Dec 02 2008
On Guilty Pleasures…
I will admit that I am a snob when it comes to books. I am much more likely to pick up a non-fiction book about some obscure science or history subject than I am to grab the new HOT fiction book; about once a year I get into a mood for fiction, and I plow through a few notable titles and then settle right back down. I don’t even remember the last time I read a mass market paperback… I don’t get into genre fiction that much. Of course, I won’t say never because… well, I have been reading genre fiction over the past week. Oh my gosh.
Back in September, I got kind of addicted to the new HBO show, True Blood. It is about vampires and supernatural creatures and this barmaid named Sookie, all of them co-habitating in rural Louisiana. I followed it each week and even spent some spare time speculating about the show (who is the killer? what clues were in the previous episodes?) Luckily, I was not the only one who was doing this, and I found a great community on Ravelry (Knit One, Dead Too) who was into the show too. Each week we discussed episodes, and I found out that the TV show was based on a series of books. Click. My birthday came around, and so did a gift certificate, and a few days later, I got the Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set 
I read all seven books in 4 days - Thanksgiving break. When I entered the book store on Sunday night to find Book 8 (after reading all the rest in a marathon reading session) I felt like a strung-out drug addict looking for my next fix. I stumbled into the Mystery/Fantasy section and there it was. Waiting for me. Luckily, it was in stock (they are bestsellers right now) and I had a coupon. Sweet. (Photos above are me pouring over Book 8, From Dead to Worse - yes, see my wide-eyed enthusiasm and my dropped jaw? I was into it…) I had a small twinge of regret that I had read through them sooo quickly and here I was now purchasing the latest book in the series; setting myself up to wait until Book 9 is released in May 2009. A whole six months? And even longer before Season 2 of the show… I guess this means I will have to get back to my science and history books… and wait wait wait… at least Thomas Friedman
Lolly meets her guilty pleasure - who knew it would come in the form of vampire books?
…The irony of a peace-loving vegan addicted to vampire books is not lost on me…
No, I haven’t read Twilight 
Hey, everyone’s got one (a few?) guilty pleasure, right? I figure that if my diet precludes me from eating sweets and rotting my teeth, I can read vampire books that rot my brain… I have a million justifications for my actions, but honestly, I don’t know why I care so much. I read them because they are fun. That is enough.
I’m trying desperately to remain above the current Twilight fray! But only long enough to finish my current book. :o)
My guilty pleasure lately has been -dare I admit? - Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo. I’m a terrible snob when it comes to books and tv preferring Masterpiece Theatre and Antiques Roadshow. However, I love Project Runway and I got sucked into Real Housewives when that was over. And I haven’t been able to stop. I watched the entire season - then went trolling on line for the hilarious screen caps. It’s like a drug!
Reading Harry Potter (the entire series), over and over and over again. I actually cry every time.
Funny that you should write this post now… I’m *this* close to finishing Twilight, which is a total guilty pleasure for me right now. I picked it up to see what all the hype is about, since that’s what happened with me and the Harry Potter books. I don’t think I’ll jump into the Twilight sequels soon though, I’m not loving the book that much. I am looking forward to watching the movie however!
That yarn is gorgeous!
Mine is also TV related. I’m also a snob of all sort (and as a grad student kinda professionally so), but I love TV crime procedurals. Yeah I know they’re all the same and interchangeable, especially within the franchise, but that doesn’t stop me from watching all of them. I even have a preference for the least plausible ones on CBS: CSI NY, Criminal Minds, Numb3rs, and NCIS. There goes my evenings! (at least I can knit at the same time)
I’m patiently (not so much) awaiting my amazon order with book 8 in it. I read them all about that quickly as well!!!
It makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one with this guilty pleasure… I read the Twilight books in a week this summer!
The Twilight series is THE series on the Chicago Red Line this winter. Last winter, it was Eat, Drink, Pray, Love, but glittery sparkly Edward has them all beat.
Me, my guilty pleasure of late has been 1990s sci-fi television. Babylon 5, to be exact. It somehow manages to be one of those shows that has spotty writing, spotty acting for some of the characters, but fantastic acting by others, and a completely brilliant and engrossing storyline. My friend and I have been watching it on DVD and we mainlined the entire third season in a WEEK. It’s a show where you have to watch the first season, with its flaws, because the storyline starts there, and by the time you’re at the end, you’re exhausted and so so impressed. (Another sci-fi show like that? Farscape. Seriously. The last final 45 minutes is some of the most engrossing television I have ever seen. I didn’t even breathe.
Genre, including vampire, fiction is a semi-guilty pleasure of mine as well
I read largely as escapism, to relax, not usually for deep thought. I’ve traditionally read alot of science/speculative fiction, but in the last couple years have jumped on board to paranormal fiction/mystery train. Lots of good stuff there, if one enjoys it. Alot of schlock too, of course.
I did finally read the Twilight books, all but the last. The first book was on the shelf in our sublet in NY and once I started it I couldn’t put it down. So I nicked it (I left food and flowers behind)
It’s OK - not the best series I’ve ever read, sometimes a bit sappy/corny and predictable, but the characters are very engaging and there are unique storylines.
” I read them because they are fun. That is enough.” Isn’t that one of the best reasons for reading?
Alas, the vampire genre really doesn’t hold my interest that much. For me, the series that keeps me re-reading is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Though it’s cloaked in sword-and-sorcery disguise, it’s really superb social satire, set in a fantasy world. Jonathan Swift, eat your heart out! I’m about to embark on my annual rereading of “Hogfather” - the Discworld take on Christmas customs.
My guilty pleasure is the sci fi TV shows Stargate and Stargate: Atlantis. There are so many cheesy bits to the shows, but I can’t stop watching. Have avoided Twilight so far though!
Just one guilty pleasure… right now it is Twitter, Facebook, blogs, the computer in general. I wish I could figure out how to knit and read at the same time. LOL! I love the pictures of you reading, I do the same thing, as in sit odd ways to keep from getting stiff because I just can’t put the book down. Too funny.
Love the giveaway!
Smiles!
Well Lolly, not sure if this is helping you or enabling you…..there are a few ‘complilation’ books that have one chapter ’short stories’ in them… Bite and Many Bloody Returns have stories with Sookie in them. If you noticed that it seemed like something was missing wiht the ‘dumped in your lap’ bit about Hadley, well the story in Bite called “One word answer” fills in those blanks. Charlaine Harris’s website has all of the info, and there is a thread where the author herself answers questions!!! http://www.charlaineharris.com/bibliography/bibliog-sookie.html
Enjoy
Guilty Pleasures? Besides fondling yarn?
Stephen King books by far. I’m in the SK library so I have every one.
When my husband travels for work I catch up on old DVDs like the Beauty and the Beast series (from the 80s?) and Big Love on HBO.
eh, there’s nothing wrong with a few guilty pleasures now and then :). There’s definitely worse things you can do. You should definitely read the Twilight series. They will suck you in, big time. I liked the first three a lot but not so much the last one. Still, it was worth the read to find out how the whole thing ends.
My guilty pleasures are always confined to what I will read on an airplane. Up there I feel like I can make myself into someone else, just between take off and landing. So what do I read while I’m at 32,000 feet? Michael Crichton. (Ok, and People and US Magazine.) I was pretty torn up that he passed away and I’ll have no new ones to devour while flying cross country.
My guilty pleasure has most definitely been the Twilight Saga for the past few months. And I’d never heard of these Sookie Stackhouse books, even though I’ve been trying to find another vampire series! So I’m really excited that you wrote about those, so I can get involved in another saga. Thanks.
L Gal, Talk about like minds. . . From needles to fangs! I too am a True Blood addict, having watched every episode on Sunday and a few repeats mid-week. The words ” What Would Shakespeare Think? occasionally popped into my mind. Yes, I find it the plot/charcters that engaging, and trust the Bard would have been entranced by the option of ongoing drama. Thanks for your blog entry. Can’t wait to visit the Ravelry forum you mentioned. Would love to see you. . . ~s
I just started reading your blog- I guess this is as good a time as any to de-lurk.
I’m in grad school plus full time working, so pretty much anything I do that isn’t school related seems like a guilty pleasure (which makes knitting that much more desirable!). I’ve been watching old shows on hulu lately that I haven’t watched before- “Who’s the Boss” and “Alf” to name a few. mindless and not-thought provoking, it’s awesome!
I take great pleasure in watching bad science fiction television. You name it, I’ll watch it — Star Trek (original), both Stargate series, and I’ve just started watching Sanctuary. Though probably an even guiltier pleasure is admitting that I’ve watched every single episode of Survivor. Eek!
My husband went though a vampire phase once in grad school that involved hunting down all the historical treatments of Elizabeth Batori he could find. I ended up reading them all, too. (She used an iron maiden to extract blood from virgins in which to bathe, etc. etc.)
I can usually pass off my guilty reading pleasure as work related. Since my academic work involves 19th-century German youth literature, I figure I can read (and re-read) things like _A Wrinkle in Time,_ or Pulman’s _His Dark Materials_ trilogy and chalk it up to comp lit!
My guilty pleasure is Justin Timberlake. I usually listen to indie music but I just love everything about him.
My guilty pleasure is teen novels…especially of the vampire kind! I do LOVE Twilight but I definitely read it before other people had discovered it so…I feel like a follower, even though I’m not. And I refuse to see the movie with hordes of teenage girls. So….I’m waiting!
Favorite guilty pleasure? Right now, chocolate croissants from Trader Joe’s for Sunday morning breakfast
Ha - I love the pics. Looks like a good read.
I totally got sucked into the Twilight series this summer and really enjoyed it.
