Monday, May 12, 2008

Literature and its social implications. Discuss.


I have a confession to make.

I did something new and slightly embarrassing on Saturday afternoon.

I made a purchase that I would never want to show in public....






Yes, I bought my first ever chick-lit novel.

Inspired by Marian Keyes' blog, that Jo (I think) passed onto me many months ago, and that I've been reading and enjoying for so long, I decided the time had come to make that step forward, and read some of her published stuff.

I made a joke to the shop assistant that they should sell chick lit books with serious adult covers, like they do with the Harry Potter books.

He wasn't in banter form and looked like he took offence at my words.

Well I got as far as 2 pages that I read on the way home but haven't had a chance to go near it since.

I'm having a bad reading year.

I constantly fail my gender when it comes to reading. Many a year I'd be on a villa holiday in the sun and all the other girlies swap girlie books, read 400 pages in an hour and talk about how many they've read, borrowed, liked; while I fade into the background feeling yet another notch on the don't-fit-in ladder.

Then I earned myself some college girlie friends and I escaped the chick lit but inherited misery-lit. All the book talk now is about 7-year old tortured one-armed child prostitutes from Armenia living in slave camp in Nigeria who dream of throwing stones in the water with their now Taliban-stoned mother and honour-killed sister. Bring back the girlie shite.

And yet I do adore a quality rom-com and any period drama, but if I ever do get past page two of Marian, it'll be within the confines and safety of my own home.

4 comments:

  1. Best of luck with Keys. I read one of hers when I was in a complete blank-mind state. It was not a good read and I felt dirty afterwards. Not sure what I was supposed to learn from the book, but I can only remember that appearantly it is possible to drink like a sponge and still loose weight. What a gem of advice that was.
    I'm sure she's a good read, but not for me.

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  2. I love her she's funny full of humour . Sorry i'm not as intellegent as a lot of you but to my mind life is hard enough new's is always full of horror stories. So a little light relief is always a good thing.

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  3. Ails, pls don't put your self down! I am sure Keys is great, why else would she sell so much?
    It's just that when I had finished the book I couldn't remember a thing but the main character (being a woman) was sulking, drinking, getting slim and then telling her ex bf to sod off. Funny and all, sure, but not what I need.

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  4. I'm with you ails, in general I like my reading material to be of the light hearted variety. I generally enjoy Marian Keyes books a lot but don't get me started on that no-hoper Cecilia Ahern.

    Anyway, my idea of high brow reading is a bit of Oprahs book club or Jodi Picoult. I have been reading an awful lot on my travels and am enjoying Douglas Kennedy whose chick-lit is slightly more interesting than the usual drivel.

    The best book I've read in recent times was 'The Time Travellers wife', no idea who wrote it, the minute I finish them they go straight back to the book exchange.

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