Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Topics That Make Me Stop Reading a Book

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I’m an adventurous reader who bounces around among all of the genres. While there are certain genres I visit regularly and others I only visit occasionally, it takes a lot to turn me off from a story entirely.

This is the fairly small list of topics that I refuse to read about.

Dozens of white cards that are all arranged in a spiral and have the word "no" printed on all of them.Glorifying Prejudice. That is to say, I strictly avoid anything that makes it seem honourable to hate or discriminate against  others because they’re not like you in some way. Why not encourage inclusion and acceptance instead?

Preachiness. This is a universal nope from me no matter the subject matter or whether I happen to agree with the author.  If someone wrote a book that tried to browbeat its readers into believing that purple is the best colour in the universe, I’d stop reading before finishing the first page despite my deep love of that colour.

Hopelessness. I used to be a huge fan of stories like The Walking Dead or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. While I do still enjoy some horror in small doses, everything I read and watch needs to have a hopeful message included in it these days.

Dead Pets. There are far too many books out there that kill off beloved pets at the climax of the plot. I’ve had my fill of this trope until the end of time itself. Let Fido live!

22 Comments

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22 Responses to Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Topics That Make Me Stop Reading a Book

  1. Yep, like I said in my post, if the dog/cat/kid/etc dies, I won’t finish it. I’ve never read Old Yeller for that reason. I can’t.
    Good post!

  2. Sydney Winward

    I hate it when the animal is killed off! It’s just so sad.

  3. I know about the books with pets dying and I so desperately want to avoid it, but I still end up reading a few here and there. But won’t read Lilly and the Octopus.

    I tend to avoid books with abandoned babies or child abuse or books are kids, especially babies, are the victims. Or pregnant mothers. I struggle to handle that.

    Elza Reads

  4. Mary Morgan

    Yes! I hate when the beloved pet gets killed off! Nooooo!

  5. You are so right about the preachiness!! if I want a sermon I’ll go to church!

  6. I agree with all of yours. I read to be entertained not preached to, or otherwise influence. Not that those type of books do. Great list. Thanks for sharing! Here’s mine. https://www.tenastetler.com/topics-that-make-me-stop-reading-a-book-lsrs-wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-september-2-2020/

  7. Ops forgot to mention killing off pets. Thats a huge ABSOLUTELY NOT! Okay I feel better now.

  8. Yolanda Gamble

    Yes, I agree with all your points. Good list. The pets one is definitely a big one though. Obviously with many people it seems. Lol!

  9. I agree with you on hopelessness, and I speak as someone who watches a lot of horror films so I’m used to unhappy endings. When I read, I want it to end well.

  10. I agree with all the above. Here’s another one: I came to this late in life: stupidity. If a competent character tells another, “Stay in the carriage!” and it’s obvious that getting out of the carriage will result in disaster, and the second character gets out anyway, I’ll usually put the book aside. I can make some allowances for youth, but too often a character’s obtuseness seems like lazy, ham-fisted way of moving along a plot.

    I didn’t used to be so intolerant of this kind of development. I can date my impatience from several years ago when I was on a long course of high doses of Prednisone. It left with me with some memory issues (mostly aphasia) and this unwillingness to countenance doltishness. I have been wondering whether to ask the FDA to add this side-effect to the warning label: “Caution: this drug may leave you with an inability to tolerate certain kinds of plot twists. Call your doctor if you can no longer abide characters doing exactly what they were told not to do.”

    Oh: and rape. I don’t find I can read about that either these days.

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