Books

Battlefield earth. L Ron Hubbard. Leverage

I am reading The picture of Dorian Gray, and have noticed that the word conscience pops up very often. I don’t know if it’s a commonly used word I didn’t know what it exactly meant before. It may be a commonly used term but English isn’t my first language.

George RR Martin and the word "Nuncle". It took me a long time to realize he meant "Uncle".

Issac Asimov writes a lot of characters that do things “sardonically.”

Yes. And I hate it. Then of course I notice it more.

“Barbarism” appeared way too much in Foundation for me.

Pneumatic. Forgot the dude's name but I think we all know who it is.

Guy Gavriel Kay and “need” and “needful” to describe women’s libidinous urges.

~Windows key "fi" (for Firefox) Enter "*insert word here* synonym" Enter~ is etched into my nervous system for the exact purpose of nobody ever noticing this in my writing. I'm sure it happens, but I hate the idea of having "crutch words".

David Eddings was very fond of soberly and exasperation.

I read the Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy as a challenge to see if it was actually “better than what Disney puts out.” My god, “sardonically.” At least once a chapter, at least.

No singular word comes to mind, but the phrases "vulgar gesture" and "loosed a breath" are going to be the death of me @ Sarah J. Maas

R.A. Salvatore - Perfect and Don’t ye doubt

Tom Clancy used the word “niggardly” more than I’ve ever seen it used in totality from all other sources combined.

Mary Beard’s book about ancient Rome, SPQR, is great…but she used shrewd/shrewdly so often, 6-8 times, it became exasperating. Hope someone gave her a thesaurus.

Stephen King loves apotheosis!

I read the Dresden Files. I even LOVE the Dresden Files.

But holy shit in a handbasket, the author has his words and phrases. “Crimson” and “Cerulean” are said far too often, people “arch an eyebrow” all too much, and just about every character eventually gets to have a “wolffish grin”.

There are a few extra phrases, but those are the ridiculous, highly overused ones.

I JUST finished a book like this yesterday. I've never seen muck/mucky used SO MANY TIMES

now learn what synchronicity means

Just read the newest Amanda Quick novel. In the first two pages, she wrote that a character “toggled” a light switch. It hit me weird, because I would say something like flicked the switch, but toggled just seemed so random. When I think toggled, I think of a back and forth action, not a one-way, one-motion action. She used it again later in the book.

Jane Austen uses "agitated" a lot.

JK Rowling and the use of “indignantly”

So many, but based on just my recent reading it has to be H.E. Bates and his "laughing like a jelly". Heaven forbid a fat person laugh without doing it like a jelly.

Honorable mention to Craig Johnson's habit of referring to everything that isn't brand new as "aged".

Some authors have favorite phrases for different sexy times. I can't recall specific ones at the moment, but Julia Quinn uses some phrases quite a bit. Lisa Kleypas does, too.

i DNF'd paladin's grace by t kingfisher bc every page was like "he smelled like gingerbread" over and over again

JD Salinger sure used the word phony a lot in Catcher in the Rye.

I was re-reading Raven Cycle again and noticed that each book has a couple instances of "X tipped his/her head back." Once I noticed I couldn't stop

Stephen King likes "obdurate" in 11/22/63. He also recycles variations of "knees fired off like shotgun blasts" whenever an old man bends down or stands up.

Julia Quinn is so bad with this! In the Viscount Who Loved Me, she uses the word “rake” to death.

Richard laymon and the word rump. Every book has at least twenty rumps in it.

Stephenie Meyer, “chagrin”

The author of Braiding Sweetgrass used the word reciprocity so many times I almost stopped.

John Scalzi isn't imaginative enough to describe anyone conveying verbal information any other way than "said". I rage quit Redshirts over it. I'm not going to give him another try either.

My friend wrote a book about a lesbian couple. Apparently early she thought it would be confusing to use “she” and “her” constantly so she tried to switch it up a bit. She ended up using the phrase “the other woman” constantly. It was super annoying.