Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Book Turn-Offs

Top Ten things I encounter while I am reading and it totally turns me off. Top Ten Tuesday is  hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.


  1. Animal Cruelty - not only do I stop reading, but the book goes into the trash or is deleted.
  2. Cruelty to children/child abuse - if it's suddenly added in, chances are it's a plot contrivance to pull at your heart strings for some reason and totally unnecessary to the plot. I'd rather not read it.
  3. Super gory descriptions - Some things are better left to the imagination and are more effective that way.
  4. Deus ex Machina - When an author solves a plot point by saying or having something miraculous occur, it's a real turn off. 
  5. A controlling love interest - Like in Shades of Gray, it just doesn't seem fun or healthy to me.
  6. Too many changes of Point of View - especially if it's all within the same chapter. It just gets too confusing.
  7. Pages of description that don't further the plot or the action.- I ran into that in a classic when I was trying to read Roughing It by Mark Twain when I was younger.
  8. Politics - Suddenly there are tons of politics and perhaps on top of that the book is getting preachy about what sort of politics the author or main character or both subscribe to, it's too much.
  9. Too preachy in a religious sort of way - Suddenly, their god is the is the only god and their way is the only right way, but in more words.
  10. Book in a series that doesn't wrap up the plot to that particular plot, but marks it as to be continued in the next book. - Series books are fine. I read series. But, the book should wrap up the plot and give you some idea as to what to expect. When they leave the plot unresolved, it's a huge turn off. If they're going to do that with every book, it's just not really an enjoyable prospect. Yes, I want to know what happened, but it's not necessarily worth the frustration.
So, what makes you stop reading a book?

3 comments:

  1. Great points. I too hate books that are unnecessarily prolonged. My TTT

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  2. I agree with all of these! Animal cruelty was my number one as well - I recently received a book from NetGalley, but I just read on Goodreads that animals die terribly in it, so I am not going to read it now. :(

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    1. Better to find out before you started it than once you were in the midst of it. I hate that. Really makes me angry when they use it.

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