Niggled

So I haven't written in an age:( Neither my WIP or here. I could give you lots of excuses, but really there is only one explanation. I have not yet made a time for writing. I really need to establish a routine. I am on my winter holidays now, and first thing on my list is 'write'. And second and third and fourth.

During the last (hectic) six months I have managed to sneak in a couple of pulp fiction books for light relief from my studying. I noticed a couple of things about the way they were written that niggled me and detracted from the story. The first one managed to really annoy me, the second almost ruined my reading of the book.

Before I go into details I am aware that these novels are not great works of fiction nor best sellers. I am also a newbie with nothing published and still learning the craft of writing. I realise that in the scheme of things my opinion may hardly matter. Yet...I am a reader. Writers write for readers. So I think my opinion does matter. Not as a professional, but as some one who pays for books and recommends them to others. As someone vital in the chain of publishing.

So that said the two niggly bits went as followed. The first was language. The book was set in England from the turn of the 20th century up till the start of WW2. The protagonist was a young aristocratic woman. Yet her language (not the books language but sentences she spoke) were more in line with someone from the last few decades of the 20th century and rather unladylike. And it jarred with me. It ruined the atmosphere of the book because I did not believe in the setting and the characters. Worse was the letter in the the story that was written by an older gentleman-with AMERICAN spelling! It does not worry me that England and America spell things differently- that America has diverged from the original language. The point is an English gentleman would write in ENGLISH, not American English. So what if the book was published in America? Those kind of details add dimension and authority. Those details change the book from being ok to good.

The second book was a very simple thing, but made reading it difficult. And it was a good book. It was written from two main points of view, and more added into some action sequences. The switch in POV happened within chapters, yet there were no breaks between the paragraphs. So one moment you are reading about Johnny, then the next you are reading about Clyde. And sometimes the line from the new POV didn't start with the person's name! So you would only know the POV had switched half way through the line or even two or more lines in! It was ridiculous and confusing. It broke up my reading in the middle of fast paced action, because I had to work out who the action was happening to. The stupidity of it surprised me because really it's so simple, all the editor had to do was put a line between the paragraphs to let us know the POV had changed.

What do you think? Am I over reacting? Or do these little things matter? What little things niggle you when reading?