Cliche Things in Books That Almost Never Happen in Real Life

Hello everyone! Welcome to another bookish talk ♥

I’ve been so busy binge watching some tv shows these couple of days that I haven’t really had the time to focus on my blog. I’ve been putting off replying comments and blog hopping and even writing posts! I have some ideas that I think would be great for the blog but I was too distracted to properly write the post. This post is one that I wrote probably two hours before I hit publish which is very unlike me because I usually write my post ahead of time, especially discussion post 😛

Since everyone here is a huge reader, I’m sure we frequently encounter cliche things that happen a lot in books but almost never happen in real life. Which is kind of weird because how does author come up with those stuffs if they’re not even real? Anyway, let’s get started! ♦

People describing their facial features in detail while looking at the mirror

Do people really do this? I mean, I do look at the mirror a lot and think of how I look. Check for zits or red spots and yes sometimes I admire my nose because it’s honestly the best part of my face?hahaha 😛 but I don’t describe my eyelashes or the corner of my mouth or how my eyes gleam with emotions. That’s sort of too specific? Check this.

“The guy in the mirror isn’t bad looking–high cheekbones, strong jaw, a mouth that’s hitched up at one corner like he just gone done telling a joke. Somewhere in the neighborhood of pretty. The way he tilts his head back and gazes out through half-open eyelids makes it seem like he’s used to looking down on everyone, like he’s smart and knows he’s smart.”

Do you guys do this? For real?? It’s a quote from Holding Up the Universe. What’s weird is that it happens a lot in books, like it’s the only way to describe some characters’ looks. It also happens a lot at the beginning of a book. I’m sure there are some less narcissistic ways to do it out there 😛

Characters with exotic, weird, and highly unusual eye colors

Characters in books seem to always, always have some exotic eye colors! Their eyes are always unusual, captivating, and very one-of-a-kind. Green eyes seem to be the most common since Harry Potter, but there’s also some people whose eye colors can change into other equally unusual colors when hit by sunlight. I’m pretty sure I once read a book in which the character has purple eyes?? It’s contacts wight? It must be contacts.

I mean, I wouldn’t know for sure because I’m Indonesian and we here have black irises, or dark brown, but I’m pretty sure brown is the most common eye color of all the human population. I have evidence one and two to back up my claim here 😛

Voices that sound like fire and chocolate

I’m sure you’re pretty familiar with sentences like ‘his voice sounds like smoke and fire‘ and ‘his voice reminded me of chocolate’. Some characters’ ability to describe voices in foods and random nouns is truly beyond me. I never do that, neither do people around me. If people do this, I will definitely laugh, so we usually just describe voices with these adjectives 😛

• Deep
• High & low
• Raspy, hoarse, husky
• Light
• Friendly, cold, cheerful
• Basically anything other than food and fire

People who always smell good despite the lack of showering  

Another cliche that I don’t understand is how people always seem to smell SO GOOD even when they’re stranded at a forest for weeks. It doesn’t even make sense! I mean, people who hide in the forest and run for their lives don’t have the chance to shower. And they run a lot, so how come they don’t smell like sweat and dirt? Check this.

“His smell reminded me of the wind–rain and salt and something citrus-y I couldn’t name.”

or this

“His smell–rain and spice, washes over me, and I take a steadying breath.”

Even if these people smell like sweat, their sweat still smell… divine. Ugh! I still remember how class smelled after PE. It was a nightmare 😦 and lack of shower aside, it’s still difficult for me to describe someone’s scent specifically. I can’t even identify a perfume scent perfectly. Can’t we just say it smells nice or bad?

The only good (or probably bad) thing from this scent business is that some people are creative enough to turn it into bookish candles business 😛

The ability to read people’s mind through their eyes

Obviously eyes are the windows to the soul, but how do people in books get so good at reading people’s mind and emotion through their eyes??? I mean, yes, I could tell if people are happy or angry from their eyes, but that’s that. I could only tell the basic, not the elaborate reasons why they feel what they feel. I’d love to provide a specific quote as an example but I forget which book did this and too lazy to check randomly 😛 Also, why do their eyes always darken? I don’t even know how darkening eyes look like (!!!) :’)

Seriously, how did authors come up with these stuffs?

Are my eyes dark enough?

“I let go of the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.”

Ok to be fair, this thing does happen in real life. Pretty often, if I have to be honest. I just want to put it on the list because it’s still a cliche, considering how often this exact sentence appears in books. Surely you’re familiar with this sentence too? 😛

Those are 6 cliches I could think of at the moment ♦ LET’S TALK! Are you familiar with all of these cliches? Do you do these stuffs in real life? Examine your facial features thoroughly? Compare a voice with foods? Describe someone’s natural scent specifically? 😛 And please remind me of another bookish cliche I might have missed! ♥

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