Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

**Posting early because I will be traveling. Feel free to respond any time

This is the opposite of last month's question. What is your Kryptonite - that is, something you can't stand that will stop you from picking up a book, or if you are in the middle of it, will cause you to quit?

Thanks to Tracy for this suggestion!

anything rapey. automatic dnf.

Writing that insults my intellignce, especially, an overuse of trite metaphors.

I don't really ever DNF books once I start them.

But I am not a fan of fantasy/scifi so I will skip books with dragons, wolf-like creatures, vampires and such on the cover

A bad cover

Anything that turns violence against women into romance - like falling for your stalker or marrying your kidnapper

Same Meg! Also, I cannot stand books that have incorrect grammar, incomplete sentences (looking at you Vince Flynn!), super Evangelical crap, and anything too right wing.

Third act conflict that could have been solved if the main characters had one (1) conversation with each other.

It is the laziest way to cause a third act conflict and honestly, most books that try to pull this don't need one. They could easily end the book and nothing was lost.

I hate books where someone is writing a book. I think it’s a lazy and overdone trope, which is very rarely done well. It really puts me off starting to read it.

I agree with you, Lindsay. Unless the book writing is a central point of the plot, it really doesn't contribute to an overall story.

Other things that will turn a book into a DNF for me:

- too many characters or POVs
- parallel storylines that don't eventually connect
- boring filler - long sections or descriptions that don't advance the story
- weird similes and metaphors
- characters that I simply can't root for

(Wow, I guess I'm pickier than I thought)

Liz, there are a couple of things on your list that are on mine, or are at least close (my first two points):

– a long list of characters at the beginning. At first you'd think "this is helpful", but for me, really, that's just too many people to connect with or keep track of mentally.

– not having at least one character I can root for. I didn't realize this until I was reading a book this summer and found that I just didn't care about any of the characters and saw how that affected my enjoyment of the book. Unfortunately this is something you usually don't find out about until you are well into a book.

– open door romance

– too many battle/fight scenes: I don't like this in movies either. I just get bored

– annoying speech patterns (this is one of the reasons I really did NOT like The Catcher in the Rye

– plot points that are too obviously there just to allow something else to happen, that aren't woven in to seem like they are otherwise important to the plot. I think I found this in Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.

– writing that is just TOO simplistic

Robin P wrote: "*What is your Kryptonite - that is, something you can't stand that will stop you from picking up a book, or if you are in the middle of it, will cause you to quit?."

What is my kryptonite? I don't have a hard and fast list, but it has been growing over the past couple of decades. If I had time, I'd do a play on the sonnet, How do I love thee, let me count the ways, which is what came to mind when I was going to answer this.

But I make exceptions for some things if books are funny to me--humour is subjective--but never for open-door romance and certain other things. Some things I don't like in other books (such as plot points designed to make other things happen) help the book be funny. Also if there is a strong reason I want to read it or I'm being too competitive in a reading game, but even then I dnf some. Most of my biologically related family is competitive with game playing and/or sports to one degree or another.

This is why I play almost no competitive reading games and I am pleased that we can be creative here. Rest assured that I will be very creative when it comes to a haunting book next year--it will be a book I find haunting and NOT something paranormal.

I don’t like books with too much cursing. If I flip through the book and the first word I see is f***, that will usually turn me off. Some is ok, especially if it’s used humorously, but it can be too much for me if it’s in the dialogue constantly.

Liz wrote: "I agree with you, Lindsay. Unless the book writing is a central point of the plot, it really doesn't contribute to an overall story.

Other things that will turn a book into a DNF for me:

- too ma..."

You hit home on a few additional things that I agree with, Tracy. Open door romances aren't for me either. I read many romances way back when I was young(er) and now I have no interest in them anymore.

I also agree that books that are written too simplistically can also be a slog. I need some level of mental challenge, lol.

I don't like (most) character-driven stories, usually because I find them full of overly descriptive or "flowery" language, which is a turn off for for me in any book.

I also have to have a character I can root for.

I don't mind a ton of characters in a book, but if there's going to be a bunch of people, then I *need* a list in the front. Likewise, if you're going to be very detailed about a place, then include a map! Especially if it's about a place in history that I would have a hard time looking up on my own. Historical NYC is probably easy enough to find a map, Historical Middle-of-Nowhere, not so much...

But I rarely DNF, so I usually push through most annoyances.

Tracy wrote: "Liz, there are a couple of things on your list that are on mine, or are at least close (my first two points):

– a long list of characters at the beginning. At first you'd think "this is helpful",..."

I thought I was the only one who found fights boring, same with car chases in movies.

Robin P wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Liz, there are a couple of things on your list that are on mine, or are at least close (my first two points):

– a long list of characters at the beginning. At first you'd think "thi..."

Same (re: cars) — I just didn't think of that because I don't recall any car chases in any of my books. But given the choice, I'll take a car chase over a battle/fight scene any day!

For me, it's female characters who are "not like other girls". Whether any woman, real or fictional, chooses to care about makeup, fashion, etc etc is up to her, but I'm just so done with female characters who are disdainful of traditional femininity. It's especially irksome to me because a lot of writers seem to use it as a shortcut to "strong independent female character" and it's just not effective.

