The other day as I was looking through one of the many book newsletters I subscribe to, I came across an interesting article reprinted from the Washington Post titled “What Readers Hate in Books”. It was a collection of pet peeves from book lovers. As avid readers, we all have annoyances that crop up while we’re immersed in a good book, so see how many of these ring true for you.

Most of the peeves are fairly common: excessive violence, gratuitous sex, punctuation/grammar errors (having recently read an e-book where “trying” was written as “crying” several times, I completely agree with this complaint), historical inaccuracies, italics, excessive profanity, and long blocks of text without paragraphs.

Other peeves included overused words, long descriptions, characters with similar names, and female characters who need rescuing (totally concur with this one as well!) What’s the number one peeve? Dream sequences!

Along with pet peeves, readers also have their own personal preferences and “deal breakers.” Merriam-Webster defines this as “someone or something that prevents a deal or arrangement from being fulfilled.” In reader’s terms this would be a storyline or character trait that would mean not finishing or recommending a book or perhaps not even reading it in the first place. For some readers, it could be a time of historical adversity such as Nazi Germany.

For others it is violence against children, animal cruelty, serial killers, long epic tales with multiple characters to keep track of or apocalyptic stories that feel a little too close to reality. Some readers hate non-fiction, others will only read that genre.

It’s not just readers but librarians have their own pet peeves. At the top of the list are books returned with food stains and books that have been positioned face down so that the spine begins to break.

But there is also “Book Joy.” This is that magical moment when a patron finds the perfect book, whether it be a new author or genre. These discoveries make a librarian’s day and reaffirm the library as a special place.

Holly Howze is the branch manager for the Ripberger Public Library located in Kenbridge. She can be reached at lcplsbooks@gmail.com.