I saw Jamie talking on Twitter today about the Top Ten Tuesday for this week. Today's topic is Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves. I loved the topic so much that I knew I had to participate this week! I don't participate regularly, but this one was too fun to pass up! Head over to The Broke and Bookish, where this meme is hosted, to see what annoys everyone else!
This is a dangerous topic though, because it means that I have a perfectly legitimate excuse to have 10 mini-rants. So, brace yourself. These pet peeves are in no particular order, but some are more severe than others. Can you guess which ones bother me the most?!:
1. Books in a series that change cover art, style, size, shape etc mid-series. If you are going to change anything about the way a series is going to look, change all of it or change none of it. Nothing bothers me quite so much as realizing it's impossible to have a matching set of books. I get that the inside is more important than the outside. But, when the books are lined up on my shelf, I'm not looking at the inside, but I'm stuck with the unmatching outsides, and it pisses me off every time I have to look at it.
2. Stickers on my books. Really people. Are you kidding me. They never come off, and they look gross. So, just stop it. Now.
3. When two characters experience the Instant Love. Bleh. That doesn't happen. I have no problems with instant chemistry, because attraction (lust) happens. But this ridiculous, I've only known you for one day, but I love and I would die for you is just not okay. You can't truly love someone that fast, so quit trying to shove that crap down my throat. Give me a real relationship, with development first please, before trying to convince me that my heroine should run away to the ends of the earth with you.
4. On a related note, I'm beyond tired of these girl characters who overlook or offer blanket forgiveness for their boyfriend's bad/manipulative/abusive behavior because 'he loves me'. Guess what honey... I'm calling your bullshit. When someone loves you, they do not treat you like dirt, try to control your life, or do things deliberately that they know will hurt you. They just don't. So grow a pair, dump him and move on. And writers, please. Stop giving us stupid, insipid female characters who let their boyfriends walk all over them. What kind of example is this to set to the YA, both male and female?!
5. Dog-earred pages, and deliberately cracked spines. *shudder* It hurts me.
6. Movie Art on my BOOK cover. I HATE YOU! I completely, totally and utterly despise movie art on the cover of my books. AND, I will judge you if you purchase it/make statements that you like it.
7. Movie adaptations. A little piece of the book's soul dies so Hollywood can produce that garbage. It makes me sad inside.
8. Book series that turn into The Land Before Time, aka The Never Ending Story. Umm, authors — I don't care who your character(s) is(are), what they do for a living, or what fantastical realm they live in. No one, and I mean no one has life or story interesting enough to captivate or interest me for 22 books. Or 15 books, or 10 books. No one. Stop while you are ahead, and let the poor characters rest!
9. The following conversation, or any variant of it, really gets my book hackles raised: (me) "Hey! Have you heard about THIS BOOK?!" (them) "Oh ya! That is such a great book! I loved it!" (me) "You've read it?!" (them) "Oh, no. I just watched the movie."
10. Books that try to trick me into believing they are a different genre. I abhor it when my Contemporary/Realistic Fiction suddenly out of nowhere becomes Science Fiction/Fantasy. Oh hello completely normal girl who can now suddenly communicate telepathically with dolphins (and people!!). I hate you. Run along and die now.
So there you have it folks. Those are my Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves. I feel it necessary to add that I did not make much of an effort in censoring myself, or sugar coating how I felt. Partly because these things do genuinely annoy me and this post is an excuse to rant about them, but also because it's 3:30 in the morning here, and I'm too tired to be more modest in my speech. Can't wait to hear what gets your angry on.