How irritated do you get when a book has spelling or grammatical errors?
I have to say I don't get as upset about spelling and grammatical errors as others do. As long as it's not constant throughout the book. The ones that get to me are when I read a disjointed sentence. Sentences that stop the flow of my reading because it just doesn't make sense. Hmmmm, is that clear a mud?!
Spelling and grammar are close to the top of my list of things that can make or break a book. I will accept a handful of errors in a book and can find a few even when the book is professionally edited. I start removing stars in my review if I find more than a few errors, and have dnf'd books solely on the basis of poor editing. There have also been times when I added a star for a story I didn't particularly like, but it was well edited.
By far, my biggest complaint with books written in 1st person present tense is that rare is the author who can do so correctly. The vast majority of books written in this viewpoint contain verb tense errors, verb switches in the middle of a paragraph or even a sentence, and subject-verb agreement errors. It gets tiresome very quickly.
Spelling errors catch my eye & can throw me out of the flow. And I was reading one I enjoyed the other day; suddenly the name of the person talking, not the person she was talking about was in the sentence. That stopped me for a few! But my grammar is pretty bad, so I probably don't recognize grammatical errors enough to annoy me. There have been a few times that I've had to stop & reread a sentence a couple times for it to make sense. I don't know if it's their grammar or my "interpretation skill". It's rare that these errors stop me from reading a book. More often it's the storyline or the interaction, etc. And it's rarely intentionally dnf'd; more often I get "called away" by another book (often a reread) and I don't get back to it...but, esp. a Kindle, it's in there waiting for me to come back some day...
I don't seem to mind spelling or grammar errors as long as the meaning is clear, which sounds strange coming from an old grammar teacher. I prefer to read beautifully written stories, like Georgette Heyer's, but how many of these do we come across? When a book is obviously written by someone who shows little regard for English, I would probably not be reading it in the first place because I'm pretty fussy about what I read, but it would be a dnf, for sure. The other thing I think about is how grammar has changed over the years. For instance, Lord Peter Whimsey used the word "ain't" occasionally, which must have been acceptable when he lived in the 20's or so. Sorry, probably too much information.
Spelling errors catch my eye & can throw me out of the flow. And I was reading one I enjoyed the other day; suddenly the name of the person talking, not the person she was talking about was in the sentence. That stopped me for a few! But my grammar is pretty bad, so I probably don't recognize grammatical errors enough to annoy me. There have been a few times that I've had to stop & reread a sentence a couple times for it to make sense. I don't know if it's their grammar or my "interpretation skill". It's rare that these errors stop me from reading a book. More often it's the storyline or the interaction, etc. And it's rarely intentionally dnf'd; more often I get "called away" by another book (often a reread) and I don't get back to it...but, esp. a Kindle, it's in there waiting for me to come back some day...
My grammar skills aren't what they use to be, so that doesn't bother me as much because I probably don't even notice some of them. Obvious spelling errors do annoy me if it's something that's happening throughout the book. For me, the bigger irritant are sentences I have to stop and re-read. That naturally pulls me out of the story.
The one who gets irritated about spelling and grammar is my daughter. She's an English Major, and wanted to be an editor. She "sees" all the boo-boos and has DNF-ed books because of it.
I do find the spelling and grammar errors aggravating but can’t recall DNF a book because of it. One of my work lives was with a newspaper and errors seem to leap off the page when I’m reading.
I know I have read some books with all the mistakes noted and enjoyed them; my big no-no is the homophone. I assume the author and/or editor are using spell check rather than reading for comprehension when you get the "rein" was pouring down, or the item was over "they're".
Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true.
I'm not that great at grammar so I probably wouldn't even notice a mistake. As for spelling, I usually don't notice that either. The reason is because I can read fast. And if a word is a letter off I can still see what it's supposed to spell, if that makes any sense.
Post by imabookaddict on Jan 16, 2020 11:17:29 GMT -7
Bad grammar or spelling doesn't bother me unless it interrupts the flow of my reading. Sentences that I have to read over again trying to figure out whether it's me or the author, stare rather than stair (e.g.) mistakes, continuity errors and names switched around are all items that interrupt my reading flow. But if the storyline is interesting I keep reading.
I rarely stop reading a book altogether, instead I skip to the last few chapters and read those so I know how the book ends. Lol, actually I've read a few books backwards because of this little idiosyncrasy.
Although, I will admit that I occasionally give thought to highlighting various spelling or name switch mistakes and shooting off an email to the author so they can be fixed in subsequent copies of the book. (That would be the former homeschool mom in me wanting their creative writing to shine as bright as possible.) I'm just never sure something like that would be appreciated or not.
Last Edit: Jan 16, 2020 11:31:18 GMT -7 by imabookaddict
Why is it, the more books I read the taller my tbr stack gets?
I'm not that great at grammar so I probably wouldn't even notice a mistake. As for spelling, I usually don't notice that either. The reason is because I can read fast. And if a word is a letter off I can still see what it's supposed to spell, if that makes any sense.
Actually it makes a lot of sense. I was once at a site that explained why we tend to correct mistakes automatically and move on. They had sample sentences and although I was aware there would be errors my eye and mind zipped right over them because I autocorrected it in my brain.
I don't mind typos or grammar issues unless it's an error that follows throughout a book. 'There' instead of 'their' or 'they're'. I don't always recognize bad grammar when I read it so it's not an issue for me. I wasn't an English major. I grit my teeth and plowed through my required English classes and never looked back.
I do mention spelling and grammar in my reviews as a heads up to those who take it more seriously than I.
I rarely stop reading a book altogether, instead I skip to the last few chapters and read those so I know how the book ends. Lol, actually I've read a few books backwards because of this little idiosyncrasy.
Lol I do exactly the same! And then I will search for keywords, eg. the name of whoever turns out to be the villain, and read those parts, and that might lead me to do a different keyword... good times. My dad always started reading the newspaper from the back, and that's what I do too. Magazines as well.
I'm dyslexic, so it's unlikely I'll notice most of them or mind them much. But pretty much every book ever had a few errors here and there that I do notice, and I don't really care. It's only annoying when it muddles the meaning and if a book had an error every few pages that would force me to re-read the sentence to make sense of it, that would bug me.
I rarely stop reading a book altogether, instead I skip to the last few chapters and read those so I know how the book ends. Lol, actually I've read a few books backwards because of this little idiosyncrasy.
Lol I do exactly the same! And then I will search for keywords, eg. the name of whoever turns out to be the villain, and read those parts, and that might lead me to do a different keyword... good times. My dad always started reading the newspaper from the back, and that's what I do too. Magazines as well.
What a great idea! I never thought of using the search option inside the book. Thanks! I do bookmark passages I might want to reread.
Lol, I read magazines, along with catalogs, back to front as well.
Last Edit: Jan 17, 2020 5:19:39 GMT -7 by imabookaddict
Why is it, the more books I read the taller my tbr stack gets?