Saturday, October 26, 2013

Bookish Survey: Cast a Harry Potter Spell - Part 2

This is the second part of a fun-looking survey created by Jasmine at Flip That Page.  This time, instead of casting the spells on books, we're casting them on ourselves.

Here goes!

Stupefy
puts victim in unconscious state
A book with a chapter you couldn’t seem to get over: The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman.  This particular chapter was the reason I needed to cast Expecto Patronum on the book (see first survey).

Confundo
causes befuddlement or forgetfulness
A book that generally confused you: Salt by Maurice Gee.  I found this book confusing because it had such good reviews, and yet it was so awful.

Crucio
inflicts unbearable pain
A book that was a pain to read: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.  I shouldn't have to explain this one.

Episkey
heals relatively minor injuries
A feel good book that you enjoyed: Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.  Not all of it is "feel-good" stuff, but overall this book gave me the warm-fuzzies.

Expelliarmus
temporarily disarms an opponent
A book with a swoon-worthy character: Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury.  Caedmon!  I might be in the minority with this one, but I quite liked that guy...

Impedimenta
impedes target’s progress
A book that kept you up all night reading: I don't think I've ever stayed up all night to finish a book.  I do remember, however, staying up "late" so I could finish Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary.  I was around 7 or 8 at the time, and "late" was probably still before midnight!

Silencio
immediate silencing
A book that left you speechless after you read it: Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick.  And I was not speechless in a good way.  I didn't even finish this one, I was so traumatized by what I did read.

Legilimens
allows you to delve into someone’s mind
A book with well-developed characters: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  So many of the books I read today seem to have characters that are like cardboard cutouts.  That was not the case here, and it was so refreshing.

Levicorpus
a spell that turns you upside down
A book that changed your mind about a character from its prequel: Magic Under Stone by Jaclyn Dolamore.  At times, I felt like I wasn't even reading about the same characters.  There were some definite continuity problems, and I did change my mind about some of the characters; after the second book, I really didn't like them anymore!

Obliviate
used to hide memories
A book with a story you can’t remember: The Hollow by Jessica Verday.  Honestly, all I remember about this book is that the main character spent a lot of time baking cookies, making perfume, and taking baths.  What was the plot of this one again?

Peskipiksi Pesternomi
useless spell
A boring book that had absolutely no effect on you: Pivot Point by Kasie West.  I was so bored, I couldn't even finish.  I didn't even care how the story turned out, which shows how little I had invested in it.

Reducto
breaks through solid objects
A book that convinced you to reconsider a certain genre: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion.  I thought I hated zombie novels until I read this one.  I'm still not crazy about all the gore in zombie novels, though, and I think Warm Bodies may be uniquely thoughtful for a book in this genre.

Rictusempra
tickling spell
A book that made you laugh: Gump & Co. by Winston Groom.  I don't generally laugh out loud when I read (unless something is really awful).  This book, though, made me laugh in a good way.  I can't remember what was so funny... but I do remember that it made me laugh.  I also found the previous book, Forrest Gump, pretty funny as well.

Sectusempra
offensive spell that violently wounds the target
A book that may have scarred you for life: Barefoot Gen, Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa.  This book was absolutely horrific.  I found it at the university library and it was one of those things that's so awful that you can't seem to look away from it.  Prepare to be traumatized (especially when you realize it's semi-autobiographical).  Now that I think about it, maybe this book is the reason why I've avoided manga like the plague; perhaps there are negative subconscious connotations there.

Tarantallegra
makes you dance uncontrollably
A series finale that made you feel giddy: The Wyrd of Willowmere by Alison Baird.  This is the only series finale I can think of at the moment that I actually liked.  So often, those final books are disappointing.  This one wasn't.  And while it might not have been the strongest book in the series, I thought it wrapped things up in a great way that made me want to smile.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Bookish Survey: Cast a Harry Potter Spell - Part 1

This is a fun-looking survey created by Jasmine at Flip That Page.  I thought I'd give it a go!  I'll let Jasmine explain:
So how does it work? Basically, it’s a survey of sorts, where I give you a certain spell from the Harry Potter series, and you answer with the title of a book you’d like to cast the spell on.
Here goes!

Reparo
fixes damaged objects
A book that needs some serious fixing: The Lake and the Library by S. M. Beiko.  First, let me say that this is not a bad book.  It actually has an amazing plot, and I quite enjoyed it.  It did, however, have some instances of bad writing and a few characters could have been developed a bit more.  If these issues were fixed, it could be a great book!

