{"id":8900,"date":"2025-01-08T22:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/petty-reasons-youve-dnfd-a-book-the-book-lovers-sanctuary\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T22:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:16:21","slug":"petty-reasons-youve-dnfd-a-book-the-book-lovers-sanctuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=8900","title":{"rendered":"Petty Reasons You\u2019ve DNF\u2019d a Book \u2013 The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Top Ten Tuesday was created by\u00a0The Broke and the Bookish\u00a0in June of 2010 and was moved to\u00a0That Artsy Reader Girl<\/a>\u00a0in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.<\/p>\n

Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics<\/h2>\n
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Good evening and welcome to another TTT. <\/p>\n

The theme this week is focused on books that we have not finished\u2026 not books that we have set aside temporarily or that we have not finished yet but books that we have made a conscious decision not to continue with.<\/p>\n

This is a tricky one for me as I do not tend to make that decision. There are many books that I have begun, not been gripped by and put aside only to return to it later and end up loving it! These might be books that I am not emotionally ready for, or I am too tired for, or which are too close to a particular issue at that moment\u2026 or a book might be too similar to a few other books you\u2019ve read recently and you\u2019re just craving something different!<\/p>\n

There are some examples however, and let\u2019s look at a few of the reasons I may have chosen or perhaps at least been tempted not to continue with a book. I\u2019ll leave it to you to decide whether they are petty or not!<\/p>\n

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The narrator of the audiobook sounded too American<\/strong>\u2026 it was an American author, writing American characters in an American setting\u2026 No, I do not understand that either! I have also heard from a number of other readers that it is a really great book!<\/p>\n

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Persistent grammar mistakes.<\/strong> One thing that really irks me is a persistent \u201cMe and \u2026 went to\u2026\u201d<\/strong> construction and my inner grammar nerd shrivels a little and whispers \u201c\u2026 and I went\u2026\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

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Flat language<\/strong> that sounds lifeless \u2013 every sentence is subject-verb-object, subject-verb-object\u2026 every sentence is the same length\u2026. every sentence is prosiac\u2026 There are no metaphors or techniques\u2026 nothing of interest. If you as a writer aren\u2019t enjoying playing with your language, why do you think the reader will enjoy it?<\/p>\n

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And the flip side of number 3, the overwrought and pretentious language<\/strong> where nary a sentence goes by without an abstruse inarticulate metaphor!<\/p>\n

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Really bad dialogue<\/strong>\u2026 stilted, unnatural, featureless\u2026 When you cannot tell which character is speaking without a dialogue tag because every voice sounds the same\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u201cThee\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cthou\u201d<\/strong> used to make a character seem historical\u2026 usually inaccurately without understanding the difference between the subject and object forms, or that \u201cthee\u201d, \u201cthou\u201d and \u201cyou\u201d coexisted and were used to indicate different registers like \u201ctu\u201d and \u201cLei\u201d in modern Italian!<\/p>\n

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Related to number 6 above, and often a feature in the same bad fantasy books, we have \u201cYe Olde\u2026\u201d<\/strong> unless used ironically\u2026 \u201cYe\u201d was never a word, it was always \u201cthe\u201d but using the now-obsolete letter thorn \u201c\u00fee\u201d which \u2013 for want of a better word \u2013 was devolved into \u201cye\u201d and was adopted by various marketing campaigns to identify something as quaint.<\/p>\n

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Marketing<\/strong> issues: the story doesn\u2019t know whether it is Young Adult, New Adult or Adult fiction. I do tend to read in and enjoy all three of these\u2026 but when you suddenly get heightened levels of spice or violence in what had felt like a YA novel\u2026<\/p>\n

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In fact, tedious quantities of violence<\/strong> might lead to a DNF decision too. It\u2019s not that I am squeamish, it just gets\u2026 tedious.<\/p>\n

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Irritating character names<\/strong>\u2026 and no, I do not think I can quantify what makes a character name irritating, but perhaps excessive numbers of characters who share similar names, or names that have unfathomable pronunciations so that, in my head, they become just \u201cAl~\u201d and B~\u201d\u2026 and yet somehow I enjoyed A Memory Called Empire <\/em>despite names like Three-Seagrass and Nineteen-Adze\u2026 Or the cardinal sins, familiar names containing arbitrary apostrophes L\u2019aura and Ch\u2019ris,!<\/p>\n

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There are of course serious and important reasons to DNF a book. The content may be triggering and I do struggle at times with that, especially if that content feels as if it is there to shock or, worse, to titillate rather than for a legitimate reasons. Rampant sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia\u2026 violence against animals and children\u2026 all absolutely valid reasons for DNFing that book.<\/p>\n

And simply the fact that there is so little time in the world and so many books to read, no one should feel ashamed or worried or guilty about DNFing a book for any reason!<\/p>\n

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Upcoming Themes<\/h2>\n

May 7:<\/strong>\u00a0May Flowers \u2014 Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers\/gardeners<\/em>)
May 14:<\/strong>\u00a0Favorite Book Quotes (You can pick your favorite quotes from books, or about books! You can set a theme like quotes from books about love, friendship, hope, etc. or you can just share quotes you loved from your recent reads!<\/em>)
May 21:\u00a0<\/strong>Authors I\u2019d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!<\/em>)
May 28:\u00a0<\/strong>Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven\u2019t Read
June 4:<\/strong>\u00a0Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About (Any emotion! Did a book make you super happy or sad? Angry? Terrified? Surprised?<\/em>)
June 11:<\/strong>\u00a0Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you\u2019d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wishes. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address or include the email address associated with your e-reader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you\u2019d like. Please don\u2019t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!<\/em>)
June 18:<\/strong>\u00a0Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List
June 25:<\/strong>\u00a0Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n