Reading the 20th Century discussion

OK, you might not feel guilty about anything you read, but hopefully you know what I mean

I don't feel guilty about the writer I have in mind

My library has a selection of Harlan Coben audiobooks which they add to from time to time

I tried one earlier this year and have now listened to quite a few.

Very slick, formulaic, sometimes implausible but always quite compelling.

I know I should be getting on with the next W.G. Sebald but sometimes a bit of pulpy pleasure is just the job

What about you?

Guilty, or not so guilty, pleasures when you just want undemanding entertainment....

Nigeyb wrote: "... but sometimes a bit of pulpy pleasure is just the job"

Oh yes! Nothing signals 'me time' like a bubbly bath, wine and a trashy book - balm for the soul!

My guilty pleasures (nope, no guilt here either) are Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series, Nicci French, Nicola Upson...

I've read quite a few of the Stephanie Plum - love the hamster - they were quite fun. I also like Elly Griffiths from time to time, and then it's mostly children's books. I wouldn't have thought of Coben as 'guilty' he's very well-respected as a crime writer. I also like writers like Elmore Leonard.

My “guilty pleasure” would be Alice Hoffman. Not challenging, but good stories with good characters and always a hint of magic.

My real guilty pleasure is B movies like Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark. any over the top special effect action movie.

Alwynne wrote: "I've read quite a few of the Stephanie Plum - love the hamster"

I love the delicious Ranger ;))

Oh yes, how did I forget Elly Griffiths, but only the Ruth Thingummy/archaeology books, her other series haven't worked for me sadly.

I'll probably read the second instalment of the latest series but yes definitely disappointing, and I found aspects of the Kaur character verged on stereotype.

I am never really guilty about the books I do read, though I suppose my re-reading of Biggles books, and other children's classics would count.

I tend to feel more 'guilty' about the books I won't read. Like anything by Hilary Mantel, or other modern well-hyped classics.

No-one should feel guilty about what they read/won't read but just out of interest, Rosina, why not Hilary Mantel?

I came up against a real fan who was sooo enthusiastic that it put me off - although I did try Wolf Hall, but abandoned it part way (though I suspect that was still the after-effect of the fan, setting far too high standards).

The last few years my guilty pleasures have been an occasional book by Carl Hiaasen and VE Schwab but I don't feel very guilty at all!

No me neither, I've read some Hiaasen, apart from how funny they are, he's great on environmental issues.

I feel a bit guilty at times when I indulge in cosy mysteries such as the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke, which I often find comforting at bedtime.

Well, I don't really feel guilty, when I read them, more when I add them to Goodreads and keep seeing how many of them there are in my list of books read this year, especially if I am stuck in the middle of a more worthy book!

No guilt, but, when I read a celebrity biography, no matter how well-written, it can feel a bit like reading a fan magazine. And classic noir stories--politically incorrect or not--are a wicked pleasure.

Bill Bryson is another "guilty pleasure" I can confess to. But as I said before, I don't feel much guilt, just pleasure.

Just remembered this BBC website article about guilty pleasures where John Sutherland confesses to enjoying Jilly Cooper - I see it was actually published in 2009 and I'm sure I read it at the time, so am rather surprised that I remembered it 12 years on! Maybe I should feel guilty about that...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7...

I feel more guilty about the books I download and don't get around to reading, to be honest! I have too many to ever, realistically, read in my lifetime.

My daughter is rapidly becoming a bookworm and likes YA, crime and true crime. I am careful not to try to push more 'worthy' books on her. She will find them herself later, if she is interested. I don't have any books I am guilty about either, as such, but Agatha Christie is my ultimate comfort reader and I always turn to her when upset, ill or doing something I loathe, like having to board a plane...

I love that this group isn't snobby about books and that we can embrace popular as well as 'literary' - though increasingly academia has been breaking down those categories anyway and it's quite acceptable now to do research on what used to be deemed merely 'popular' authors like du Maurier, and even Heyer.

Rosina mentioned a 'won't read' above - anyone else got authors, topics, genres that they avoid?

I won't read serial killer books, especially where they're torturing/killing women. Even when they're written by women, there seems to be too much lingering over mutilated female bodies for my comfort.

I also tend to shy away from books which fetishise motherhood, though there have been some thoughtful works that have slipped through.

No, I love true crime. There isn't anything really that I wouldn't read.

Oh, that's a lie. Books with dual time lines. Hate them! One appeared, somebody ran a writers workshop and suddenly everyone is exploring their great aunts attic...

What a great category -- "won't reads"

The first that comes to mind is Fantasy. I tried Tolkien and couldn't get past page 30 of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. Nor do I have any interest in the George Martin books. In my teens I was a real science fiction fan, but I wonder whether my Fantasy aversion has infected my interest in sci-fi.

I'll have to think about other won't read book categories but I do have a strong "won't see" category -- historical films that are sloppy about their history. I can tolerate polemical films -- at least I know where they are coming from. But films that are careless about their history just infuriate me.