Right now my guilty pleasure is slipping off into the computer room while the two girls are doing something with daddy so I can catch up on some blog reading.
I also have a fondness for the makeover TV shows - Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style and What Not to Wear are a couple of favorites for when I have a moments down time!
I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Twilight when you do get around to reading it. I definitely plowed my way through the first two in a semi-addictive fashion, but just couldn’t take it anymore after that. It was fun to read, but all the accumulated thoughts of, “isn’t this kind of offensive?” just kept piling up and nagging at me! And yet they’re so fun to read! AGH!
Right now, my guilty pleasure is the Peppermint Joe Joe’s from Trader Joe’s. They’re vegan, too. Mmm…
My guilty pleasure? Junk TV. I work in the computer industry and am a student and am pretty serious in my “real life”. When I turn the TV on I want to let my brain relax and wander. Biggest Loser, American Idol, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives…I love ‘em all, even though my husband tells me they’re rotting my brain and I should watch the History Channel more often.
Wow…this is hard to admit.
Spice Girls.
and I’m not even kidding. ((hangs head in shame…but then gets over it and starts singing Wannabe))
My guilty pleasure? Aside from sweets? Watching “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” I know, I know…garbage, but tasty, tasty garbage.
And for the record, I don’t think that taking a break and reading something light and fun and “easy” is necessarily rotting your brain. We all need a mental vacation now and then.
It is so fun to read everyone’s guilty pleasures. Nice to know we are not alone! I have to admit that I am a complete sucker for romantic comedies. Total formula, happy ending movies. If I am flipping channels and notice one is on, I will sit there and watch it regardless of how many times I have already seen it.
You won’t be sorry about the Twilight series. I recently read The Gargoyle, which you recommended quite awhile ago and I loooooved it.
Cheesy action movies, especially with Arnold in them. If Terminator is on, I have to watch it, no matter how many times I’ve seen it.
You are about the 97th person who’s recommended True Blood to me this fall… I will have to give it a try.
My indulgence is really cheesy TV romantic dramas. Like Gossip Girl and Lipstick Jungle.
My guilty pleasure used to be Entertainment Weekly, but they reformatted and now it’s too dumbed-down to be a guilty pleasure.
bollywood movies! the cheesier, the better! actually, anything with groups of people dancing in unison make me very happy.
So glad you liked them, Lolly! I read the first one in only a few days, too. My guilty pleasure? Let’s see. Probably old school emo music from the late 90s. I listened to this music when I was an angst-ridden college student, and I still listen to it in the car. Jason makes fun of me all the time, but I don’t care. Love me some Saves the Day, no matter how old I get.
My guilty pleasure is regency romance novels. And not the good Georgette Heyer ones, either, but the terrible Harlequin ones. *hangs head in shame*
Guilty pleasures — gossip magazines and watching “The Girls Next Door”.
I only love christmas time because the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark comes out!!! Not that I need it
I’d have to say my guilty pleasure is buying yarn, more than I need … and trashy TV like The Hills. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, so I think I’m OK to get away with these kinds of shows. =)
And at Thanksgiving, my aunt asked me “you’re probably too old … but do you like Twilight?” Um, of course!
Lifetime Movie Network. Ooh, the countless hours wasted away on made-for-woman movies. Oy.
Hi Lolly, if you are interested in a more ‘adult’ series of vampire fiction, check out Laurell K Hamilton’s “Anita Blake” series. The first book is titled “Guilty Pleasures”!
Guilty pleasures: Heat and Grazia magazines, TV makeover shows, detective novels - just about any I can get my hands on!
Oh, and the purchasing of unnecessary yarn.
Hanson has been by gulity pleasure since 1996….lol
and I love the Twilight books!!!
My biggest guilty pleasure is tv - CSI and CSI:NY, but especially entire seasons of Buffy and Angel on DVD.
I’ve been refusing to get sucked into Twilight. I’m usually a pretty big snob about what I read. But, I am re-reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula right now!
My guilty pleasures are best when together - colouring (yes in a colouring book) and cherry beer (German cherry beer)!
People Style Watch magazine, 80s movies & music, and YA authors like Sarah Dessen. I especially loved Keeping the Moon.
Oh, and an occasional visit to McDonald’s. Love their salads.
All this public outing - just goes to show - you never know about people. My own guilty pleasure is Nancy Grace - I know, but, there it is. But I don’t feel so bad now, after all this blood-letting.
Michele W.
Well, the first thing that comes to mind are the “middlebrow” fiction I am addicted to from Persephone’s books. Along the same line, but maybe more what you mean by guilty pleasure, I have the boxed edition of Pride and Prejudice DVD that came with a fan book, a sort of behind the scenes making of the movie (the Colin Firth one of course) and I like to pour over and study every page of that thing. Takes the edge right off of a long day!
My guilty pleasure? The Gilmore Girls, over and over again. I’d say I’ve seen each episode at least 5 times..
I loved Twilight..so much so that I’m currently halfway through book 4! I’m interested in the book you mentioned!
My guilty pleasure is putting things in order. All the bills in my wallet face the same way, from small to large denominations, with the worn or torn bills towards the front. My books are in order by subject and then by height. My yarn is sorted by weight and color. Shall I go on?!
Cosmo. Cosmo-freaking-politan magazine. As much as I consider myself a feminist and reasonably intelligent, there’s something about the ridiculous relationship “advice” and the stupid quizzes and so on that STILL drags me in like it did when I was 14. Oh, the shame.
I’m usually a non-fic reader too, and I’m about to get sucked (har!) into the Twilight series. I’m sure this will become the next guilty pleasure.
Video Games. Lots of them. The bloodier, the better, the more zombies=the more head shots.
Horror movies, the band Creature Feature, and oh god help me, Firefly.
Laurell K Hamilton Books, anything sci-fi or fantasy. Anything written by Anne Bishop is amazing.
Home and Away- a half hour Australian soap shown at 6pm here in the UK. It’s set by the beach and is full of sunshine and drama. Just right with a cup of tea if I’ve had a hard day.
My guilty pleasure is NPR! I know it sounds ridiculous… but it reminds me of home (Seattle) now that I am living in Sweden. I stream it constantly when I’m at the computer…. Oh and Gilmore Girls. It’s addictive!
i used to feel this way about the ann rice vampire books (interview with a vampire, lestat, and etc) i’m over it now, thankfully, and slogging through the entire remembrance of things pasy by proust. i feel virtuous, but i miss my dear vampire friends.
Hmmm… my literary guilty pleasure is the Meredith Gentry book series by Laurel K. Hamilton. They are completely silly and inappropriate romance novels about a faerie princess and her struggle to gain power over her kingdom. I started reading them when I was bored to death on a long layover in the Omaha airport. I’ve been hooked ever since and eagerly await the next addition to the series.
I’m enjoying the Twilight series too… and I love True Blood. I think I’m going to add the Sookie Stackhouse books to my Christmas wish list!
Oh, my guilty pleasure just HAS to be House M.D… how can one not be utterly fascinated by a show about a brilliant diagnostician who walks with a cane, is sarcastic and honest in the worst possible way all the time but still a genius, solving obscure and sometimes amazingly unpredictable medical mysteries, playing airguitar with his cane and juggling in his freetime, while struggling with a supposed Vicodin addiction because his leg hurts all the time?
Seeing that our currency here in Iceland is rapidly falling to pieces, I recently bought both the second and third series of House because I could just visualize the prices skyrocketing in the next few months. I also can’t stop looking at videos on youtube, whether it’s bloopers or some of the best scenes.
Those shows are just a perfect mix of humor, brilliance, education(yes! a little bit!) and shocking characters(well, just one, but he’s plenty).
Some youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEl8Z35IMwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHHioEsXF3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g2kl3byVWk&feature=related
Wow, I am really milking this, aren’t I. Hah. And it’s not even because of the yarn.
I should get back to revising for my math test.
My biggest guilty pleasure is definitely TV, which I only do via Netflix since I don’t have cable and I can’t pick up any free TV. I love series like Ugly Betty, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, The Office… I can lap up many episodes a night and knit at the same time!
I’ve not read the Twilight series (yet) either, but I’d like to. I’m pretty sure that will be a guilty pleasure. I do love a good series. I hate it when I really get to know a character and emotionally invest in them, and then the book is over.
My biggest guilty pleasure is liking ABBA and Mamma Mia. I expected that movie to be incredibly cheesy but ended up loving it. And thus, listening to ABBA. It’s terrible, but somehow I love it.
That yarn is so gorgeous!
I’m a pretty confident person so I’m not usually ashamed about anything that I like, but very few people know that I like to watch America’s Next Top Model. And since we don’t have cable, I have to wait til someone uploads it on youtube so I can watch it. It’s a painful addiction! Please don’t tell anyone!
My guilty pleasure is watching the movie “Notting Hill,” curled up with a cozy throw and snacking on animal crackers and chocolate milk!
My guilty pleasure:
Don’t pick up the kids when I’m earlier back from work then normal, but buy a magazine, put myself on the couch and read it (about 30 min).
In a quiet home..
(don’t worry, this happens 3 or 4 times a year
Groeten uit Rotterdam
Puk
http://knittingajour.blogspot.com
Anita Shreve novels and chocolate no-bake cookies (oatmeal and peanut butter is healthy, right?).
My guilty pleasure was canceled and I didn’t even feel so guilty watching it - Veronica Mars. I s’pose my newest guilty pleasure is House Hunters on HGTV. As for books, I am racking my brain and I really truly don’t have a guilty pleasure. Oh no for food, salsa con queso and tortilla chips. Yum!