Some of mine:

Book described on the cover as “gripping” or “chilling”
Torture or extreme violence
Too Stupid to Live heroines who go alone to meet a killer
Detective’s wife/child/lover captured or threatened by villain
Educational material inserted into a book, for instance in a historical novel, having a character or the author give a lecture on the time and place
Fake dialogue like, “as you know. . “ . If they know it, why say it ? It’s a lazy way to do exposition.

Type-face or paper quality. It can make the book uninviting to read!

100% it's animal abuse!!

I rarely stop reading a book.

I am getting tired of mysteries/thrillers that reveal the killer too early and then devolve into a survival story of how the female protagonist gets away from the killer. A page or two is fine, but some books waste 5 chapters on this. I deduct a star from it for making me read this.

It's unusual for me to DNF. More likely I won't even pick it up in the first place if these elements are involved:

- dragons
- the title is fiction that includes a person's full name
- the title is fiction that is some riff on "The Last Day We Saw Him," "The Last Thing He Said," "The Last Time He Wrote," etc--I can't keep them all straight, it feels like they reproduce on their own when my back is turned
- characters whose names could also be new psychopharmacology drugs, see also: romantasy
- books with too many (three or more) straight cis white dude characters
- the typical boring white guy with mommy issues kills pretty ladies murder thriller & only this badass detective who colors outside the lines can stop him
- anything that seems like it might have a rousing & unironic "This...is...our Independence Day!" speech in it

Other than that, I'm pretty open. I love unreliable narrators, moral ambiguity, anti-heroes, & having no one to root for. I don't mind animal death or plot-appropriate child abuse. I can handle gore & tedious philosophizing. I can even handle bad writing as long as it's not TOO unbearable. Just please rein in your white straight dude character count & eliminate all dragons.

I usually don't DNF a book, but what I least enjoy in books are when there's too many rabbit holes which stopps the story to move forward.

Ciara wrote: "characters whose names could also be new psychopharmacology drugs, see also: romantasy."

Lol, I was just having this discussion with my sister. Why is it that these fantasy novels always have characters with weird ass names 😂? I also tend to avoid fantasy books. I just find it hard to keep up with names, places, lore, etc and have always preferred novels set in the real world.

I don't dnf books as I've gotten better at picking ones I know I'll enjoy, but if I see the synopsis includes any of the following, I won't be picking it up:

-fiction involving actors, musicians, celebrities, or others in the entertainment industry. I find these characters entitled and hard to relate to, and if I don't care for the characters or their problems, chances are I won't like the book

-professor/student relationships. It seems like every campus novel includes this plot point and I'm tired of it. It's such a cliché. Plus, I used to be a teacher so this trope just gives me the ick.

-smoking and drug use. This won't necessarily lead me to dnf a book, but it just annoys me when characters do this, like I can just smell the smoke emanating from the page. Drug addiction has claimed the lives of people in my extended family, so it's not something I like to read about so casually in books.

-I also typically avoid domestic thrillers as a genre. I initially was into them because they were page-turning, but once you've read some, you’ve basically read them all. Grew tired of the same recycled tropes and multiple plot twists meant to outdue previous ones in the same book

With that said, I am open to picking up books with any of these elements if I hear a lot of positive buzz about the books or if I like the author or writing enough to look past it.

If the blurb says, "Jenny had the perfect life. Then one day. . ." I will put the book back on the shelf.

Dual timelines or WWII.

Bad editing!!!!! It's what I do for a day job, and therefore it pains me when I see it in something I've paid for. The number of books I read that could have been so much better with say 25-30pg of filler or repetition removed (for a 300-350pg book).

I don't often DNF books, but poor editing automatically loses a star from me, and I have occasionally abandoned books because they were so badly written and edited that I couldn't bear it any longer.

I also have no time for books where there isn't a single character I like or care about. Those do get DNFed a bit more often. I need someone to root for!

Robin P wrote: "If the blurb says, "Jenny had the perfect life. Then one day. . ." I will put the book back on the shelf."

LOL same!

For me, it's animal death. I usually won't put the book down because I'm really bad about not wanting to DNF a book under almost any circumstances, but I will go to great lengths to avoid it. If I stumble across unexpected animal death, it definitely impacts my rating of the book when all is said and done!

I just looked at my DNF shelf which is very small, only 0.3% the size of my read shelf. I can see the reasons are:

- violence and gore - sometimes I can handle it, sometimes not, depending on my mood
- nonfiction I hoped to enjoy/find useful but it's boring/not useful
- book I picked up for a challenge then realised it wouldn't fit.

Gaslighting or bullying. I can handle a little, but I just don't want to put myself through that even second hand and knowing that the MC is going to triumph in the end. And why is bully romances a trope that is popular enough to exist?????????

Saccharine Christianity - don't get me wrong I am a committed Christian but these books don't - in my opinion - portray the reality

Slavery stories or any where whipping is used as a punishment also turn me off