Yes, both of those things bother me. Years ago I read a book that ended with a French sentence, meaning that I never knew how it ended. I've long forgotten the book, but I've never forgotten the annoyance.

My personal annoyance is with books written in the present tense. It seems to be very trendy just now and it drives me up the wall.

Rosefolly

Mudlady,
Speaking as a writer, I think sometimes you do so much research - particularly if your piece is historic - it can overbalance your view of what you're writing so that you fail to judge the exact amount your reader/audience needs. I've come back to a piece after a lapse of, say, a few months, and been horrified by the weight of research/exposition i've included which pulls the piece down and holds up the action to no purpose. Once I've seen this, however, it's not too dificult to cut what's not actually needed.

One thing writers should beware of though is the feeling of 'I've researched it so it's going in. It's not going to go to waste.'

Dido

The foreign language phrases irritate me also. I have a knowledge of some French and do try to figure out what the author wrote if it's in a Romance language, but I'm sure I don't get it right most of the time. Thank goodness for the language translation sites online. However it certainly detracts from the enjoyment of a book if you have to run to look up what the author is trying to say.

I have often wondered why writers find it necessary to do this when I'm sure they know it's a stumbling block in the flow of the writing to most readers.

Altho considered a master, Hemingway has always annoyed the hell out of me because of his writing tics which cause me to lose patience w/ him.

I must be a Maverick, because the insertion of foreign phrases does not annoy me. On the contrary, it picques my interest and I just go look up the meanings.

However, certain authors irritate me with their redundancy, both in themes, characters and descriptions. Among them, I count Anne Rivers Siddons and Pat Conroy.

I read "Prince of Tides" years ago and promised myself that one day I would drive over the bridge he mentions frequently, and as I drive over it I will mutter, "Lowenstein, Lowenstein." Well I drove to South Carolina and Georgia in June but the bridge he described has long since been replaced. The new one is beautiful, so I drove over that one.
I loaned the book to my adolescent son back then and he loved it so much he vowed that if he ever had a daughter, he would name her Savannah. Today, he is 37, no kids by choice, and has a beautiful cat named Savannah ;-)

Mudlady, I wonder if you drove over the exquisite relatively new Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC? I have just moved here and find that bridge to be a work of art! it is interesting living in the environs that spawned Pat Conroy and other southern writers....

That is the bridge and photographing it is interesting because the slender cables "disappear" at a distance. I spent time in both Charleston and Savannah and even took the ferry to Sapelo Island because I am interested in the Gullah people and language. It is a beautiful area.
Conroy's novels intrigued me with his rich description of the low country, but I eventually became bored with his writing style about the damaged son of a dysfunctional family.
Nancy

Mudlady, have you read Dorothea Benton Frank's books? They are not as "literary" as Pat Conroy, but they are good stories and are all set in the Low Country.

The translation of Mann's Magic Mountain I read had a several pages of French in the middle of it. I put it aside in disgust and in gratitude. I had been identifying far too much with our protagonist and it was weirding me out.

With apologies to AstroKath, Gabaldon's research shows far too much. Much as I loved the first couple of books I never read beyond her 3rd. Did she find a lighter touch eventually?

Carolyn,
Ya dun good with "House Rules" so this author is going on my list.
Nancy

Chris, you make a valid and interesting point with Gabaldon, as she has been known to criticise authors who beat you over the head with their research *g*
And no, her books have probably even more research showing as she moves towards the War of Independence, so stay away!

I have only ever read one book of James Paterson's. I finished it because I wanted to know the ending, but some of the chapters were less than a page long, and I found that very disconcerting.

As much as I enjoy Maeve Binchy's books, I do wish that she would stop over-using 'mad' and "clinically insane" etc. which her characters refer to a lot when describing their own and other people's actions. I find it very irritating :-(

I have never cared for Ernest Hemingway. His stripped-down prose seems to be just a cover for overblown self-mythologizing.

I am ashamed to admit I really struggle with Dickens. My chief complaint is the wearying number of characters. I put aside Martin Chuzzlewit during a particularly difficult chapter which introduced about twelve new characters, all of whom had much to say. I just gave up!

Chris in the valley, I skipped the french inThe Magic Mountain. Mann is not an easy writer, but I really did enjoy that book.

Another who finds Chas. Dickens' style enormously irritating and overblown. I could barely just get through "A Christmas Carol" and "A Tale of Two Cities" years ago.

I still don't get the irritation with foreign phrases. Literature is becoming increasingly global, as is all else. I look upon this as a way to expand my horizons....

It is easier now with Google to find the meaning of foreign phrases. I think my irritation stemmed from about 1960 when I didn't know how to find a translation.

Mudlady, glad you liked House Rules. My daughter bought it and passed it along because of the subject matter. I haven't read any other Picoult books.

I suppose I could fire up the computer, go to Google, and then type in the foreign phrases. However--I am a lousy typist and that would be a real pain. Doing so would seriously interrupt the flow of my reading and I might even wander off and stop reading at that time. I think authors who insert several foreign phrases should place a copy of them in an appendix and provide the English translation for us. Do you hear me Kathy Reichs??????? Two books, and I am done reading you!
Nancy

Don't the experts distinguish between our reading vocabulary and our speaking vocabulary? Is this not because at some point most of us, figuring out the meaning of a word or phrase from context, stop looking up the meaning and, therefore, pronunciation? Is this any different from looking up foreign phrases? How often is that phrase crucial to understanding the book? At what point in our "reading age" do we learn to just skip it and go on?

Chris -

An interesting question you pose there: at what reading age do we learn to just skip it and go on?...

When an author includes a foreign phrase or word in the text, I used to ponder over it and it would sometimes interrupt the story. However, now I am an old bat, I am much more relaxed about these things, and most of the time (now I have read more and quite widely), I can usually pick up the meaning from the context. If I can't, I think I just skip over it and assume that it won't affect my understanding of the plot too much.

However, this can depend on whether I am reading fiction or non-fiction. Fiction - I will just blow over it most of the time, but with non-fiction, I have higher expectations for both myself and the author and would look for footnotes (or similar) for further enlightenment..

I have a good vocabulary and do look up a word that I don't know. I figure that if the writer uses an English word I don't know--shame on me. I actually enjoy finding words I don't know. However, I have studied Latin and Spanish and have almost no knowledge of French, which Kathy Reichs serves up in almost every chapter. I do often think I get the meaning because French is a Romance language. It simply seems to me that Reichs is showing off, or perhaps writing for a bilingual audience.