Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Pet Peeves

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Bookish Pet Peeves.  I almost skipped this topic because I just couldn’t imagine that I could come up with ten things that really annoyed me, but man, once I got rolling, I surprised myself as to how many bookish pet peeves I actually do have.  Some are related to books themselves, but more are related to my interactions with other people while I’m reading.  (Side note: Excuse the awful photos.  I took most of them myself and did it late at night with no time to properly stage or edit).

My Top 10 Bookish Pet Peeves

 

1. Series covers that don’t match.  I love to collect hard copies of my favorite series, but I absolutely hate it when I end up with mismatched covers.  The one pictured is my own fault honestly because I ordered the wrong cover for the first book and have yet to go back and replace it, but I will do it at some point because it bothers me every time I look at my shelves and see that mismatched book, lol.

 

2.  Stickers on books.  Seriously, why is this even a thing?  The only thing worse than the sticker itself is that even if you can manage to get it off without tearing the cover, you end up with ugly, sticky gunk everywhere.  To borrow a phrase from Marie Kondo, this does not spark joy.

 

3.  When all of my library holds become available at the same time and there’s no way humanly possible to get them all read before they’re due.  Again, my fault because I always have the maximum number of holds allowed, but still annoying…

 

4.  Movie or TV Tie-In Covers.  I don’t even know why these bother me so much but they always do, haha.  I guess I just typically prefer the original cover that was designed for a book.

 

5. People talking to me while I’m trying to read.  I can understand walking in the room and starting to say something before realizing that I’m reading, but if a person then continues to talk, assuming that what I’m doing is worthy of being disrupted?  Just NO.

 

6.  When I lend people books and they either don’t return them at all or take forever to return them, and/or they return them damaged.

 

7.  People who ask me why I love to read so much and then proceed to tell me all of the reasons why they hate reading.  Why do they think I care?

 

8.  Love Triangles in Books.  I’m sure there are plenty of authors out there who write them beautifully, but I still just usually get annoyed by them.  I’m looking at you, Red Queen.

 

9. Insta-Love in Books.  Even though I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for romance during the pandemic, I’m not quite a romantic enough to believe in Insta-Love so it typically annoys me when I come across it in books.

 

10. When my cat sits on my book or kindle while I’m trying to read.  No, not really, I actually think it’s hilarious, lol.  I just couldn’t think of a real pet peeve for number 10 so I figured I’d share a pet instead. 🙂

 

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Question:  Do we share any bookish pet peeves?

34 replies
  1. Angela
    Angela says:

    I generally do a pretty good job of managing my library holds, but there are always those times I mess it up and like 5 or 6 books come in a time – oops! My husband always seems to need me to proofread something for him right when I sit down and open my book, but I guess I can’t get too mad because I try to talk to him while he plays video games!

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Yep, I keep ending up with about half a dozen holds at a time. I try to get through them all but it’s pretty much impossible, lol.

  2. Jonetta (Ejaygirl) | Blue Mood Café
    Jonetta (Ejaygirl) | Blue Mood Café says:

    Were you in my head while crafting this list??? I loathe the movie tie-in covers, don’t understand why people think reading is something you can easily interrupt (my hubby talks to me when my headphones are on!) and love triangles drive me mad. No one who knows me ever disses reading around me anymore because they fear my 10-minute tirade. So, that peeve has been resolved😏

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      I think I need to go on a tirade about it too because I have a few non-reader friends who love to mention it every time I see them, lol.

  3. Tanya @ Girl Plus Books
    Tanya @ Girl Plus Books says:

    Yes to so many of these! Mid-series cover changes are the worst. I mean, just why?? And stickers on books? Criminal. But what bugs me even more than adhesive stickers on books are imprinted ones that advertise a celebrity book club. Ugh! Hate that. I purposely have refrained from buying a physical copy of Daisy Jones and The Six because they all have a stupid Reese’s Book Club sticker/label imprinted onto the cover. Boo hiss.

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Yes, I almost mentioned the celebrity book club ones. I have the Daisy Jones book with the Reese label and get mad every time I look at it, lol.

  4. Lisa
    Lisa says:

    I also get annoyed by tv/movie tie-in covers. I have one on my shelves. Les Miserable. I also hate when I either buy or can only find a series in different formats. (First 4 books paperback, next 2 only available in mass paperback etc.)

  5. Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads
    Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads says:

    Haha, love the last “pet” peeve 🙂
    I have the same problem with the Ember in the Ashes series, almost every size and cover design is different and it bugs me so much. Stickers are also so annoying, as are people talking to me when I’m reading!

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Mismatched series books drive me crazy. I think one of my Ember books is also paperback while the other 3 are hardcover. Don’t even know how I messed that up, lol.

  6. Cindy Davis
    Cindy Davis says:

    Stickers, interrupting my reading, and love triangles…yes!!! Since I rarely buy a whole series I have never really noticed cover discrepancies, but I can see that being a problem! I also struggled with #9 &10, thought your pet comment was funny!

  7. Lark
    Lark says:

    I share so many of these same pet peeves! I hate when all my holds come in at once, and it happens more often than it should. And people who don’t return books…I hate them, too. And I put love triangles on my own TTT list this week. 😀

  8. Michele
    Michele says:

    I swear, I could put two books on hold, one with a 2 week wait and the other with an 18 week wait, and they will inevitably come up to borrow at the same time. Extremely annoying!

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Yes! Happens to me all the time. Last time it happened, it was 5 or 6 books that I thought I had spread out nicely based on the wait times. It was such a fail, lol.

  9. Greg
    Greg says:

    Movie tie- in covers are almost always bad! There are a few exceptions, but generally… yeah. And I hear you on mismatched covers. Ugh.

    #5 – yes lol. And haha pets seem to love books too. they must the way they lay all over them!!!!

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Yeah, I’ve probably come across one or two that weren’t bad but most I can’t stand, especially if they also have the network sticker on them like for Netflix, Hulu, HBO or whatever.

  10. RS
    RS says:

    #3 is a great one. I’m grateful our system lets you pause holds (while still moving up the list until you’re waiting in first place), otherwise I think I’d lose my mind if I had more than about 3 hotly-anticipated requests in at once!

    #10 is ADORABLE…and dang, that makes me realize I should have reserved a number for the critter from Tanith Lee’s unicorn books, Tanaquil’s literal pet “peeve.” (I didn’t even know of the expression when I first read those books!)

  11. ShootingStarsMag
    ShootingStarsMag says:

    Love the kitty, and the David mug!
    But yes, don’t talk to me while I’m reading!! LOL
    And I hate stickers on books unless they are really easy to pull off. Otherwise, no.

  12. Sam@WLABB
    Sam@WLABB says:

    OMG, yes! How is it possible that all the holds have a different estimated number of weeks until available, and then they all come through at the same time. It’s the worst.

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      It really is! I always think I’ve done a great job of spacing out my holds based on the estimated wait times and I fail every time, lol.

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