Thinking About... Bookish Pet Peeves

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start with this feature on my blog. I love discussion posts! This week I'm Thinking About... 

 Bookish Pet Peeves

All readers have things they get irritated about in books. Insta-love, the love triangle, bad writing, etc. It wasn't after I had my internship at a publishing house that I could really say what got me irritated (or not liking) a book. So here's my Top 5 Bookish Pet Peeves. 

1. Grammatical errors / spelling mistakes

A grammatical error or spelling mistake can happen to everyone and sometimes you overlook it. But some mistakes are just so bad, it gets me really irritated. I mostly see the mistakes in Dutch books. English isn't my native language, so I usually don't notice them when I'm just reading. The really bad mistakes can make me stop reading a book, and it will definitely stop me liking the book. 

2. Bad writing style

If you visit my blog more often you know that the writing style is one of the most important things for me in a book. I especially admire those authors who   can write a fragment where nothing is really happening and still make you feel like you can't stop reading. I just can't get through a book with a bad writing style. I tried, and failed. 

3. Cliches

If I know at the beginning of the story what's going to happen at the end it's not a good thing. A while ago I read a book and it had a really bad writing style, so I couldn't get through it. I skipped almost the entire book to the end and I hadn't felt like I missed anything. A cliche once in a while isn't that bad, but keep it to a minimum. Surprise your readers! It makes reading more fun. 

4. Unrealistic events

Sometimes it's nice to read about things that usually don't happen in real life, but please make it realistic. If you get super powers, you can't handle them in one day. And of course the idea of insta-love is romantic, but it's not very realistic. There has to be something that makes it real. 

5. Passive characters

I could also call them stupid characters, but that seemed a bit harsh. I can't stand characters who can't think for themselves. They turn to someone else every time something is happening or has to be done. It annoys the crap out of me. Get your stuff together and start thinking and acting for yourself! 

What are your bookish pet peeves?

Thinking About... Never Ending Series

I love reading discussion posts and I finally decided to start my own! So here's my second Thinking About...

 Never Ending Series

That there are a lot of series nowadays is nothing new. That there's no way to keep up with them all sometimes makes me sad. A lot of series sound so good! But you can't just read them all. In this post I'll discuss some series I love and what number of books in series can do. 

Two. 


Personally I don't know many of these series. Actually only If I stay / Where She Went. I've only read If I Stay and that one was beautiful. I just haven't come around to reading the second one yet. 

Pro: The story doesn't end after one book. Which is a good thing, because you learn more about the MC. Although I love standalones!

Con: With only two books the series is pretty soon over. 

Three.

I think this is the most common one and I've read (or am reading) quite a few! The Hunger Games, The Wolves of Mercy Falls, The Lord of the Rings, Under the Never Sky, Shatter Me, Elemental. I could go on and on and on. I think I love this kind of series the most. 

Pro: If you ask me how many books a series should contain I would answer three. Most of the time the first and last book are good. When the second one isn't as good, it's just one book!

Con: When there are just three books publishing houses want to stretch the publications, and so the waiting begins... 




Four.

The second best number! I think the most famous must be Twilight. But don't forget The Iron Fey, Uglies, Fallen, The Sisterhood of the Travelings Pants. Just like trilogies there are a lot of them! What I like most about them is that there really can be told different stories. The middle two could dwell on subjects that aren't important enough to tell in a trilogy. 

Pro: Like in The Iron Fey there's told more in the story. That's when you make the decision to write a saga!

Con: The two middle books are sometimes just saga makers, but nothing more. The series could have been all right with just two books. 

Five.

A five book series can work, look at Percy Jackson. A different adventure for every book with one story line in all books. Or a another example: Wicked Lovely. Different main characters, but in every book the other characters also make an appearance. 

Pro: The stories can be read apart (well, at least with Percy Jackson and Wicked Lovely that's possible). 

Con: It's on the balance of a never ending series. 

Six. 

