For me, shitty style / lazy writing make me put a book down immediately. I was raised on the worship of style you find in writers like Flaubert or Nabokov (who also happened to have deplorable political views) and I can’t shake it.

Others commented here recently that making every female character in a story into a sex object is a bad thing.

What are some reasons you’ll put a book down after you’ve spent at least a little time giving it a try?

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    My college years as an English major were mostly that. The professors looooooved that. The gold standard for a good story was that it listed every name brand visible around the kitchen counter while :grillman: smokes very specific cigarettes and cusses a lot and nothing happens.

    • karl3422 [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      write what you know is why there are so many books about english professors considering having an affair

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        This is the only version of that I will accept.

        https://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/15