6 Bookish Pet Peeves.
Even dedicated ebook readers can have their share of pet peeves, here are my 2 cents worth.

1. No table of contents – Although I’m one of these readers that just wants to dive into the story and I don’t care much for dedications, authors notes, more books by the author, copyright information yadda yadda… If I’m interested enough, I’m happy to read all of that at the end and if not I won’t bother. I realise that I can just flip the page button to get to Chapter 1, but, it’s annoying, it takes time that I do technically have because I’m reading the book in the first place but it’s a put off nonetheless it makes me feel jilted, just because it’s a digital copy doesn’t mean you get to be sloppy. It may not have the pretty, glossy cover and blurb on the reverse, it doesn’t mean I don’t want some organisation, some idea of how the book evolves, how many chapters there are, interesting title names that add anticipation.

2. Unpronounceable character names and places. Probably shooting myself in the foot right here because Fantasy and History are my main reads however, I do get put of my completely made up names, I love the history and etymology of names so when ever I can I look them up I do. But when they’ve been completely made up and have too many vowels or lack thereof to actually be pronounceable in the English language, I tend to make my own characters names up with the first letter, which can of course become confusing when reviewing it or talking about the books to friends. It’s another thing to hold on too and I’m lazy, I don’t want to juggle lots of things in the air while reading, place names, characters, plots, by all means be creative, dig up old names that aren’t so common these days but at least make them some how useable and not just aesthetically pleasing and confusing on a page. When I write, I try to remember that yes, I may be writing about a fictional place and a fictional time line that may or may not be based on our time, but those people and places I’m writing about, have some base, some touch stone with this world and those people/characters aren’t that different, don’t try so hard to make them different and strange, interesting yes, unique yes but trying too hard to be different, no. I know I wouldn’t want my books/stories to stand out for the wrong reasons.

3. Contradictory plot lines. This should probably have been number one because it bugs me the most. I don’t know if I just tune in to the text and plot more than other people or the themes of a story but when things don’t make sense or suddenly change without warning, it sticks out like a sore thumb and I end up going OCD on it and not able to let it go and enjoy the rest of the story, I often have to reread the book several times to see if I’m right about something before I can review it or even enjoy it, to make sure I’m either right or wrong, and annoyingly in most cases I’m usually right. I love writing and as I’m a bit of a gas bag in person, it naturally extends in my writing, I can tear through a draft in hours and days but I always curb myself. It’s fine to go shooting of ahead when the creative juices are flowing but another rule of mine is to go over and really pick at everything I’ve written, what makes sense, what doesn’t, what doesn’t quite fit here but could somewhere else, is this pace right, have I jumped ahead of myself.. etc. This is something that crops up a lot in the YA Fiction I read. Plots start off and then go for awhile, then do a 180 and never really get explained, or sometimes it can just be as simple as an American terminology that throws me off, being British I’m accustomed to something else, a slightly different phrase. Most recently while reading Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce I was thrown for a couple of pages after Scarlet knocked some trash off the car seat onto the ‘floorboards’, I instantly zoned out of the book and started questing whether I had missed a page, were they back in the cottage or something because the term floorboards to me, is more commonly referred to in housing, not cars. Simple things like that but can turn into a big issue. I like stories that aren’t predictable that take you on twists and turns when they make sense, but when ideas are just dropped or you explain something as one way and then you either forget and change it without going back to the beginning and altering that, then again it feels like I’m reading a half hearted attempt at a book. It may have a brilliant premise but it’s just been ruined by sloppy editing.
Editing makes and breaks a book!

I guess these next ones are really related to just ebooks.