Lumos
creates a narrow beam of light
A book that deserves more attention: Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis.  It's one of my all-time favourite books, and yet I rarely see it discussed; I don't think a lot of people have even heard of it!  Reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights, it has a gorgeous setting and unforgettable characters.

Nox
counters the effects of Lumos
An overhyped book: If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  I read this one because everybody said how good it was, and I thought the premise sounded really interesting.  I found it extremely disturbing, yet paradoxically boring, and I thought the out-of-body experience idea was completely underutilized.

Accio
summons an object from a significant distance
A book you’re anticipating: World After by Susan Ee.  I'm kind of embarrassed to even admit it, as Angelfall was kind of a fluffy, guilty-pleasure book for me.  I guess I could have also said Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor, but it seems weird to anticipate the third book in a series when I haven't even read the second one!

Alohomora
opens unlocked doors, unless bewitched
A book you want to be more open about: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.  Okay, maybe this is just because I feel I should read it at some point.  I've tried twice already, but I just couldn't get into it.  Maybe the third time will be the charm!

Expecto Patronum
conjures an incarnation of positive feelings
A book that made you cry, or at least want to: The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman.  I must have read it over a decade ago... and I'm still gutted.

Morsmordre
conjures the Dark Mark
A book you wish to mark as one of your favorites: Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones.  My favourite book from one of my favourite authors.  It's not as well known as Howl's Moving Castle, but it's a lovely fairy tale retelling and well worth reading!

Petrificus Totalus
petrifies victim
A book you wish to keep forever: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  It's one of my favourites, and I hope to always have a copy in my collection.

Protego
shield charm
An intimidating book you keep putting off: Under the Dome by Stephen King.  Maybe it's not the best choice for someone who's never read a Stephen King novel, but the premise looks really interesting.  However, at over a thousand pages, this one has me running scared.

Riddikulus
used against a boggart
A book with a deceiving synopsis: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore.  There was nothing in the book about "Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport"... which is actually kind of disappointing, because that could have been a really interesting subplot.

Lacarnum Inflamarae
shoots fireballs
A book you wish to burn out of your mind completely: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  But if I got rid of the memory of it, I'd still feel like I needed some resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of Catching Fire... and then I'd have to read Mockingjay and be disappointed all over again.

Wingardium Leviosa
levitates objects
A book you wish to reread: The Light Princess by George MacDonald.  It's short and sweet and one of my favourite fairy tales of all time.  I don't generally reread books, but I might make an exception for this one.

Avada Kedavra
causes instant death
Worst book EVER: Basajaun by Rosemary Van Deuren.  Not only did it have a horribly misleading synopsis and a creepy plot, it was also one of the worst technically written books I've ever had the displeasure of reading.  I'm sure it's not the worst book ever, in the history of all books... but it's probably the worst one I've personally ever read.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Review - Magic Under Stone

Magic Under Stone (Magic Under #2)
by Jaclyn Dolamore
Date: 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 291
Format: e-book
Source: library

For star-crossed lovers Nimira and Erris, there can be no happily ever after until Erris is freed from the clockwork form in which his soul is trapped. And so they go in search of the sorcerer Ordoria Valdana, hoping he will know how to grant Erris real life again. When they learn that Valdana has mysteriously vanished, it’s not long before Nimira decides to take matters into her own hands—and begins to study the sorcerer’s spell books in secret. Yet even as she begins to understand the power and limitations of sorcery, it becomes clear that freeing Erris will bring danger—if not out-and-out war—as factions within the faerie world are prepared to stop at nothing to prevent him from regaining the throne.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book was so bad, I almost feel like laughing.  You have to have a sense of humour after spending hours reading something so disappointing.

I was somewhat entertained by the first book, Magic Under Glass.  But when I started in on the sequel, it quickly became apparent that it didn't have nearly as much polish or attention paid to it as its predecessor.  There were so many clunky bits of writing and so many little out-of-place details that had me scratching my head.

I mentioned in my review of Magic Under Glass that I thought perhaps the two books should have been joined as one volume.  I stand by that assessment for the most part, simply because there's not much meat to the plot.  And yet, it would have been weird to put the two books together because the format of the second book is not the same as the first.  Nimira is still a first-person narrator, but her sections are interspersed with third-person narratives that tell the story of the jinn, Ifra, and his dealings with the fairy royal family.  As a result, it didn't really feel like Nimira's story anymore.

