Does this sound familiar? You’re deep in a book, tuning out all of the sounds around you – kids, TV, Starbucks chatter – and all of the sudden, riiiip (that’s the sound of the needle bringing the record to a halt): you’re pulled out of your happy reading place. The cause could be a misplaced apostrophe, a typo, a poorly constructed sentence that forces you to re-read once, maybe even twice. While grammar errors are the most annoying, in my opinion, there are other things that can pull me out of a book:
- Oft-repeated words or phrases
- Odd phrases such as “she pressed her lips together” or “he took a long pull on his beer.”
- Oft-repeated odd phrases. A book I read recently had every other character pressing their lips together. Do people really do this? In another book, the characters were staring at each others lips when they wanted to kiss them.
- Product placement
I think that after grammar errors, it’s the last one that bothers me the most. I find myself judging the characters for their brand name accessories – would I feel differently about a character who carries a Kate Spade diaper bag and drives a Lexus, from one who pushes a dollar-store umbrella stroller? You bet I would. Maybe this is intentional by the author, maybe not. But I found I was grateful to the author of a recent book whose character was talking on his smart phone, not his iPhone or Blackberry. It’s just enough information without using a brand name.
I also think that such product placement will cause a book to become dated much faster. Jennifer Crusie’s latest book, Maybe This Time, was set in the early 80s, and in the foreword she stated the reason for this was “just because.” But I think it would have been a completely different book with today’s technology, and I think she realized that. In order for a book to be timeless, it needs to have very few things that tie it to a specific time.
So readers, what pulls you out of a book? Do you think the recent abundance of product placement is lowering the quality of the books being written?
Nancy writes about her boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.
Oft repeated words is a huge problem for me. It drives me crazy. I haven’t noticed a lot of product placement to be honest, but I can be oblivious to it even in TV shows!
It drives me crazy too, you have to wonder if the author even reread what they wrote!
Something I read recently had so much content that identified the setting to the present that I kept wondering how it could stand the test of time. I enjoyed the story, but it certainly made me question if I would enjoy reading it 20 years from now.
Yes, I get that feeling a lot, especially in today’s age of Facebook, text messaging and portable devices.
This is silly, but I hate it when characters have the same first initial. It slows me down. If Mattei is the boss and Matthew is the husband, I have to pay more attention to words i usually skim.
I also hate product placement in books. And misspelled words will get me every time. A recent read had a French misspelling I caught too, which really bugged me–it was a very basic error, and I felt they hadn’t tried because they assumed their target audience wouldn’t know. Lazy.
I hadn’t really though about similar names, I do see how that would be confusing. And I do feel editors have gotten lazy.
I couldn’t agree more! Why do they have to choose such similar names? My daughter and I recently read a fantastic book which we both loved. But two very important (and very different) characters were named Jake and Jack, respectively. It was so confusing! Couldn’t they have picked a different name? Arrrgh!
I don’t know if I’ve noticed a lot of product placement, but now I probably will. I do think that sometimes it’s germane to the character, like carrying a Kate Spade bag or something, but in general I wouldn’t care if someone has an iphone or a Blackberry.
I’m sort of with Elizabeth. I like the names to be distinct, and especially in the beginning of a book or if there are a lot of characters, I have to think, “Now which one was he?
Yes, I do think sometimes products can be germane to the character, but it’s often way overdone. I’m sure you’ll notice it more now that I’ve pointed it out. 🙂
Numerous typos and other proofreading errors drive me crazy; the other thing that can snap me out of my reading zone is when there is an obvious mistake in the copy editing, as in a plot point that is inconsistent with something that has happened previously in the book.
Yes, inconsistent plot points or even characters. I don’t like when an author has a character do or say something that’s not at all in line with how they’ve presented that character.
Sloppy editing really gets to me and rips me right out of the story. For instance, it someone goes up the stairs they just went up a few pages back, or there’s an obvious misspelling (are instead of our or there instead of their). Just finished a short story where the main character was referred to by her sister’s name! Had to reread that one to make sure, but very annoying!
Product placement is just pretentious. I don’t really care what kind of purse someone is carrying or what brand of car they drive, just tell me the freaking store! I want to enjoy reading on my nook, while relaxing in my Laz-E-Boy recliner, sipping Lipton tea. 😉
I definitely notice product placement, or celebrity name placement. I recently read a Christian fiction book that mentioned a character looking like an actor from the Twilight movies, and that was just too much for me, mainly because the author expected me to know who the actor is and what he looks like.
It also seems that authors tend to have odd phrases that they repeatedly use throughout their books. I can’t point to a particular one at the moment, but I have read some authors who use the same thing over and over. (Much like that “pressing lips together” phrase.)
The biggest thing for me, however, is forced dialogue. I hate it when the author tries to explain something for the reader’s sake through dialogue when I know perfectly well that the characters would’ve already known about whatever was being explained. And some dialogue doesn’t seem right, causing me to throw down the book and say, “I know she wouldn’t have said that!” 😉
Forced dialogue and a storyline that seems to be cheesy.