2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

We have a discussion about running away from a book, before reading it, so maybe we can discuss too what we like or dislike while reading it.

I like:
- likable characters with an interesting background, but not too much self-centred or cliché.
- a good team, friendship or love relationship.
- deep female characters (and male too of course but they tend to have more depth than women).
- a nice world building with original ideas.
- a fast or well paced story with plenty of things happening.
- surprises and good twists.
- author who cares about his characters and doesn't kill/ bully them for fun.
- a book with a true end, even if it is part of a series.


I dislike:
- 1st person. I found a little difficult to enter a story when it's all about "I" because I'm really not the character. When I start a book and see it's a 1st person, I know it will need a more better writing than a 3rd person book.
- multiple points of view. There are always characters I don't care, so there are many boring chapters...
- long descriptions.
- jumping in time. There's a chapter in the present, one 3 weeks before, and you'll find yourself 4 years ago, and return to the present. And again, and again. My brain starts swimming a lot to understand what is happening.
- torture, abuse, very explicit content, racism, sexism...
- religion, like when characters spend time in church or think a lot about faith and when an author tries to convert you to his religion.

Things I like:
Books you can read aloud - I love books that use beautiful language and when I'm in the house alone or somewhere private, I like to read books out loud. It slows me down but there are some books that just sound better this way. Tolkien is perfect to read out loud because his word choice is so carefully considered, it's almost like reading poetry (which is also great to read aloud).

Characters who speak like real people - I like it when characters use colloquialisms, have touches of a particular dialect, use contractions and things. I like it when people have random, banal conversations, because that makes them feel more real.

Mysteries you can solve - I like it when books have a crime or a mystery and they give you all the tools and evidence you need to get to the bottom of it. There's nothing worse than getting to page 388 of a 390 page book and having someone be all 'well, nobody saw this, but I realised such-and-such a character was holding a knife right after they exited the room with the dead body'.

I agree with Zaz's points about the world building, the speed of the story, and surprises and twists.

I was going to say yes to your last 'like' point, but I kind of like it when the ending is sort of open (like in Harry Potter) where you can imagine the story continuing without you. Perhaps that's because I like to read/write fanfiction.

Things I dislike:
Definitely jumping points of view - It took me two goes to get through The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber because not only was it multiple points of view but three of them were in third person and one in first. As soon as I realised it was jumping around, I closed it and didn't try it again for about two or three years. Which leads me on to my next point...

Unreal depiction of infertility - I can't conceive naturally and so it hits close to home when there's a reference to IVF or infertility in a story. Books were women who have been trying for years to get pregnant, get knocked up and rush out to decorate a nursery the minute they get that second line on the test? I don't think so. Ditto women who have been trying for nine months, who go to the doctor and get referred for IVF or drugs. So not the way it works. I guess this goes for any subject that obviously hasn't been researched well enough, if I was a bus driver and read unreal depictions of bus drivers I'd probably have a similar rant.

Violence for the sake of violence - I can handle it when it's relevant to the plot, but at that point I'll probably be aware that it's going to be in there and I'll have made a choice to read it anyway (e.g. a book about an abused wife); it's when it's a story about something else and the violence is thrown in there unexpectedly. The one that springs to mind right now is Miramont's Ghost which I was expecting to be a creepy story about an old castle. Instead it was a story which devolved into the systematic abuse of the main character, featuring child abuse as well. It felt unnecessary.