Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Pet Peeves

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is Bookish Pet Peeves. Oh, I have so many bookish pet peeves. But I usually don’t think about them unless I’m reading a book that makes me think of it. So this list was hard to come up with and it might not cover every bookish pet peeve I have, but it’s a start.

Unmatching book covers: Most people can agree that it’s so annoying when a series switches book covers partway through and then they don’t release hardcover editions of the new covers for the previous books. It’s just a mess. I understand why they do this, but it’s the worst.

When a synopsis doesn’t match the story: Do you ever read a book synopsis and then sit down to read the book and it’s not really what you expected? Yeah, me too. I’m not blaming the author on this one because that’s all on the publisher, but if I’m picking up a book because of a synopsis, it should match.

When a synopsis doesn’t start until 100+ pages into the story: I also really hate when a book synopsis reveals information that doesn’t happen for pages or gives away too much of the story. Like why is the plot of the book based on the synopsis happening after I’ve already read 100 pages. That is way too long for a beginning/introduction.

Deceiving covers: Books that have covers that don’t fit the genre/plot/story are annoying.

Bad audiobook narrators: Look, you’re an audiobook narrator. You should be good at your job. If you’re not, why are you getting paid to narrate this book?

No chapter numbers: This is one of the rarer ones, but I dislike when books don’t have chapter numbers. How am I supposed to reference what happened in said chapter if I don’t know what chapter it is?! This is especially a headache when you read a book for a book club where everybody has different version of the book and you’re trying to find a specific passage.

Readers thinking 3-star reviews means the book is bad: I’m 100% blaming Goodreads for this because I’ve seen so many reviews where people are like “Well, I’m only giving this 3-stars *sigh*” Three stars is not bad! Three stars is above average! Even on Goodreads, 3-stars means “I liked it.” So if you didn’t like it, you should be giving it 1 or 2 stars. Ahhhh!

YA books about young adults, not teens: I’m really tired of young adult books being about 18-22 year olds. New Adult needs to be a thing or young adult should be for older readers and teen books should be for readers in high school. I don’t know what’s the right move, but the publishing industry needs to hurry up and identify the problem and fix it. I do not want a 12 year-old coming to the library and being excited about teen books and picking up something that might be a little too mature for them. Nope. No.

When standalones become series without warning: I don’t know about you but I like to know before starting a book whether I’m committing to a series or not. I realize, again, this is a publishing thing. Some authors are contracted a single book with potential for a series but they aren’t greenlighted for sequels until they see how the first book sells. But it’s obnoxious to find out that standalone book I read actually has a sequel and then find out a year later there’s a third book coming, etc. I want to know now!

Unnecessary sequels: Maybe I just like standalones a lot, but it’s annoying when a standalone gets a series because 1. it’s popular or 2. publishing trends like everybody gets a trilogy or everybody gets a duology. And then the sequels aren’t as good. Sometimes books just need to be a standalone and that’s okay. Not everything needs to be a series.

I apparently have a bigger problem with the publishing industry than books, but whatever. What are your bookish pet peeves? Don’t forget to join the link-up!