Guilty Pleasures

     Following Cornflower's thought-provoking post on books we deliberately avoid - NTBR - Mr Cornflower would like to invite comments on what is perhaps the mirror image; books and authors we enjoy where the enjoyment has an added relish of 'forbidden fruit' - if these books were a food, they'd be a Pot Noodle. I'll make a start by nominating (deep breath) Jeffrey Archer. "Le style, c'est l'homme même"; given what we know about Archer the man, it is easy to find things to disapprove of in his style: the club raconteur without an off button, the epic name-dropping, the glove puppet characterisation. But he can tell exciting stories; I have just finished reading Paths of Glory, his fictional version of the life of the great mountaineer George Mallory, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

   What, Cornflower readers, are your secret literary indulgences?

Comments

[Danielle]

I probably have several authors who would fit in well with this description--one that comes to mind as I am reading her now is Georgette Heyer. They're good books but not high literature, but they are very entertaining and I can zip through them like candy!

[Ruth M.]

I love Georgette Heyer but for my money she's too good to require sneaking about. I definitely hide the cover when I'm reading most science fiction/fantasy books -- Anne McCaffrey's dragon series, for instance, or (dare I admit it) old Robert Heinlein paperbacks. Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorites, she's good enough to be respectable except for those lurid covers...

What a great question!

[Sian]

I just sat down and thoroughly read through the books we bought for my partner's two and three-year-old nephews, finding the hidden animals, lifting up the flaps, laughing at Paddington and The Tiger Who Came To Tea... it's definitely children's books for me-Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, Tamora Pierce, E. Nesbit... all good books but perhaps a little odd for me to be rereading them at my age and without children, I wouldn't take them on public transport or to work.

I am partial to the occasional John Grisham and Stephen King. And I have read 2 Dan Brown books-totally ridiculous and without style, but very exciting! I loved the description someone wrote of his books on the NTBR post-I agreed.

[Jodie]

Easy - Stefanie Meyer, terrible, terrible writer but the pace of her stories is crazy addictive.

[adele geras]

All my guilty pleasures I'm very open and proud of: Lee Child and Stephen King. I'd argue for both being completely unputdownable. I tried a Dan Brown but couldn't bear it past page 20 and I never have managed to get beyond the first few pages of a David Baldacci.
But if it's pleasure, then I'm not a bit guilty about it.

[Nicole]

I love Rosamunde Pilcher books. The covers are so embarassing! They're dripping with candy-coloured flowers and scrolling fonts. But the insides are delightful. Family sagas set in Great Britain, usually in some run-down estate. Lots of brooding men and passionate, carefree women. Satisfies the Anglophile in me.

[serenknitity]

Jilly Cooper's early series of novels with girls names (Emily, Harriet, etc.). Just bought one in a charity shop for my daughter and she looked at me as if I'd lost my marbles, so I'll have to keep it. I devoured these when I was younger, but feel Jilly's books got a bit too bonk-bustery and over-peopled in recent years. Don't tell my bookclub!

[Deborah Lawrenson]

Ooh, me too!

I especially love Imogen and Prudence - Jilly's girls have such warmth and humour. Perfect comfort reads.

[Lindsay]

Whipple. Especially Waspberry Whipple.

[Oxslip]

Children's books for their great characters, fast plotting and comfort factor - recently Patrick Ness, also The Borrowers, anything Alan Garner, I Capture the Castle, The Dark is Rising series.

(I recently borrowed one of these from the library and got a disapproving look from the librarian that I wanted something from the children's list - reinforcing my feeling that these are guilty reading secrets.
Though perhaps made worse in her eyes because I had a book on HIV epidemiology entitled 'The Wisdom of Whores' out at the same time)

[Lisa W]

I suppose John Grisham would be my guilty pleasure. I can never quite empathasize with his characters, but the plots of his legal thrillers keep me entertained.

[Dark Puss]

Oxslip, you are surely not going to equate Alan Garner with synthetic food in the shape of cylindrical pasta are you? Garner is a most excellent writer whose books are perhaps mainly read by those under the age of 18, but I don't think he qualifies in this section. Garner, food wise, is much more Michelin starry!

[Kate L.]

Dick Francis. There's no character development and the stories do run together at times, but they're well-written and just good fun. My mother also appears to have an endless supply of them, so I see many months of hiding the covers in shame.

[Elizabeth]

I like John Grisham and Michael Connelly and other cime writers. But I've never even thought that I might read a Jeffrey Archer until now, when on your recommendation I'm about to start Paths of Glory . I've long been interested in Mallory and couldn't resist looking on the library shelves yesterday - and there it was! It should be great holiday reading.

[Becky]

What a great topic. Let's see: "fluff": I have just been tasked with reading Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" by my students "so you can tell us which of us is right"!!! But I love Marian Keyes and am partial to a good Katie Fforde novel after a long week. Dick Francis, AMEN! And an occasional Diane Mott Davidson, an American whodunit author who has a caterer as her heroine, hence a lot of recipes in her books. And I am waiting to borrow the Symbol Dan Brown from a student: the man can't write lively prose, but he cooks up a good plot!

[Sue Rosly]

A fun topic. I like to reread D E Stevenson, Jill Mansell, Maeve Binchy, Cathy Kelly ... as well as Dick Francis, Jilly Cooper's early books and any crime fiction by Josephine Tey and Dorothy Dunnett (the Dolly books).