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Wed 25 Jun, 2003 12:14 pm
Maybe I'm missing something but what is the big deal about reading intellectually light weight books that may be heavy with pages in the summer time?
I think I read four or five of the so-called beach books during my life and thought they were largely a waste of, rather than an enrichment of, time.
I did read one or two of the Earth's Children series but found them ridiculous. You know, the ones about superCroMagnon female Ayla who invents the bra, the missionary position and the word mother.
I also read two of Anne Rice's vampire books largely because a friend told me that as he drove home from defending his thesis in psychology, he listened to NPR and heard her say in an interview that we are all vampires. He enjoyed the first two books but labored through the third. I enjoyed one but labored through two.
I also read something by someone named Masterson which I found in a rented house called, "Portrait of Evil," which was a long shaggy dog story about a pun on the title of Picture of Dorian Grey. Always wondered how I should take that?
This summer to date, I have read Zadie Smith's White Teeth and an almost done with Alain de Booton's (sp?) How Proust Can Change Your Life and find those two books much better summer reading: funny AND smart.
Am also reading In the French Kitchen Garden by (my personal heroine) Georgeanne Brennan. A meditation on gardening as well as a serious garden introduction, it is perfect for warm wather and awakening earth.
Hiya plainoldme - I used to be interested in the books about Alya and LeStat, but I agree that after the first, the rest were a bit repetitive and didn't go much beyond the original premises.
I do however like to read scfi-fi which can be a bit fluffy for some. Haven't read any of that ina while. My favorite author of late is Barbara Kingsolver. Her best known (possibly) "The Poisonwood Bible" is a bit long at points. My favorite by her is The Prodigal Summer". It's a good summer read, I think.
littlek -- I sometimes read scifi although not as much as I used to. Don't consider scifi beach books.
Certainly not the hard stuff.... Larry Niven needs to write more books.
I think the beach books are good because you dont have to concentrate and can simply relax but, feel like you're doing something. Ill take whatever I happen to be reading to the beach though, it doesnt matter to me.
Sometimes they are a nice filler, or betweener book...I tend to do those when I feel I need something quick and easy to breeze through...got a whole stack of them waiting...well, they arent all beach books really but, just books to fill the bookreading time.
So, they're like bathroom books?
PoM - I think they're supposed to be a waste of time. They're books to read when all you want to do is relax - not think about the meaning of anything in particular. I think there can be a real joy in reading fluff. I'm someone who reads almost everything. Almost. I can't get into a lot of the history books that Setanta crawls through on a regular basis. They're a bit too intellectually nutritious and dense for my taste.
I think it's like anything - life or diet or reading - balance makes it work.
I think a 500 page bathroom book would be a bit much. I know I can't hold anything over about 200 pages in the bathroom. Especially when I'm trying to fend off Cleo.
Forget the books at the beach, concentrate on getting drunk instead. Works for me!!
the only time I go to the beach is off-season. I walk it, I see what there is to see. I'm a Ra-baby, but not so much that I'll lie there for gours on a congested belt of hot sand. I'd rather sunbath on a deck with a toilet and a bar inside.
Oh, Mr. Stillwater, with the heat of the sun, it is very easy to get drunk at the beach!!!!
littlek -- I remember the name Larry Niven from when I shelved books at the library but can't recall what he's written.
Bathtub books. Yeah, all of my books eventually take baths with me unless they are hard covered. Just can not read a hard covered book in the tub: can't hold it up. One of my favorite things to do is read in the tub. If I can do by candlelight (although now that I live with three cats, that is more difficult to do) with a glass of a good red wine to sip, so much the better. Best way to enjoy reading and to relax.
I guess where I'm coming from is if a book isn't good and I read it all the way through -- I am cursed with this sort of Taurean stubborness that sometimes can not believe a book is so bad that I continue to read, hoping it will improve -- I feel, well, for want of a better word, dirty.
He wrote the Ringworld series. He paired up with Pournelle, and others two write a lot of books (Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer,etc)
Some books....
Trying to remember the last scifi (not fantasy) that I read. Something about a world with a dual star system and a 2,000 rotation through mild climate and ice bound darkness. Three books. Winter, Spring and Summer on whatever the world was called. Also wrote Westworld? About robots in the wild west?
winter queen? An island city state - royalty - etc?
I love trashy beach books. My favorite authors in this genre are Johnathan Kellerman, Mary Higgins Clark etc. I especially like books about serial killers. They help me to relax.
Yup, relax. I agree totally, Phoenix. Relaxing is definitely a goal for me when reading. Travel memoirs often work for me. I want to relax, don't need to feel virtuous about my non-work, non-study reading.
There's a detective series with a detective named Harry Bus(c)h in it. I thought this the funniest name EVER. My ex boyfriend reads these religiously (waits impatiently for the next instalment). He didn't notice the funny name until I pointed it out. Maybe it's just funny to me.
i think it's just more proof that women have a better sense of humour than, you know, them :wink:
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