The characters in this book seemed much less well developed than in the previous book.  Most of the female characters act like silly, vapid clotheshorses at one point or another, and too many minor characters were brought into the mix.  Ordorio Valdana was a particular disappointment, as, when he finally did appear, he only did so for a few pages before being of very little help anyway.  The villains were numerous, and some were also annoying infodumpers; they gave out too much information about their plans (presumably for the benefit of the reader), which made them seem unrealistic.

This book also really dragged, and the plot seemed like a really roundabout way of getting from Point A to Point B.  The side plotline with the jinn's point of view was necessary because, without it, there would not have been enough here to make a whole book.  And while I thought Ifra himself was an interesting character, I found most of the action around him to be contrived and boring.

My biggest annoyance with this book is that, while the main plotline was tied up and resolved, it wasn't done so satisfactorily for one big reason: the author forgot that she had two main villains, not just one.  There was no mention of what happened to the other bad guy, so presumably he's still out there, waiting to cause trouble.  The problem with that is that there's not enough unresolved conflict for a third book... and so this one just comes off as incomplete by mistake.  Oops.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.14 out of 5

Monday, October 14, 2013

Review - Eat, Brains, Love

Eat, Brains, Love (Eat, Brains, Love #1)
by Jeff Hart
Date: 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 352
Format: e-book
Source: library

A laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly romantic, zombie road trip novel filled with heart—and brains. Eat, Brains, Love is perfect for fans of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies.

The good news: Jake's dream girl, Amanda Blake, finally knows his name.

The bad news: it's because they both contracted a mysterious zombie virus and devoured the brains of half their senior class. Now Jake and Amanda are on the run from Cass, a teen psychic sent by the government's top-secret Necrotic Control Division to track them down. As Jake and Amanda deal with the existential guilt of eating their best friends and set off in search of a cure for the zombie virus, Cass struggles with a growing psychic dilemma of her own—one that will lead all three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I don't know what I was expecting from this one.  No, actually, I do know what I was expecting from this one.  I was promised a funny, romantic story reminiscent of Warm Bodies.  That was not what I read.

Instead, this book is a half-baked teenage "romance", complete with references to rip-offs from other zombie works.  (What is it with zombies and vinyl LPs?  Is it like some required trope in zombie fiction?)  Aside from the superficial similarities, about the only thing that Jake has in common with R is that both are aware of their condition and don't really want to be zombies.  But while R has the heart of a sensitive poet, Jake has the heart of a nondescript, violence-desensitized teenage boy.  As you can imagine, the characters come across as quite different.

Unfortunately, the weak characterization in this novel prevented it from being anything more than a gratuitously gory story.  Aside from a couple of mentions of hair colour, we don't even know what many of the characters look like.  Imagine my surprise when, at nearly the end of the book, one character that I'd been imagining as white turned out to be black!  (If it's not important, don't mention it.  At least, don't mention it near the end of the story when readers have already created their own mental pictures of the characters.)  The story was told in alternating first-person points of view, switching between Jake (the zombie) and Cass (the psychic).  Both were so badly developed as characters that they might as well have been created ten minutes before the start of the book's events and just dumped there.  We never got to know who these people were before they were enemies, so it was difficult to care about either of them.  There were a few references to family and friends and a few things that happened before Jake went all zombie and Cass had to stop him... but they seemed like afterthoughts.  We didn't even really know what kind of people they were.  Both were kind of blank, as far as personality went.  Jake comes across as a mindless teenage boy; he's not even horny enough to be interesting.  Cass is even worse; she's in over her head and she wants to go home... but home to what?  This is a girl who apparently had no friends and no life to go back to.  I'm having trouble even coming up with ways to describe what I didn't like about these characters.  There just isn't enough there to even criticize!

The plot, at its most basic level, was okay, but kind of cheesy.  It reads a bit like a zombie/X-men mash-up.  On the one side, you've got Jake and Amanda, who are trying to get to Iowa and a rumoured cure for their zombiism.  On the other, you've got psychic Cass and her evil overlord boss, Alastaire, who are trying to stop them.  Okay... but I might have liked the plot better than I did if it had been resolved!  It was not, and as there is no hint of a sequel*, I feel really cheated.  What's changed since the beginning of the book?  Not much, other than the fact that a few more redshirts are dead and we've now got a love triangle.  The main conflict isn't resolved and the villain just disappeared.  That is not how you end a stand-alone novel.

