Guilty Reading Pleasures

[Emma]

Apart from reading contemporary novels and classics that impress the intelligensia (!) I also have a voracious appetite for crime novels by the likes of Sara Paretsky, Patricia Cornwell, Minette Walters, Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and Ian Rankin.

I also lust after romantic novels by Jane Green, Lisa Jewell, Freya North and (I think this is probably the really embarrassing one) Alan Titchmarsh.

I just felt the need to lower the tone!

Incidentally did you know that in a recent Guardian Poll Jilly Cooper's 'Riders' came out as a 'must read'? Shagging in stables.

I've read that too

[Chicklet]

Do the crime thing all the time, Quentin Jardin where the cops all remind each other what rank they had achieved since the start of the (Skinner) series are usually read at one sitting and a good, completely unrealistic, romp.


And for the classic whodunnit fans, Frances Durbridge is a GOD, wrote for radio serials first so every chapter has a cliffhanger and at least one statement on a par with -

"Looks like a woman's handwriting"

But also have a far seedier secret. An almost complete set of Chalet School under the stairs.

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by Emma

I also lust after romantic novels by Jane Green, Lisa Jewell, Freya North ...

Plus you can often get them free when you buy a magazine or in a charity shop for about 50p! The other author I go for on a charity shop bookshelf is Dick Francis. At the rate of about a book a week I have to buy cheap books and buy books I can reread (mind you that is most of them, about the only books I have never wanted to read a second time are Wuthering Heights and Captain Corelli's Mandolin).

Nothing wrong with some light reading as part of a literary diet.

[Gadget]

...I thought the thread was going to be about Laurel K Hamilton's "Guilty Pleasures" An excelent read BTW. - Sort of a female bogart in buffy's world, but a lot better and very smoothly written.

[Lory]

Originally Posted by Emma

Apart from reading contemporary novels and classics that impress the intelligensia (!)

~snip~

Incidentally did you know that in a recent Guardian Poll Jilly Cooper's 'Riders' came out as a 'must read'? Shagging in stables.

I've read that too

This is more like it!

Now for a great holiday read, that will make you laugh outloud, touch you with it's warmth and keep you turning the pages, try Olivia's Luck by Catherine Alliot! No storyline goes exactly where you think it's going and it'll make you feel like you've lost a friend when it's finished!

Probably not one for the boy's though!

[Emma]

I just remembered another one: Katie Fforde.

Utter tosh.

Love 'em

[jivecat]

Originally Posted by Emma

I also lust after romantic novels by Jane Green, Lisa Jewell, Freya North and (I think this is probably the really embarrassing one) Alan Titchmarsh.

You bet. My favourite is Georgette Heyer who wrote Regency romances about pretty heroines in ravishing frocks being woo'd by young bucks in tight breeches and leather topboots. Although naturally I really read them for the finely crafted plots and the impeccable research into Regency social history.

Incidentally did you know that in a recent Guardian Poll Jilly Cooper's 'Riders' came out as a 'must read'? Shagging in stables.

Yup, I adore all those horsey, bonking ones, though she lost me a bit when she got into art and orchestras. She keeps getting reviews on Radio 4 as well.

[Daisy Chain]

Originally Posted by Lory

This is more like it!

try Olivia's Luck by Catherine Alliot! No storyline goes exactly where you think it's going and it'll make you feel like you've lost a friend when it's finished!

Probably not one for the boy's though!

Totally agree, I spent much of the book ROFLAO. Absolutely hilarious, it's not often that I laugh loudly and uncontrollably over a book.

Have you discovered Jill Mansell who writes in a similar vein?

Daisy

[Lory]

Originally Posted by Daisy Chain

Have you discovered Jill Mansell who writes in a similar vein?

Daisy

OH YES, I love her too! The last one I read of hers was 'Good at Games', it's really funny!

[under par]

Except for Gadget I want to know why this thread is so female?

Is it that male GUILTY READING PLEASURES would have to go upstairs or down in the basement????????????????

[philsmove]

Why this thread is so female

As The Big Read revealed, Men and Women have a different choice of Reading matter.

I have just noticed this forum does not seem to identify gender. You can usually guess, but not always.

Philsmove is Male

[Gadget]

Probably because more girlies like discussing girlie books: If you were to discuss "the chronicles of Thomas Covenant, unbeliever", "The Amtrack wars", "The Belgariad", "Lord of the Rings", "Fools Errand", "Guilty Pleasures", "Neuromancer", "The colour of magic",...
then I might join in; I read books for escapeism - I want to be taken to alternate realities - I know what happens (/can happen) in this world.

[philsmove]

I want to be taken to alternate realities

Latinlover’s suggestion the Philip Pullman "Northern Lights" trilogy is a must

[Gadget]

First two were quite good; sort of lost interest half way through the third. I've read better. {IMHO}

[philsmove]

I've read better

Ok Have you read

The Gormengast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

or Glory Road by Robert Heinlein

If you have and did not like them

We must agree to differ

[jivecat]

Girlies enjoy reading books like Lord of the Rings, the Gormenghast trilogy and the Northern Lights trilogy as well. Personally, I get a bit bored with the swashbuckling but all these novels have some really positive female characters. But even if they didn't I might still want to read them.

Like Gadget, I read for escapism and I enjoy books that transport me to a different world, but it doesn't have to be a fantasy world or one outside the boundaries of human reality. One reason I liked Memoirs of a Geisha so much is because it recreated in a detailed and completely believable way the culture, conventions and human relationships of a vanished and exotic way of life.

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by Gadget

Probably because more girlies like discussing girlie books: If you were to discuss "the chronicles of Thomas Covenant, unbeliever", "The Amtrack wars", "The Belgariad", "Lord of the Rings", "Fools Errand", "Guilty Pleasures", "Neuromancer", "The colour of magic",...
then I might join in; I read books for escapeism - I want to be taken to alternate realities - I know what happens (/can happen) in this world.

Also read some of these, David Eddings (Belgariad and Mallorean), a fair few (8 or 9) Terry Prachett, and Lord of the Rings (many times). Also like Douglas Adams and have you tried CS Lewis Cosmic Trilogy?

[Gadget]

Originally Posted by philsmove

The Gormengast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
or Glory Road by Robert Heinlein

The fist rings a bell, the second I'm sure I've read some of his... obviously made an impact
I'll need to check my library, but 90% is packed in boxes while I'm building a study to house them

Terry Pratchett was very good for the first 8-9 books, but it all started to get a bit predictable. I have found that authors tend to produce exclent first books, good follow-ups but you can tell when the publishing house has said "we want another one...by then" - just looses some polish and dosn't feel as "rounded" as previous novels. Robbin Hobb, Craig Shaw Gardener, David Eddings, JK Rowling, ... add to the list.