Rosina wrote: "I came up against a real fan who was sooo enthusiastic that it put me off - although I did try Wolf Hall, but abandoned it part way (though I suspect that was still the after-effect of the fan, set..."

I always feel really uncomfortable when someone lends me a book because they are sure I will enjoy it but I just can't get into it. I struggle on for a few chapters but then have to admit defeat - and then how do you return it unread!

I guess the big turn-offs for me that many others enjoy are anything "ripped from the headlines," mysteries, thrillers, romance and YA. I have loved books with aspects of each, so don't rule anything out, but books in those genres aren't likely to end up on my list.

I am not keen on fantasy or sci fi either, but sometimes like books in those genres. I loved The Stranger Times this year, for example.

I read loads of stuff outside literature. Got to check out what else there is and what else is going on. Some books that come out in other areas are better quality than some in the literature category.
I love Elmore Leonard! That is a top writer for sure!

Re Jilly Cooper I remember when I was a teenager and her doorstoppers with bottoms on the front were out and I was wondering what they were all about. I checked out one from the library. It was a tour of grit to get through the two weeks it took me to read as my mother glared and tutted at me with a vengeance throughout! I did it though!
It’s boilerplate romance but Jilly Cooper does have writing chops. Her writing about nature is lovely.
Gently encouraging towards or recommending things is a better approach to warning someone off or forbidding something.

There are books I avoid due to not my cup of tea but I’m not sure about a hard line won’t read. I sometimes want to find out about things even if I know it’s not my taste. eg if it’s very popular or topical or something I have no understanding of that I want to figure out.

Re true crime I read some sometimes and it’s not much about mutilating women in my experience.

I recently read Less Than Zero which I found very disturbing as it was misogynistic I believe. I have to do a review of it. I avoided reading American Psycho ever since it came out as from the very detailed barrage of articles about it with details of what was in it - very involved mutilation of women - I was very disturbed. LTZ was along the same lines offence wise ie the explicit and drawn out mutilation of a female. This may be an author I avoid completely in future as I don’t do misogyny.

I don't like fantasy or sci fi or romance, although I do enjoy some of the children's books I missed in my childhood. E Nesbit springs to mind. The only books I have started and not finished are Lord of the Rings, and Mrs Mike. I stopped Mrs Mike when it got to the "He looked into her eyes and she looked into his eyes" soppy stuff. Other than that if I start a book, I feel I have to finish it. Unfortunately I have read some real drivel over the years.
Apart from Agatha Christie, I never reread either, life is too short. So I suppose Christie was a comfort read, although now I doubt I would reread the same ones again.
The only thing that makes me feel guilty now about reading, are the umpteen things that need to be done, not the books. But if the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher are working, I do at least feel something is getting done.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I love that this group isn't snobby about books and that we can embrace popular as well as 'literary' - though increasingly academia has been breaking down those categories anyway and it's quite ac..."

I'm not keen on violence either, although for me it's the treatment of the material as much as the content. So Val McDermid is out because the violence is there purely for commercial reasons and feels a little too gratuitous for my taste but loved 'Boy Parts' and David Peace's Yorkshire series. I don't read self-help or pop psychology or religion-centred books. I'm wouldn't usually opt for romance or hard SF but will sometimes read old-school lesbian romances/pulps. Although if someone told me a romance or hard SF novel was exceptional I'd try it. And love vintage middlebrow like E. M. Delafield. Also avoid comic novels unless again it's classic stuff like Wodehouse or E. F. Benson.

Kit wrote: "Re Jilly Cooper I remember when I was a teenager and her doorstoppers with bottoms on the front were out and I was wondering what they were all about. I checked out one from the library. It was a tour of grit to get through the two weeks it took me to read as my mother glared and tutted at me with a vengeance throughout! I did it though!
It’s boilerplate romance but Jilly Cooper does have writing chops. Her writing about nature is lovely...."

I loved her early novels - all girls names, Harriet, Prudence etc - and also her early non-fiction like Jolly Super and Class.

WndyJW wrote: "My “guilty pleasure” would be Alice Hoffman. Not challenging, but good stories with good characters and always a hint of magic.

My real guilty pleasure is B movies like Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Ra..."

Most of my brain candy is screen-based, the Resident Evil franchise, Netflix's version of 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch', teen movies and shows like iZombie, action movies starring people like The Rock...K-pop documentaries,

Ah yes, how did I miss off Jilly Cooper from my guilty pleasures list? As a student, we kept a 'library' of her books in the bathroom so we could dip in again while in the bath. She's also very witty with word play, puns and has made me laugh out loud.

Susan wrote: "I feel more guilty about the books I download and don't get around to reading, to be honest! I have too many to ever, realistically, read in my lifetime.

My daughter is rapidly becoming a bookwor..."

When you call a book "worthy", do you mean it is worthy of a prize?

Alwynne wrote: "I'm not keen on violence either, although for me it's the treatment of the material as much as the content."

