BTT: Illustrations

"How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?"

I'm all for illustrations and graphs and such in certain cirumstances. In some types of books, they are really innapropriate and unnecessary.

Illustrations are good when:
-They help break up endless texbook reading

-They fit with the quirkiness and informality of the book. I have several unconventional devotional books that have little doodles in the margins and have words circled and such. this is perfect!
-You wouldn't be able to understand the book without the illustration or graph.

Illustrations are bad when:
-You are so engrossed in the story that it takes your attention away from it.
-The chart is placed in the middle of s sentence so you don't know whether to read the rest of the page then read the chart or read right there.
-They ask questions about the book or recap what was already said. Just ask the question in the text of the book! I don't need a little box.