Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Thanks to BB for this link to a discussion on PW regarding an aggregate of the top 100 lists of Best Books in English. The article itself is perfectly apt - that books mark different stages in your life and their quality in your opinion may rest on the context in which you read them.

But commenter Christine wins 2 points in the Online Scavenger Hunt for Commenting Idiocy by saying:

I read science fiction voraciously from fifth grade through college. Somehow, after the first couple of Dune books, I just stopped and haven’t gone back. During college, I felt forced to read the bleak and depressing because it was good for me and seem to have sworn off ‘literature’ ever since. Over the last (uh - hem )years, I have gone from reading romances to reading mysteries. Romances were just silly beyond words and now mysteries are getting that way, too. Where next? Back to the classics. Back to Dickens, back to Twain. Taking refuge in what I’ve read before, knowing I will see it in a different light.

I hereby propose a new rule for our general behavior on the internet: “There cannot be a discussion of literature, particularly the ranking thereof, without a swat at the plebeian dreck that is romance.”

Poor Christine. Hope she finds something good to read. 

60 comments •
Categories: General Bitching • Ranty McRant • The Link-O-Lator
Tags: literature, publishers weekly