I made a part one talking mainly about fantasy and young adult pet peeves, around plot. This one is more the actual physical books and the format.
Book covers changing look mid-series. Or SIZE! It could so easily just be an alternate version, please why.
‘Misuse’ of foot-notes. I know footnotes in general is a touchy subject. But I’ve just decided on this personal policy ranking use of footnotes on that you shouldn’t have to read the footnotes for the plot to make sense, it should either be additional info for those interested or for example funny remarks or any other remarks that add to the story, but isn’t cruicial. I often say fuck Nevernight by Jay Kristoff for other reasons, but the footnotes … well, it’s saying something how I found that to be such a small problem compared with the rest because those footnotes are a mess.
Here’s a couple bad ones in quick succession; movie-edition covers. the trend of normal paperbacks being way too tall and large so they don’t fit on any regular shelf. I totally get it if it’s illustrations or more nonfiction with photos. Stickers on books! Like just why?
Ugly hardback dustcovers. Well, honestly I think most dust covers are annoying at best and have come to terms with that so that I can throw them away immediately (unless extremely pretty, but then the actual book underneath usually is as well). I’ve just now started to not feel guilty for it as well.
Those small reading lights. I always got them as gifts or bought them myself thinking that this model might work, but then realizing they all got some kind of feature that makes them extremely annoying. Like too narrow a lightbeam so constantly have to adjust or clipping them on a book and struggling to turn pages because it’s in the way. I would have just used a head light, but I often fall asleep reading and that doesn’t seem comfortable. Ended up just buying a kindle and haven’t looked back to be honest. I might even read a book on the kindle during the night or, back when I commuted for three years, in the darkness of the bus in the morning and then read a completely other book in physical copy during the day.
aquapages 
Ah yes those reading lights. I tried my best to love them and make them work because they’re so cute and I feel like having tiny reading lamps is just such a *bookish* thing, but they’re definitely too heavy qnd inconvenient…. and now they’re gathering dust in a box somewhere 😅 and UGH I hate movie edition covers with a passion!!! Especially since they end up replacing the previous covers in every retailer
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Hahha good to know someone agree
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I am definitely not a fan of movie posters on book covers. The movie is almost always not as good anyway, so why would I want to be reminded of that? Also, if seeing Matt Damon’s face makes you want to buy a book you’re going to be really disappointed because, spoiler alert, Matt Damon IS NOT IN THE BOOK.
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That’s too true, I don’t even know who they’re trying to appeal to??
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It must work, right? Or they wouldn’t keep doing it…
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I guess enough people make the association that way that it’s worth it, but it’s also the easy way out I guess as a lot of marketing already went into those movie posters used
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I agree with all of these. The only footnotes I’ve enjoyed are Terry Pratchett’s and they pass your test of not being needed to understand the plot.
I hate the change of look and size midway through a series. It messes with my shelves. Print On Demand could be made available so easily now so why not sell choice of cover and size as an option?
I’ve moved almost entirely to digital now, mostly because I enjoy audiobooks and my eyesight has deteriorated to the point where changing the font size on an ebook is a blessing. I do miss handling the physical books though. It made my relationship with them more personal.
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Good you agree!
I’ll never hate on ebooks, as they’ve made reading more accessible like in your case, and are overall a great thing. But I sometimes seem to have greater trouble remembering/distinguishing between books and plots if I read the physical book instead of the ebook. I’ve seen this problem mostly with reading books in a series back to back where all the plot goes together in my mind. Not a big problem when reading for fun, but I’ve been wanting to make my university notes digital & have textbooks only digital and what I’ve found with ebooks and my memory is definitely holding me back from doing that.
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The search and note taking functions on kindle and or PDF make it much easier to read technical books, take notes, get quotes and share with other people.
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