Lolly, if reading trashy books is your only guilty pleasure, I’d say you are well ahead the rest of us!
Hmmm, guilty pleasure… I’ve been watching a lot of Kitchen Nightmares recently. They’re so bad and sensationalistic, but somehow, I just can’t turn away. I’m also all caught up on all 5 seasons of project runway. Considering that when we met, I hadn’t even seen one episode, I’d say that’s a pretty good guilty pleasure catch up session
Other guilty pleasures - starbucks peppermint twist mochas. I could go on and on. I’d better stop now and let others have a turn!
InStyle magazine. I pick it up when I need to escape to a place where my biggest worries is what shade of lipgloss to wear.
My guilty pleasure consists of Top Gear and Danielle Steel novels. I hadn’t even heard of Twilight until Flickr exploded with it.
My guilty pleasure is reading tabloids while I wait in line at the supermarket. I sometimes seek the longest, slowest moving line to maximize my reading time. I feel especially guilty if I have to disrupt people behind me in line in order to get the tabloid back in its proper place when it is time for me to be checked out. My apologies to anyone who has been behind me in one of these lines!
Well, I have to admit that I read trashy romance novels - I go on binges when I can’t put them down! But I’ve limited myself to taking them out from the library - I can’t spend money on them! I also like an afternoon nap when I can get one.
Oh man, the Twilight books are hilarious! In a good, guilty-pleasure kind of way. If you liked the movie, you’ll surely like the books. I hope they make the fourth book a movie, it would be awesome(ly hilarious!). I think if you go into them in a teenagery mindset, they are quite enjoyable. lol
In my opinion, the Twilight books are quite good. I may be a teenager, but honestly, when I first heard about them, I thought I would hate them. I really enjoyed all of them (except the last one, Breaking Dawn) because they make for an entertaining read. There’s nothing deep about them, but I think you would like them.
I managed to get all 4 Twilight books at the library and PLOWED through them all in less than a week, finishing book 3 and reading all of book 4 in one day. Did I mention that I worked full time that week? Except Sunday when I polished them all off…
I do have a few fundamental issues with the books, but enjoyed them nonetheless.
Oh. No. WHY did you have to post about these books! I’ve been looking for a new series, and I do love Vampire stories! I absolutely LOVED the Twilight books (except for the last one), just saw the movie, and definitely need another Vampire fix! YAY!
Sunshine by Robin McKinley - also a vampire book. I’ve re-read it several times, it kinda like comfort food for some reason.
Did you watch Dead Like Me? - It was also on HBO and now on DVD.
I also second the Veronica Mars love. I don’t feel the least bit of guilt about that one!
My guilty pleasure is Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. I even put them on advance reserve at the libraary to know that I won’t miss it as soon as it comes out. And you should read Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton. Sort of a cross between Harry Potter and Maggie Sefton’s Knitting Mysteries. I am loving it.
Since you lived with me, you know my guilty pleasures regarding reading. Although I stopped reading Stephen King when he started killing off small children, two of my favorites were “The Shining” and ” ‘Salem’s Lot” because they scared me so. If you read them on a wintry evening, they seem even more frightening. I never had bad dreams though. I always had a weird interest in werewolves and vampires. Maybe it was your uncle’s fault but he loved to tell “ghost stories”.
I also like crime books, fiction and non-fiction. Books like “The Stranger Beside Me”. Okay, I’m out of here!
My guilty pleasure must be playing WoW, or buying board games and yarn. ^.^
I used to say Stephen King was my guilty pleasure, but really he’s come to be recognized as such a good writer (no, really, he has!), that he’s not really guilty any more.
So ow my guilty pleasure is Dean Koontz. Such an awful writer…and most of his books are…well, pretty terrible…but somehow, when I see one on sale at the library, I end up picking it up and bringing it home.
So bad.
ha! you already know i’m addicted to twilight myself…i think i may have to check out this series as well! i hadn’t heard of it before. i’m also shamelessly (and shamefully) addicted to gossip girl. i love me some chuck bass!
I would be all over “True Blood” if I had HBO, but I’ll have to wait until my library gets the DVDs.
I’ve been heavy into the supernatural lately. I recently read the first two Twilight books but am not sure I’ll read the others because I don’t like the writing or any of the characters, and I find myself rolling my eyes and grumbling a lot when I’m reading them.
I just saw the Swedish film “Let the Right One In,” which is about a boy with a vampire girl for a neighbor. I’m interested in reading the book, but right now I’m reading “Lonely Werewolf Girl.” I’m only 40 pages in, so I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
Great photo series, Lolly. I think the Twilight series is awful. The writing is poor and the plot is contrived. Hannah loved them, of course.
When you are done, you should search out the series by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. My favorites, by far, of all the vampire series. Lovely characters, and settings, through history, so an interesting tour for the reader as well, and well written, I thought.
Guilty Pleasure…..Twilight
Hmm … genre fiction: British detective stories and the TV shows (or movies) based on them. Canadian TV featuring much swearing. Also: Celebrity Rehab. That last one I don’t admit to in mixed company. And will deny if ever asked outright.
My reading guilty pleasure is probably John Jakes’ American Bicentennial series. I am a total sucker for historical fiction, even if it’s sometimes only thinly veiled romance. I’ve been trying to finish the series for a while but the library doesn’t have them all, and I can’t bring myself to buy them new.
Freetos. Television shows like Monster Garage, American Chopper, etc. And on a somewhat more refined note, Georgette Heyer novels. Despite being published by Harlequin, they’re really Jane Austen-lite.
True Blood is also a guilty pleasure of mine! Other fave vampire books of mine are Laurell K. Hamilton, and Jennifer Rardin. I’m currently halfway through Smoke and Shadows, by Tanya Huff.
Ooh, I’m chewing my way through the second book in the Twilight serires now. It’s completely addictive. I read the first book on Saturday and didn’t leave my couch for 5 hours! Another vampire series you might like (yes, I’m an enabler) is the Blood Series by Tanya Huff.
When I’m not rotting my brain with the latest vampire fiction, my guilty pleasure is epic fantasy. Think David Eddings, Robert Jordon, Raymond E. Feist, and so on. It’s complete escapism. Just what I need after work!
Guilty pleasure - of course it’s tv related (so I can knit at the same time!). Grey’s Anatomy. We don’t have cable so I have to watch it the next day on the computer but its so worth it. I got sucked in when we were building our house - the place we were housesitting had cable and that was the end of me.
Great post! My guilty pleasures include reading knitting blogs and Ravelry when I should be working or parenting, watching reality t.v. (even the trashiest shows!) and reading People magazine.
Oh, and almost every night, I take a big hunk of peanut butter, put it in a mug and sprinkle chocolate chips over it. Heaven!
I’ve got to admit that my guilty pleasure is historical romances, usually Regency or Victorian period. We call them “fluff” in our house. I tend to intersperse them with the heavy science books. They require no deep thinking on my side, but they fulfill my need to read something.
“Trashy” novels have totally been my guilty pleasure - as an English major and MA, I got (and get) teased all the time for reading romance novels and silly mysteries. Twilight was just another in a long line. It’s nice to be guilty, right?
I love Twilight! I’m a teen librarian and let me tell you, at this point way more adult women are checking the Twilight books out than teen girls. If you’re in the mood for another great series (a trilogy), check out City of Bones by Cassandra Clare! As for my guilty pleasure… mmmm… I’d have to go with iced tea. I know that sounds crazy to some, but I don’t drink soda or coffee and caffeine and I don’t get along *too* well, so drinking iced teas (almost always iced, even in freezing weather in Ohio) is definitely an indulgence. Sounds silly, I know, but guilty indeed.
My old guilty pleasure used to be Patricia Cornwell books…I would finish the book the same day I got it and then head out for the next one! But the series burnt me out and I no longer read that much. So my new guilty pleasure is real life tv shows like Intervention (they are so sad, but I always wait for the last little blurb to tell you whether or not their sobriety stuck) and Operacion Repo (what a silly show that is - but I love it!!)
Fritos
People magazine, Arnaldur Indridasun Reykjavik mysteries, Whole Foods frozen fruit pops, toasted bagels with butter, chewing gum, Top Chef, buying yarn, buying yarn and buying even more yarn.
These books are a total guilty pleasure for me too, I’m on the 6th one now. I can’t wait for the dvd set of the series to come out too, I’ve only seen the first two episodes since we don’t have HBO. Oh, not entering the contest, just wanted to comment!
Knitting is my guilty pleasure! Rome can burn around me…and still I’d knit!
My guilty pleasure is romance novels. Cheesy and formulaic, yes, but I often need some true escapism. Plus, I’m pretty gullible, which helps. But seriously, whether its “trashy” novels or “trashy” TV, we all need something undemanding in our lives. For me that’s romance novels, and there’s nothing trashy about it if it rejuvenates us.
I love Steve Almond’s snarky essays:)
My guilty pleasure is watching a few season’s worth of Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis when I go visit my family. We don’t own a t.v. which is great but my brother burnt a few seasons for me when we still had one and now I need to keep up. I can spend whole days catching up and I feel quite guilty but I enjoy it anyway.
Don’t knock Twilight. I haven’t read it yet, but I probably will, once my preteen finishes with it.
My guilty pleasure was Harry Potter. I LOVED that series and have even reread it several times. YA books today are so different from “Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret?” you know?
Yeah, I fell into the Twilight trap. They are surprisingly engaging, kind of an “I hated to love it” type of thing.
You will hardly be the only intelligent adult reading them, I assure you.
