Book/Reading Pet Peeves

[Pixilated]

Truly awful grammar. One of the very few books I never finished was a travel book -- autographed, no less. It was rife with really basic grammar errors. Perhaps the author didn't know better, but wasn't there an editor involved somewhere along the line? (And if there was, he or she should have been fired.)

I've heard that Ray Bradbury was once asked when he planned to update Fahrenheit 451, by which the questioner meant exchange some of the male characters for female ones. Bradbury is supposed to have nipped that one in the bud with no hesitation.

I'd like to also throw in a vote for glaring historical inaccuracies.

[Dave1982]

Encountered another one yesterday that I'd forgotten about.

I hate how many print magazines have multi-page ads thast don't have freaking page numbers on them. I don't want to have to thumb through several pages just find out where I am in the magazine. And in this particular case (it was the latest issue of Time Magazine) an alarming number of pages of actual content had no page numbers either!

Seriously, it should not have to be this difficult to find the article I want. Just put page numbers on every page - including the ads - so people can find their way through the stupid thing.

And on a related note, why can't the table of contents be on the first page, right inside the cover? I know some magazines do this, but this one didn't.

[fireheart]

Sex scenes that are so unrealistic that it's not funny.

While we've already covered the lube/positions thing, I'm referring to other examples.

Some people tend to think that having sex with a woman at ANY time bareback will get her knocked up. Alternately, the idea that you can drink her breastmilk when she's 8 months pregnant (yes some women do leak, but they're leaking colostrum NOT breastmilk).

[Andara Bledin]

Along with the ridiculous/unrealistic sex scenes, one of my major peeves in both writing and art is bad anatomy.

I can't even begin to explain how jarring it is to have a scene running along in my head only to come to a point where it is physically impossible for a character to be doing what the author has them doing. >_<

It's bad enough when I assume a person is facing one direction but is actually facing the other way (doing something with left vs right hand), and that's not really anyone's fault.

^-.-^

[depechemodefan]

1) The author has become batshit crazy. Anne Rice, for ex. I think INterview with the Vampire was a great book. Then she writes Lestat books, which are different, but I liked them. That's fine she changed things. But then she writes her other vampire (and witch) books. Vampires having sex. A hermaphrodite vampire turns a guy by getting the guy to bite his dick. Uh, what? In the Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Ramses, the Egyptian Pharoe, is transformed to a blue-eyed dark hair guy who sounds like one of People's most beautiful people.

Also part of batshit crazy is Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake stories. Much like Anne Rice, the first story was good (though almost being raped by a huge rat: ugh) but then the latter stories are just insane.

2) Just for the paycheck. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. They started with the Butlerian Jihad. I got into it but it took me a while to realize how bland the books are. They just stick interresting things in but it just has no style. Someone with a better critical eye can discribe it.

3) Couples change. I think to keep the tension, since a couple, who for a few books can't get together, finally get together, then the tension is gone. I guess the best ex. I can think of is the Snookie Stakehouse books. She's with one vampire, then he had sex with another vampire to protect Snookie (or the other vampire was higher up the tree so he coudn't say "no") so Snookie gets mad. I can't remember exactly what happened but still seems stupid.

Fifty shades of chicken? I see there is also Fifty shades of Bacon.