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Apr
16
What Are Your Dirty Little Reading Secrets?
2012 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Spring has me in the mood to clean out closets of both the storage and psychic varieties. Here are seven of the dirty little reading secrets I’ve been carrying around for a while. What are yours?
I can’t keep Tom Wolfe and Tom Robbins straight. One of them wore a white suit, but I don’t remember which. Also, when I think of Tom Robbins, I picture Tim Robbins circa The Shawshank Redemption.
I’ve never read BRAVE NEW WORLD…and I don’t really plan to. I should feel bad about this, right? Here’s the deal: my high school had a policy that seniors who had A’s going into finals didn’t have to take exams. My AP English final was focused on Brave New World. I was caught in the powerful grip of Senioritis, and I opted out. Through some twisted logic, I decided over time that if it wasn’t important enough to merit a test we were all required to take, I didn’t need to read it. I know–it doesn’t make sense to me, either.
I dread the novella-length stories in short story collections. For SO MANY REASONS. And when the novella is the first piece in the collection? Put a fork in me.
I wouldn’t have read the Harry Potter books if not for the movies. I was one of the O.G. haters who scoffed at a kids’ book about wizards. Then a friend talked me into going to see the first movie, and much to my chagrin, I loved it. So I picked up the second book and started there. Part 2 of this secret: I’ve never gone back to read the first book.
I really didn’t like Jane Eyre. Appreciating a work’s significance is not the same as liking it. Simple as that.
I still love The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I feel like admitting this as an almost-30-year-old woman is akin to being an almost-30-year-old man whose favorite book is still The Catcher in the Rye. But I don’t care. Perks resonated with my teenage self in a way that my adult self likes to remember. And who among us can, having read this book, take a long drive on a cool night with the windows down and the music up and not think for just a second about feeling infinite?
Sometimes I lie about what I’ve read. I learned the hard way (that is, through super-awkward interactions) not to pretend I’ve read books I haven’t read, but I’m not above saying I haven’t read something I really have read if it will keep me from getting stuck in a conversation I’m not in the mood for.
Now it’s your turn…
Originally published at Book Riot
No related posts.
When I read this post this morning a thousand of “secrets” came to my mind…so I ended up writing a whole post about it! But here are the “bullets”
1. I don’t like Gabriel García Marquez that much
2. I rarely finished the books forced on me at school
3. I cannot, for the life of me, watch a movie based on a book, and avoid saying (at least once): That’s not how it was on the book.
4. I have a collection of what I call “sherbet” books.
5. On that topic, I read the whole Twilight series.
CaroG´s last [type] ..What are your dirty little secrets?
This is a great post! Like you, I really don’t like novella-sized stories in a short story collection. It’s called “short story” for a reason.
I tried to think of my dirty little secrets and came up with a few:
1. Like the above commenter, I also do not like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 100 Years of Solitude was such a terrible book, in my opinion.
2. I have a BIG soft spot for chick lit. Something light and fluffy that’ll give me an enjoyable afternoon.
3. If I get bored with a book, I will skim it. I’ve done this with a lot of books.
4. I am a big romance person. If there is no romance in a book, I have a hard time reading it.
5. I cannot prioritize. If I am bored with a book, or if it’s just not as great as I wanted it to be, I will abandon it for my piano.
Thanks for the post!
Kristilyn (Reading in Winter)´s last [type] ..COVER LOVE: Paper Towns, by John Green
I avoid highly praised books that the major media critics have decided are the best. I mean, every year there is a sunami of novels, and only a bare dozen get attention. These are not always the best. I find gems from The Book Lady and other bloggers. And this year no Pulitzer for fiction!? Really, no books worthy of a nice prize. Not even mine? Something’s wrong with the process that keeps jewels from being noticed.
I also love Perks of Being a Wallflower (and Catcher, btw).
Dirty secrets:
1) I effing LOVE romance novels even though I’m laughing at their cliche-ness the whole time–I read way more than I admit to/write about on my blog.
2) I’m bored to death of angsty books. I reread Franny and Zooey (because I remember loving it in high school) and wanted to slap those cigarettes out of their mouths and some sense into their heads.
3) I couldn’t get into The Tiger’s Wife or Cutting for Stone even though everyone raves about both.
4) I hate it when family and friends ask me to recommend books for them or when they recommend them to me. I’m not being snobbish…it’s just that books are so personal and if someone reads one that I loved and doesn’t also love it–it upsets me. So I just try to avoid the whole thing.
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Let’s see… I just posted on my blog today about Joyce Carol Oates and how she’s an Awesome Lady Author for my “A to Z Blogging Challenge,” but I’ve only read one of her books.
I judge books by their covers. Especially if they’re pink.
I wrote a book about pirates and ninjas… and have never read any books about pirates OR ninjas!
