It’s a proven fact that reading is the best hobby ever — any book-lover will tell you so. No matter your preferred genre or medium, there’s an endless supply of books to capture your interest and they can serve as everything from entertainment to distraction. It’s an overwhelmingly positive pastime, but I will admit that reading does occasionally have moments of inconvenience and even of frustration. At the end of the day, however, it’s usually not books themselves that are the problem, but external factors instead. We'll call them reading pet peeves.
For bookworms, reading can often be therapeutic and relaxing, yet there are a variety of things that are all but guaranteed to raise their blood pressure nonetheless. These reading pet peeves are pretty universal, so any true reader will likely understand the annoyance they can cause. Fortunately, most are minor, rating a facepalm or a huff of frustration. It’s only the most severe offenses that make a perfectly good book suddenly look tempting as a projectile.
If you’re a reading addict, let's commiserate over the following 15 reading pet peeves that have probably ruffled your feathers from time to time. Non-readers, please take note to avoid any of the annoying activities and occurrences below.
1. Spoilers
Is there anything worse than finding out what’s going to happen in the book you’re reading or plan to pick up next before you get there? I think not.
2. Books You Don't Like That Become Wildly Popular
It’s amazing to see books you adore get the recognition they deserve, but when books with problematic characters or storylines top the best-seller lists, it’s beyond irritating. Worse still? When film studios snap up the movie rights and you know you're going to have to keep hearing about them.
3. Delayed Release Dates
You can’t really blame authors when they have to push back a book’s release date — life happens, plans change. Still, knowing you’ve got an even longer wait for reading material you’ve been looking forward to is zero fun.
4. People Who Are Careless With Borrowed Books
I don’t think it’s too much for us to expect people to treat borrowed property well, but sadly, not everyone has learned that lesson. If you’ve ever lent out a book, only to get it back in worse condition, I feel your pain.
5. People Who Are Careless With Books In General
Even if they’re not actually your books, it can be cringe-worthy to watch someone crease their book jacket or haphazardly drip coffee over the pages.
6. Waiting For Library Books
Libraries are up there on a book-lover’s list of favorite things, but having to wait on a hold list is not. Patience is a virtue, of course, but it’s not easy to come by when there’s a story you’re dying to get your hands on.
7. Being Judged For Wanting To Stay In And Read
When all you want to do is curl up for the evening with a good book, there’s no shame. The only shame should be directed at those who would guilt you or judge you for it.
8. Movie Adaptations With Plot Deviations
Bringing a book to screen has its challenges, but when the movie adaptation takes all kinds of unnecessary liberties with the original plot, it’s enough to infuriate any fan of the work.
9. Books With Promising Starts That Go Downhill
It feels like a betrayal when the story you’re reading starts out strong, only to suddenly take a turn for the worse. All that potential, those hopes and dreams… just ripped away.
10. Being Interrupted While Reading
It should go without saying that when you have a volume in hand, you should be left in peace. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to know this unwritten rule.
11. Poorly Edited Books
A minor typo can be forgiven, but repeated errors and grammatical disasters? Not so much.
12. Purses Too Small To Carry Books
A purse is meant to carry the necessities, so if it can’t fit a book or an e-reader, it’s failing at its purpose.
13. That Moment When Your E-Reader’s Battery Dies
Even after all the warnings of low battery, it’s still annoying when your e-reader actually dies. My own device takes several minutes to power back up again whenever this happens, and on top of that, it typically loses my most recent page. The inconvenience!
14. Hearing People Say They Don’t Like To Read
Is not enjoying reading really a thing? We book-lovers just don’t get the mentality.
15. Anything That Conflicts With Reading
Basically, anything that interferes with reading — especially when you’ve reached a cliffhanger — is a serious problem.
Images: DragonImages/Fotolia; Giphy (15)
