No Colored Text: An Open Plea to Publishers

I am very disappointed right now.

I recently finished Marie Lu's book Legend. I really enjoyed it. I'm dying to know what happens next. I found the second and third books at my local library and sat down this afternoon to lose myself in her story.

Except I can't.

Once I hit the second chapter I had to put the book down. They're being returned to the library unread and since my library doesn't have them on audio, I don't know when I'll end up getting a chance to finish the series.

What made such a dramatic turn around? The sections from Day's perspective are printed in a bright aqua with rather bold squarish letters.

After reading only a paragraph my eyes were straining and my head had started throbbing.

And that's honestly not an exaggeration.

The square text would have been enough to differentiate the voices, The blue really isn't necessary. The third book has Day's perspective in vivid red. My vision was spotting just opening to book to see.

And I'm not one to normally be very bothered by this. I managed to get through Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver trilogy (though the third one was a struggle). And I barely even noticed that the text in Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo's In the Shadows was colored.

However, I have a sister who has difficulty with colored text. She still hasn't finished the Shiver trilogy and had some problems finishing In the Shadows. I know for a fact she will never be able to read these books.

I read Legend on my Nook, so perhaps these would be safe there, but I wouldn't want to risk it.

I'm only calling these out because these are the books I've encountered with colored text.

So Penguin, Scholastic, and any other publisher considering printing books with colored text, please don't. It might seem like a nice feature, but I guarantee that you are losing readers over it.

Perhaps print a special edition with the colored text, but most of them with black ink. That way people who don't mind/like the colors could have them, but people like me and my sister and many others with sensitivity to colored fonts can enjoy the authors we want to read.