Dirty Little Secrets
Posted under Books I love
Oh, haven’t looked at that self-portrait for a while…from Secret 17 of my 30 secrets in 30 days project from last year …”I keep a Grudge Book“. I still do. Just in case anyone was wondering…
How did I ever have the time to do all those self-portraits? How did I ever unearth 30 secrets which were fit to share? Well, I was working less than I do now and the Megaboys were still napping for 2 hours in the afternoon. Sigh, how I miss ‘the nap’, the quiet of the house in the afternoon…a couple of delicious hours all to myself. Happy days.
Dirty Little Secrets…not ‘those’ kinds but literary ones. Do you have any? I don’t, although apparently I’m supposed to. I heard a discussion on Radio 4 recently where Learned Folk revealed which books they haven’t ever read, but ought to have done. I can’t remember who was being interviewed, a woman who was either an author or a literary critic and some Emeritus Professor do-dah. The woman fessed up never having read ‘Sense & Sensibility’ which is a book that, according to her, someone who is considered ‘well read’ should have read. She was clearly mortified at having to admit to it, and was making frantic promises to read it this summer. Why? She’s middle aged. She’s got this far without having the desire or motivation to read it, so why do it out of duty?
The Emeritus Professor had a much healthier view. I cant’ remember what his ‘shameful’ admission was, perhaps he didn’t have one. He made the point that no one can possibly be expected to have read everything and that even attempting to do so deprives us of the sheer JOY of reading for reading’s sake. He buys trashy books at airports to read on the plane, that’s his ‘dirty little secret’ because if the plane goes down he wants his last reading experience to have been an entertaining one, rather than an ‘improving’ one. Good for him! Although he did add that they aren’t the kind of books he would like his colleagues in the Common Room to see him reading. Bah. Literary snobbishness? I hate that. Grudge Book immediately.
I can’t think of any books that I haven’t read that I feel I ‘ought’ to have done. But then I don’t hold myself as being ‘well read’. Instead, I like to think that I ‘read well’ (d’you see what I did there?). I read books which appeal to me, which entertain, enthrall and challenge me. If it doesn’t, I stop reading it. This is a fairly new development, being able to stop reading a book without finishing it. When I was younger I would just plough on but now I just call it a day. Plenty of other books on the pile calling to me. This week I was duped in to finishing a book that was really very dull. ‘The Secret Intensity of Everyday Living’ promised so much, such an intriguing title. I felt sure it was worth pushing on through chapter after chapter of mediocre writing. Surely something was going to happen? But it never did. Pah, I hate that. What a waste of precious reading time!
Whilst I don’t have an ‘I ought to have read’ list, I do have a ‘Books I Hate That Everyone Else Loves’ list. Top of the list is 100 Years of Solitude. I really, really disliked that book and found it tedious and pedestrian. But everyone else raves about it. I haven’t read the Narnia books because I thought The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was stuff and nonsense.
And then there is the ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ list…I used to adore reading Jeffrey Archer, Jilly Cooper and Joanna Trollope. I may even *cough* have read a Maeve Binchy novel in My Youth. None of these could ever count towards being ‘well read’ but who cares? And who’s keeping score anyway?
So, I fessed up to my Dirty Little Secrets in the literary department. Tell me yours. What books have you read that you’re ashamed of, purge your soul right here. And do you feel you ‘ought’ to have read certain books, and why? Have you pretended to have a read a book when you haven’t? Let’s get all our secrets out shall we.
Sits down and hands round the biscuits….xx
I had a huge love affair with Jilly Cooper books back in the day!!! Oh how I dreamed of Lisander!!!!!
Loved the Narnia books and still do, passing the tradition to my kids and they love them too. Tried to read Harry Potter and couldn’t therefore have never picked up any of the sequels….and won’t even try the Twilight nonsense.
Um, and yes I can totally put a book down if it’s not doing it for me.
Oh my dirty little secret…. I adore Shakespeare… I know what a total GEEK!!!!
Why would I or anyone else be ashamed for having read a book? I read anything that appeals to me at that moment. Everything has cycles and so does reading and what I am interested in.
For example. I started with Eat,pray and love of Elizabeth Gilbert but was done with in after the first chapter. Didn’t like it despite the fact that it is a bestseller and poeha, poeha.
Now during our summer holiday in Norway with all the hiking. I was exhausted at times and needed something very easy to read and stumbled across a Maeve Binchy and just sat down in the grass and read. That book was just what I needed during these few weeks. Didn’t bring it home, just placed it on the coffeetable at the camping and hope someone will find it and appreciate it for what it is, holidayread..
Should I now be completely embarrased because it isn’t ‘literature or just remain happy by living with not everything labeled right or wrong? Since it is my choice I choose the latter one.
see you.
Elizabeth
Oh by the way I did read Sense & sensibility, smile
I’m a cover snob. Does that mean I’m shallow? Probably. Well, I choose by what it looks like, a little by what it says on the back cover. I read thrillers, crime drama, chick lit with some non fiction thrown in. I just read ‘Shit my Dad says’ and it was perfect holiday read, a laugh. What was that book a few years ago by Paulo Coelho about a shepard? Orange cover. Everyone raved about that but I thought it was crap. But I didn’t fib, I just told everyone that it was crap :)
No dirty little secrets when it comes to books. Boring I know! But I do have a long list of films I haven’t seen that apparently I shouldve. Such as Ghostbusters, The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Brief Encounter, etc etc etc.
When backpacking in our late teens a friend and I used to read Jilly Coopers Riders to each other at bedtime. It was quite surreal when staying in a little shack in Sri Lanka. Thanks for bringing back good memories x
Janet Evanovich……the Stephanie Plum novels….all of them…..Harry Potter AND the Twilight series….I read non fiction all the time, too. I love Jan Karon and the Mitford series, cop mysteries, religious fiction, classics. And, I’m kind of shallow (;-)), I like to pick books by their book covers sometimes….and when they turn out to be a dud, I don’t even bother to finish it I just trade it in at the used book store. I just read all three if the Stig Larrsen books….because ‘everyone else’ was reading them. I really enjoyed them!
S
I love (and if you haven’t discovered them you should) Jill Mansell….
B (the man of the house) calls them “Mindy” books…
Oh, and I had a box of Mills and Boons as a teenager…. passed them on to someone in the year below… but that may have been an inevitable side effect of being at an all girls boarding school…
I never heard of Jilly Cooper, but I am obviously going to have to check her out. I’m with you, life is too short and too full of books to continue with a dud. In fact, I have a shelf on my GoodReads called Just-couldn’t-finish-it. When I was a teenager I would read two or three chapters and if it was good enough to go on, I would read the last page. Then, if I still wanted to go on, I would. Ha. Silly me.
I don’t think I really have any reading snobbishness. I’m too much of a teacher for that. Reading is good. ALL reading is good. So, I don’t really care what anyone reads, just as long as you tell me about the good stuff so I can read it, too.
Speaking of, I’m reading The Four Letters of Love based on your recommendation.
Um I might have a bit of a Georgette Heyer thing – no idea why but I adore her books… and have most of them…
i read jilly cooper too..rupert campbell black was just so deliciously mean and nasty. and hot.
i just read a truly horrible book. a real stinker. ultra-right wing, about terrorists exploding a nuclear bomb in LA and almost in chicago. and sadly it ended in a way which leads me to believe there will be another. it was stunningly awful, hackneyed and a plot not even good enough for a one-hour episode of 24 – keifer wouldn’t touch it, i tell you. but i had to finish it and now i have to find some way to tell my cousin to buy her boyfriend some golf clubs or whatever it takes to keep him from writing another one of these…sigh. i hate bad books.