I noticed a thread I found invaluable as a writer in a reading group I'm in so I thought I'd briefly share the results. They were discussing what makes them put a book down. I have compiled the reasons and the number next to them is how many people agreed with that point. As you may notice there are also conflicting reasons. I thought this information might be helpful to know (clearly it was not divided by genre).
#1 reason: Doesn’t catch interest very quickly
33 people
Usually stated in the first chapter but some readers were more forgiving up to 30% of the book.
#2 Too Much Description -- 16 people
#3 Awful writing -- 12 people
Tied #4 -- all 6 votes each:
Too much filler
Repetition of words/phrases
Not invested in character
Tied #5 - 5 votes each:
Lack of Research
Weak/badly written female characters
Hard to read (dialogue accents/ weird character names)
Tied #6 - 4 votes each:
No/Bad editing
Too many characters at once
Tied #7 - 3 votes each:
First Person POV
Switching times then/now
Lack of Character development
Lack of Depth
Tied #8 - 2 votes each:
Ridiculous Story Line
Character doing something they know not to do
Lack of Punctuation
Typos
Unnecessary Sex Scenes
Talked at/instead of part of
Long Chapters
Infodump
Things with only one reader vote but mentioned as a reason to stop reading:
No Climax
Confusing Timelines
New character/place every chapter
Recycled Plot
Too Much Backstory
Forced Slang
Too much angst inner dialogue
Too many adjectives
Cliches
Annoying Character
Simple Writing
Run On Sentences
Short Sentences
Repetitive descriptors (including synonyms)
Always using said as dialogue tag
Overly complicated beginning
Traumatic events for shock value
Excessive Profanity
Child/Animal Abuse
Not clearly marked sex scenes
Overly preachy
While many of the lower voted things could probably be added to 'awful writing' I felt it was important to keep it separate when they specifically what they found was awful about the writing. Many just said 'awful writing' and left it at that.