Biggest trurn-offs or pet peeves in books?

My favorite reading is the American Private Eye novel. The Lone Wolf private eye (as Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective has been labeled) is a great combo of detective work and suspense that is often coupled with observations on the state of modern society. What I don't like (whenever it happens):

1. The case is solved by luck or coincidence instead of deduction (this applies for any kind of mystery, for that matter). 

2. The tendency in new private eye writers to want to combine the private eye with the sub-genre "the crime novel" or that newly named genre "the thriller" (best example, Jack Reacher). The novelists feel like they have to add some kind of "action" scene at the end, after the killer is revealed - a chase, a shoot-out, or a race against time, for example. I always just breeze through that material quickly to get to the final chapter.

Ah, I should have known, but you're a fan of Pronzini's "Nameless" too, mikef6 ? It's such a great series. With my fondness for the locked-room mystery, I particularly like '81's Hoodwink, but I don't think I've ever read one that I didn't like.

As for the OP... I tend to get annoyed at the now-popular trend of pseudo-philosophizing, in books or movies. This is when the author thinks that he's being smart by bringing up a complicated issue or point in a book that doesn't exactly warrant it, but then does not or cannot follow through on it. It's pretentious and annoying. (Certainly not my only issue, but that one came to mind.)

I have been reading Bill Pronzini for nigh onto 45 years now. I had already been knocked out by his stand-alones “The Stalker” (1971) and “Snowbound” (1974) before I turned to the detective series. In book #6, “Labyrinth” we find the first cover that says “Starring the Nameless Detective” (maybe no one had noticed before then that the first person narrator had gone unnamed) and the first time a newspaper story refers to him as “the last of the lone wolf private eyes.”

“Hoodwink” is #7 and features not one, but two, “impossible” murders. “Hoodwink” won the very first Shamus Award given by the Private Eye Writers Of America for Best Private Eye Novel. One of the best. The very next book, “Scattershot,” also feature “impossible” crimes – three of them, all unrelated, hence the title.

Other of my favorites are #12 “Quicksilver,” #13 “Nightshades,” #18 “Shackles” (a masterpiece even if it falls more into the crime/suspense sub-genre), #22 “Epitaphs”, and #26 “Sentinels.” I have read through #38 of 46 books but my notes stop with “Sentinels.” Going to have to re-read those I haven’t written up. Been meaning to for a while.

#inexplicable endings or continuation of a book...
Misery, the character Misery created by Paul Sheldon. she dies [?maybe?] in childbirth but returns due to her seeming to be dead due to an allergic reaction to [?maybe?] a bee sting[?]
okay, so this I think information is from the movie adaptation, I don't remember what Stephen king wrote but I will revisit the book soon to see. internet bing leaves a lot to be desired.

however I loved secret brother -- a vc Andrews book about how Corey from the flowers in the attic book apparently survives his poisoning and is taken in by a rich family.


#I just found a book about how to solve a sudoku puzzle. what? someone wrote this? someone backed this? someone published this? someone sold this? someone bought this?

#I guess [as I have to finish the book] not ending a book series when it is time.
I absolutely loved the first two books in the mirror sisters series [vc Andrews] which are both worthy of lifetime movies, but the third one, I am having a hard time getting into. the first one was pretty good with the weirdness of the stepford mother and the copycat twins, one being nice the other being a psycho. the second one was amazing as it broke from character [the psycho one at home] to character [the nice one who was being held captive] and I was beside myself waiting for the third installment.

#when Hollywood bastardizes an otherwise awesome book... there is no way an out of work alcoholic would be able to afford daily train tickets to grand central station! the book took place in England and things are differently.

#historical inaccuracies when it is a historical fiction. and I don't mean, taking a real life diary of someone and whipping it into an interesting story but blatantly lying.

#glossing over history. same thing with historical inaccuracies in Historical fiction... so many books on marie Antoinette for example never really delve into WHY she was named madame deficit. [no one needs 178 new dresses in one year!]

#out of character characters... using an unpublished fan fiction as an example... you have to know your character. [this is based on a fan fiction] the professor from Gilligan's island is a highly educated individual who had a nearly excellent grasp of the English language. you can't have him saying 'me and the skipper'. Gilligan will say that so that is okay but not the professor and surely not Mr Howell!

also, with a real life book, interestingly also based on Gilligan... GIlligan's wake... the author delved into the professor's bachelorism as being gay. fuck you. he was a gentleman. fuck off.


# how does she do it? books. really? the Martha steward of parenting is starring in a book. snore. and fuck you.

# overly describing the radomist and least interesting object for no reason.
j.k rowling devoted how many pages describing a freaking doorknob.

#NOT describing enough. books need to be convincing. you need the words the draw a picture in your mind as you read them.

#factually describing. so and so likes riding his bike. instead, weave the description into the story. 'and most tragically, so and so was not able to ride his bike, his favorite thing to do on a sunny Saturday!'

I didn't even know I was somewhat spoiled in a sense with books. I picked up a few books from Amazon and noticed I didn't like books with no chapters, index, or prolong It makes me wonder if the others by the same guy will be the same way. I really don't like not having a chapter to stop at. I tried reading a book on the kindle app on my phone, and hated it. My eyes were bugging me. I think I'm going to stay old school and just keep reading the paper backs as long as I can.


So my peeves
No chapters, Index, Prolong, or about the author.
Books on Kindle

The biggest turn-off/thing that will make me stop reading a book is animal abuse/torture/death. I was reading a book not too long ago, which I was quite into...except for the fact that the main character had a dog and wasn’t very nice to him. I let that slide, though, and kept reading...but then the dog got kicked and injured (not by the owner, but by a villain character).

Nevertheless, I continued on. However, I was about to give up when that same scumbag who’d kicked the dog earlier then cut off the majority of the poor animal's tail. Once it got to the point where that same scumbag killed off the loveable dog (the *best* character in the whole book), I’d had enough. Especially since it wasn’t just the dog-killing which infuriated me, but the fact that his owner was "forced" to leave him behind to get killed – it was just too much.

I stopped reading at that point (though I did skip ahead to the part where the scum who’d killed the dog got their comeuppance) and returned the book to the library. Any books with that^ sort of thing in them are an immediate turn-off.

When subplots get solved right away or not elaborated at all.

1.  When people color outside the lines.

2.  When Clifford the Big Red Dog keeps breaking stuff because he is so big.  Emily Elizabeth needs to give that dog gracefulness lessons.

3.  Why can’t that man in the big yellow hat ever keep control of his monkey?

4.  Postmodernism.

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Hmm
I too can't stand poorly edited books with lots of typos. Thanks to spellcheck modern books should have very little spelling errors. However word swaps are more and more common due to spelling being correct but the grammar and sentence structure not being checked.

Books that start the page numbering after all the front matter pages... then the story starts and you are already on page 7.

Poorly bound books that make reading difficult. When odd publishing errors happen like the text is tilted or the pages were cut dangerously close to the text, the text falling into the gutter (center of book). When a page corner gets cut strangely with it folded in, then when you unfold it the corner has excess paper now outside where the page edge should be. Text effected by pages getting creased or folded during part of the printing process.