40 Annoying Literary Moments That Drive Readers Up The Wall: As Shared By The Bored Panda Community

It gets to me when I'm reading a novel with a character smokes three packs of cigarettes a day and never coughs once in the whole book.

And then there are the scenes in which three or four people have a serious discussion which lasts for four or five pages, and everybody's coffee stays hot until the last line.

I get most of my books from an online website, Quotev. You can write and publish books there. I sure have my fair share of books on there. I hate it when I find a book I'm interested in, but the grammar is terrible! Run-on sentences, the paragraphs aren't separated, incorrect spelling, and no punctuation! It's physically painful to read.

I don't like when any novel starts to be focused on romance more than the actual story. Romance is an okay aspect, but that doesn't mean it should take over the plot of book that isn't under the category of romance.

When a famous writer has a book published only because they are a famous writer, not because the book is good or worth reading. Far too many examples to mention.

In a multi-book series, taking up most of a chapter catching readers up on the last 20 or so books. You can't get to the new story for having to reread the old one. Again.

When stories just stop. There’s no proper ending to the book, it’s like the author just got bored and gave up. The amount of times I’ve read a book that I’ve been really enjoying and at the end, the writer has just thrown anything together to end it. It’s incredibly unfulfilling and frustrating.

When the author changes something that was kind of major. For example, say the main character was in a fight, and it mentions that he/she gets a bad cut in the side, yet three paragraphs later, the author goes on describing a nasty cut on his leg - never even mentioning his/her side cut.

I work at a library, and if a book's author's name is larger than or above the title on the spine, know that I personally want to hunt down and punch whoever at the publishing house made that decision

When the author uses the character's name a lot instead of using pronouns. I just read a book that used the name at least 7 times in a 5 line paragraph instead of using pronouns.

When the "hero" refuses to kill the villain or wait too long and they escape. Like, really!?

I hate it when I read a story and the author writes: "this is relevant later." Yeah, no way, duh! If it's irrelevant to the story, it should be edited out.

I think what the author conveys when they include that is: 'I am the only smart person, and everyone else is an idiot that I have to tediously explain everything to'.

When characters all have similar names and descriptions, I keep getting confused. Or when they have a male hero whose personality is about being buff, female characters who are just there to look pretty.

Not giving a reader all the clues needed to solve a mystery. Don't cheat, you can write a good mystery or you can't.

When the author loses track of where what is. This is usually hands, arms, feet, background items, anything really, etc. It happens a lot, more than it should, and I know things get edited, but you need to keep track of continuity. I've read a book where they lost a whole dang character between two paragraphs.

They were sitting on the far left couch laughing silently at so-and-so, then two paragraphs later, they're climbing in the window with people welcoming them like they just got there and no mention of the person on the couch because it was the same person.

It is also a big issue in steamy books I've found. You lose track of what is where, and some things just aren't possible. I've checked the Kama Sutra - it agreed with me.

Changing the look, style, size, colouring, text direction, font size part way through a series.

Unnecessary details. Imagery and figurative language adds depth to the whole novel, but when it’s goes on and on and doesn’t end up contributing to the plot, that’s when I start getting bored of the book.

Using glasses as props. I hate it in books, movies, and real life because people have enough problems without a necessity being treated like a piece of decoration.

I don’t like when authors of fantasy novels feel the need to describe the qualities of a certain race every time that character appears. Like, you don’t have to mention that the elf is “fleet of foot” every time they do something.

Novels written in the present tense. So annoying. First thing I check for when browsing books in the library or bookshop.

What happened to actual chapters? Current fiction seems to have chapters of 2-3 pages. I grew up reading Dickens, Dumas and other classic writers. The chapters were dense and long but worth the read. I feel this is pandering to the "short attention span" of the current generations, maybe it makes people feel good about themselves that they read 5 chapters ???? I just feel like the current best-selling authors are phoning it in, some writers have series where the sex scenes between the hero/heroine are exactly the same from one book to the next (I'm talking about you, J D Robb) If you can't come up with something interesting and different, just skip it. That's what I do.