It is Monday, time to muse, but rather than take one to the three questions every week from Should Be Reading I decided take a trip somewhere else in my brain.
Still, yes still, I am reading Robinson's Inspector Bank series. I think I am up to about 15 of the 20 books so far. So not much to talk about there. So....
Yes, it is time for a Fake Musing Monday!
Always a good time for me to discuss...which sounds better than rant about...any issues in BookLand that bother me.
One struck me as I was reading a book recently.
Why do writers name several characters with similar names?
Of all the name in the world that are available, they name one Jo and another Joe, or one Justin and another Justine. That second one is an actual example...and I just do not get it. I am confused enough in my brain and I do not need this as I am trying to keep all these folks straight. Yes, one was a man and the other a woman but still..heck, it is not like they were twins dressing alike. How about Betty..or Richard...or Maeve.
See, it is easy.
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| An unrelated, pretty picture from Cancun to start your day. |
I bought a used book online recently and I was not careful about checking out the edition. Normally I would never buy one of these. I was not happy. Yes, they are small, even if often very fat, easier to tuck away in a bag. But it seems it is very common anymore to print the text so close to the inside edge that you almost have to crack the binding..and I use that term loosely...to read it.
Which lead to the second issue, pages falling out of the glue that holds it to the cover. It all lends itself to a poor reading experience. And they are not cheap!!
You might have noticed that I have stopped ranting about the whole e-book issue.
Pretty much.
Probably after I got a Nook..and then an iPad with a Nook app and a Kindle app and an iBook app. Between all the apps, I can probably read about any format from anywhere. And I have noticed publishers stating to offer more and more ARC copies as e-books, not to even mention NetGalley which is almost totally e-books. So I have given in.
But...is it just me, or do you tend to forget books on your readers? I have said it before. I am a visual person and if I do not see the actually book in an actual pile, it may be a case of out of sight, out of mind.
OK, sorry.
I guess that is sort of an e-book rant.
But I can not blame the e-reader.
No, blame the Reader, Caite
I've enjoyed your FAKE musing Mondays rant! My pet peeve is overuse of expletives in novels.. I havent encountered the similar names thing yet but imagine it would be very annoying not to mention confusing. Here's my MM which is about one of my reading habits: http://daystarz.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/bookmarks/
ReplyDeleteI like this rant....I hate mass market paperbacks just on principle. I used to buy them...I don't know why. But when I moved from my house where I'd lived for thirteen years, I tossed them all. Well, I donated them.
ReplyDeleteBut they are not keepers. They are almost impossible to shelve and often fall behind the shelves.
And yes, I do forget about books on Sparky....sometimes I check back through the pages and discover that I have books there that I bought in 2011 after I first got Sparky.
I also hate similar names...I do have trouble keeping characters straight when that happens...so DITTO to your rant...lol
Here's my non-rant: MY MUSING MONDAYS POST
Oh, I also hate melodramatic adjectives, especially when used over and over, like a character SCREAMS about every other paragraph.
DeleteGood idea to post a "rant", Caite! Can I steal that and add it to the "three" questions of MM? Can I make it a regular feature? It'd give us more options...
ReplyDeleteAnd, you know, I am starting to hate MM Pbks for just the reasons you mentioned. When I bought my copy of Safe Haven, I had the choice -- Trade or Mass Market... And, I chose the Trade size.
MizB
Certainly! Feel free!
DeleteYes, trades I like...
ty!
DeleteI like Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon, from your LibraryThing list!
ReplyDeleteI read a bunch of Leon's books and reviewed not one of them yet..I am so bad..
DeleteAhhh, I just got back from a mental vacation to Cancun thanks to your lovely photo. Thanks, I needed that!
ReplyDeleteAnd the rant was right on--I hate the mass market books, too.
that's why I love photographing my vacations...I can relive them too.
DeleteOh, I loved your rant today, I agree with you about the e-books, I love mine, but the down size, I see a book, can't wait to read it and immediately forget I have it. I have a Nook and a Kindle, and noticed one day I had downloaded the same book on both e-books, and as yet I haven't read the book, I keep forgetting it's there. But, all-in-all I love my Nookie and the Kindle, they light my fire. Kindle Fire, that is.
ReplyDeleteso....you love your nookie?
Deleteok..
Rants are good...one must have them. I think one of the Jo Nesbo books had characters with similar names and I just didn't understand why he needed to do that when I have a hard enough time with the Norwegian thing already. Then inevitably I had similar characters roaming around in my print and audio books, and that is confusing. I am amazed I'm able to understand anything. Love the picture. Love e-books and yes, it is a book hoarders wildest dream.
ReplyDeleteI HATE mass market paperbacks and will pay extra for the book in any other form.
ReplyDeleteI might be the only one who doesn't mind mass market paperbacks. I actually kind of miss them, so many of the books I read now are trade paperbacks or e-books.
ReplyDeleteSee, no one agrees with you! Lol..lol
DeleteI have to say, I'm with Carol. I really don't mind mass market paperbacks. When it comes to how I'm reading the book, the only preference I really have is hard copy to ebook if possible because I like holding an actual book, no matter what size it is.
ReplyDeletelove your rant. need them every once in a while:)
ReplyDeleteIn every basic book on writing fiction they tell you not to name characters with names that are too similar. Apparently some people don't listen. My first book had brothers names Jim and Joe (because people do that all the time in real life and I didn't know better) and someone in my writing group made me change Jim's name. Then I cut poor Jim from the book altogether.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, though--Evan and I are reading The Outsiders right now and there are two characters with very similar names (and you have to give SE Hinton a break--she was 17, for pete's sake--but did she not have an editor???). But I never get Dally and Darry mixed up at all, I think because she describes them so clearly and the protagonist has very different relationships with them.