Guilty pleasure?

I feel no shame reading Fifty Shades, Twilight or Dostoyevky for that matter.

Although, Dostoyevky is way too depressing, for my taste, so I stick with Tolstoy.

I have an eclectic taste, and will read just about anything from Pride and Prejudice, The Road, and War and Peace, to Shining, Goosebumps, Lightning Thief, and regency romances. I also don't slam writers for overusing adverbs or simplistic characters. If the story grabs my attention - great! If it doesn't - not a bit deal. Plenty of others to choose from.

One does not dispute a person's taste. I sure hope I don't need to apologize for mine. I read fluently in three languages, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the first book I cried with. Growing up, I devoured Conan Doyle and Jack London, and read War and Peace twice before leaving high school.

So if you see me with Twilight, please save your pity for someone else. I'll laugh at Twilight jokes as much as the next person, but book snobbery is not something I can relate to.

I do recognize tight prose and strive for it in my own writing. I hope no one will ever be ashamed buying my own books!

Jackie Collins. I started reading her in high school. Her early books were more interestingly plotted, now it's pure formula. I love her anyway. Thank goodness for the private buying experience of Amazon.

I read Lolita a long time ago and remember being disgusted at the characters in the book, but so curious about what happened next that I couldn't put it down.

I was afraid that people would know what I was reading and would somehow judge me for it. Fortunately, nobody I knew had ever heard of it. (I don't know how that happened.)

Twilight was my last guilty pleasure. I liked the first book and about 1/2 of the second. By the end of the series, I didn't find it very entertaining anymore and was reading just to finish the series.

Ken said:

_ _ _ anything that isn't mainstream contemporary. "Anything else is unacceptable," at least by me. And that goes for just about everything: music, television shows, etc.

No. People won't come right out and tell you so. They'll just give you funny looks when they spot you with a Dostoyevsky book. "Check out that weirdo coming out of the bookstore with that relic from the 19th century."

Thank G*d for Amazon!

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I got that when I was reading Crime and Punishment - "ooh, that's heavy reading for lunch hour. I like to relax with Danielle Steele or..."

Um yeah. The thing was, I found the novel really absorbing - almost a page-turner.

My main 'guilty pleasure' is in not finishing books I start. I've never been compelled to.

It's funny how people put so much importance on the first five pages hooking the reader, but if the subsequent pages don't I'll just put the book down. There's been a few where I couldn't even be bothered finding out how it ended even though there was a decent beginning.

Wilde_at_heart said:

I got that when I was reading Crime and Punishment - "ooh, that's heavy reading for lunch hour. I like to relax with Danielle Steele or..."

Um yeah. The thing was, I found the novel really absorbing - almost a page-turner.

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Heh, right now I'm walking around with two books, The Infects (zombie fun from Sean Beaudoin) and Spillover (David Quammen's consideration of zoonotic diseases and their role in present and future human epidemiology.) Both books get weird looks. Especially Spillover -- who would want to read about scary plagues?

Me, that's who. Because I KNOW that the end of the world will begin with virus-amplifying chihuahuas. (Haggis, I'm on to you.)