Bookish guilty pleasures …

• Posted in About Books, General musings

I’ve talked about television, movies, and music. Now, let’s look at books and guilty pleasures.

Probably my main guilty pleasure when it comes to books is westerns. I. Love. Westerns! In my younger years, I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books too many times to count. (Although for some reason, Alonzo’s book was always my favorite).

I also discovered the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross at my library. These books are part historical fiction, part action, and part soap opera about the settling of the American West. Most of the titles are state names, like Oregon, Oklahoma, Tennessee, etc. There’s something like 24 books in this series, and I read them all — again and again and again. In order. Ross also wrote a couple of spin-off series, but I never read those. Maybe I will now …

And I used to read historical romances set in the American West like crazy. I’d go to the library and get as many as I could find. Cowboys! Cattle rustlers! Epic love stories! Sigh …

Then, there’s fantasy. Another love of mine (as if you couldn’t guess). I’ll read just about any fantasy book if there’s a) magic, b) swords, or c) dwarves it in. When I discovered fantasy, I started with folks like Tolkien, Terry Brooks, and David Eddings. Now, most of my TBR pile is fantasy, paranormal romance, or some combination of the two. I’m especially digging the surge of urban fantasy books and folks like Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison.

I don’t really care for sci-fi, though. I know it’s really just a different kind of fantasy, but spaceships and aliens have never appealed to me. I’ve read some of the Star Wars sci-fi books, but that’s about it.

I also like cozy murder mysteries. You know the kind I’m talking about. The ones that take place in a quaint, charming small town that just happens to have the highest murder rate in America — where the same person stumbles over a dead body every other week or so. M.C. Beaton writes a couple of murder mystery series set in England, and I’ve read most of those books, along with all the old Agatha Christies.

Then, there are folks like Robert B. Parker, who writes the Spenser private investigator series, among others. I’ve read every single one of those, even though the characters don’t really change or grow that much and it’s really easy to figure out who the bad guy is (Spenser almost always knows by chapter 10). But the books have great dialogue and one-liners. So whenever there’s a new one, I always get it from the library.

What about you? What are some of your bookish guilty pleasures?

4 Responses to “Bookish guilty pleasures …”

  1. Jody W. says:

    Did you ever read any of MC Beaton aka Marion Chesney’s Regency Romances? Some of those are the funniest books EVAH! She also wrote as Jeannie Tremaine for a while — Edwardians. Almost every one somewhere in my keeper attic.

  2. Chasity says:

    My stand by favorites, that I can and do, read over and over again are the Kinsey Millone (“A” is fo Alibi”, etc.) by Sue Grafton.

    I also really dig The Deadly Sins series, along with McNally’s books by Lawrence Sanders.

    In Abingdon, at the tobacco warehouse flea market there used to be a book store. I was cluttered, and dusty, but it was paradise for me. I think I picked up all the Grafton and Sanders books there for about $20. Last I heard though, the flea market had shut down.

    I’m also a big fan of the Star Wars novels. I’ll read just about any of them except for the Clone Wars books. I used to have all sorts of the radio serial Star Wars. I loved those things. You’d get a book, acted out, complete with the different characters. /sigh. I wish I had those now. I’d listen to them before going to bed at night.

    This is a bit embarssing to admit, but while cleaning out my “old” closet the other day, I found the COMPLETE collection of the Sweet Valley High books. I used to love those puppies. I may sit down and torture myself and re-read them. I’m sure it will make my eyes bleed though.

  3. Jennifer Estep says:

    Jody — No, I didn’t realize she wrote regencies, too. Hmm. I may have to check those out — and what she wrote under her other pen name. 😉

    Chasity — I read the first Sue Grafton book, but I just never really got into it. I also read the first Deadly Sin book. That one, I enjoyed. It’s yet another series I keep meaning to get at the library but never seem to have time to read. Sigh.

    Oh, I used to love Sweet Valley High! I had a lot of the books, including the series they did when Elizabeth and Jessica were in middle school.

    But my favorite was The Babysitters Club books. I read all those books too many times to count, even the thicker special editions where they went on ski trips and cruises and stuff. :bubbles:

  4. Amy says:

    I love a good psychological/legal thriller. I just breezed through the “Women’s Murder Club” series by James Patterson. I could finish one in an afternoon.

    The one book that I can read over and over again, though, is _Bridges of Madison County_. I love that book and it makes me cry every time.

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