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I think for me Harry Potter is still the best although I am not a big fan of movies and books of them but still, I find it interesting..
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All very well done and excellent secrets to carry around. I can’t think of any right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have them. It just means I’ve blocked them out.
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I loved this post! I have so many secrets about reading it’s not even funny. Here are a few:
1. Some of the worst books I read were because they were forced upon me in school. I still shudder whenever I think of Beloved.
2. Sometimes I wait for the movie to come out before I read the book. But I almost always read the book before I see the movie.
3. I didn’t like The Diary of Anne Frank.
4. I won’t read Nicholas Sparks’ books because someone always dies.
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I tried to read Jane Eyre once or twice as a girl, and couldn’t get past the first third or half. I remember the best part as being when Jane is in boarding school and there’s an epidemic.
Related, I’ve yet to read to the “Wide Sargasso Sea,” a lack that I feel bad about as a reader and a feminist … but not so bad that I’ve picked the book up.
1. After reading J.M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace” I remember actually thinking, “I better not leave this book out where my dog can find it.”
I am also nearly 30 and a HUGE lover of Perks …. be still my heart! I also can’t stand Gabriel Garcia Marquez – although I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera, 100 years was such a bore. And I cannot read one book at a time, I am a chronic multi-reader.
I hated Saturday by Ian McEwan.
And I didn’t like the diary of Anne Frank either.
I ended my 8th grade book report on “Red Badge of Courage” with the oh-so-clever “and if you want to find out what happens, you’ll have to read it yourself.” My teacher thought I was being funny. I just couldn’t get past the first few chapters.
If I had to read a book for school, I hated it on principle.
[...] The Book Lady’s blog today, and the post was terrific. All those things that you should like or do because you’re [...]
I love the fact that e-readers exists if for no other reason than when I want a brain candy book because I’ve had a hard day (ie chick lit) I can buy one online and read it immediately, but not have to have it around knowing I have no place for it in my actual library.
I detest Brave New World. In fact, I detest most of the high school English reading curriculum, from 1984 to Catcher in the Rye to Gulliver’s Travels. I guess you could call that my dirty little secret.
[...] What Are Your Dirty Little Reading Secrets? I’m starting to think that there is more shame and embarrassment surrounding literary reading than is entirely healthy. [...]
I haven’t read any novel by Hemingway yet.
That’s classic and awesome.
I spent a year guiltily sneaking Stephen King books out of the library when I was 10 years old to read, and now I still feel like I’m up to no good whenever I read another of his books.
i think shakespeare is over-rated.
[...] Rebecca Joines Schinsky, aka “The Reading Lady,” posted a list of the reading-related habits and tastes she’d previously been ashamed to admit, and h…. Do you recognize yourself in one or more of these [...]
Ha, I love this.
Hmm, let’s see…
1. I read every Sweet Valley High book I could lay my grimy little mitts on from the library until my mother berated me and told me I should read more non-fiction. You know, stuff that would expand my mind.
2. I took her at her word and read Stephen Hawkin’s “A Brief History of Time” at the age of 12. Seriously, what 12 year old reads such things?
3. If a book has particularly shiny pages, I HAVE. TO. SNIFF. THEM. Yes, I know. It’s weird. But I love the smell.
4. I often read multiple books concurrently (A.D.D.)
5. I adored The Hunger Games (AND the movie.) Even though I am not an angst-ridden teen.
6. I studied Shakespeare, but I couldn’t quote you any (beyond the obvious.)
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I gasped when I read #1. Really?! Tom Wolfe and Tom Robbins?! Oh wow.
I LOVE Russian lit. yet I DESPISE Tolstoy with every bit of my being.
I read Finnegans Wake just to tell people I read it. I can’t tell you what its about.
1. I don’t like short stories by Alice Munro. I respect her writing, but just don’t enjoy reading it.
2. I binge on Nora Roberts and Elizabeth Lowell when I just can’t take any more serious literature.
3. I’m SO slow about returning library books that, after an <> with interlibrary loan books this winter, the reference librarian chewed me out in front of everyone at the circulation desk, accused me of screwing up interlibrary loans for everyone in our entire state, and made me persona non grata in our local library. Now I’m going to have to spring for an e-reader to read all the titles that I don’t want on my shelves.
4. Worse than #2 — for purely sentimental reasons, I actually own a copy of Barbara Cartland’s book The Flame is Love.
(RE: I really loved Jane Eyre, and Brave New World is actually a great book, in my opinion. I love it.)
1. I really love The Hunger Games, but think that they are way more intelligent than the film makes them out to be.
2. I secretly review erotica.
3. I used to read Shakespeare all the time, but now I’m super-daunted by it.
4. I love David Leviathan books. In general, when I can’t take “serious literature” or I want to relax, I like to read a really, really good teen book (that isn’t any less “serious,” just easier syntax and diction).
