Reading for guilty pleasure
Jun. 18th, 2006 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeet![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
oursin has a thread running on categories of book we avoid so I thought I'd start one on things we read as 'guilty pleasures'. I guess I define this as stuff we ;like but know is in some sense trashy or less than reputable. Maybe the sort of thing we wouldn't want to admit to our English lit teacher that we read.Actually this isn't a big part of my reading but there are a few things that wouldn't win me points for intellectual purity. I guess the two main categories for me would be "bawdy romps"; think Flashman and Kathy Lettke, and books about military hardware. Bonking, complicated undergarments and armoured vehicles, what can I say.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:37 pm (UTC)I've worked for fifteen years not to feel guilty about what I read, and I've more or less pulled it off in the way of fiction.
But I have a new guilty pleasure: The Times. I know that sounds affected beyond words, but it's really true. On the one hand, they have Melanie Phillips writing guest articles and I can't bear it. On the other hand, they have killer sudoku and there is no better non-Araucaria crossword. So I'm conflicted.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-20 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:41 pm (UTC)My husband's the "pure" SF-buff, and in his eyes my liking for Lois McMaster Bujold ought to be guilty - he's never read any, just dislikes the pulpy illustrations on teh covers. And Anne McCaffrey's way below his horizon.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:53 pm (UTC)The second book is amusing in that it manages to contrive a naval battle with the following sides:
The heroes:
US civil war union ironclads, assisted by Roman galleys manned by medieaval Russian marines equipped with flintlock muskets.
The villains:
Traitor US civil war union ironclads built in the confederate style, assisted by Carthaginian galleys and with alien advisors/controllers secretly hidden on the flagship.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 10:22 pm (UTC)I avoid books by people like Wilbur Smith or Robert Ludlum, and any that look like they might be in that kind of mould - probably unfairly, since I've only read one Ludlum and it wasn't absolutely dreadful (The Bourne Identity), but life is too short to bother finding out that I'm missing out, IMO.
Flashman
Date: 2006-06-19 12:37 am (UTC)Re: Flashman
Date: 2006-06-19 09:53 pm (UTC)Re: Flashman
Date: 2006-06-20 09:58 am (UTC)Re: Flashman
Date: 2006-06-20 10:01 am (UTC)Better than Flanders Field, I must say.
Re: Flashman
Date: 2006-06-20 10:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 09:05 am (UTC)And I particularly wouldn't consider Flashman a guilty pleasure: it's too well-researched without being bogged down. Though this makes me realise that though there are novels that take existing fictional characters and riff on them that I love, I am also quite leary of this subgenre, because there are some real duds out there.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 05:58 pm (UTC)