I work on a Bookmobile & had to keep from laughing when a woman rushed up the stairs last week, saying she had driven halfway across the county because we had the only copy of the second book available. Beware the timesuck!!
My guilty pleasure is reality tv. Ok, there, I said it. Jon & Kate plus 8, Survivor, Big Brother to name a few!
Ha! Guilty pleasures…I’ve got several. But my absolute favorite one is to snuggle up on the couch with some Sour Cream and Onion Baked Lays, a Dr. Pepper, and a crappy, trashy teen movie. I may have a Masters degree in the film industry, but I’m a sucker for the crap too!
I’m so glad I’m not a snob about books, TV, wine or anything else really (except maybe beer!!) I would have missed out on so many wonderful things in life…and if any of the things tried were really bad, one can just stop reading, watching or drinking! Explore!!
Your reading chair looks so comfortable! I used to spend hours reading too, and needed a good spot that would allow me to curl up and feel enveloped, while still letting me move and change positions any time I was getting ankylosed… it looks like your chair is the perfect thing!
As for guilty pleasures, well, that’s a hard one, as I’ve got to a point in my life where I don’t let guilt get a grip on me (much). Now, I’m having trouble finding something that is still guilt-inducing for me! I guess I could say, though, that the amount of time I spend reading blogs can sometimes turn this pleasurable activity into a guilt-inducing one… I even neglect my knitting because of it!
My guilty pleasure is going to the library and reading magazines such as People and O.
My guilty pleasure is a night alone to sip a glass of wine and read blogs like yours.
Vampire books / movie / TV is my guilty pleasure, and I’m vegetarian so maybe there’s some sort of connection there.
I read the Twilight books over a week or so this summer and since then I’ve started re-watching Buffy.
Hey Lolly! It was fun and interseting chatting away about True Blood this season. So I guess it was worth the read??? I’m still not planning too… I guess I’m afraid my perspective will be tainted. On the other hand, I am reading the Twilight series (because I also had to know) and I was satisfied enough with the movie adaptation (except Nikki Reed is HORRIBLY miscast as Rosalie - and bad casting is my BIGGEST peeve) so maybe I should get over it and read the True Blood books.
Ah, your guilty reading marathon struck a chord–I spent the days following Thanksgiving rereading Star Trek novels that my parents had brought me in a box from their basement, long-lost relics of my adolescence. After I was done I felt as jaded as if I’d just eaten a whole pan of brownies by myself. But it was fun while it lasted! I then turned my attention to Buffy fan fiction (so there is a vampire connection here too…). I guess I have a lot of guilty reading to look forward to.
Thanks for your beautiful blog! it’s always an inspiring and fascinating read, no matter what the subject
With ya 100%, poured through the twilight series in about a week and just wrapped with Sookie this last weekend sans book 8 (wasn’t in stock when I went to the bookstore, waiting to decide what else I need from Amazon before I get it). Definitely guilty pleasure reading.
I loved the Laurell K Hamilton “Anita Baker, Vampire Slayer” series…. Guilty Pleasures, Lunatic Cafe, Circus of the Damned… just to name the early ones… great series! Anita rocks!
My latest guilty pleasure is reading a book straight through. Spending time that way isn’t a luxury that I allow myself very often.
My guilty pleasure lately has been all the Bravo reality series. The good ones (Project Runway, Top Chef) and the BAD ones (Shear Genius, Real Housewives of Atlanta). Oh, and Tabatha’s Salon Takeover.
My other guilty pleasure? Casting on for way too many projects, knowing that there’s no way I’ll finish them all!
I read the Twilight series in four days! I picked it up on my vacation and just plowed through it. It won’t win any literary awards for writing, but I’m a sucker for a good love story with a twist. Also, I was apparently out of teen angst! Ah, it was like being a teenager in love, all over again.
I’m interested in the True Blood books- I haven’t seen the series, but it seems like a good follow up to Twilight.
My guilty pleasure is totally trashy romance novels. I love them. They are candy for my brain.
I feel compelled to say, though, if you want an excellent vampire book, then you want Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s probably the Best Vampire Book Ever. (But nothing at all like Twilight. More grit, less sparkle.)
You have my hysterical. I love the photo documentation of your addiction. I succumbed to Twilight mania back in September. I tried to resist, but then my chiropractor passed the Twilight on to me. I had a similar week to your Thanksgiving weekend. The only time I moved from my chair was to eat and to go to work. They’re not exactly profound works, but some parts really resonate. Enjoy your next guilty pleasure read. I’ll be starting on the Sookie Stackhouse books soon enough!
As for my guilty pleasure - a little bit of really dark chocolate every night.
I certainly share your Sookie Stackhouse addiction. My faraway cousin and I have been emailing to debrief each “True Blood” episode, every Monday morning, and I’m giving my sister the Sookie boxed set of books for Christmas. I’ll read “Twilight” in my own sweet time, and am not averse to seeing it before I read it. Said sister has asked me to “save it” til she gets to Hawaii for Christmas, so we can see it together!
As for guilty pleasures…there are too many. That breakfast of Nutella spread on whole wheat toast, served up only on days when I’m feeling depressed is one. It always cheers me up. New lingerie is certainly another.
In the yarn department, Kidsilk Haze always gets me to buy it. I have a little stash of it, and often take it out of the drawer to admire it. I have yet to knit it up.
Guilty pleasures…hmm…how many can I list? Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. They are so much fun. Harry Potter. I am rereading the series right now. Regency romances. Very cheesy, but entertaining. Strickly Ballroom, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Shakespeare in Love. Don’t ask me how many times I have watched those movies. I lost count a long, long time ago.
I have LOTS of guilty pleasures!–I love Janet Evanovich’s novels–I find myself laughing out loud at Stephanie Plum—I also love TV–it is easy to knit by–and I have started Twilight in order to see what everyone is talking about –then there is Ravelry and reading Lolly’s blog:):):)
You know, I never felt the slightest inkling to read Twilight….until my mother in law put it in my hands the day after Thanksgiving. It took about 30 seconds of reading and I was completely hooked, not putting it down until I was done (there was also forsaking of sleep). You are definitely not the only one!!
We’re really loving True Blood here too. Thanks for the book suggestions! I didn’t even know that they were from a book series. Now I’m going to go add it to my library queue!
Every one needs a little brain candy now and then
My guilty pleasure would have to be Bravo reality tv competitions like Top Chef and Project Runway. So, so guilty. My boyfriend thinks it’s ridiculous.
Hmm… my guilty pleasures are probably Project Runway (the only reality TV I watch) and eating raw baked goods.
I swear, the only reason I bake is for that wonderful moment of being done and then licking the spoon, or nibbling on uncooked pastry scraps…. Now I’m hungry.
Hee! Guilty pleasures are so much fun! I love to (guiltily) watch Project Runway and I recently read the Temeraire series by Naomi Novak at a similar pace and with similar exclamations of rationalization!
that is a beautiful skein of yarn right there! my guilty pleasure is sushi - it’s just too expensive for the frequency that I have it for dinner.
You know what, I actually read most fiction in English (instead of Dutch) on purpose, because I’m such a fast reader. When we go on holiday, I tend to have this weight/pages ratio. Last time it turned out that I had three books on 750 grams and (non-reading) hubby took one National Geographic Magazine which clocked in on 480 grams. And now for the guilty pleasure: I listen to OTR detective and science fiction stories while knitting and then exclaim some of the lines at random in conversation. (I’m aware of the fact that it only sounds funny in my head)
My guilty pleasure is taking a bath: nice smelly stuff in the water, warm the bathrobe over the heating, have beverages, sweets and books with you and then keep topping off with hot water until shrunk!
And in reading it currently is Naomi Novik’s Temeraine series. (Dad is waiting for the next one, too.) However I only read paperbacks, preferably mass market, as I carry them on the train and weight is an issue, if you consider I also pack a sock and a small camera, possibly lunch and scarf, hat and gloves.
My guilty pleasure was curling up in bed with the cat and Little Women. Only made better if I had milk and a couple of cookies. Now to just get a new copy…
Have to try these, too, sounds great!
My guilty pleasure is House MD. Weird for me because I don’t watch a lot of TV, especially no series. But here I got hooked. Late as they were already in season 2 over here, when I watched my first episode and I knew immediately that I was addicted even if they were so late on tv that I had difficulties getting up and keep going the next day , but that was worth it. Then we moved and we don’t get that channel any more. Got the dvds, watched them from the beginning, sometimes 3 episodes a day, just stopping because the season would be over so fast this way. And being used to the original voices of the characters I can’t stand to watch the synchronized version any more.
And I read all the books of the Earth’s Children series written by Jean M. Auel and plan on rereding them.
And Harry Potter of course! Books as soon as they came out in English, then movies, then dvds, then audiobooks. More than once!
And knitting. But if I think twice about knitting, there is no guilt at all!!!
My guilty pleasure reading is Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody mysteries — the middle of the series is actually quite good for such books. A sprinkling of chick-lit helps for when my brain is on the fritz (I hated The Friday Night Knitting Club though). I like fiction but I tend towards a bit more literary things (Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is unbearably good).
However, my real guilty pleasure is eating corn chips.
my guilty pleasure is Tv related: I watch a lot of series like Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, House… I usually have to have a knitting project with me (I’ve found out I can’t watch tv without doing something else) but since I’ve started knitting on a regulary basis I watch TV a lot more!
Sookie! And Twilight! How exciting. My friend Laura recently got me into Sookie (after I got her into Twilight), and we’ve been merrily reading other ’screw-me’ type books
(’Screw-me’ books usually involved half-naked heroes and heroines on the cover - think Harlequin romance etc. but we use this term rather losely, to include any ‘cheesetastic’ (Laura’s term) book…).
