[maryjo]

I try not to have any guilt in my pleasures – I do academic work on genre fiction and have even written about the online slash porn that I love, so I'm all about owning one's less-than-prestigious loves! Anne McCaffrey is my dodgy-fluff-light-reading though.

That said, when I was a teenager I loved the melodramatic young-girls-dying books, and I know that if I were to come across one now I would probably still love it, in exactly the way mouse describes... and that would be a bit of a guilty pleasure, for sure.

[mornington]

Heyer. every time. oh, the fluff reading i do... my guilty reading is mostly chicklit, although it tends to be the same authors again and again (heyer, katie fford, erica james). I never went through a stephen king phase... although i saw him on newsnight yesterday and what he was seemed interesting. I think the rep as a horror writer puts me off as I'm dreadful with horror.

i did, however, go through a phase of reading those overly saccharine-sweet pre-teen/early teen novels. oh yes. and mills&boon. *goes to stand with mouse in the corner of shame* (omg, I remember the face on the milk carton)

[ginger_kitty]

I went through a Stephen King stage too, when I was like 12 to 14. I read Cujo, Tommyknockers, Thinner, Chirstine, well tons of his books really. At the time I thought he was great. But as I got older, I grew out of his work.

Right now I as engrossed in Stranger Than Fiction, by Chuck Palahniuk. I am just fascinated with the way man's mind works.

[bunnyb]

I went through a major Stephen King phase as a young teenager and I loved It and Insomnia and his "non-horror" fiction is amazing. John Grisham and John Irving are often lumped in with King (although very different) and classed as "fluff" reading although the former's early thrillers are very engaging and I've only read A Prayer for Owen Meaney but I loved it.

Hmmm, "gulity pleasure" reads? erotica probably (although Anais Nin has a great literary status)! any of my light, enjoyable reads I suppose: Pratchett's Discworld, children's lit (although Harry Potter has a lot of merit and should never be guilty reading unless reading it when a deadline's due or something!), and I have been known to sample some chick lit every 18 months or so - I am selective, however, Marian Keyes springs to mind and I'm going to read In her Shoes soon.

[vesicapisces]

I *made* my sister watch "The Shawshank Redemption" with me about a year ago - she had never seen it, thought it was absolutely not something she'd be interested in, and she loved it - and THEN I told her it was based on a Stephen King story.

I loved pretty much all of his stuff up 'til The Tommyknockers, and I still read The Stand about once every 18 months or so. Still one of my all-time favorite books.

[mouse]

hehe.....well, now i don't feel so guilty "carrie" and "the girl who loved tom gordon" are pretty amazing stories both.....AND the shining......and don't even get me started on "different seasons" (the collection of novellas that include "shawshank redemption", "apt pupil" and "the body" which "stand by me" was based on). but he definitely has a rep as being just a "horror writer". though i totally enjoy his cheesy horror stories too.

as for the REAL guilty pleasure (of which there is no denying the shame)? those totally melodramatic novels for pre-teen girls. like "six months to live" or "the face on the milk carton". soooo badly written, sooo soaked in overdramatic sentiment, soooooooooo like candy. MAN. also, preferably read while eating a bag of chee-tos so you feel even more awesome and horrible at the same time.

i know all of you have now lost whatever respect you may have had for me.

[pho#1]

guilty pleasures....definately VC Andrews and Anne Rule! i know what you mean about SOME stephen king books though.

[crazyoldcatlady]

stephen king's a guilty pleasure? i think he has quite the solid prose style...

hmm guilty pleasures... maybe a little VC Andrews?

[mouse]

i just finished david rakoff's "don't get to comfortable" and it's brilliant. simultaneously depressing, hopeful and fucking hilarious.

bunnyb, i read earthsea aaaaages ago (age 11 or 12 i think--though i was a pretty precocious reader) and i remember finding them difficult to get into, but once gotten into, brilliant. leguin is pretty high-minded too when it comes to underlying philosophies--it's not all on the surface like narnia but she has some profound universal truths, for lack of a better term, too. her short stories, as well, are excellent. she's crazy in the best way. buffalo gals and other animal presences is an amazing collection, though it looks kind of hard to find now. stories (fiction) include topics such as the language and hierarchy of ants, conscious vegetation, a story told from the point of view of a lab rat character, schroedinger's cat, and talking shit. and i don't mean that last one in the sense that she writes about gossiping.


what are y'all's favorite guilty pleasure authors? mine is stephen king.......i actually think he's quite often brilliant. *shame*

[mandolyn]

such wonderful suggestions, thank you one and all! i'm not really sure whether my kid really is a fantasy/sci-fi fan ... i think he just leans that way gently, with his reading. but i'm going to go with the sandman, because it's an impressive-looking gift ... ... and because I want it ... hee.

i'm picking up with neverwhere again. because i'm a neil gaman fan at heart, i just know i am.

speaking of neil ... he's in little rock (as per neilgaman.com, his blog). they've had some bad storms. i'm worried.

and he's exactly 3 months to the day younger than i am! not sure why that matters. probably because i assumed he was much younger. because, well, everyone usually is much younger than me.

