Things I hate in books

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Bat Macdui
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Re: Things I hate in books

Post by Bat Macdui »

Flora Poste wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:35 am I also really dislike lengthy discourses on the history or philosophy of something in the middle of an otherwise decent story - see Moby Dick (fucking whales), Daniel Deronda and Tolstoy :mad:
Iain Banks' more rubbish books did that. Dead Air was a long rant loosely hung on a couple of characters. I forgive him a little now, mainly because he's dead and I miss him and would LOVE another Iain Banks, even if it did have a polemic about capitalism in the middle of it. :cry:

I also swerve anything where reviews say 'experimental prose style'. Just fucking use language. Well. :lg:
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Squirrel
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I agree with so many of these! Especially padded and croissant :lol:.

My children love the books by David Walliams (which I think are pretty rubbish) and he always uses “the boy”, “the man”, “the woman” etc. Once I started noticing it, it’s everywhere :twitch:. The boy looked up and noticed a bird out of the window. The woman put her gloves on and headed towards the door. The man got into his car and drove away.
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Pippedydeadeye
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I’m really annoyed by DW basically now owning children’s fiction.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Pippedydeadeye wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:31 am I’m really annoyed by DW basically now owning children’s fiction.
It is a bit much really. Every celeb and their dog thinks they can write kids fiction, mind you. Cat Deeley was on The One Show flogging hers this week.
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Turtle Bean
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Re: Things I hate in books

Post by Turtle Bean »

Frank bloody Lampard writes children's books.

I like books with short chapters switching characters. They are easy to read.

I also really hate experimental writing, I couldn't read the one about Cromwell due to the weird way it was written. I don't feel like I should have to keep rereading to work out who is saying what.
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Morganna
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Turtle Bean wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 2:10 pmI also really hate experimental writing, I couldn't read the one about Cromwell due to the weird way it was written. I don't feel like I should have to keep rereading to work out who is saying what.
Yes! Wolf Hall was such a disappointment, as I love books about the Tudors and the story worked so well on the TV, but the style of the book was dreadful.

I love this thread, and am mentally going through all the 'hates' and finding my own examples :dh:

It seems so long since I read a whole book that I'm struggling to add any ideas of my own. Lockdown has robbed me of all concentration. I'm another who hates an open ending, though, and I don't like working out a twist before the end.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Pippedydeadeye wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:31 am I’m really annoyed by DW basically now owning children’s fiction.
Yes! I don't mind his books (in that I haven't read any, but the stories seem good) but the marketing to the obliteration of any other authors is annoying.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I actually really like the David Walliams books (for the boys) but celebs trying their hand at writing is another thing that I really dislike.

I also hate anything too graphic like violence or sex. I just don’t need that level of detail.
Cerise wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 8:00 am
Amy and Isabelle?
I’ve checked and it was called Laura and Emma. I really enjoyed it but the ending was so WTF it changed how I felt about whole book as it made me so cross. :lol:

I’m pretty sure Ella read it too.
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Smunder Woman
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I generally agree on the celeb children's books, but David Baddiel got Joe reading :))

Oh, I think I gave up on Laura and Emma, but I can't remember why.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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T loves The Person Controller so I might see if the library has any David Baddiel books. (Unlikely)
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Leap wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:19 pm In actual books, much like dream sequences I don’t read fight sequences either. Game of Thrones was utterly dull for this. Pages and pages of oh it looks like he’s winning but surprise it’s actually the other one. YAWN. I lost absolutely nothing skipping to the end.
This totally!

I also hate that, in children's books, everyone is male, even animals and imaginary characters. It's totally outrageous in this day and age. In the Gruffalo, there isn't one female character. Why can't an owl or a fox or a snake or a mouse or a Gruffalo be female? I switch round the pronouns when I read but it's quite effortfull.
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Squirrel
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Yes I’ve thought the same. The Gruffalo’s child is female though :)).
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Kenickie wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:35 pm I also hate that, in children's books, everyone is male, even animals and imaginary characters. It's totally outrageous in this day and age. In the Gruffalo, there isn't one female character. Why can't an owl or a fox or a snake or a mouse or a Gruffalo be female? I switch round the pronouns when I read but it's quite effortfull.
I hate that too. Roger Priddy books are worth checking out, especially the Playtown ones (Emergency, Things That Go etc). They are really equal opportunities and I've even clocked a same sex couple in the detailed pictures, plus they are just really good books. I also hate when books say fireman or policeman and correct it as I read out loud.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I was pleased about the Gruffalo's child but everyone else is still male in that one!

