What puts you off of reading a book?

[Ruby Slippers]

A friend of mine recently recommended a book to me so I looked it up online, and as soon as I saw the phrase 'purple prose' I just knew it wasn't for me! I also went to the author's website and the photograph of him reinforced my distaste! What is guaranteed to put you off reading any particular book?

[Phantom]

Don't actually know what "purple prose" is, but I personally don't want rape, blood and gore. In fact, really I can take that if it's part of a good plot, but don't want to "relish" all of the gory details. I like a good adventure and who done it though!

[Horus]

According to Wiki, Purple prose is used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader's response.

My own personal dislikes are any books that use lots of characters with names I cannot relate to, often in futuristic type books, so we get stupid names like Zograth from the planet Glotlstop. I usually get myself utterly confused by all these charcters and just give up reading any further, I hate having to try and figure out what a Sith Lord, a Hobbit or a Jabba the Hut is actually supposed to be.

[Phantom]

Thanks, Horus, purple prose is defining telly a no no. I do like the Sith and Jabbas in film, but wouldn't have the patience to read about them though. I'm with you on the names though. I loved the Swedish books, but got very lost on the place names and characters.

[Horus]

Tell me about it, just trying to keep up with all those names in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ was bad enough …………………….. and that was an audio book!

[LovelyLadyLux]

I didn't know what Purple Prose was but I highly doubt I'd like that.

Mostly I enjoy reading biographies and memoires along with some mysteries and thrillers.

I quite enjoyed the "Girl" triology but it was super hard relating to all the different names! I endured as I enjoyed the books but I know that I will NOT read on re: Siths, Jabas, Abadabas etc.

I read a few Stephen King novels once but soon came to identify that his style of writing seemed to be formula writing - following the same style so I never read any more. Not at all interested in reading fictional love stories, horror stories, occult, sci-fi, old western stories........

I'm also put off reading a book if the intro is boring. I guess I like my attention being caught and held and if I have to 'work at it' I'll probably put the book down and move on to another.

[Horus]

I get put off by titles whether that be a book or a film, as soon as I see a title I make a judgement, not the best way I know, but I could never settle down to watch a film called "About a boy" "A river runs through it" "Love actually" I just know I will hate the film. Now if the title is "The road to Perdition" "Things to do in Denver when your dead" it will grab my attention, I just suppose I am extremely shallow.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Ok - I'm shallow too I can also be put off by titles. I'm so shallow I can actually be put off by a books cover. Like a crow I'm attracted to the red & gold high gloss type book covers where the colours seem to call to me. They actually DO whisper - look at me! read me! Psssst - over here I got a good story to tell.

And - on the topic of covers - here (sometimes) when a book becomes second hand the front cover is ripped off. Even if the story is one I've wanted to read I will avoid these books as ripping off the front cover makes the book unbalanced in the hand especially if it is a paperback. This makes the back of the book start to break down and I have to hold the book open with my thumb which requires effort - AND even as I'm typing this I'm thinking for heavens sake LLL are you that weak that you can't hold a book open BUT YUP I AM! It is difficult or annoying - not sure which - to read a book without a front cover so even though these sell cheap cheep cheap I avoid 'em.

NoW that I'm a Kindle reader I can easily see the 'star' rating and ranking of electronic books on the Amazon site. I rank the books by the number of 'stars' they have and by the number of readers who have ranked them. I person giving a book a 5 star rating doesn't necessarily sway me into reading it. I honestly do not even look anymore at a book that has less than 4 stars. Since this rating and ranking has become so easy I use this almost exclusively to choose what I read.

Just remembered - I'm immediately turned off by a front cover on a book that has that Italian fellow - Fabian? in a stylized pose with a woman

[Grandad]

I have never been a 'reader', just don't have the patience; but if you put in front of me something like 'The Great Victorian Engineers' or 'The History of the Potteries' I would study them with enthusiasm. So non-fiction is my thing.

Mrs G on the other hand is an avid reader. Two things put her off a book immediately are, small print,(she reads quite fast and print size is important), and what she calls 'I' books, those written in the first person that she just will not read.....bit of a fetish I suppose.

Following on from 'Purple Prose' she did buy the paperback of Fifty Shades of Grey, the first book of a trilogy. And that she found utterly boring and didn't even get halfway before casting it aside.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I didn't realize I was such a picky reader 'til this thread - but font size is also important to me. Small print - in a book - will also put me off - not a problemo with a Kindle

Also - IF I've seen a movie and the movie is top notch and one that I've thoroughly enjoyed I will typically NOT read the book. Course this works the other way too - IF I have read a book (i.e. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy) that I've enjoyed I will not, in all probability watch the movie. I've found that sometimes what I've really enjoyed in a book is totally destroyed by a movie version and vice versa. The only except being "Gone with the Wind." Loved the book and loved the movie.

Not sure if others are the same. If you read a book that later comes out as a movie do you specifically plan to go and see this movie OR ???

[Horus]

I tend to go the other way, often after reading a good book I like to see the film, for example would any of the Lord of the Rings books conjured up in your mind the fantastic creatures and action portrayed in the films? or even a Harry Potter book? which I would never of dreamt of reading as a book.

[LovelyLadyLux]

As a child I lived and breathed the "Chronicles of Narnia" and the characters I created in my mind never compared to the movie version(s). Have to admit I have never completely read "Lord of the Rings" nor have I ever read or watched "Harry Potter" (although I have seen snippets of Harry). Rowlings has a terrific imagination.

IF the book is really good I prefer to live my own mentally created version to Hollywoods version.

These days I live in a world of "Bob the Builder" and "Thomas the Train." The twins have the complete collection of Thomas books and LOVE having them read to them. They know each and every 'train' by name. They also love watching Thomas on TV.



If there is any type of vehicle picture on the outside cover of a book the twins want it read to them.

[Ruby Slippers]

Mine is 'Alfie' books, LLL!

[LovelyLadyLux]

Just thought of something else that puts me off reading a book and that can be 'who' (celebrity-wise or politician-wise) might recommend it.......

[HEPZIBAH]

I'm put off books that are 'over hyped'.

Since I've got the kindle I find I've been downloading loads of free books - they do about 10 free ones promoted on Facebook each day - and many of those are definately not books that I would have bought or even borrowed from the library.

[Horus]

Talking about Kindles or not, as the case may be, I have just figured out the in's and out's of downloading them for free via the local library. The usual restrictions apply regarding the amount of books you may loan and the availability, also there is the usual time limit of 21 days. The only downside so far is that you cannot do it using a Kindle, but other readers that use the epub book format are OK.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Wasn't that long ago the our local library (well the library in the USA I used) started to allow downloads to Kindle. I'm inclined to think that in the near future LOTS of other libraries will start this as "E-readers) become more and more popular.

@Hepzi - I download LOTS of free books from Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com - HOWEVER - that being said I ONLY download those with 'at least' a four star rating by 'at least' a dozen other people. I'm able to rank books in different categories and I do do this however prior to downloading I do tend to look not at what is just being hyped but what others think of this. I am however 'stung' sometimes in that I'll get a book with a high rating but it just darn well isn't that good. "Remove from Device" is real easy