A Reader's Pet Peeves

Everyone has pet peeves, and I've recently realised I have quite a few. It annoys me when people don't tuck chairs in or don't shut doors behind them, but that's not what this blog post is about, it is about pet peeves but ones associated with reading and books. Now I don't find reading annoying, not at all...obviously, but there are some things that involve books that I have a few pet peeves about.

1. My first "bookish" pet peeve is this

I find it so rude not to mention really annoying if someone interrupts me whilst I'm reading a book and act like its okay to interrupt as I wasn't "doing anything important".

2. Another pet peeve I have is when people don't look after books. I know not everyone loves books as much as I do so I understand if they don't place them on a shelf with care but there is no excuse for books to be battered and in unreadable conditions. My friend gave me a lift in her car the other day and when I got in I literally froze because on the floor of her car covered in mud was Mockingjay. When asking her why it was on the floor she just shrugged it off as if it was nothing, lets just say I wasn't amused.

3. Don't you just find it annoying when people say they are huge fans of something and claim to know everything about it even though they haven't read the books. Take Harry Potter for instance, some people I know claim to be the BIGGEST fans of Harry Potter, when I found this out I was very excited and launched into conversation about all things in the wizard world, only to later discover when I mentioned Peeves that they had never read the books and they were never intending to. Now don't get me wrong I don't mind if people watch the films and then read the books after, I just don't understand how people can claim to be huge fans if they've never read the books?

4. Cover changes halfway through a series...need I say any more. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I like all my books to match on my shelf, so when a book series has a cover change before it is finished it annoys me greatly. Then I have the dilemma or whether to buy the books I already have but in the new covers and have double copies or whether to just make do and pretend they match every time I see them on my shelf.

5. This is probably my biggest pet peeve ever. I find nothing more annoying then when I'm getting all excited about a book and someone says to me "It's just a book". Is any explanation really needed for this? I speak for myself and all the other book lovers out there by saying it's never just a book!

Anyway, rant over. Thankyou for reading!

"Why do you love reading so much?"

I don't know about you but I get asked this question a lot. My friends used to find it funny that I liked to read (they don't now, in fact they come to me for book recommendations), but the first few years of secondary school you were "uncool" if you read books. I remember I used to find it confusing when I found out people didn't read books like I did, but even though it was "nerdy" if you liked to read books I still read them because it was something I loved to do. 

When I try to explain to people why I love reading they just sort of look at me funny and they do that because they don't understand. People who ask me this question don't usually read books, they don't fall in love with stories and characters like I do, and they don't get lost in make believe worlds, that’s why they think it's odd when I answer them with this…

With reading there is endless possibilities, there are hundreds of worlds to explore and countless number of lives that you can step into. It gives you a chance to experience every kind of situation imaginable, reading takes you out of the boring, mundane world and transports you to a world where imagination runs wild. It provides characters who you can relate to and who you can visit again and again always knowing that they are there waiting for you and whose journey you can experience with them.

I love how you can use your imagination and see the characters and the world in your way. When you watch a movie or TV show you see what everyone else sees but when you read it becomes personal to you. Reading excites me and I just love it when I get lost in a book and everything is forgotten apart from the world I've stepped into.

If anybody tells me that reading is boring, I just smile shake my head and tell them that reading books is only boring if you lack imagination. One of my favourite sayings is "Reading is dreaming with open eyes" and its true it is, so I feel sorry for people who don't like to read or choose not to because they don't know what they are missing out on.