Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Last weeks Top Ten was about all the things that made me instantly want to read a book, and this weeks is the opposite – book turn offs. I’ve never really thought about what makes me not want to read a book, so it was quite hard coming up with this list.
The Author –
The author is so important to me as a reader. I mentioned in last weeks Top Ten that I auto-buy certain authors but if I’ve not enjoyed a book by an author, chances are it will take me a while to decide whether I want to read another book by them.
Horror –
I’m not a fan of horror films and I’m definitely not a fan of horror books. I have tried to read horror books before, but I’ve never been able to fully enjoy them.
Giant Books –
I love a big book every now and then but when each book in a series is 700+ pages, I can never bring myself to read it. It takes me ages to get through 700+ pages so I never know if it’s worth investing the time into a series where each book is huge.
Spoilers –
As much as I try to avoid spoilers on social media, it’s impossible. So many book series have been spoiled for me that I don’t see the point in reading the book, unless I’m really invested in the story and its characters.
Over-hyped Books –
Sometimes when I see everyone talking about a book, it prompts me to read it and other times I’m just not interested. I’ve read so many over-hyped books which haven’t been that good so I’m always wary when I see it getting a lot of attention.
Negative Reviews –
I don’t tend to read negative reviews in full because if someone I trust didn’t like the book, then I know that I’m not going to enjoy it either. Sometimes I will pick up a negatively reviewed book just to see what it’s about, but most of the time I avoid them.
Long Series –
I’ve stopped reading so many books because they’ve been dragged on for far too long. There is no way that a series can continue for 12 books and still be interesting, it’s impossible. I can think of two series in particular where there are too many books, and I eventually gave up with them (Morganville Vampires and House of Night).
Multiple POV –
Some authors can do multiple perspectives so well and it makes the story really interesting but sometimes, it’s really unnecessary. It can be so confusing to constantly jump from one point of view to the other as it can be difficult to tell the difference between each characters voice. I’ll still read books that have multiple perspective, but I don’t tend to enjoy them as much as I want to.
Bad Covers –
Just like beautiful front covers can make me buy a book, bad covers can stop me buying books. I own plenty of ugly books and although I’m not completely against buying books with bad covers, it does take me a little longer to decide whether I want to read a certain book.
Cover Changes –
It’s so annoying and disappointing when a series has a cover change before it’s complete. I want my books to match! It’s especially annoying when there are height differences as it makes it more difficult to arrange on bookshelves.
As I said at the beginning, I’ve never thought about book turn offs before but it was quite interesting once I started making a list! What are some of your book turn offs?
Stuck in Fiction 
I’m bad about not finishing series, but occasionally they do it right on the longer series. One I read (IN Death by JD Robb) is over 40 books, and I’ve just recently started losing interest in it.
I feel you on the long books too. I don’t mind tackling a long one if I’ve had previous experience with the author and know its not going to “feel” like a long one, but other than that, 450 or so pages is my cut off.
Our TTT
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40 books?! That’s crazy, I thought 12 books was really long!
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I think the only really long book series I love is the Discworld series, but it’s actually multiple arcs focusing on different characters and locations set in the same world, so it doesn’t feel drawn out. 🙂 My TTT
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That sounds like a more interesting way to do a long series!
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Spoilers are the absolute worst! I’m a slow reader, and often don’t get round to reading new books or popular series for ages anyway, so I have to be so careful not to get spoiled. When ACOWAR comes out I’m basically going to avoid all social media until I’ve finished listening to the audio book, it might be three weeks (it’s a super long book and I listen on my commute) but it’s what I’ll have to do to avoid seeing anything I don’t want to, especially as it’s my favourite series!
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I agree! I understand that people want to discuss books but I really wish they’d wait a few weeks before posting anything spoilery. I’m so excited for ACOWAR!
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