I have two guilty book pleasures. One is said screw-me books (especially with a Scottish theme - Diana Gabaldon anyone?). They kind of sort of maybe count as work - I’m doing a PhD on 18th c Scotland :).
The other is books about books, and books about libraries, and fictional books about authors. There’s a whole lot of Byron stuff out there. Strangely enough, they’re often screw-me’s….
I did the same junkie-thing with the Twilight books a few weeks ago. Read the first three in a few days but then couldn’t find the fourth! When I finished them I felt like I had the worst hangover ever.
My favorite vampire books are by Anne Rice. The first book of hers that I read was Interview with the Vampire. Afterwards, I would devour the next book only to go into the next until there were no more.
I have read most of her books except the erotic books and the newer religious ones.
My guilty pleasure would currently be printing out free patterns on the printer at work. Yep, no internet or printer at home, so I do it all on the down-low at work.
-sssshhhhh!-
I just finished book 4 of the Twilight series. I admit, I was sucked in too, but it was good reading. A great story……have not seen the movie yet though!
One guilty pleasure is that small dish of ice cream every night.
Can’t believe I’m going to out myself … but it’s playing Tile Towers on Webkinz.
There … I said it. Whew!
My 12 yo dd and her friends are so addicted to the Twilight series, they read them and reread them. I just finished the first book and saw the movie, which I loved. I’m trying to decide whether to read book 2, or start *The Monsters of Templeton* which comes highly recommended.
My guilty pleasure is watching The Daily Show and the Colbert Report every afternoon, while knitting and waiting for my kids to get off the bus.
Well I don’t think that mine stacks up to everyone else but I read knitting books cover to cover as soon as I get them and I am about the same with mag. Although I do have my favorite shows that I must watch and I hate to admit it but most of them are on TLC.
I don’t know that I can call mine a guilty pleasure, because I’ve never felt even a wee bit guilty about it! I’ve been a voracious reader since kindergarten (Get your nose out of your book was the thing most often yelled at me while growing up.) and when I hit college I discovered fantasy. I still love to read the classics like I did when growing up, but I read more fantasty than anything else. Vampire novels are a favorite, but mostly I love urban fantasty, as in Charles De Lint or Neil Gaiman. I also love anything with a folklore/mythic bent to it. Hard to pin down specific favorites, I guess!
Peanut M & Ms. I buy the 4 lb. bag and keep a candy jar filled. The kids know it is hands off… they are mine and hubbies. A hand full of the M&Ms and a glass of excellent merlot every night. A great way to end the day.
well, my guilty pleasure have been the gilmore girls and Blues Clues. It’s not like I was guessing along with Blue, but I just loved all the little songs… Nowadays, with much less TV time I keep going to the “I can has cheezburger” site when I have spare minutes at work
LOLLY. GIRL. Geeze, I’m late to the party BUT I am OBSESSED with True Blood! I am so sad I have to wait for the new season!! I love Sookie and Bill… and Jason! (Even though he is such a dummy right now haha!) AND, yesterday I was in Target and saw a few of the Sookie Stackhouse novels and wanted to buy them but I didn’t want to ruin the TV seasons!?! I hear there’s lots of spoilers… I like to live in my La La Bill and Sookie For Ever Land. Ha!
OMG, such a guilty pleasure here! I plan on reading Book 1 though so I can at least have that under my belt. And you know I’m so going to read Twilight too. I am still holding back but you know - I work at a High School… all girls… and yes they LOVE that book.
So fun! Other guilty pleasures… hmmm Does watching every cheesy movie on HBO count!? Or early 90s action films with like Steven Segal or Jean Claude Van Dame?? I mean they have exploding CDs!? Yes as in a Music CD that explodes when you throw it… ha!
OK long enough comment!! Obvi you struck a chord in me! xoxox!
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I would have to say watching Gilmore Girls, and now I look at the comment above me, and Birgit watches it too!
Well, I work from home as a translator, so I am on the computer most of the day, and then my daughters need it for homework after school, so that means I end up feeling a little guilty about the pleasure I derive from checking my favorite knit blogs. Even when there is a deadline staring me right in the face, I can’t help clicking around to check on everyone’s progress on their many amazing projects and beautiful photographs. I have to draw the line at logging in to Ravelry — I save that for weekends!
I completely enjoyed the Traveling Pants books for young adults. I also love all movies about high school, which is funny because I was never that fond of high school while I was there. And I love any cheesy romantic comedy!!
The Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD. I love the book, don’t get me wrong, but if I’m having a bad day/week/whatever, I stick one in the DVD player and watch. I know them by heart now, and often won’t even watch except for the best bits - this makes them perfect for knitting too!
Although I feel guiltier about my preference for rereading old favourites instead of finding new books when it comes to fiction.
Magazines! I love a chance to sit around and read magazines. Not serious newsy ones, but ones full of pretty pictures. I like Vanity Fair, Vogue, Bark, and all the cooking ones: Gourmet, Bon Appetite, Rachael Ray. Of course I love the knitting magazines too. I figure I am serious enough at work that my free time needs to be entertaining.
There are certain authors I won’t spend more than 25 cents on since I finish the book in 3 hours, can’t retain the plot much longer than that and know they’ll be turned in to the used bookstore quickly. Dean Koontz in the primary example but some of the mystery/romance authors fit too. I always assumed Nora Roberts would be one of those but recently got my hands on the Three Sisters trilogy and read them all in 2 days. Then I had to get the Key trilogy and the same thing happened. I’m embarrassed to bring them out in public but I can’t put them down in the house.
My guilty pleasure is American Idol. My family and I have attended the tour concerts for four years running, and we wait around for autographs. We do the same for So You Think You Can Dance.
So… reality talent shows!
Hey Lolly, first off, I love the pics of you reading! With all these comments, I don’t know if you’ll get to this one, but I felt compelled given the timely harmonic convergence of my actual and virtual lives. I just read the first Twilight book and had been considering reading the Sookie books since I, too, loved True Blood on HBO. Your post has sealed the deal
(I did enjoy Twilight and plan on reading the rest of the series.)
I have to say, I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures, or maybe it’s that I don’t believe enough in guilt to give up any of the things I do which bring me so much pleasure. But, if I had to choose something, lately, it is continuing to buy “just one more skein” of yarn when I told myself I was done buying for 2008 earlier this fall.
Great post
I am snobby about movies and tv (which we don’t have, so our tv shows come from itunes or belated rentals) and my guilty pleasure of the last year (uh, two actually) is Prison Break. I say it and then turn red! I watch every episode, knowing the other shoe will drop and just waiting for it to happen, it’s a great escape. With great character actors (which I think is a big draw… justification, justification….)
I loved the pics of you reading, they really reminded me of myself when I’m really into a book. I have to say that my latest guilty pleasure was the Twilight series. A friend loaned me one a week. I’d start reading the second I got my hands on the book and keep going until I was done. (Luckily I was getting them right before the weekend each week.) I’m not sure I really stopped to eat, I know I gave up sleep and I don’t think I did any cleaning until I was through the book I had. They may be “teen” novels, but it is easy to get really into the characters (whether or not you agree with them). About the only thing that didn’t suffer was my knitting because I learned how to hold the book open and read while knitting…
I have lots of favorite pleasures, but a guilty one for me is reality TV: Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance (sadly, it causes me to stop knitting long enough to watch the dance numbers).
Of course we all have guilty pleasures, and I’ve had (have?) so many, I should be ashamed of myself. But, I think I can narrow this down to two — sugar cookies from Potbelly Sandwiches (think sugar held together with butter and a touch of flour), and practically any reality show that comes on Bravo. Until I got FiOS television last fall, I couldn’t imagine how addictive it is; now I mark the seasons with each show. Just finishing up The Real Housewives of Atlanta (just to see if I could relate to any of them) and now it’s on to Top Chef.
I should be knitting, my Christmas list keeps growing.
What wonderful reading pictures! Your chair looks so comfy. I think my face must have looked like that while I was reading the latest Charles de Lindt book last month.
Hmm, guilty pleasures… Action movies, the more improbable the better. Plot? Definitely optional. Gimme hot actors, car chases, shoot-outs and gratuitous explosions, I’m your girl!
Love your blog, by the way.
I am a HUGE fan of the creepy, supernatural and sinister and your post made me giggle. I just pulled a “read in one sitting” (3 hours actually- I devoured it with utter gluttony!) the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series so I know how you feel about them! The only thing preventing me from buying the whole lot and shutting myself in my room and reading them in one big marathon is that I have two small children that need me!
I also am resisting “Twighlight” as well…. but I am feeling myself getting weaker and weaker and w….e…..a…..k…..e…………………………r……………………..
Have you read Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles? And if it’s the series thing that attracts you there’s always the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. That’s 20 of the best books about the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars that you’ll ever read.
mmm…the person that said the peppermint bark was so on target with me. I love peppermint bark. I just had a piece in the car!
I also love to read and sue grafton appeals to my need to do things orderly by setting up a series of crime fiction from A-Z: simply genius. I also love James Patterson because his chapters are so short- which begs the question, do I really enjoy reading if I like him because he has short chapters?:)
Like my mother, I also admit to being very intrigued by criminals. I am not talking Bonnie & Clyde robbers- I am talking Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Wayne Gacy criminals. In other words, disgusting gruesome criminals. But I don’t tell people that because it is a little creepy and they start thinking I have gotten some ideas from my readings…and maybe I have? shhh…:)
Ok, this is perfect because I just recently rediscovered a guilty pleasure from long ago: reading magazines for free, standing up, with my luggage pooled around my feet in the newstands at airports. Layovers be damned–the longer the better–and of course I *should* be spending all that lovely time knitting or having a Smiegel-like argument with myself over Cinnabon, but I just cannot resist the glossy covers. Especially if they feature Jennifer Connelly or Kate Winslet, my magazine faves. They just always sound way smarter than the rest of the magazine put together, sort of like their words are reaching out and bitch-slapping the models on the pages facing them. So yeah, my guilty pleasure is standing like a zombie with too many carry-ons and reading on the cheap.