Six is after three and four the most popular number on my book shelves. The Immortals for example, The Vampire Academy or The Mortal Instruments. And yes, I'm counting that last one. I discovered it as a six books series, not as a trilogy. And unfortunately, Stravaganza. This series would have contained twelve (or never ending), but the publishing house decided to stop after book six. 

Pro: The more the better in a series you love. (And yes I'm aware this doesn't only apply for this number:))!

Con: If you read the books when they're published you could loose the story, because there so much more told. 

Seven. 

Harry Potter. (I had the intention of only saying this, but I'll say a little more). In the case of HP it worked wonderfully! I cried my eyes out after finishing the seventh book. You really get to know the characters, and even more than in other books they become your friends. For me this is also the only series I know with this number, so it just feels good. 

Pro: Can I just say Harry Potter here? The way J.K. Rowling wrote this series works really well!

Con: It's almost never ending, but just not yet. 



Never ending. 

Everything above seven is for me never ending and I must say I never stick with them. The House of Night, Gossip Girl, I just lost interest after a while. I really liked the first books of Gossip Girl, but I thought they look very much like each other. After books six I just never picked up the seventh. The House of Night is a different story: the first five books I liked, and from there it went down the hill. The story became too stretched and hardly anything happened in a book. 

Pro: You'll never have to say good bey to the characters!

Con: My experience is that the stories tend to get the same or just a bit empty. 

Undecided. 

One of my favorite series has three books now, but I can't find anywhere how many books there will come. I'm talking about Benedict series by Joss Stirling. There are seven brothers, so you would say there would be seven books, but nothing is confirmed. 

Pro: In my case I love this, because I don't want this series to end! But if you aren't liking the series very much, but you do want to know how it ends it could also be a con. 

Con: The publishing house can decide at any moment to stop the series if the it doesn't sell well enough. I hate that. It happened to one of my other favorite series (Stravaganza) and it made me really sad. 



What's your favorite number of books in series?

Thinking About ... The Reading Slump

I love reading discussion posts and I finally decided to start my own! So here's my first Thinking About...
I wanted to begin with a subject we're all struggling with: the reading slump. When I wasn't reading so much I thought I would never have a reading slump. But now that I'm reading quite a lot I have it once in while and I hate it! 
Today I share my tips for getting out of it! And if you have tips, please leave them in the comments! I'd love to read and use them. 

So here we go!




Start another book.

Put the book your reading aside and start reading a different book you're certain you'll enjoy. A reread, the next book in a series you love, or a book with an amazing synopsis! I'm a reader that always wants to finish a book before starting the next one. So, for me it was difficult to apply this with my own reading slump, but I have and trust me it works! Reading gets a whole lot more fun after that!

Do something entirely different.

Sometimes I'm just to preoccupied or stressed out to concentrate on a book. It helps me to put my book aside and do something else. A couple of weeks ago I discovered my hobby: hooping! It's a lot of fun and it empties my mind, so there's room for a whole new story. Just choose something that helps you relax, so you can start fresh with your book. 



Just start reading. 

Sometimes I'm sitting behind my computer and I absolutely do not feel like reading. So instead I'm doing stupid stuff like checking twitter every other second. Just sit down and start reading. I did this the other day and before I knew it I was 200 pages further and had finished the book I had been dreading for days!

Make time to read.

Most of the time I can read anywhere anytime. Just put a book in my hands and I'll read. This way I immediately know when I'm in a reading slump, because then I can't read anywhere.  I'm like this:

Really annoying! And not only for me, because it drives my boyfriend crazy. In a case like this I put some reading time in my schedule. I make a large pot of tea, sit on the couch (usually my favorite place) and start reading. I make sure I can't be disturbed. Sometimes I just start with a magazine and before you know it you're reading a book again!








 Don't let your TBR pile scare you. 

Once in a while I get scared if I see my TBR pile. It's so huge! And if I think about all the books I still want to read and not even own, I want to hide. So now I just take it one book at the time. There will be a time when I've read all those amazing books that are waiting on me to read them. 

For me these are the most helpful. But I'd love to hear your tips! (I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm relatively new to "The Reading Slump" and I want to get rid of it as soon as possible next time!)