5. I try not to, but do judge people based on what they read. I hate the Twilight books on so many levels, and so if someone loves them. . . we have a slight problem.
6. I have sexually “instructional” books on my e-Reader so on one can see them or find them.
Confession; I also judge people by what they read : I abhor any “urban fiction” example: Thug love, Baby Mama Drama or even “Christian fiction” in Christian fiction there may not be any salty language but everyone is sleeping with everybody!
I do aspire to read The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; I’ve purchased “Charles Dickens” (have yet to read it)
Dirty secret? I haven’t read all of Jane Austen or half of them or other classics like Middlemarch or Moby-Dick, which I simply must!! but never seem to get around to. though per those postings above: I did like the Diary of Anne Frank …. and believe Anne was going to be a great writer in life (beyond the diary) if she had survived
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[...] = [];}Rebecca Joines Schinsky of The Book Lady’s Blog recently featured an amusing post (found via Atlanta Book Lover’s Blog) in which she reveals some of her own “dirty [...]
Love the post! It’s comforting to realize that everyone has those little secrets they don’t want to confess. I have a few myself.
1. I do the movie commenting just like you- I just can’t help saying “The book was different!” (and usually better)
2. I adore all of those romantic suspense books written in the 50′s by M.M. Kaye, Mary Stewart, etc…
3. I never read The Scarlet Letter. I really did try, but didn’t like it. Although we watched the movie in lieu of actually reading the book in school, I still claim that I read it.
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What a fun post! Here are mine:
1. I’ve bought Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude THREE times (the last two times because I forgot I’d already bought it). How many times have I read it? Zero.
2. I bawled at the end of Mockingjay.
3. I, too, did not care for Jane Eyre. It was okay, but I didn’t feel it compared to the other Bronte sister’s Wuthering Heights.
4. I am swayed by whether or not I am “supposed” to read a book. Because my mom told me not to read Gone with the Wind, I read it TWICE. Because I was assigned certain books in high school and college, I probably enjoyed them much less than I would have had I just picked them up on my own.
5. I didn’t love The Tiger’s Wife, Cutting for Stone, The World According to Garp, or The Poisonwood Bible as much as everyone else seems to.
6. While I really enjoyed reading Anne Rice’s The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, I felt so dirty afterward that I couldn’t finish the series.
7. I’ve never read Macbeth, even though I think I probably should.
8. I haven’t read most of what I have on my shelves, yet I continue to accumulate books.
Dirty Secret? I still look through some of my Famous Five books ( Enid Blyton for those who may not know ). Great memories of being a kid. BTW I am 60!!
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what you want…
The Book Lady’s Blog…
[...] County Civil Detention Center: A Step in the Right Direction, But Better Options ExistWhat Are Your Dirty Little Reading SecretsKarnes County Civil Detention Center: A Step in the Right Direction, But Better Options Exist [...]
I have tried twice, and failed, to get through The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caufield is supposed to be the prototype for all young rebels, but I found him to be, simply, whiny. Maybe I should have read it in my early 20s…
Haha these are all great. XD
When I sit down to read, I bring a STACK of books, not because I’ll get through them all, but because I have *no* attention span. XD
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1. I don’t list the romance novels I read on my blog (I do list chick-lit).
2. I’m not 100% sure I’ve read “Anne of Green Gables”. I think I remember details that aren’t in the movies, but I can’t actually remember reading them.
3. I enjoyed reading Twilight (and sequels) to the point that I’ve reread them.
4. Jane Austen drives me crazy. Every character is described in SO MUCH detail on first introduction – why can’t I discover their character over the course of the book?
5. High school scared me away from literature. I’ve never finished anything by Dickens, the Brontes, or Toni Morrison. But my favorite book of all time was assigned in High School – The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay.
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Great post. We all have deep book secrets. I’m with everyone else in hating anything I was forced to read in High School – makes one wonder what the purpose of HS English might be if not to make us hate books.
In High School I read everything that appealed to me – most of which came off those revolving metal frames at drugstore counters. I fell deeply in love with lurid paperback covers – a love that has lasted until today – and pretty much read anything between them. This pretty much obliterated my snobbishness.
I get almost every book suggestion that I follow from a few published book lists – most recently from Nancy Pearl’s Booklust and Booklust II.
Nancy Pearl helped me learn to indulge in various kinds of books I would never have otherwise rwad – mysteries, young adult novels. From her I discovered Ross MacDonald (too good to miss, as she says) and Jane Gardam and Sarah Dessen. I binged on mysteries, but now am bored and no longer read them. But if I could find books for young adults as good as Dessen’s Just Listen or Gardam Long Way from Verona I’d give up serious adult fiction.