4. Formatting: I’m a big fan of those old fashioned children’s books, where the first letter of the chapter was always twice the size of the rest of the letters, usually in red and elaborately decorated, but it doesn’t translate well to ebook form, with Ereaders offering a pathetic and limited amount of fonts, the aesthetic nature of this is usually lost. In most cases the first sentence of a chapter is either written in block capitals, or some intricate, calligraphic font which may look pretty and interesting, but for me in particular it loses it’s charm. If the former, then because of the large text size I rely on to actually sight read, then it means one word, per line, which is annoying. If the latter, it means it’s completely unreadable and reading every chapter with the first sentence obliterated can get a little confusing to say the least. I have no objection whatsoever to the funky little chapter graphics you sometimes get though and even some jpegs, especially those in Ransom Riggs Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,

5. No Page Numbers: A much debated thing on Kindle forums worldwide, usually this doesn’t bother me because on Goodreads I tend to click the % for progress rather than page numbers, most of my ebooks do give you a page number if you hold the menu button down, but yes, in every case I would rather have page numbers, than locations hands down.

6. Weak Female Characters. A real thorn in my side, over and over again, girls that have some magic power within them and discover it through a second or third party that lets them know about it, they resist it, then a dramatic event happens and they realise they are capable of being independent and powerful. Till they meet a love interest and go back to being annoying and weak. This is the main reason I don’t bother reading ya/paranormal romance books. I do believe you can maintain you’re femininity while having some back bone and not being a submissive bore. Brilliant templates for strong female characters that are flawed but still interesting and passionate can be found in any of Ted Dekker’s books.

I could probably go on these are just a few that instantly came to mind but I wanted to keep it under 10! What are you bookish pet peeves? Let me know on the FB page :) it doesn’t have to ebook related, can be any book format.

(if you don’t want to read my rather unbrief explanation of how it all got started and want to jump straight to the books, skim down to the emboldened name of Ted Dekker).

I have always, always loved reading. My mum used to read stories to me all the time, it wasn’t just at bed time, and then when I could read by myself, I would read everything and anything, all day long. I don’t have any siblings, and despite having 14 cousins readily available, being on my own reading was preferable to playing at tea parties and climbing trees, except when we went camping that is, then having my own outdoors adventures was far more exciting than just reading about them. I remember early on in primary school, that’d I’d already read the ‘designated yellow books’ that our year and below were supposed to read and I needed more advanced books to keep me interested, so mum went off bless her and bought some for me while I waited for the others to catch up, I don’t mean to come across as bragging in anyway. I’m pretty sure there was a group of us that had reached the level and needed to move up but in those days you just had to wait for everyone to catch up.

When I hit secondary school, the Librarian was really kind when I told her I struggled to read normal print, she didn’t hesitate to find and order in some Large Print books, and that worked out really well. I practically lived in the school Library.

When I left school, I struggled to get books I found interesting in Large Print at my local library, it was pretty much all murder mysteries, which the elderly love apparently, which I found overly predicable, my local library is pretty pathetic with regular books, let alone ‘specialized books’, pretty much every book I wanted to read I had to order in and wait for anything up to a month for it to come in from a bigger city Library, ridiculous, it’s still the case even now, ten years later.

Late teens to early twenties I didn’t really get to read much, because there wasn’t a lot available that was of interest, I really, really missed reading. I missed out on all the books my peers were reading, I didn’t even get to read Harry Potter when it came out. I ended up watching most of the movies before I got to even read a single page. There were audio books out, on cassette tape. But that was arduous, each tape only lasted about an hour and then you’d have to take the tape out and put it back in, I was eternally putting it in upside down or putting it back in on the side I’d just listened too, CDs, were a little easier, but the same problem arose, you’re always taking CDs out and putting them back in, it breaks the story up in a bad way.

In 2009 I signed up to Audible and started listening to audio downloads on my iPod it was like the world had caught up with me, I still think the member fee is a bit high and the books in general are pricey, I realize voice talent and recording isn’t a cheap format but still, a Kindle book can be had for 99p and a paperback for under a tenner, so it can’t be too difficult, more likely a case of greed on the publishing companies part. By August 2009. I had come across Goodreads, which led me on to a whole new world of books and friends, thus begins my epic reading voyage, and one that I’ve never looked back from.

