Our Top 10 Bookish Pet Peeves
"Pet peeve: When someone assumes that when you are reading a book, that you are 'doing nothing' and therefore can be interrupted. Repeatedly."
We all know that reading is the absolute best hobby one can have. It is not only entertaining but can be educational and stress-relieving! No matter what genre moves your fancy, there are always an endless amount of books you can choose from! Can all other hobbies say that??
If you are a reader, then you know there are some habits or occurrences that really make you grind your teeth and roll your eyes when it comes to you and your reading! Who wants to be interrupted when enraptured in a story? Who wants to see a beloved paperback treated unkindly? We sure don't! Check out our top 10 pet peeves that just rub us the wrong way when it comes to us and our bookish ways! We feel that these are pretty universal, but they ruffle our feathers no matter what!
1. When Someone Talks To You While You're Reading
We bet we aren't the only ones who hate when this happens, and boy does it happen way too often! If we are in the middle of reading (and we swear we always get interrupted when we are getting to a really good part!), and you start talking to us, we promise we did not catch the beginning of what you said. And if you keep going? We are not going to fully listen to you. You are interrupting us reading! Do you want us to interrupt your video game playing or football watching? I don't think so! At least wait for us to finish the chapter, or even page!
2. Poor Editing/Grammar in a Book
We get it. No one is perfect or catches every little misspelling or grammatical error if they are reading the same pages over and over again while editing. A couple errors is excusable... But when we are reading a book that just has grammar error after misspelling over and over again, it takes away from the story! How can you truly enjoy what you are reading when you have to interpret what is actually trying to be said?
3. Friends/Family Careless with your Borrowed Book
Do you have a person in your life that you would rather do anything else than let them borrow one of your treasured books because you know that it might come back just a little more destroyed or damaged then you would like? We don't think it is too much to ask that someone you lend a book to treats it well! If you have lent a book to someone that came back in a condition you weren't expecting, boy do we feel you there!
4. When the Movie Changes the Book Plot
This is something we have run into so many times! Why do movies feel the need to change plot points from the book? If the book is popular enough to turn into a movie, then the original plot is what so many people want to see! If you are a book lover, you all know that we want the movie faithful to the book!! (Sixth Harry Potter movie anyone?!)
5. Having to Wait for Library Books to Become Available
We love finding ways to save money on books (check out our 7 Money Saving Hacks for Book Lovers) and borrowing books from the library is one of the best ways to do so! However, having to wait for a book to become available (whether it is a hard copy or an electronic copy) is torture! Especially when the wait time is like 10 weeks! What are people doing? They aren't reading whole books in just a handful of days like we do?? We know...it's a great lesson in practicing patience but waiting to see how a cliffhanger turned out? Not cool!
6. Promising Start to Books that Sadly Goes Downhill
We have all been there. We found a book where the plot summary sounds fantastic, and the beginning of the book has sucked us in. Then, all of a sudden, plot actions aren't making sense, or where the story is going is completely out of left field, and we are left more confused and even more annoyed than ever. It starts out so strong, and then just quickly rolls downhill at a fast speed. It is so hard to continue with the story when you feel so disappointed.
7. When Your E-Reader Battery is Low or Dead
Now we know this has happened to a few of you...you are so sucked into your book that you get a warning of low battery on your e-reader. What do you do? Finish the page or chapter you are in...or hunt for your charger? And if it completely dies on you?? The nerve of having to wait for just a little charge so that you can read it while it charges...the time moves so slow. Such an inconvenience!
8. When Someone Doesn't Like Your Favorite Book
So if you don't like our favorite book, do you still like us?? Isn't this the feeling that we all get when we share nonstop details of why you love your favorite book and how you cannot recommend enough that your friends also give it a try? They do...and they just don't get your hype. Ouch!! Can we still even be friends? Just kidding! It is very annoying when friends don't enjoy our favorite book, especially because you feel like you can't talk about it afterwards, but oh well! Enjoy your favorite book! Someone else in the world likes it too!
9. Book Shaming
How can people be happy with themselves when they book shame someone?! Reading is reading people! No one should judge or comment on the genre of books someone likes to read. Reading is for pleasure; it's a stress reducer for some, a mind reliever for others, a hobby for most. Most book shamers seem to be those that feel reading should only be for intellectual, knowledge building reasons and not for pleasure. If someone wants to read only romance, let them. If others only like historical nonfiction novels, let them enjoy it. Recommend a book, but do not get offended if someone is just not interested in what you like to read. Reading is for fun people!
10. Pretty Much Anything That Interrupts Reading Time
We are book lovers...you know all we want to spend our day doing is reading! Why do we have to be adults and work for hours upon hours in a day when that time can be more useful (and beneficial to us, hehe) spent reading through our TBR lists! No one wants to have to stop reading right at a cliffhanger to go socializing with friends, go to work, or anything else that could possibly be less entertaining than reading.
Are any of these pet peeves on your list? Do you have some that we haven't mentioned? If you’d like to see what we are reading now, check out our Goodreads profiles (Kelli and Chelsea) or follow 2 Girls Bookin' It on Instagram and Facebook! If you’re excited to see what other topics we’ll be covering in the coming months, make sure to subscribe. Thanks for reading with us!