Books as guilty pleasures.....

When I say 'interesting', that's not necessarily high praise, but it had it's moments.

Ah - yes - I have read those Cav.

Loooooong ago.

I agree - they have their moments - as I recall.

What did you like about them?

Oh Noddy - I have my own, strange, definitions of what constitutes "guilty pleasures"!

I do not go by what is socially acceptable.

Any favourites in SF?

Still wondering if anyone has read Girl in a Swing. Really weird book written by the author of Watership Down. Good grief, Deb. Surely you know that rabbit book.

Yes, I do.

Off the top of my head:


Elizabeth Moon won a Hugo for The Speed of Dark a speculative novel about autism in the near future. She also writes space opera with vigorous, resourceful heroines. I'm particularly fond of Lady Cecelia--she's in her 80's (but rejuvenation is an option).

http://scifan.com/writers/mm/MoonElizabeth.asp

Dlowan--

If I felt your reading was guided by social strictures, I wouldn't join your threads.

My guilty reading is pretty much restricted magazines, in various waiting rooms: Cleo, Who & co. Great articles like: "How to make the most your breasts this summer", or "The truth behind (insert current names) the break-up - Nanny tells all", or "Beck & Victoria deny hurtful rumours" .... I hate it when I don't get to finish & have interrupt my reading to go see the doctor, my hairdresser, the vet ...

I really don't feel guilty for anything I read, but TV can bring on the guilt quite easily. My latest guilty pleasure is watching the reruns of Sex and the City. I find it funny and even touching occassionally. It also provides an entree into a world I've never known.

The same as my waiting room reading, Diane!

I SOOOOOOOO amn't guilty about Sex and the City!!!!

I love it!!!

Ah - waiting room trash.......I read the Women's Weekly, and Reader's Digest furtively in there...

And isn't it amazing what you find out? You would never have known, otherwise!

I read the books a while ago as well. There were certain passages, some flights of fancy that I found intriguing. Beyond that, not much.

"Mad" magazine is cool!?

I guess I won't hide it anymore. I shall wallow in my "Mad"ness.

Mr. B loves sci-fi and fantasy novels/television/movies whatever. He rarely reads anything else. A non-reader at one point, he got hooked one day when he was bored and I handed him a copy of "Dune" and told him to leave me alone.

I started a thread a while back about "tell me something fun to read" and most people recommened sci-fi. As soon as I finish my current novel I'm going to give it a whirl.

Magazines I never see, except in waiting rooms - People, Ladies' Home Journal (they still publish that?) - Time...

My somewhat guilty pleasures are reading books off of the best seller shelf in my grocery store, or from the Adventure shelf in my used book store - for example, the elaborate concoction I read earlier this week called The Day After Tomorrow, which I steadfastly finished for no apparent reason (I liked the start of it well enough.) See, this orthopedic surgeon from Los Angeles was in Europe on vacation...

I am incapable of reading magic or fantasy or romance books, and haven't read sci fi for decades. (We are all different, aren't we now?)

I have been known to put a book down on the first page because of it's weak use of English grammar. Sadly, I didn't read Tony Hillerman's police procedurals for years for this reason. Finally picked one up recently and read it through.
It'll be a while before I grab another, not so much because of a grammatic lack, but because the book wasn't all that interesting. (This is not to say that I am grammar queen on my own time.)

I said sadly because a fair part of my reading of mysteries/procedurals is for the sense of place I get from many of the books; thus I was interested in Hillerman's because of the setting.

Oh - I have a few unread Hillermans (because of the setting!) - damn!!!

Now I am discouraged.

I noticed lots of people here reading SF, Boomer. I was kind of surprised - I don't know quite why.

Well, he has written a lot and is very popular. I have now only read that one page a couple of decades ago, and this recent whole book, so my chilling him is not really fair.

I love finding out about stuff from fiction - if the subject is well researched. I believe I have heard that Hillerman's is. I sometimes seek out books set in or during something I want to know lots about - then check some of the facts, to get a sense about the research.

And I've read mysteries, art theft stuff, police procedurals, set in dozens of countries, and those were written with varied ability. By now the count is in the hundreds. I'll read piffle, I'll read gristle (knowing as I say it that piffle and gristle do not want to be associated in my sentence.)

On Hillerman, I gather he is respected. I'm just talking on my reading.

Tony Hillerman rocks. IMHO.

Well, I'm not going to ask you why.

I wanted him to resound to me, but ... not so far.
But then, I haven't read that much. (I am capable of opinion change. I was expecting to with this last one.)

There is another native american police procedural writer whose work I want to read - name not at tip of my fingers.