The art of reading is so intricate and delicate that as a reader you can stop a perfectly good novel for a reason that won’t make any sense except to other readers. 

• The character you had pictured in your mind is totally different from how the character is described: 

This is coming first because it’s one of the most mundane reasons why I have stopped reading a novel. Perhaps I had a vision of the female lead having long, dark wavy hair and all of a sudden it’s revealed that the character has blonde hair. [I would like to state that I don’t have any preference based on hair colour, neither do I prefer one to the other]. 

It just feels different knowing that I have imagined the character wrong all this while and I might just lose the momentum to read the book. Or perhaps I imagined the character having a pixie cut and then It’s revealed that her hair reaches her mid back or waist length. 

Or perhaps I always saw the character having green eyes and now it’s revealed that the character has blue eyes. It just changes everything for me. 

• The outfit the character is putting on is different from what you imagined they would be wearing in that scene: 

This occurs in let’s say, the character is said to be walking through the park and I imagined them in Jeans and a white tee and the description reveals the character in a summer dress or khaki shorts. 

Perhaps it’s a dinner or gala and I pictured a black strapless gown and it’s revealed that she’s putting on a red short gown [ Again it’s not about preference for either of these colours but it just distorts the picture I have in mind.] 

• The character says or does something so out of the personality we have envisioned for them: 

For readers, every character we come across has a personality block in our minds. And with that personality that the writer has established, there are just certain things that a character shouldn’t say. 

A good example will be reading a fantasy novel and coming across hip slangs in it, that’s just not what we expect to see in such a novel. Like reading an 18th century book and seeing the word ‘rizz’ in it. 

• Either of the character is grumpy for no justifiable reason: 

I love a grumpy/sunshine troupe as it’s just so easy and convenient to write, you can hardly go wrong with the troupe and book lovers eat it up every single time. 

However you need to give us a good reason for why the character is grumpy. They can’t be grumpy because someone stole their piece of candy when they were 8 and they’ve carried the burden ever since. Write this troupe however gives us a real reason why said character is grumpy.

• Too much time is spent describing the setting: 

I think this is more of a personal preference however, please do not spend a whole paragraph describing the painting on the wall especially if it’s irrelevant to the plot. 

If it’s not a fantasy read or the location doesn’t matter much then skip the description, I for one do not wish to know the exact colour of green the chair is or the specifics of the chair, I’ll just imagine the chair however I want to and get on with reading. 

Closing Remarks

Are you guilty of any of these reasons? 

And what’s the pettiest reason you ever stopped reading a book?