Another thing that may be an issue for many readers is the amount of gore.  Warm Bodies had gore, to be sure, but it wasn't gratuitous like it was here.  I don't know if the author was trying to be funny by being so overly descriptive, but the disgusting descriptions of blood and guts came across as almost gleeful, which I found off-putting.  If descriptions of people's heads being turned into pink mist by a gun blast or zombies eating intestines à la Lady and the Tramp sound like they might be too much for you, you might want to give this one a pass.  Or, you know, give it a pass because it's not a complete story in its own right and shouldn't have been published as a stand-alone novel in the first place.

*Note: Since I first published this review, a sequel has been released.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.57 out of 5

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Weekly Recap - September 29-October 5, 2013

Here's what I managed to blog about over the last seven days:

Tuesday - I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, where we listed what turns us off about certain books.

Wednesday - I reviewed Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore.

Thursday - I reviewed two picture books: Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! by Jeff Brown and Macky Pamintuan and Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Review - Doug Unplugged

Doug Unplugged
by Dan Yaccarino
illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
Date: 2013
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: library

Doug is a robot. His parents want him to be smart, so each morning they plug him in and start the information download. After a morning spent learning facts about the city, Doug suspects he could learn even more about the city by going outside and exploring it. And so Doug... unplugs. What follows is an exciting day of adventure and discovery. Doug learns amazing things by doing and seeing and touching and listening—and above all, by interacting with a new friend.

Dan Yaccarino's funny story of robot rebellion is a great reminder that sometimes the best way to learn about the world is to go out and be in it.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a short, cute book about the importance of unplugging from our constant sources of information and just getting out into the world to experience it.  The fun retro illustrations (done with brush and ink on vellum and Photoshop) really gave a sense of style to the whole book.

While kids will probably find this to be a neat story about a little boy robot, the overall message might be lost on them.  I think it's a far more important book for many of today's parents, who sometimes need to be reminded that kids need time away from their devices to play, explore the world, and just be kids.  I'm reminded of Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd, another picture book with a similar theme; both books are good reminders that all of us need to take a break from technology once in a while.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.6 out of 5

Review - Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure!

Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! (Flat Stanley #1)
by Jeff Brown
illustrated by Macky Pamintuan
Date: 1964
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 112
Format: e-book
Source: library

A flat boy can do almost anything!

Stanley Lambchop is an ordinary boy. At least he was, until the night his bulletin board fell off the wall and flattened him. All of a sudden, Stanley can slide under doors, mail himself across the country in an envelope, and fly like a kite!

But flatness has its serious side, too. Sneak thieves have been stealing paintings from the Famous Museum of Art, and Stanley knows he's the only one who can stop them. Will the robbers discover Stanley's plan before he foils theirs?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I had heard of Flat Stanley, of course, but I had never actually read the book that the activity was based on.  This edition that I found at my library features the original text of the book that was first published in 1964, along with new illustrations from 2009.  I'm not familiar with the original pictures, but the updated ones were awfully cute.

The story revolves around a boy named Stanley who gets flattened by a falling bulletin board.  Aside from all the adventures he has while in this state (such as getting mailed to his friend's house in California and acting as his brother's kite in the park), the book also manages to work in a few messages about sibling rivalry and being kind to those who are different.

It's not as dated as I feared a book this old might be.  I quite enjoyed it, and I think a lot of kids would get a kick out of the wacky premise, too.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.6 out of 5

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Review - Magic Under Glass

Magic Under Glass (Magic Under #1)
by Jaclyn Dolamore
Date: 2009
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 225
Format: e-book
Source: library

Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

It bothers me when a synopsis doesn't match the book it's about.  Had this book been about everything that the synopsis promised, it might have garnered another star from me.  But there really wasn't anything about "a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport".  That was just a misleading tease.  (Nimira wasn't forced to dance for pennies, either; she left home and chose a career as a "trouser girl".  She was hardly a slave; she wouldn't have left that life so easily and set the story in motion if she had been.)

The main concept of the plot -- that of a fairy prince's spirit trapped within an automaton -- was fairly original, but there were also hints of classics like Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden in the story.  Unfortunately, those allusions didn't always work.  Without giving too much away, I'll just say that I felt that Hollin was not nearly as honourable as Edward Rochester in a similar situation; I lost a lot of respect for him and disliked his selfish actions.

There was also some insta-love and a forced quasi-love triangle.  I don't think we got to see enough of Nimira and Erris's interactions to see why she was falling for him.  In fact, I couldn't help but wonder if what she was feeling wasn't love, but pity (since their conversations mainly focused on Erris's trapped state of being).