Now I mix my reading up with Kindle books and Audio books, I have a general system. Kindle book if 500 pages and below, £5 or less, unless it’s a special book. if it’s 500+ pages then I generally go to audio because if I’m going to pay more for it, I want it to last longer and audio will last me more years than my poor sight will.

Now on to the part of the post you’ve been waiting for, the books that have changed my life.

Ted Dekker introduced me to the world of Dystopia and I’ve never looked back, it’s an odd choice I grant you but it’s very addictive. I will forever be indebted to my cousin, Felicity, for first talking about Ted Dekker on Facebook, she had just finished reading ‘Green’, the last book in the Circle Trilogy, which is in fact, actually 4 books, and yes, whenever this is brought up in a conversation it always ends up digressing to THGTTG. The Circle series comprises of Black, Red, White and Green. It opened my world to a whole new genre and it’s probably my most read genre, next to Fey and Arthurian Legends. I’ve since read The Lost Books of History series and next up is the Paradise series, followed by all the independent novels he’s written to date. I never would have read The Hunger Games, Bumped, Gone, and various others if I hadn’t of come across Ted Dekker, (I always planned on reading LOTR regardless)

Marion Zimmer Bradley and Tracy Chevalier, got me even deeper into Arthurian Legends and Historical Drama in general, I’ve always been a history fan so this was a natural extension of school history, their fictitious tales steeped in and around historical places and characters never ceases to amaze me. The Forest House is one of my favourites and I read it several times a year. I can’t decide if Fallen Angels or Remarkable Creatures is my favourite from Tracy, all her books are brilliant and interesting, Remarkable Creatures, speaks to me because I’ve been to Lyme Regis and I’m familiar with the places of which she speaks. It’s like coming home, every time you read it. Marion takes you back to the Roman Occupation in Britain and you want to test Latin out on your tongue.

J K Rowling got me into YA in a big way, after reading Harry Potter, I had to read more from the YA genre, it suits me because I feel perpetually 15, I’m in my comfort zone in YA, the shorter books, generally 300-600 pages also suit me, when I’m sight reading, 650+ pages are better to listen to. I don’t like a lot of gritty/horror/thriller/violence stuff that adult books seem to thrive on so it’s just as well, ya gives me everything I want in a book without being too harsh, unless I want to go that far.

Julie Kagawa got me into the land of Fey, I’d been interested in fairy tales as a child but I didn’t think there were books out there for an older audience, that included the Fey so I was ecstatic when I came across Julie! I need to consume every book written by her and track down all other Fey writers, it is my destiny.

Laini Taylor, I will forever be thankful for Angel books, it was my first Angel book, I think.. well no they had Angels in Fallen Angels by Tracy Chevalier but they were of the stone statue, graveyard variety and not living breathing, destroying things type of Angels, I also want to assimilate everything this author writes. I cannot wait for the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I read it and immediately texted my friend to say YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK, LIKE, NOW. When she did read it she was like IT’S AMAZING. I love that I have a great book bond with my friends, we instantly know what each other will like, which is usually the same kind, except Jenn is more into True Blood and Vampires while that just plain creeps me out and truthfully YA Vampires have been over done to the max..

And lastly dear, dear Terry Pratchette, Sci/Fi Fantasy you are amazing, you help me through the day, you make me feel normal in a world that thinks I’m weird and too much outside of the box, I often find myself quoting Twoflower and Rincewind, my favourite character has to be the Luggage, because of reasons. The fact that the audio books are read by the brilliant, super awesome, crush worthy Tony Robinson is totally beside the point, my dream in life is to complete my DiscWorld Audio Book Collection and have them sitting prettily in pride of place on my bookshelf. I’ve always loved sci-fi on the tv. X files, Star Trek Voyager to name but two, but I had never read anything of it until this wonderful man came into my life. I wish I could remember who told me I had to read them. 

So those were the authors and books that pointed me in the direction of the genre’s I love.

Now for three special books and authors that changed my life.

