I've gotten that, Susan.

One thing that really bugs me is that I just cannot read long italic passages. I'm not sure what it is, but it's like, when I'm reading something in a normal font, I can sight-read and know the word just by looking at it, but when it's in italics, or in any kind of script font, that all breaks down and I have to actually look at the letters and sound the words out, and it annoys me and gives me a headache. There have been several books lately that switch between, say, current action and a journal from the past by using italics for the journal part, and I've found that I generally just give up after about a page of the italics.

Italics don't bother me, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices things like that.

I hate italics longer than 3/4 of a page too. (Am I being too generous. I usually can stand it for that long - even with bad eyes; beyond that headaches start.)

Calli, I think The Viscount of Adrilankha was actually a single book that was broken into a trilogy for publication.

Mind, you, it would have been chapbook sized if Brust could drop the damn stylized Mojo-Jojoesque passages wherein it takes six paragraphs for someone to express a sentence's worth of information.

Ya know, that style annoyed me a lot more before, in the recent ones, he had sections without it. It was suddenly a lot more of a cultural note than an overwhelming affectation (though no doubt he thinks it's cute).

Even if (like me) you think Perdido St Station is less a novel than the greatest piece of D&D scenario design in history, and that Mieville has read the Robert Asprin Sanctuary books once too often, it's worth a look. And the (sort of) sequel The Scar is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in years. I didn't get on with George RR Martin. If I want to read about murderous incestuous nobles without any redeeming features struggling for power, I'll read I Claudius or The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy - they have jokes!

But, Sumi, isn't MB just FG? I definitely think so. "Fortress of Solitude" is even better though. (/Lethem likes Brooklyn carrots) Can't say I notice type much, unless it's too small.

Has anyone ever been so bugged by a book's typeface that they can't read it?

Jodi Picoult has changed font with the narrative voice for her last two books, and it's driven me batty.

Oh, ugh. [Adds "Jodi Picoult" to the list of authors to avoid.]

It pisses me off on many levels. (Besides the eye wonkiness, shouldn't you be able to establish narrative voice with something other than font? Because, really, if you just want to put the character's name at the beginning of the chapter, it's cool with me.)