** Warning**
Possible sarcasm and mild ranting below. Read at your own risk.

Sometimes, when I’m reading, I get mildly annoyed. And sometimes I get irritated. And sometimes, well, sometimes I just feel irritatingly annoyed! I have been known to stop reading, roll my eyes and tell the characters things like, “Grow up already!” or “Stop being so selfish!” or “Ugh!” or something along those lines. And sometimes I’m just downright frustrated with the characters!

But it’s not always just the characters that annoy me. Sometimes I groan, “Not another one!” Or I have been known to delete a book off my kindle because I was so irritated by it.

You want to irritate and annoy me? Here are some simple ways to do so. Just remember, you do it at your own risk.

• Grown characters acting like spoiled children – Having pity parties because of something that happened – Constantly whining about something but not being willing to do anything to change things – Using their fears or insecurities (real or imagined) as an excuse to act immature – Excusing their selfishness by saying it’s for the good of the other person. Ugh! Grow up! Or go away! Why is it okay for you to act that way and not others? Huh?
  
  
• “Christian” books that don’t seem like it – Not having a Biblical worldview about things like life, marriage, family, etc. even while claiming to be “Christian” – Saying a book is clean but taking you almost to if not inside the bedroom, or giving “bedroom kisses” with all the descriptions and sensations – Yuck! – Tossing in a few mentions of prayer, or a Bible verse and calling it good even if the characters don’t act like Christians – Swearing in a Christian book. I don’t like it in secular books, but I am not nearly as annoyed by it since I know it’s not Christian. But a Christian book should be just that! Hmm, maybe I should do a post about Christian fiction.
  
  
• Refusing to communicate – Characters won’t talk about a problem – Characters refuse to listen to anyone trying to point out truth – Always justifying their actions even if they were wrong – Believing the worst about someone instead of talking and asking for an explanation. Just talk already! Or zip it and I’ll talk because I have a few things to say to the both of you!
  
  
• Historical fiction that sounds modern – Characters talking in modern slang when it’s a historical setting – Assuming things were popular and common even if they had just been invented – Characters interacting as they do now without regard to the difference in culture back then – Not doing research because the author assumed something was so because another modern book mentioned it. You know, that’s how history gets changed, right? And seriously, how people act toward each other now, is NOT how they acted 100 years ago! (Remember, I posted this post in 1901, so I know. 😛 )
  
  
• Kill off a main character – I don’t care if it’s not the main character, if you kill him/her off, I’m going to have problems – If it’s not someone I am expecting to die because they are a.) really sick or b.) really old, I will get irritated. I may refuse to read that book again. It’s happened before. And if you really, really want to annoy me, kill off a character in a way that could have been avoided. Then I will really rant!

You might be able to get away with a small amount of some of these things without me leaving a comment about it in my review (except for the last one), but beware! Too much and I will feel like ranting. And I might be rolling my eyes, lecturing your characters, ranting about the problems to others, and, oh yeah, I might not finish the book. So, if you include any of these things in your books, warn me before I read it or endure any review I might write. (Okay, I would try to be nice . . .)

Now you know how to irritate and annoy me with your books. Do you ever stop reading and give the characters a talking to? Are there things that really annoy you in books? Let me know in a comment.