Guilty Pleasures

 Okay, so if you watched the above clip on "guilty pleasure" you'll know that I'm sort of doing the opposite of what Dara O'Briain would want. In his opinion, the sorts of books you should feel guilty about reading should be hardcore memoirs of pet-molesters... But there you go!

I think everyone must have a book/books that they feel a little bit guilty about enjoying, don't they? I've been having a think about what textual skeletons I might have in my closet and I've come up with a couple.

For the most part I'm pretty honest about my likes and dislikes when it comes to reading. I know plenty of people would consider it low-brow of me to like books aimed at the young-adult audience. However, in the humble opinion of this English teacher, the YA audience is one of the most difficult to "grab", so the stories have to be superbly written and intricately crafted. I'd rather a story about a battle between good and evil, than a phoned-in piece of trash which only asks "does my bum look big in this?"

My Guilty Pleasures

My bookshelf has pretty much every Richard Laymon book ever written. I read his stuff a lot when I was a teenager and really enjoyed them! There are still a few of his which I still consider pretty damn good stories... but that's all. With Laymon there is very little going on below the surface and, if I'm honest, they're pretty pervy in places! Perfectly enjoyable to a teenager, making them good guilty pleasures. Nothing like a seedy, sexy, horror story!

The Shoemaker's Daughter, by Iris Gower. This is a very soppy, Welshy book which I feel "guilty" about enjoying because it's quite blatantly an old-lady book!

The final book on this list is slightly different. I'm not confessing a guilty pleasure, more a guilty loathing. I can't help it. I tried, I really, really tried to like Pride and Prejudice. I actually like the way Austin writes. Maybe I should be clearer. I do like the book. I like Mrs Bennet and the silly little prejudices of the characters. But oh. My. God. I hate Elizabeth Bennett. She's meant to be this independent woman, a feminist icon, but all she does in the book is listen to gossip and form her opinions based completely on hearsay. Tut. She irritates the crap outta me!

Well! Confession is good for the soul so why not get some of that guilt off your chest? What books do you secretly love, but never admit to? You can post comments anonymously so there's no reason not to share. Share! The power of the blog compels you!

Lx