Discussion: Reading Dealbreakers

Pretty much everyone reading this here on my blog is an avid reader.  You guys love books, I love books.  I’ll personally read most anything.  But what happens when something is just so bad in a book you can’t stand it any longer?  Why, you put it down of course.  That’s not the point here, though.  The point is: what is that one thing that will always make you put down a book?

Personally it’s racism/sexism/homophobia, etc.  I’m not talking about when authors tackle these issues in their books—that’s something mainstream authors need to do more!  I’m talking about when an author’s views leak into their narrative and ruin the entire book.  If I’m reading a book and the author seems to want to write a manifesto about why white people are superior, LGBT people are evil and/or women are inferior rather than actually telling a story, I’m probably going to throw the book at the wall.  As much as I hate book vandalism, sometimes it’s justified.

There are actually a lot of things that make me want to put down a book, but it’s blatant discrimination on the author’s part that is the one thing that will make me put down a book immediately.  Sometimes books are ‘meh’ but I’ll keep reading because I’m curious to see if it gets better, but any preaching on the author’s part will make me close a book without a second thought.

But enough about me: what are your reading dealbreakers?  Why?  Do you have lots or just one?

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