90 Minutes of Heaven by Don Piper taught me the importance of prayer how fantastic and powerful a tool it really is, that it’s free, fully customizable, can be done independently or as a group and can give instant relief. Rolling out the Lords prayer at church was just routine, prayers, poems and hymns are great for those every day moments when you get sidetracked, to keep you in check, but for me, nothing beats a real heart felt internal cry out in my own words for the people and issues that matter most to me.



The Book Thief by Markus Zusak really cemented my attitude change towards Germans. The war was over long before I came around in the mid 80s but at school we were still brainwashed to distrust and dislike Germans in general, we didn’t go on school trips there and it wasn’t a language option. I knew it was all rubbish but young minds are very impressionable. The Book Thief showed me a new attitude, it portrayed Germans in a completely different light, Germans that hid Jews, that didn’t want to join the Nazi party, Germans that were really the same as us just incredibly unfortunate as to not live far enough away to avoid the consequences when they didn’t fall into line.



Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles by Terry Furchgott and Linda Dawson is my earliest reading memory, I read that book over and over, the illustrations were magical and still play in my mind like a movie, too this day.


And that ladies and gentlemen, is how I went from a girl who couldn’t find anything remotely interesting to read in a accessible format, to landing in a Dystopian world, infested with Angels, Fairies, strange boxes on legs, and historical characters coming back to give advice, while traveling over familiar and unfamiliar terrain and weaving in and out of time. 

What is a book blog without a mention of book covers, I know this is a very big deal with a lot of book lovers, some even go to the extent of buying internationally so as to get the desired cover. This seems a little silly to me but before you start throwing things at the screen, let me explain why.

I don’t see the covers, at least I don’t see them in any great detail. I can make out colours sometimes, but then, they aren’t always the right colours, so cover art is not a big issue with me. I’m more interested in what’s between the pages than what’s adorning the spine and the covers. I can’t see my bookshelf from across the room anyway so having pretty covers is really irrelevant to me, they might as well all be the same colour and font style. It is important to me however, that the cover reflects the story and it’s not just random things thrown together, I don’t like misleading covers but ultimately what’s inside the book is more important than how it looks on a shelf.

You don’t really get a cover when you buy eBooks and you get little choice what covers are on Large Print editions and Audio CD editions, they are often nothing like the paperback and hardback editions. But sometimes, you’ll strike it lucky. I don’t actually own a lot of ‘proper books’ as a friend referred to them as recently, I have over 300 ebooks and a shelf full of audio books but I wanted to focus on actual paper books and covers so here are my actual paper books that I own with real covers. 

I find it really interesting listening to bloggers and booktubers when they discus book covers and if they cover adequately encompasses the story and what they like and dislike about a cover. I came to the conclusion that this is something I’ve never done so I thought it was about time I sat down and analysed the book covers I have on my shelf and what I think about them.

First up are the Harry Potter’s. I’ve read the whole series and watched all the movies, I have them as audio and ebook editions and I’m slowly collecting the Large Print editions (typically a large print book costs £20+ so it’s an expensive endeavour).

I like these cover editions they match the paperback versions it’s just the inside pages that are different being bigger font! No one is in any doubt what book or series you are reading. The cover themes follow aspects of the book and includes the main character, Harry next to the Hogwarts Express and Harry with Ron in the flying car. I also love the bold colours, making it easy to identify on the shelf. If I read and collect a series I do like to have all the same style, I don’t like mixing publication editions, so I guess I am picky about my covers to some extent.

Next up, Lady Almina & the real Downton Abbey written by the Countess of Carnarvon. It depicts the estate and gives you a clue about what it’s about, it’s an adequate cover depiction but I don’t like it that much, I like the blue and the pictures but really don’t like the font, it’s ugly, hard to read and in gold/yellow. I think the text would look much better in white/silver and a softer font type. I haven’t read this book yet so I can’t state if the image of the lady at the top is the real Countess of Carnarvon but it’s likely that it is. The book does include letters and photographs. 