Note: I do not do this in grocery stores… that often.
I LOVE brain candy books - epsecially in the summer. In the past couple of years I have read Danielle Steel, knitting mysteries and mysteries starring an amateur geneologist.
LOL I just started the Twilight books!! It’s my guilty pleasure of the moment.
Oh and Reese’s peanut butter (insert holiday of choice here)….currently their Christmas trees. Hoping no one finds out how many I’ve *really* eaten. LOL.
I guess my guilty pleasure would be watching silly chick flicks / teen movies. I recently watched The Prince and Me (with Julia Stiles) and really enjoyed it. I can’t wait until The Duchess comes out on DVD too.
Another pleasure, though its by no means guilty, is watching entire television series on DVD, like The Sopranos, Rome, The Tudors, etc. I love being able to watch it all at once and not having to wait each week. And I don’t get the movie channels that run them.
I love series books too. I second Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, and her witch series too. I’m a little saddened that she’s left them behind for the story of Jesus, but I’m a loyal fan and will read those books as well. I loved Philipa Gregory’s books about the Tudor era. And I loved Diane Gabaldon’s Outlander series.
I guess I just can’t let go of a story! I’m definitely looking into the Sookie Stackhouse series now.
seven books in four days!? my goodness!!! i really need to watch true blood, but we don’t subscribe to HBO anymore. sad, because i also miss entourage.
i just bought the first two twilight books (twilight and new moon), but haven’t read them yet. i am a sucker for all movies with vampires or werewolves, so i’m sure i’ll enjoy them!! i love tween books
no need to include me in the yarn drawing - i’m on a diet - but i have several guilty pleasures. one would be watching bad tv (like gossip girl) and tween movies (think she’s the man, what a girl wants, the parent trap, etc).
My ‘guilty’ pleasure at the moment is stealing a couple of minutes to knit when my daughter is asleep - instead of doing house work or even ‘real’ work.
I stumbled across the True Blood books last year - at first I wasn’t convinced, but then I had to read all that I could get. I think I read five of them. Now there’s practically no chance of me reading any book any time soon. It’d probably take me months.
I watched the last season of America’s Next Top Model.
Yep.
It was actually pretty fascinating, for the actual insights into the fashion industry, but with all the silly teenage cattiness that went on I’m rather ashamed of having watched the whole thing!
My other guilty pleasure, although this one I’m not at all ashamed of, is that I love Abba and am often known to dance around the living room to Mamma Mia or something like it.
I’m also a devourer of books, preferably in one sitting, or at least I was before I had my daughter - funnily enough when I met my birth mother this year I found this was a thing we had in common. We’re like Anne of Green Gables and will read almost anything.
I love crappy reality shows. Especially ‘Rock of Love’. I just can’t help myself. I eagerly look forward to every episode. At least I got my roommate hooked too so I’m not alone in my obsession.
haha. you’re the flip of me. I’ve been a bit over-obsessed with Twilight lately (finally got the first book on audio in late Oct, listened to the whole series, saw the movie, and am now reading the real books).
I want to read the Sookie Stackhouse ones, but haven’t gotten there yet.
I’ve always preferred my fiction to come in series - and I hate when the series ends! and if I like it, I’m bound to reread the series many times.
um…..reading blogs at work
also the outlander series by diana gabaldon, which has great historical details (scottish 16th century), but then also these embarrassingly detailed make out/sex scenes which i skip, which make it hard for me to recommend the series to anyone. although now i have i guess.
Wow, so many comments! I admit I didn’t read any of them - I guess your question just begged for responses. First, I kind of hate that we call reading some books “guilty pleasures”. No one should feel guilty for reading! I used to feel that way until recently, until I realized that I read for the downright pleasure of it. So, if I’m happy while reading, I don’t feel guilty. I haven’t read the Twilight books either, and wasn’t going to, based on my mom-the-children’s-librarian’s review. But, now one of my friends is reading them and LOVES them. So, like you, I just want to know.
Be happy reading whatever you want!
Ah, the Twilight bug bit me hard. I read the first two in the matter of a day… and then paused. It was like I needed to digest. Started reading book 3 the other day, and was almost in tears this morning- I got on a metro car that didn’t have any LIGHTS, so my ride from Ballston to Foggy Bottom was a waste of at least 20 minutes of reading time.
They are insanely addictive. Not much substance to them, but they’re still crazily engrossing.
Silly YA fiction and comic books are definitely my guilty pleasure- they’re what helped me survive grad school as a Victorianist. Now that I work full-time, they’re still a great antidote to the workaday world. I like the Artemis Fowl books, too, if you’re jumping into the world of YA.
Okay, I am pretty sure I will win this prize;) I’ll tell you why - I have read Twilight and turned no less than two people onto the series so far, working on #3 right now if I can part with the books again. I took the afternoon off to see the movie premier with my two vamp cohorts. Then I have found myself addicted to True Blood (after trying hard to ignore it) and subsequently one of my Twilight converts bought the whole Sookie set and I am on book 5 right now. AND I am generally more of a book snob for sure - I feel like I have my hand in the cookie jar reading these “silly” books - and I love them! I’m feeling giddy!
I am addicted to the Twilight series!!! It’s like a disease. I will tell you, I definitely felt ridiculous buying something from the Teen section of the bookstore when I bought the first one, but my sister (who is 29) convinced me. Now, I cannot stop reading them!!
Thanks for the recommendation for the Sookie Stackhouse books, I will definitely be getting into those once I’m finished Breaking Dawn.
And yum, Robert Pattinson as Edward… can I get a witness?
I have too many guilty pleasures to speak of… How about Survivor? I have watched every season …
whoa, lots of comments.. i don’t think that i can add much to this conversation except to say that i’m right there with ya
i’m on the verge of reading the twilight series and almost watching “true blood” because PEOPLE WON’T STOP TALKING ABOUT THEM! ha, i’m a sucker for bandwagons.
When I saw that skein on the screen I almost reached to grab it! If it’s that lovely virtually, what must it be like in rl? Empty fingers want to know.
My guilty pleasure is Silk Coffee Soy. When my mom and/or I go to Whole Foods and find it in the aisle, we tend to buy all ~20 quarts and take them home. We are convinced that this makes the stores know we want to buy it and is helping the economy and our own Coffee Soy cause. =D Then we tend to finish the entire stash of soy milk within a few days. It’s so delicious!
Your description of your weekend totally makes me want to read these now. I have totally felt like a crack addict after a weekend of obsessive reading or tv show watching. As to my guilty pleasure…there are many. Cheesy teenage tv shows like Gossip Girl and 90210. Tyler Perry movies. Twinkies.
If you like vampire books, I highly recommend “Sunshine” by Robin McKinley. Warning: it will make you crave cinnamon rolls. Even if (like me) you don’t even like cinnamon rolls.
My guilty reading pleasure? Mercedes Lackey’s Five Hundred Kingdom’s series for Luna (Harlequin’s fantasy imprint). Breaking two of my reading rules at once: I don’t read romance novels and I don’t read books with stupid mythological creatures on the front or fair maidens with perfect everythings or knights in shining armor, unless it’s been highly recommended and somehow has a lot of politics in it.
I was totally oblivious to the whole “twilight phenomenon” till about a month prior to the movie! Some women at work were reading them. I really enjoyed it, but have not succumbed to the next, as I have too much to do for the holidays. Hmmmm guilty pleasure… varying tv shows that have been mentioned… but I think it is really taking a day all to myself for my crafts. No cleaning, cooking errands etc. Just hang out and be creative.
grey’s anatomy is my guilty pleasure– we don;t have a TV so i watch the episodes on the abc site
My guilty pleasure is watching old movies on TCM.
I will admit, I loved the Twilight books. But you just can’t take them too seriously.
My guilty pleasure is celebrity gossip. I know that it’s ridiculous and completely useless. But I kinda love it anyway.
I was shocked at how much I loved True Blood! Even the opening sequence is exciting. I dove into a Sookie novel too and found it very satisfying. On TV Lafayette is my favorite character–and Sookie’s brother is even more of a bonehead visually than in the books.
I found Twilight very boring. To me there was lots of staring and Bella cooking and mooning over Edward….and little else. Bella is a very passive character and is rabbitlike, preylike, the old fashioned idea of what a woman should be. UGH.
Also, I think I am too old! Much of my own high school years were spent staring at boys (much like Bella) so I cannot say I would never relate. My sister read all of the series and really enjoyed it. Maybe I am broken.
My guilty pleasure is making cream cheese frosting just so I can eat it straight from the bowl, and the Rex Stout mystery books.
And yes, I am giggling at the idea of you living vicariously through vicious vampire stories. Teehee!
My guilty Pleasure is also Vampire (and other paranormal) books too! Ive been reading them for a couple of years and Im loving how the genre is growing… goody goody!
Enjoy!
Yet another person here that LOVES Twilight. It’s so silly, but I get all giddy just thinking about it. I’m 31, but I feel 14 when I read them. And sparkly Edward? Oh dear, is he hot. I’m so “anti-fantasy” books, I could just never got into them, but man did I get hooked on the saga.
