Book Peeves

I am currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke which is all about magic. While in no way directly responsible for the following, it got me to thinking of all the things I don't like in novels. So here's a list:

- when it is boring, despite a fascinating premise

- when it is set in historically inaccurate times

- when it is unnecessarily long

- when it fails to satisfactorily tie-up loose ends

- when the author writes about a subject on which he knows little about

- when it misrepresents or doesn't do justice to something I love

- when it is cheesy or overly romantic

- when the book is too heavy to read lying down in bed

- when the information about the author is either a list of all their publications or far too short to do any good to anyone.

- when the dedications are sappy

- when the drawings a poor. There is nothing worse than bad artwork.

Some of these are due to incompetence. But most of them are due to the biggest flaw an author could ever possess: pretension. If there is one thing I despise, it is a pretentious writer.