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What readers hate most in books — from dreams to italics

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What readers hate most in books — from dreams to italics

Feb 10 2023

Writing in the Washington Post, Ron Charles reports that "a few weeks ago, I asked readers of our Book Club newsletter to describe the things that most annoy them in books. The responses were a tsunami of bile. Apparently, book lovers have been storing up their pet peeves in the cellar for years, just waiting for someone to ask."

Here are some of the things he amusingly reports as being irritating to readers:

  • Dream sequences
  • Historical anachronisms and factual inaccuracies
  • Typos and grammatical errors
  • Mistranslations of foreign phrases
  • Overused words
  • Excessively long books and descriptions
  • Italicized passages
  • Lack of quotation marks on dialogue
  • Gratuitously confusing timelines
  • Unrealistically clever children or talking animals
  • Disabled characters who exist only to provide treacly inspiration
  • Women who need rescuing
  • Explicit sex scenes and gratuitous violence

Source: The Washington Post

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