Other guilty pleasures include using only half the batter so I can eat the rest when I bake certain cookies, the N’Sync Christmas cd and trashy entertainment gossip magazines when I am in line at the grocery store
Sweets! Ever since my husband had to stop eating sugar it seems I have doubled my sweet tooth. I keep a hidden stash of jelly bellies or candy corn last month in my knitting room. When I am home alone I pop a few pieces in my mouth as I knit away:)
Well, I will admit, since you are opening the doors to guilty pleasures, to poo poo-ing the Twilight books, as I am with you, I’d rather read the new Malcolm Gladwell than the new hot thing in fiction, but a friend of mine gave me Twilight to read in mid August, and I tore through it like a big bowl of popcorn. Not since the Jamie and Claire series (now what was that other guilty pleasure, oh yeah, time travel, Scotland, uhm, it’s coming to me now) Outlander, have I gone through a series of books so quickly. I went to the library to see about getting more of the Twilight series (cuz I didn’t want to buy them) and they were wait listed well into 2009. So, off to the book store I went, and while my husband was away for a week in August I read 2 more in the series, and then the 4th one came out and I gobbled that one down too. Yup, guilty guilty guilty, but I haven’t seen the movie yet… It can be so wonderful to get lost in a story…
Tootsie rolls. The tiny ones. I could probably eat an entire bag at one sitting if I didn’t think the guilt would kill me.
Oh…mine goes way back to the Anne Rice vampire days! I loved her books ever though I felt totally silly about it. Now your tempting me with a new series!
My guilty pleasure… I like to buy books I’ll probably never read… And if I do, it will be after all the other books ahead of it. I cannot just go into a bookstore and not get a book. :O
And if you wanna talk twilight, find out what it’s REALLY all about, check out my website: http://www.thetwilightforums.com
/shameless advertising. (i’m treehugger14, if you decide to join. 
)
My guilty pleasure on the reading front is the whole “knitting mystery” genre thing. Seriously?! So silly, yet so fun. (”Fleece Navidad” is next…can’t wait.)
My guilty pleasure according to my husband is too many mochas from the coffeeshop down the street. Well, if they didn’t have a drive-thru I wouldn’t go NEARLY as often.
I have a TON of guilty pleasures. How about this one - visiting Ravelry while at work. Does that do it? When you consider a teacher’s busy day, you get it, right? Some days, I just cannot think one more second about the Math lesson I’m going to teach in 10 minutes, and I’d rather just finish scarfing down my lunch anyway and check my e-mail. Wait, how’d I get on Ravelry? Oh, okay, I’ll just look to see if anyone else has finished their Snow White, or if there are any good scarf patterns that only take 2 skeins of Noro instead of 4 . . . . hee!!
Oh, and READ the Twilight books! I just finished #1, and while the “writing” wasn’t quite up to what I hoped, the story was great. Then again, if the writer was writing as if she were a 17 year old girl telling the story, I probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with how the story came out, either, right? OK - anyway - read!!
:O)
I could think of a few not too bad ones, but I have to admit…Fringe. That really cheesy show that’s on right after House. My friend comes over every week to watch house, and more often than not we end up watching Fringe too and making fun of it and the awesome floating 3d text, but I have to admit I got completely sucked in this week and have to know what happens next. Sad.
My guilty pleasure is the Lifetime channel. It may seem a little cliche, but I always enjoy just curling up and watching all the mini movies that they air. Especially on vacation time. It makes me smile and the nice thing about them not being the best quality is that they’re really easy to catch up on, so it doesn’t matter if I get distracted.
And Twilight is amazing. It’s probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read, but it’s so addictive! I couldn’t put it down.
But it was good times. I’m sure you’ll love it, too! And there’s a term for older ladies who enjoy the Twilight series. Twimoms. 
So no, you don’t have to worry about being part of a small group who reads them. They’re just as obsessed as the tweens.
Guilty reading pleasure? Patrick O’Brian and the Aubry-Maturin series. I’m not exactly the target market given that I’m 50 and female, lol.
Other? Buying body cream/body butter. I must have fifty or a hundred jars of the stuff in the drawer under the bed. Yes I use it and Gawd knows there’s enough of me to butter, but I buy faster than I use it, oops. Stash beyond life expectancy? How about butter beyond life consumption?
OoOoOOoO! pretty yarn!
I would have to say my guilty pleasure is Ravelry; I am on it almost constantly!
Or watching movies on Youtube, I do that alot too………………..
Girl I hear you with the guilty pleasure reading. My most recent were the Twilight books, though after reading them I think the first one is the only one worth reading at all. But you gotta read em all, they are an extremely quick read. I can only hold off on the Sookie Stackhouse books for so long… Tasha, my podcast partner is pushing them on me, and now you, ugh!
Read Twilight! You’ll love them! I picked up the first one and was hooked immediately!
I have a pretty embarrassing number of guilty pleasures. Harry Potter (over and over again), the Lord of the Rings (also over and over again)…also the fact that I pretty much know almost every Disney movie by heart. But my biggest guilty pleasure? Those Dairy Queen ice cream cakes. Here I am, trying to be Little Miss Sustainability, and I LOVE those things. Mmmm, all that gooey, ersatz ice cream, high fructose corn syrup goodness!
Okay, but now you’ve added another guilty pleasure to the list, because I’m probably going to read the Twilight series next, and I’m sure I’ll get hooked on True Blood (especially since my mom just called to say both she and Dad are hooked, too!).
Balladeers.
Men singing sappy love songs and playing guitars.
Ray Lamontagne, Joe Purdy, Dan Fogelburg.
Give me dude on a stool with a 6-string and a broken heart.
I read the first 3 Twilight books in one weekend, I’m not sure if I slept.
I love the True Blood series but haven’t read the books yet. My guilty pleasure is spending an hour or more in the bookstore and coming home with something new. The “real” world disappears when I’m surrounded by beautiful books.
Another guilty pleasure is my quest for the perfect chocolate covered sea salt caramel. I thought I had found it last year at Williams-Sonoma. Sadly they don’t carry it anymore and so my quest began.
I read all the Ann Rice books many many years ago, so I am very intrigued by this resurgance of vampire literature! I guess my guilty pleasure is simply these sort of books. I have a tendency to get on a series kick, mostly in mysteries, and read them till I’ve exhausted my library’s collection.
My guilty pleasure is bollywood movies. They are very long, formulaic, predictable, and last but not least musical. My intellect tells me I shouldn’t like them, but darn, I do. The “love at first sight” theme always sucks me in, the song and dance sequences make me want to get out of my seat and wave my bangled arms in the air, but most embarrassing of all is that I find myself sobbing at some point in the movie - even those with the lamest of story lines! There you have my confession.
hmm. i tend to have guilty pleasures and then find that the pleasure overrides the guilt eventually. at times my guilty pleasures have been knitting–you know, when you “should be exercising” or “workin’ on that novel” or whatnot–comics (x men, in particular); certain “only dumb people like that” tv shows like buffy and dragonball, both of which i ended up loving so much that i don’t care if it IS true that only dumb people like them; and the internet, because i do spend an awful lot of time on it.
also: if you end up liking twilight, or if you need to buy a gift for someone who likes twilight, try out amelia atwater-rhodes’s books, especially In the Forest of the Night and… the second one, whose title i forget. i started twilight (didn’t finish; i went online and read reviews and got the story that way instead) and it reminded me very strongly of those books, which i very much enjoyed when i was about eleven to fourteen.
I read the Twilight series last year and was even one of those silly 30-somethings at a Breaking Dawn party this August. My guilty pleasure is watching Ugly Betty on Thursday nights and reading silly teen girl fiction, I was amazed how fun the Gossip Girl books are.
As ashamed as I am to admit it, my guilty pleasure of the moment is The Hills on MTV. It’s so stupid and so superficial but I just can’t stop watching. Thank god it’s only a half hour show.
- Coronation Street (a British soap)
- Doing the dishes to ABBA or Hall and Oates (”The name of the game” and “I can’t go for that” are particular favourites)
- Whipped cream on top of hot chocolate (made with melted chocolate, not cocoa powder)
- Survivor, Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model
- Rosamunde Pilcher (a British quasi-romance writer. Her books are usually set in the English country side which is the appeal for me)
- Onion rings
- Perfume (which I practically never wear out of the house for fear of affecting someone with sensitivities)
- Peeking at “Celebrities without makeup” rags at the check-out counter
Oh I LOVE Sookie! I think the books (which I’ve been a fan of forever) are better than the show but I do love the show as well. Enjoy them (even if they aren’t exactly enlightening) *smile*
The Twilight Series is my guilty pleasure. I work in a public library and was amazed at how fast the teen girls were gobbling up the books. I was looking for something fun to listen to in the car on my commute to and from work and thought I’d give Twilight a try to see what was up. Listening to the series on audio was a lot of fun and kept me entertained for a few weeks. It was disappointing when it was all over - but then the movie came out and Stephanie Meyer’s posted the leaked partial draft of Midnight Sun on her website, so I’ve been able to string the addiction along.
I remember having that strung-out feeling when I read all of the Harry Potter books back-to-back last year. I didn’t want to buy them so I went from library to library searching for the next fix hoping I’d score before finishing the current book. I was lucky there were three libraries in the area I could use. My current guilty pleasure is playing Word Twist on facebook. At first I thought it was a little tough, but now I love the mental work out and seeing how I compare to my friends. I also have to laugh at myself when I occasionally miss yarn related words.
I love, love, love good fiction but haven’t succumbed to the Twilight series. My 15-year-old daughter has read each of the books several times now. I do really enjoy historical fiction and have loved the Anne Boleyn series by Robin Maxwell.