While the writing was decent and the story was interesting and flowed fairly well, there were some things that seemed sudden and inconsistent.  This is supposedly a land of magic and sorcerers, and yet they don't use much magic at all.  They even carry pistols to protect themselves!  And then there was a point in the story where one character started throwing magic around, when there had been no hints that she was a sorceress at all.

Some of these problems could probably have been solved if the book was a little longer.  As it was, the ending was unsatisfactory and merely set up the action for the sequel.  I think that it may have worked better if this book and the sequel had been combined into one longer novel with two parts.

All in all, it wasn't an awful read, but it definitely started off better than it finished.  I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm also not sure if I want to bother with the sequel.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.29 out of 5

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Book Turn-Offs

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Book Turn-Offs.  Those little things (or big things) that make you want to throw a book across the room:

10.  lack of dialogue tags - You know the books I'm talking about.  They're the ones where there's rapid-fire dialogue back and forth between two characters that goes on for half a page... and by the end of it you can't figure out who's said what so you have to go back and count the lines to make sure you've gotten the gist of the conversation.  I think Lord of the Flies has quite a bit of this; it's the reason why I never got very far into the book.

9.  old men lusting after young girls - This seems to be found mostly in the YA paranormal genre.  You'll get some supernatural creature that, by his very nature, is really old.  And then he always has to lust after a teenage girl.  I'm not sure what we're supposed to take from this.  Paranormal guys are pervs?  Supernatural dudes only like nubile virgins?  (It wouldn't be so bad if these old guys were somehow frozen in their mental development as well as their physical development.  But, as it is, you get men with hundreds of years of life experience seducing girls who are just a few years past puberty.  As I've said before, in our world, it doesn't matter if the 30-year-old man next door looks like he could pass for a high school kid; if he has a relationship with his 15-year-old neighbour, he's going to jail.)

Don't even get me started on Jacob and Renesmee.

8.  religion - I don't mind if a character has a religion or preaches their religion to other characters if it's in keeping with the story.  But if it's a blatant attempt by the author to proselytize to their reading audience, it's a turn off for me... and it doesn't matter what religion (or non-religion) it is.

7.  mean characters that aren't acknowledged as mean - I'm thinking about characters like Georgia Nicholson.  She's supposed to be funny, but after a while she just came off as a bitch.  It's not always a bad thing to have a bitch in a book... as long as that behaviour is not overlooked or normalized.

6.  having babies - This is mostly because I'm reading YA fiction, and I don't think it's all that appropriate for the genre.  At least, in the books where I've encountered it, it hasn't been appropriate (and it's been a real turn-off).  Books like Ice by Sarah Beth Durst and Breaking Dawn use pregnancy as a plot device and don't really address the paternalistic attitude of the impregnators.  That's different than a book that's actually about teenage pregnancy and all the issues that go with it.

5.  shrieking, pretentious teenagers - I would steer clear of these sorts of people in real life.  I really don't want to have to read about them.  (Example: Lily in Dash & Lily's Book of Dares.  I think she's got to be close to the top of my list of Most Annoying Characters of All Time.)

4. lack of climax - I hate it when I'm really enjoying a book and a few exciting things have happened and there's been all kinds of foreshadowing, so I think I'm in for one heck of a climax... and then it fizzles and dies.  The most memorable example I can think of is Breaking Dawn.  Worst.  Climax.  Ever.  Compare it to the climaxes of the first three books, and you'll see what I mean.  Yes, part of my disappointment was because of my high expectations... but they didn't get high in a vacuum.

3. typos - It's the 21st century.  I shouldn't still be seeing typos in published works.  We have spell checkers.  Use them!  (And I'm not just talking about little homophone slip-ups where I read "there" instead of "their".  I'm talking about reading words that don't even exist, like "wass" instead of "was".  True story.)

2. "said bookisms" - This is when the author seems to be allergic to the word "said", and employs every synonym they can think of in its place: gasped, sighed, murmured, whispered, shrieked, laughed... you get the idea.  The thing is, when you use "said", it kind of disappears; our brains don't really register it, so it doesn't disrupt the flow.  Too many "said bookisms" do disrupt the flow.  To me, overuse of these words comes across as amateurish.

1. "said bookisms" that don't make sense - This is my #1 biggest pet peeve.  It's not something I ever used to see, but it seems to have become an epidemic, especially in the YA genre.  If I encounter these at the beginning of the book, I'll most likely give up.  If I encounter them in the middle or toward the end, I might also give up... unless the plot and characters are so spectacular that they can overcome brain-bleedingly awful sentences like:
"Wait until I get my hands on you," he ran across the room.