What kills a book for you?

[benham]

Those last 3 fit Lee Child to a T.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by benham

Those last 3 fit Lee Child to a T.

[DiapDealer]

Those last 3 fit Lee Child to a T.

I don't know about all three of those, but even fans (which I am) have to admit that his political views have been starting to get more of a voice in some of the later novels. I'll just ignore it until I can't.

I'll give you the third too, but I console myself with the fact that I know I'm not stupid.

But the first of those last three? Just not relevant to Reacher.

[benham]

Reacher is the most "never wrong" character I have ever read. I don't see how that applies to Rapp at all. Ah well, to each their own.

[anabolina]

I hate when I can't get into a book. It's really unusual for me to not finish a book within a few days. If I'm still beating my head against it a week later, I usually decide it's not worth my time to continue and move on to a more interesting tome.

Oh yes and annoying characters I want to slap. This was a big problem in the Twilight Series, but I finished it anyway since all the women it my family and even my Dad read them.

Killing off characters I'm rather fond of doesn't really kill books for me, but it can kill any desire I have to read future books by an author. I'm thinking of a Kay Hooper book I read last week.

I like fantastical elements, but agree that I really don't care for words and names with lots of apostrophes.

I should note that I like sappy books and adventure books and read mainly SF, Fantasy, Romance, and Mystery with the occasional classic, childrens, or young adult novel or historical nonfiction thrown in and almost never read thrillers or literary fiction.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by benham

Reacher is the most "never wrong" character I have ever read. I don't see how that applies to Rapp at all. Ah well, to each their own.

I don't think you have been reading the books closely enough. He always makes a mistake or two - that's one of the things worth looking for in the plot.

[benham]

Originally Posted by orlok

I don't think you have been reading the books closely enough. He always makes a mistake or two - that's one of the things worth looking for in the plot.

I quit after Nothing To Lose which I thought was a hack job of a story, especially after Bad Luck And Trouble which may have been his best effort up to that point. The reason for quitting, though, was his responses to readers who disagreed, or took issue with, some things in those two books. I have beat that horse to death so suffice it to say, if you enjoy reading Reacher, that is fine and dandy.

[DiapDealer]

The reason for quitting, though, was his responses to readers who disagreed, or took issue with, some things in those two books.

This is exactly why I choose to know nothing about the authors I read... except what they choose to publish. I don't want to know anything personal about them. I've got a lot of favorite authors and I don't want to have to give one up because I read an interview and found out one of them might be an a-hole in real life. Why chance it?

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I was surprise NOT to see listed things like:

1) Bad spelling
2) Bad grammar
3) Incorrect word usage

If the story is only so-so, these will kill it for me, of course, but I think there's a vast overestimation of the importance of these points. If the story is good, most people, I find, will put up with an awful lot of bad spelling, grammar etc. Of course they'll comment, but the story will hold them. That's why you picked it up after all.

Originally Posted by VydorScope

What do you all think? What kills a book for you? Long drawn out sex scenes do it for me. I would prefer something like "they spent the night in each others arms" and then move on.

Well, there's a lot of difference between long drawn out and eight words! I can take a bit of titillation, but I agree, too long, and you're reading porn. Mine are usually a (longish) paragraph. And not too many of them in a book.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by James_Wilde

If the story is only so-so, these will kill it for me, of course, but I think there's a vast overestimation of the importance of these points. If the story is good, most people, I find, will put up with an awful lot of bad spelling, grammar etc. Of course they'll comment, but the story will hold them. That's why you picked it up after all.

I agree, and if you read my first book you could find some typos that were not spotted to after release. My editor (aka my wife) is still upset about them. She thinks she will get it prefect... and probably puts double the hours in editing that I put in writing the silly thing.

Well, there's a lot of difference between long drawn out and eight words! I can take a bit of titillation, but I agree, too long, and you're reading porn. Mine are usually a (longish) paragraph. And not too many of them in a book.

True, but its easier to show a point with extremes then it is with gray areas. I personally go with 1 or 2 sentences tops... I have finished books with to much in them, for example the Dark Fever series. I read the first book, good writing, wonderful story... but the primary character kept having to deal with a "death by sex" fae. Really? You could not come up with a better villain then that? I finished the first book, and left the series.

[benham]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This is exactly why I choose to know nothing about the authors I read... except what they choose to publish. I don't want to know anything personal about them. I've got a lot of favorite authors and I don't want to have to give one up because I read an interview and found out one of them might be an a-hole in real life. Why chance it?

You are right, I should have stayed off his forum.

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This is exactly why I choose to know nothing about the authors I read... except what they choose to publish. I don't want to know anything personal about them. I've got a lot of favorite authors and I don't want to have to give one up because I read an interview and found out one of them might be an a-hole in real life. Why chance it?

I feel the same way but for different reasons. At least with fiction authors. Non-fiction is a different ballgame and I might well travel an hour to hear a non-fiction author speak about a subject that interests me such as mechanical phonographs. But writers of fiction are better off to stay away from corny nonsense like book tours and constant self-promotion, which to me simply comes off as irratating. There's a lot to be said for creating a mystique for the author by keeping him out of the public eye. It makes people more curious about them, whereas book tours and interviews take away all the curiosity and make the author appear mundane and run-o-the-mill.

[crich70]

1) Bad spelling
2) Bad grammar
3) Incorrect word usage
4) long stretches of narrative about the setting (I had this problem with "Valley of Horse's" by Jean Auel
5) Problems that are easily resolved but aren't til the end of the book. A simple misunderstanding for example that could be cleared up easily, but which keeps characters at odds.
6) A plot that's too thin for the book (not all plots are created equal).
7) A storyline that's too obvious.
8) Not being consistent with story rules. If it's established a genie can only grant 3 wishes the hero shouldn't be able to get out of trouble by making a fourth wish.
9) Stupid Villains. I mean we know the hero will triumph in the end, but it shouldn't be too easy for him.
10) Incorrect details. I don't mean having a few insignificant details wrong or an author taking some liberties with a real setting to make his/her story (Stephen King did this in The Stand with some real settings I understand) but the kind of errors that are the result of not doing proper research. For example if someone wrote that their character was speeding down the road at 110 mph (according to their speedometer) in a Delorian (ala back to the future) I'd question their research because I understand the speedometer on a Delorian only goes as high as 85 mph. Of course a lot of errors like the 1st 3 are caught usually by editors.

[selina4books]

Besides bad story there are three that do it for me: bad grammar, bad formatting, bad or non-existent punctuation. I read three books of a series and although I bought the last two (bought them all at once) I will not be reading them. The author has absolutely no idea what to do with a comma.

Also long descriptions of stuff that has nothing to do with the story, like what she was wearing just randomly stuck in the story ("I slipped on khaki slacks and the white lace cami I had picked up on sale last week"...no bearing on the story AT ALL and WHO CARES?) and what she was cooking (I cut the chicken into finger sized pieces and dredged it in flour then browned it. Then I added tomato sauce...blah blah...WHO CARES? They weren't even recipes. Just vague descriptions). Those things drive me bananas. And they make me stop reading.

[cjr72]

For me it's stiff unnatural dialog between the characters. If I keep thinking people just don't converse with each other like that it doesn't matter for me how compelling the story line is.