Vampires! I fell hard for Twilight ages ago. Also, young adult books with supernatural elements, in general. The Gemma Doyle trilogy is good.
I’m a teen services librarian so reading YA novels is not a guilty pleasure but a professional obligation (and one that I enjoy).
My guilty pleasure reading are the Jamie Fraser books by Diana Gabaldon - a bit of historical fiction plus a bit of bodice-ripping, I tore through them all several years ago and wish that she would write more!
I am 47 and the only reason I ay that is because my Secret Shame is “Charmed” — yikes!
Bad reality television, like the Hills and Girls Next Door. And soapy television like the OC and Gossip Girl. I just can’t help myself.
When my 3 boys are up in bed, and I am tidying up the TV room of all their legos, I have been known, on occassion, to turn on their Wii, and play their video games–mainly Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but even SpongeBob and Bowling, oh, and golf, too!!! My guilty pleasure…don’t tell my husband, or I’ll never hear the end of it!
I think bad TV is my guilty pleasure. I tivo too many things and manage to watch all of them….
I hope we can get together soon - December is already getting crazy!
I have a few guilty pleasures.
Jasper Fforde is my current favourite with his ace literary detective - Thursday Next. She stops bad guys from running amok with classic literature and even helped a werewolf (fellow officer) defeat a vampire in “The Eyre Affair”. Imagine Jane Eyre going off to India with St. John Rivers as his companion for the ending the that classic!
I love the way he works so many puns into his writing and still has the book flow smoothly.
Then there is Robin McKinley she has a way of taking a familiar fairy tale and making it both new and the same but way better. Like her version of Beauty and the Beast (simply titled Beauty) or both of her versions of Sleeping Beauty (At Spindle’s End and Briar Rose). Very descriptive without getting weighed down in drawing the picture.
Then there is my favourite tv show; Mythbusters. More explosions per episode than some movies. They take a popular urban myth like this one: Can a plane actually take off from a moving treadmill if that treadmill is moving in the opposite direction as the plane is facing and at take-off speed? and test it to either confirm that the myth is true, discover that although difficult to do and the results may not be exactly as described, label it plausible or bust it by being unable to duplicate the results without taking extreme measures like blowing it up. I love that show the way some people love their soaps.
Ooh, I’ve been looking for some new interesting titles to get into once my exams are over! (Can’t start before exams, I wouldn’t get anything done…)
My guilty pleasures.. Hmm. Probably really cheesy sit-coms and fantasy TV-shows.
Especially on Sunday afternoons, with some chocolate and some knitting. But I love TV-shows for zoinking out to. My boyfriend, unfortunately, does not share my enthusiasm and wants to “do something” instead. Like be active and go for a walk or something boring. 
Does he not realize that Dark Angel and Reba re-runs are on?!
Another guilty pleasure is good food, especially smaller things like chocolate, teas, anything handmade.. I will spend a ridiculous amount of money on small raspberries hand-dipped in white chocolate if me and the boy are having a stay-in night. It’s a small luxury for a poor student like me!
Hah! I had not considered that “vampire” was the opposite of “vegan”!
I would have say reading or knitting when I am supposed to be doing other things like laundry. Hey it will still be there later.lol. Also those yummy non fat Mochas at Starbucks such a yummy guilty pleasure usually a few times a week some weeks more. I haven’t read the vampire series you mentioned but now I’m intrigued. I DID read all of the twilight books and LOVED them. I couldn’t put them down and I can relate to needing the next book to get your fix. I was totally obsessive over the books and enjoyed the movie too. The books are better but thankfully the movie didn’t ruin them. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the books.
Like you, I got hooked on “True Blood” and went right out and bought the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series. The next day, I got books 2 and 3. By the end of the week, I was a complete addict and had the rest overnighted from Amazon.
What a terrific heroine “our” Sookie is! For me, who spent a large part of my life waiting tables, the fact that she is a waitress is wonderful. I will be the first in line (maybe behind you?) for book 9.
As for the rest of “True Blood”, I don’t think the episodes that followed the first two were as enthralling — mostly because Alan Ball went “off book” later on in the series. The Baptist-home schooled girl cum pouty teen vixen was a nice addition, however.
One thing that struck me about the Twilight vs. True Blood thing is how much Meyers seem to lift from Charlaine Harris’ books. Wondered if there was any bad blood between them, because of it. Har, har!
ok my guilty pleasure is strawberry cheesecake ice cream from Dairy Queen AND watching endless stupid videos on You Tube. What a way to waste your day! But hey.
Although I am a 60-year old WASP, my guilty pleasure is driving down the highway listening to rap music.
I like to read true-life crime novels.
Books are also my guilty pleasure! I read them all!! Knitting books, fiction, everything my kids bring into the house. I have been known to swipe the latest scholastic book club order and read them before my daughter does. I have to say the twilight books are worth the time. I got sucked in and read them all in a week! The movie does not do the books justice!
I m one of those crazy ‘in love’ with edward… hehehe
This is the first time i manage to read 4 books in two weeks time… I am still waiting for the movie to reach here 18-Dec… it just seems to be a long long wait for me…
btw I am definitely not a teen :p
Count me among the guilty! Geez, Lolly, why’d you have to tell me that there’s True Blood books?!? Now I know what I’m doing over the holidays….
I’m ashamed to say that Twilight is my guilty pleasure. I read the first book to see what all the hype was about, and of course I couldn’t rest until I read the series. I guess I’ll have to get started on True Blood to see what all that is about.
I made my husband read this post. He looked at me and said “Wait. I’m confused. Did you write this or did someone else?”….. lol….. I just stared at him and said “I am not the only one. See!”
I just can’t do Twilight… I feel Vampires should be rated R. I think I am going to re-read all of the books and then scrounge up the shorts. Oh - I will also be crossing off every single day until May 2009. So glad I found Knit One, Dead Too.
Did you see the Sookie Stackhouse “CH answers your questions” page? Tons of answers there - and so much too look forward to in May!!!!
Bad TV! Lipstick Jungle, 90210, Gossip Girl… yeah. It’s bad!
That something I wished I had time for, reading. I miss it so much! Over here it’s been cookbooks and baby knitting books lately.
mmmm … I look forward to that can of coca cola after a long day at the preschool. All that sugar can’t be good for me, but I love it anyways
My guilty pleasure is webcomics.
My guilty pleasure(s) can usually be firmly ignored and then every so often, usually once every year or two, they won’t be quashed. From my teens i would consume Georgette Heyer books, after that my summer reading obsession would generally involve about 30 Agatha Christie books. If i have a little time off i find myself drawn back to the bookcase to reread…
TV- wise: I find that every time Pride and Prejudice is on i just have to watch it, sometimes back to back. Ditto anything about Italy (esp. Francesco da Mosto). And ditto Smokey and the Bandit. It doesn’t matter how many times i have seen them.
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but my tv guilty pleasure is “The Girls Next Door”. I am totally fascinated by the show. I don’t go too far out of my way for it, but if I come across an episode I haven’t seen, I watch it.
Don’t think less of me, please!
Pedicures all through the long, New England winter! Nobody sees them but me, but I love that pampered feeling.
I read the first couple of books in this series last year (I think) and liked the first one but after that it wore thin for me. I find thats what happens in series’ (for me) except for George R R Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series and Kevin J Anderson’s Saga Of the Seven Suns series. These stay fairly strong throughout though book 4 in Martin’s series seemed to go a whole lotta nowhere but with purpose.
Kim Harrison’s series that takes place in The Hollows ( Dead Witch Walking etc) started strong but fizzled (how many times do I have to read about her curly red hair and tight leather outfits and ass kicking boots???) as did Hamilton’s werewolf series that started with Bitten.
Until recently I was all over chick lit and sexy horror fantasy but I think my brain got sick…like eating too much candy. I was so over indulged in brain candy (after having kids thats all I had the attention span for) and now I want something more fulfilling to read. I just want a really good story. Something rich and compelling. these are getting hard to come by.
This is why I have so far resisted turning to the Twilight series. I fear it will be just more candy and I will be left unsatisfied. :o(
Oh my gosh..what should I catch tonight on the tube but True Blood, the first episode. It was my first time watching and I must say WELL DONE.
I did so enjoy the first book. :oD
Twilight bites. And not in the good way. Actually, if it (or Edward) bit, it would be better.
Try Anita Blake. Yum.
My guilty pleasure is… etymology.
How weird is that?
Oh, lordy…trashy romances. It used to be the kind with those covers you wouldn’t want children to stumble upon, but I’ve since graduated to better-written, funnier stuff. I reach for them most often in times of stress.
Oooh I haven’t read these books — thanks for the link. I have a guilty addiction to Vampire books myself.
I’m one of those adult Twilight series readers. I really enjoyed them - but I know they are not the most well written books.
Lately I’ve heard a lot about the True Blood series — you’ve piqued my interest.
My guilty pleasure, which I actually don’t feel all that guilty about anymore is watching the Pride and Prejudice miniseries several times a year - generally when I’m crafting and need something on (we axed the cable years ago). I fondly remember the summer when I read all 7 Harry Potter novels in one go, it was fantastic - getting totally lost in another world.
[...] Humor: You may recall my little fascination with vampire novels late last year. Guilty pleasures and harmless fun. As we drove through the forests of the Olympic Peninsula, [...]
[...] I always do. Plus, I was half way through the *NEW* Book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse series (ah yes, you remember my guilty pleasure!) and I just could. not. stop. reading. (Yeah, now I am finished and wondering how long I [...]