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We all know about basic grammar errors -- it's vs. its, your vs. you're, whose vs. who's, I vs. me, who vs. whom, that vs. who, then vs. than, etc. Most of us would not have any problem differentiate the basic right from wrong but we still find those errors in books anyway, and that annoys me, but not as much as another:
My rant here is about something that I find, repeatedly, in many books and from many different authors: the incorrect use of foreign language.
This happens almost all the time when the hero is Italian or from some make-believe countries where Italian is the official language (a mystery I cannot understand: why is it the language of make-believe countries is always Italian and not Spanish or French?)
Does not matter that the hero speaks English fluently, he still uses Italian terms of endearment, but 99.99% of the time, the terms are grammatically incorrect. I'm talking about the kind of errors not even a 4-year-old Italian child would make.
In languages that distinguishes masculine from feminine, vocabulary always changes with gender, but the authors did not seem to care bout the difference. Instead, the hero would tenderly addresses his wife/girlfriend/lover or his daughter as "mio bello" (my beautiful man/boy), "caro" (dear for masculine), "bambino" (baby boy), "piccolo" (little one, masculine), etc. That sounds extremely ignorant and simply kills the story for me.
There are more intricate errors (using articles for family members, wrong order of noun-adjective, etc.) which bug me but not as much as those basic errors mentioned above.
I imagine the authors just plug English terms (or, at times, a sentence or two) into Babel Fish or Google translation and let it fly instead of asking for help from a native speaker. That carelessness irks me a great deal. Do you find any errors that annoy you that much, or am I the only picky reader?
Words that are spelled wrong in any piece of printed material I have paid for.
Factual errors. A few months ago I was reading a book on President Obama and the author said Air Force One landed at the airport at the Orange County (CA) Fairgrounds. Nice try, but it's a small strip that couldn't handle a 747 on its best day.
Stuff like that makes me nuts.
i agree with factual errors.
what's the point of writing if you can't get the facts down? makes it hard to take the rest of the book seriously
The spelling and grammar errors bug me. Geographical errors drive me insane. Do NOT be a writer in California, writing about a highway in NJ that I've travelled often, and tell me it runs east/west, when I KNOW it runs north/south. Do NOT try to tell me your character drove from a major NY airport to a bedroom community in Ocean County in 20 minutes, when I KNOW it's a 60 mile, 90 minute drive in any kind of traffic.
But the single worst error ever? Can't blame the author. This was decades ago, I was reading a John Grisham novel, and instead of the last 30 pages of the book, it went from page 350 to page 10, 11, 12..... I tried to take it to a bookstore to exchange it, but because a new printing had been released, at a higher price, I had to pay the difference ($1) to read the ending!!!!
The spelling and grammar errors bug me. Geographical errors drive me insane. Do NOT be a writer in California, writing about a highway in NJ that I've travelled often, and tell me it runs east/west, when I KNOW it runs north/south. Do NOT try to tell me your character drove from a major NY airport to a bedroom community in Ocean County in 20 minutes, when I KNOW it's a 60 mile, 90 minute drive in any kind of traffic.
Yep, i agree with that.
Don't know if this is just me as i'm ex Army but i hate it when simple everyday things that i used to do everyday are described wrongly. I would imagine it's the same with all professions, get it right or don't describe it.
Geographical errors drive me insane. Do NOT be a writer in California, writing about a highway in NJ that I've travelled often, and tell me it runs east/west, when I KNOW it runs north/south. Do NOT try to tell me your character drove from a major NY airport to a bedroom community in Ocean County in 20 minutes, when I KNOW it's a 60 mile, 90 minute drive in any kind of traffic
If I might add for any writer who wants to write a novel about DC, take note:
-It's not a quick jaunt to Baltimore from DC and the two cities are very different.
-The Hill or Georgetown aren't the only two places where people live even those with eff you amounts of cash
-There are other places to work besides K Street, the Hill, the White House, FBI HQ, CIA HQ (not in DC) or the Pentagon (also not in DC)
-There are other places to "hang out" besides Georgetown
-There are other colleges besides Georgetown
-The Smithsonian is not a single building
-The steps of the Lincoln Memorial is not an easy breezy place to meet up to chill or plot (that's more for the movies. National Treasure I'm looking at you)
-Pennsylvania Avenue is a long a$$ street that extends into Maryland
Repetitive exclamations, phrases, or explanations throughout a fictional series really annoy me. One book I was reading, the author had these exclamations throughout the book, "sainted ancestors!", "Saints Awaiting!" "Blessed Saints!" "Sainted bones," "Saints grant," "Bless the Saints Awaiting" "Saints defend me," "Holy saints," "saints and angels!" "Saint Calvino!" "Gracious saints," "Please, saints and angels," etc. It bothered me so much that I couldn't continue the series.
I don't like it when author's describe the same person using the same phrase more than once. For example, Bella from Twilight described Edward as "... he was smoldering" on more than one occasion. Now, to be fair it was probably from two different books in the series, but still...
Anyway, it's petty of me I know, but I have my annoyances.
I hate it when authors have a lot of characters and give them similar names (like Henry Beuch and Harry Boren). How hard is it to pick totally different sounding names so that the reader doesn't have to work so hard in keeping the characters straight? This isn't technically an error but I consider it an error in judgment.
I see both fairly often. Both really bug me more than other errors for some reason.
I've not seen that in a book, but I see it EVERY DAMN DAY ON CITY-DATA!
Not only that, but my local Whole Foods has it on a sign--an expensive, manufactured sign--hanging over their supplemental/herbal products area proclaiming that they provide "Expert Advise".
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