I'll check out Roger Priddy, thanks. I keep meaning to do a thread about it as it's driving me mad- the fireman/policeman thing too. I was really surprised by it as I thought things would have moved on by now.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Oh, and also, I had a conversation with my mum about this and said that I switch the pronouns so that the characters are female instead. She was like 'that's ok if you're reading to Topsy but you need to make sure there's plenty of male characters when you read to Tim'. As if he's not going to have plenty of exposure to the male default etc.

It's loads of children's songs too. :verm:
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Squirrel
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I’ve got quite a lot of books from my childhood and things have definitely improved but not by bloody much! It’s been 40 years FFS!
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Dáire
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Kenickie wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:35 pm
Leap wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:19 pm In actual books, much like dream sequences I don’t read fight sequences either. Game of Thrones was utterly dull for this. Pages and pages of oh it looks like he’s winning but surprise it’s actually the other one. YAWN. I lost absolutely nothing skipping to the end.
This totally!

I also hate that, in children's books, everyone is male, even animals and imaginary characters. It's totally outrageous in this day and age. In the Gruffalo, there isn't one female character. Why can't an owl or a fox or a snake or a mouse or a Gruffalo be female? I switch round the pronouns when I read but it's quite effortfull.
I never thought about this until I had a kid and put on CBeebies. I became quite surprised at the default males. You sort of don't notice at first, and then when I had a daughter I did, a bit more, as she wasn't really interested in any of the shows. Mr Maker, Mr Tumble, Big Cook Little Cook, Bing, Hey Duggie, Peter Rabbit, Raa Raa the Lion, Old Jack's Boat, Andy's Adventures... in others, you've got central males (Octonauts) with side-character females who support them. Charlie and Lola, Abney and Teal and Nina and the Neurons I was cool with because the female characters actually did things that drove the plot, not just hanging around supporting the main's stories. It reminded me of that old publisher's rule - girls will watch/read anything, but boys won't watch/read a girl. Well, who bloody taught them that, then?

For me, I wanted T to see just as many shows with female main characters as male ones, and instead it was a steady diet of the classic male-main/female side-kick types that I'd grown up with in the 90s. I didn't want him internalising this idea that if a female led the show, it was somehow unusual.

When A came along she didn't really enjoy the shows as much as T had and didn't really have a favourite. She liked female characters a lot but I felt I couldn't show her any. She ended up watching more slightly older stuff and things we downloaded - Teen Titans Go, Miraculous - and now is way more into the Netflix animations (Legend of Kipo, Avatar, The Dragon Prince) which feature not just one, but a whole host of "main" characters, whose gender is irrelevant but are far more defined by their personality and their actions.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I hit peak rage at the utter sausage party that is children's media with Paw Patrol - BM used to keep asking me "Where's Skye? Where's the girl?“ until I snapped and told her the show was sexist trash and that's why there was only one girl and she was hardly in it :lg:

I used to switch pronouns in books too and when she was old enough to notice she'd start asking about it so I told her the truth: there were too many male characters and it wasn't fair.
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Re: Things I hate in books

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Kenickie wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:58 pm Oh, and also, I had a conversation with my mum about this and said that I switch the pronouns so that the characters are female instead. She was like 'that's ok if you're reading to Topsy but you need to make sure there's plenty of male characters when you read to Tim'. As if he's not going to have plenty of exposure to the male default etc.

It's loads of children's songs too. :verm:
It's so normalised that (white) boys and men will miss out if they are not the overwhelming majority and default in everything, wherein women and girls are used to having to imagine themselves in most roles (or don't imagine themselves in certain scenarios/roles at all) due to an overwhelming lack of representation.
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Turtle Bean
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Re: Things I hate in books

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I now have a new thing to be enraged about. Bloody men. Everywhere, like cockroaches.
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