Yes, good point that. I read one Val McDermid and wouldn't read another as way too much time was spent on descriptions of victims being tortured in extravagant detail - even though it was men for a change, it's just not for me. As you say, though, books that are treating violence in a thoughtful way are different - the Peace quartet is a fine example.

Susan wrote: "I am not keen on fantasy or sci fi either, but sometimes like books in those genres."

I'd tend to agree with this - but then loved Lord of the Rings, and books like Alan Garner's as a child, so fantasy may be more accessible to me that I'd immediately think.

Yes, probably a mistake to generalise about a genre. Science fiction has some stunning writing but also a fair amount of tosh, the same can be said of any genre you care to name

Agreed.

And then I'm looking forward to our Buddy Read of Ursula Le Gunn's The Dispossessed and to someone telling me that it's Fantasy!

Well I love her Wizard of Earthsea series which are quite definitely fantasy, I don't read much in that genre mainly because there's so much available it's difficult to work out what's likely to appeal. I did read the first Game of Thrones book which was very good, taut, tense, like a medieval version of The Sopranos, but the second instalment was awful and I gave up about a third of the way in.

Well, there are exceptions to every rule. Great writers transcend genre. And for all my distaste of sloppy, inaccurate history... there's Shakespeare!

I think one of the issues with genre fiction is the pressure on writers to produce long series that ensure repeat purchases and to be prolific or to produce lookalikes based on exceptionally successful titles. I think that results in the market being saturated and inevitably full of more mediocre work. I think the quality of the writing or the entertainment factor or the originality can appeal in any fiction genre.

Ben wrote: "Well, there are exceptions to every rule. Great writers transcend genre. And for all my distaste of sloppy, inaccurate history... there's Shakespeare!"

Haha, I was just about to say that, Ben! I can forgive historical inaccuracies if the book/text makes sense in its own terms of the fictional world being created.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is the Montalbano books by Andrea Camilleri.

Alwynne wrote: "I think the quality of the writing or the entertainment factor or the originality can appeal in any fiction genre."

Yes, and I am surprised so many have mentioned not reading romance as a genre... when really it's just a version of every Jane Austen plot with a bit of the Brontes thrown in :)

I was thinking of contemporary romance which is predominantly heteronormative, but I'm not a huge fan of Austen or the Bronte sisters's work either so I guess that fits?

Jill wrote: "Susan wrote: "I feel more guilty about the books I download and don't get around to reading, to be honest! I have too many to ever, realistically, read in my lifetime.

My daughter is rapidly beco..."

I suppose I meant 'worthy' in terms of books teachers would like her to read, Jill. When I was a kid I loved Austen and the Bronte sisters, and all those classics. My daughter always enjoyed books, but she became a reader when she discovered Harry Potter and it reminded me of my love of Enid Blyton as a child. She still loves Harry Potter, but she has now moved on to crime and has embraced the genre with a passion :)

I used to try to encourage “Better” books for my kids/grandkids, now I understand with kids we just want them to love reading, their tastes might, or might not, change as they grow.

I want to enjoy fantasy, because I love fantasy movies, but I don’t have a good enough imagination or patience for world building.

I don’t read crime, serial killer, or romance.

Alwynne wrote: "I was thinking of contemporary romance which is predominantly heteronormative, but I'm not a huge fan of Austen or the Bronte sisters's work either so I guess that fits?"

Fair point.

Stephen King used to be a favorite guilty pleasure but not as much any more. He’s probably my most-read-author, though. I also like the occasional children/mid-grade non-fiction books and adventure fiction by authors like Avi, Carl Hiassen, Joan Aiken and Terry Pratchett.

I love Joan Aiken too Pam, the Armitage stories and the Dido Twite series both firm favourites.

Victoria Holt is a guilty pleasure for me. I first discovered her books when I was a teenager and still love to read them. I’m usually not much of a romance reader, but I just can’t turn down Victoria Holt.

My "guilty pleasures" are basically bestsellers that my friends recommend to me since they know I read a lot and I usually read them so I can talk to them about it (like John Grisham or Dan Brown, those types of books). I don't really feel guilty, though, about anything I read.

I read such as wide variety of books, there are few types I absolutely "won't read."

What I avoid:
- Horror/supernatural unless it's pretty tame
- Serial killers
- "Bodice rippers"

I read lots of books that contain violence, but it needs to feel organic to the story and not gratuitous - usually, I won't know this until after I read it. Same goes for sex.

Like Ben, I prefer my historical fiction to be authentic to the time period. Again, it's hard to tell ahead of time.

Nigeyb wrote:


"OK, you might not feel guilty about anything you read, but hopefully you know what I mean

I don't feel guilty about the writer I have in mind

My library has a selection of Harlan Coben audiobooks which they add to from time to time

I tried one earlier this year and have now listened to quite a few.

Very slick, formulaic, sometimes implausible but always quite compelling.

I know I should be getting on with the next W.G. Sebald but sometimes a bit of pulpy pleasure is just the job

What about you?

Guilty, or not so guilty, pleasures when you just want undemanding entertainment...."

I have just finished the book that inspired this discussion....

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4/5