Pride & Prejudice a staple in every girls library. I really love this cover, it’s very pretty and girlie, easy to read and shows Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I think Darcy looks a bit daft with his feet like that. Darcy is standing up and it’s easy to assume he’s finally explaining to Lizzy that he loves her, but equally as she’s sitting down and he has the floor, he could be patronising her and emphasising that he is socially higher than she is. Or is it Bingley and Jane? the girl looks very engrossed in what the gentlemen has to say and the man seems equally engaged in animated conversation. Love it. 

The Night Circus, this is probably my favourite cover that I own, it’s similar to the paperback edition, minus that black edged pages. But I still like it a lot, it shows the circus tents in the background and a couple, could they be just any of the reves or is it in fact Marco and Celia? I like to think it’s the latter, the colour scheme is also in tune with the story which adds to the atmosphere. Simple but very effective. 

My newest edition to my bookshelf, And Now the Shipping Forecast, I haven’t seen other editions of this book so I’m not sure if this is just the large print cover or the same for other editions but I love it. It’s simple but pleasing, it has the map so you instantly know what the book is about, if the title didn’t give you a big enough clue. The title is a pleasing big, bold, easy to read font, straight to the point. I also really like the cream and blue, makes me think of vintage maps, or the AtoZ we used to have in cars before sat nav. Looks pretty on my shelf. 

The Book Thief, one of my favourite books of all time, It’s a different cover to sepia and sketched characters on my audio cd, which I probably like more but this cover still pleases me, I love dominoes and that scene with Rudy and his family before he is sent away is one that sticks in my head and this cover sums that up for me. Dominoes being a metaphor for people, anyone can fall and be knocked down, it doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or German, if you go against Hitler you’re an enemy to the state and punishment is death.

I didn’t realise how many black book covers I actually had and that’s no intention on my part, like I said you don’t get a choice which covers you have in ebook/audio and large print.

The Hunger Games, black and yellow, simple, shows the Mockingjay pin and you know it’s going to be a dark story by the plain black cover, it’s crying out dystopian. My audio cd is also the same cover. Bit confusing over the American and British covers, they seem to have swapped the colours over for the paperback and hardback editions.

The Notebook, again a black cover don’t really like it, yes it shows the main characters in an embrace but I prefer the cover image in my head which is just a ratty old vintage notebook, with red calligraphy font and maybe a lipstick kiss and some polaroid images paper clipped on or something. It’s light behind the couple so it gives the impression that the relationship is secret and they have to hide in alley ways, which is kind of in tune with the story with the mother not being happy about the idea of her socialite daughter being in love with a lower class boy.

I have too many audio cd’s to actually pull out and take photos of so I just picked the 3 that stand out to me, My Terry Pratchette DiscWorld books are all black so it’s hard to tell which book is which, (I have audio labels which my pen friend reads out to me to let me know which is which)

Life on the Refrigerator Door, bright pink, making me think of happy summer fun, but blue or grey would probably have been a more of an apt cover colour, it lures you into a false sense of security which is in tune with the book, things seem fine but quickly go down hill when mother and daughter’s lives are flipped upside down by a fatal illness. I like the bright colour, makes it easy to identify and avoid because it just makes me cry every time, the milk spilling is also interesting, every day millions of milk bottles are spilled but this is double edged, an every day occurrence and, drama that life will never be the same after this piece of news. Spills are forgotten for bigger dramas. 

Possibly my favourite children’s book of the last decade, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, background of Slapton Sands, a blue summer sky, and a cute cat. Again lulls you into false sense of security, a quiet village in the south of England with a 12 year Lilly, who writes in her diary and loves her cat, Tips, when the second world war descends and destroys the village she knew. 

Finally, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, love, love, love this cover it really lends itself to the book, with Karou behind a mask, half in light and half in shadow, and the little pop of blue letting you know that it’s her because she has blue hair in the story. It’s mysterious, I really like the font and it’s placement, just perfect. 

How much do covers mean to your overall reading experience?