You Lost Me at Hello

Poign*ant /'poinyənt/
Adjective     1. Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret: "a poignant reminder".
                  2. Keenly felt: "the sensation was most poignant in winter".

Words are words are words.

There is almost nothing that you can not say with words. Whether what you are saying is implied or straight out said there is a way to get your message out there.

Yet some words don't have the affect that the speaker means them to have. For example, when I read the word poignant in a book description: I run the other way as fast as my stumpy little legs can carry me.

I just don't like that word. I don't know what the publisher/author/reviewer meant to say with that word but I know what comes to mind for me.

They obviously could not find a nice way to say that the book that they read is as pointlessly depressing as finding out that the homework that you did not do was canceled. Yet if you close one eye and squint out of your other eye, like so,

you just might find some kind of lesson within the story that will help you become a better person. That is if you have not killed yourself first.

There is something about the word poignant that brings to mind one eyed kitty cats, two legged little puppy pies, those poor starved children in Africa, and any number of horrors.  It is just a word and yet I pause at books described this way.

It is irrational and yet I can't stop it.

My questions for you: Is there a word that you dislike when used to describe a book?

Am I completely irrational and far past saving?

Is there anything that puts you off reading a book? A cover? A title? Anything?

Please answer in the comments below or post a link to your reply? (Wishful thinking on my part.)