Which bits of books do you skip?

[BigDahliaFan]

Just reading another thread and Lord of the Rings came up .... I skipped over all the Tom Bombadil bits....

I like Tom Bombadil very much. It doesn't really belong in the story though.

I always skip long descriptions of plays or dances or things that have no bearing other than atmosphere.

Ds1 says he hates when a sentence uses 10 words to say what one would have just as well.

If I start skipping bits I'll stopped reading the whole book. If it doesn't engage on every page not worth my time.
Could never get in to any Hobbit books.

When characters start speaking all oooh aaaarrr. George Eliot made her working class and labouring characters do this and it's very annoying.

I can only think of two examples - both in JK Rowling books: quidditch and chat room type talk.

Both bore me ridged.

Totally agree, I always skim past lyrics and poems, they’re pointless and irritating in novels.

If I don't enjoy the first couple of chapters I skip the rest of it with a clear conscience.

Yes to skipping lyrics and poems, except the not all those who wander are lost bit in LOTR.

I didn’t like the farming parts of Anna Karenina. I tried to read them but my have skipped a few pages!

JK Rowling does this in 2023. It feels so patronising.

Les Mis would be a marvellous book without the page long insertions on the Napoleonic wars or french sewer systems.

If there's a fight scene or a battle scene I usually skim read it.

Oh god, yes - Levin and the bloody harvesting! All farming, trains and quite often stories within stories eg AS Byatt (or even worse, the bits about snails in the fourth Frederica book).

Overly violent or gruesome description. Most sex scenes, more out of finding them boring, normally poorly written than anything else.

I agree with dreams and also anyone recounting a fable or a fantastical story that is in some way meant to be an allegory of what’s happening in the main plot.

When cats or dogs are hurt 🤦🏽‍♀️

Anything in italics, usually poems or songs, just not interested.

I read the Jean m auel clan of the cave bear series, so much italics, also I think could have made a spear thrower by the end of the series. Lots of stuff was repeated in those books!

Poems, songs, lyrics, verse

If you are reading a thriller than you really, should read the prologue!

I hate it when people put long letters in a book. I always just skim read them. I love descriptions of settings but hate long descriptions of nature and the countryside.

I skim through battles too...unless there's a reason for them being described in detail - like in Mary Renault or Song of Achilles.

Best description of a battle ever is in a Georgette Heyer novel when she describes the battle of Waterloo. I normally skip them as well but not this one. It was actually on a suggested reading list for Sandhurst Military Academy due to her brilliant description of not just the battle but the Waterloon campaign in spring 1815.

pointless parallel stories in italics

Same. Also sex scenes (boring, add nothing, often cringe), and the Newspeak dictionary bit in 1984.

Anyone read The Nine Tailors? there's a bit in it that is crucial to solving the murder but is so arcane I skip it (knowing who dunnit anyway). Why her editor didn't tell her 'damned ingenious but you're going to lose your readers with this and they're going to skip it, Dot,' I don't know. It really smacks of her having done all this research she didn't want to waste.

Same with The Attenbury Emeralds. I've read it several times and still get lost with all those emeralds.

Definitely hate reading the back cover!! Often gives you a spoiler that's actually quite misleading.

Yes, yes!!

I was thinking maybe if it contained an important plot/character point but I can't think of one incidence where it does. If it contains a rape scene, Girl With a Dragon Tattoo being one, I worry about the author's intentions for the graphic detail. I'm sure the Larson would have justified it as giving an unflinching insight into the trauma suffered by Lizbeth but I still don't think it's necessary.

Was it also written in Latin @MrsDanversGlidesAgain?