of Auschwitz."

"The stamp collector's ex wife's niece, and other women who are only described in the title in relation to a man and his profession, for some reason..."

"Romeo, and Juliet the stamp collector: a Shakespeare retelling (because we exhausted all the fairytales by now we think but we're checking again, don't worry.)"

@BlusteryShowers

Where the author has a favourite turn of phrase that they use over and over and over.

I forget which book it was but the author seemed to describe everything "like so many..." . It got really bloody grating.

It might have been Little Fires Everywhere but I'm not sure.

Oh God, yes this! I read a book called Bunny which was bad for lots of reasons but the "like so much white icing", "like so many tears" was nauseating.

@BlusteryShowers

Where the author has a favourite turn of phrase that they use over and over and over.

I forget which book it was but the author seemed to describe everything "like so many..." . It got really bloody grating.

It might have been Little Fires Everywhere but I'm not sure.

Yes,definitely - I mentioned this up-thread (and very much worth mentioning again)

At the time I'd forgotten the word that Mary Shelley used many times in Frankenstein. It was 'countenance'. I've even gone as far as checking its usage - 48 times - and its not a particulrly long book.

(If i'm honest I found that answer on reddit - someone had asked the question and whoever replied looked i up in an ebook!)

"Overstuffed furniture". WTF is that?

@ImaSababa

"Overstuffed furniture". WTF is that?

Exists in fiction only I think.

It's usually used to depicted someone is 'posh' doesn't it.

Usually someone who’s trying hard to be posh i think?

Never seen any book feature under stuffed sofa’s

I am not a native speaker and I looked up this term while reading a book - it is a genuine type of furniture - you can order it online. My granny had things like that.

So it is!! Imagine all those years of reading it I'd never looked it up. On top of that I'd always imagined it was hard and uncomfortable, not the opposite as it seemingly is!!!