[grenadine]

lit-related aside: one of my students just pointed out me that people like harry potter BECAUSE it's all on the surface. duh! i had conveniently overlooked that in my apollonian demands...and am now envisioning an article: "harry potter and the postmodern ideal." (for someone else to write, not me)

[ginger_kitty]

I just read Thumbsucker by Walter Kirn. It was fabulous!! I read it in a day and half b/c I couldn't put it down. Just started reading Running with Scissors, it's good but all the reviews mention how hilarious the book is, and I am not finding tons of humor in it. There are a few dark comedy bits here and there, but I'd hardly call it hilarious. Still very good, though.

I think I am going to read Stranger Than Fiction, next.

[grenadine]

if you're looking for more sci-fi and less straight fantasy, he might like the "changeling" series by roger zelazny.

[sesame]

mouse - thank dog someone else found The Magus as irritating as I did. Honestly, I commend you for not finishing it! I hated all the characters and their "mysterious" (arrogant), "eccentric" (self-indulgent) ways, yet I felt somehow compelled to finish it. What with all the literary references and psychological jibber-jabber, I felt like the dorky kid in junior high trying to figure out what all the cool kids' inside jokes were about. Curious, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and I guess they made a movie of it in the late '60's that was SO awful, "Michael Caine himself has said that it was the worst film he had been involved in, because no one knew what it was all about. Woody Allen is quoted as saying that if he could live his life all over again, he'd do "everything exactly the same – with the exception of watching The Magus." Heehee. Vindicated.

[vesicapisces]

I suspect Danny would love Sandman. If he's at all his mom's kid, the dark-and-quirky would be right up his alley. Although I loved Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, I suspect it's a little young for him. Pullman's great; too long since I read Earthsea to remember. It's very much old-fashioned fantasy, that I do know. When I was his age I was reading Silverberg, Asimov, Niven, Pournelle, etc.

Come to think of it, a SF modern classic I'd recommend for younger readers is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Its successors, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide are equally good but much deeper/more mature.

[bunnyb]

I read Angela's Ashes years ago (it's faerietails who has it on shelf) and agree that it was compulsive but despairing!

I think Judi Dench is playing the older teacher, Barbara. There are several movie adaptations of books coming up; Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are starring in Atonement (KK is also in adaptation of Barrico's Silk which I read a few weeks ago and there's the film version of Eragon too).

[sybarite]

Ian McEwan's writing has changed quite a bit over the last 20-odd years IMO. Where Comfort of Strangers and The Cement Garden are short, dense and pretty disturbing, Atonement, Amsterdam and Enduring Love are much slower paced, more thoughtful. I liked those three a lot but really disliked his most recent, Saturday, which deals with Sept 11 from a UK perspective.

Bunnyb, I have to say I read Angela's Ashes compulsively then threw it across the room. It was like some weird kind of literary crack--oddly readable but really miserable. I was reading it while writing my master's thesis which may explain my schizophrenic reaction.

I did like Notes on a Scandal though. The movie is out next spring, I think... stars Cate Blanchett as the younger teacher.

Magickal, do you mean comic books/graphic novels, or comic writing, like Sedaris?

[bunnyb]

mouse, I don't know - I haven't read any McEwan, Atonement is just one of many on my to read list (currently sitting at 35 in the pile).

I was supposed to read Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy for class but didn't because I found it hard to get into - I was bored and found it very simplistic. It may have been because it was for uni and I'll attempt Le Guin again because I've heard so many good things.

That's reminded me, actually, Danny may enjoy Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

Still reading Middlesex although been distracted by Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal that is shaping up to be a good, quick but engaging read.

[mouse]

oh shit! i totally forgot about earthsea. DEFINITELY earthsea. and other leguin--some of her short stories are fantastic.

[grenadine]

i second that. susan cooper is genius; i have the dark is rising series and have re-read it, oh, twenty or thirty times. philip pullman (though linguistically more complex - very sophisticated both writing and idea-wise) is also wonderful.

mouse, i dunno if you're missing out...i used to love ian mcewan and now i can't get excited about him. when i read atonement i felt myself thinking "yeah...it's a modern novel...about people's emotional problems...which are faintly depressing...and very articulately related...but half my mind is still thinking about the mac and cheese i had for lunch" (sorry, ian). i do NOT feel the same way about julian barnes - even though parts of arthur & george were a bit of a plod, he's still genius.


oh, and mando - he will love ursula k. le guin's earthsea trilogy. i promise. also less difficult reading than pullman.