What are your Embarrassing Omissions and Guilty Pleasures

[JeffVadar]

I consider myself pretty well-read, I was always surrounded by books; parents had a bookshop, I worked in publishing etcbut I have never got around to reading any Doris Lessing.

I told a good friend this the other day and she was really . The upside is that she has bought me the Golden Notebook to take on holiday.

Guilty pleasure is Simon Raven. Written in the 60s and 70s; misogynistic, cynical, vile, very rude and politically incorrect; but very funny and wonderfully written. I love them.

[LadyG]

Have never ever read any Dickens. Huge pile of new literary fiction in spare room unread including White Tiger, Toni Morrison latest and many many more.
Guilty pleasures-too many to list but include Marian Keyes and her ilk, Nancy Mitford and a recent discovery Rafaella Barker (Hens Dancing-recommended by another lovely MNetter can't remember who). Oh and childhood faves saved for those nights when you have a rotten cold and take yourself of to bed at 8.30 with a hot toddy and a copy of Ballet Shoes...

[janeite]

Yaho - me too! Cemetry Gates to be precise.

If you now tell me that you have Derbyshire ancestors I will suspect we were separated at birth!

And if you also love "Charlotte Sometimes' both the song and the book, I will KNOW we were!

[Sunshinemummy]

Getorfmoiland compelling trash is exactly what it is. He really doesn't seem to be ale to see what a selfish tit he is. And his self-righteousnous is stomach turning.

[Maria2007]

Ooh, another guilty pleasure came to mind. Well I'm not sure it's actually a guilty pleasure... It's any book by the author Susan Isaacs, I really really love her & have enjoyed her books for year. They're all very funny, cleverly written, whodunits mixed up with brilliant romances. Anyway, can't describe it well, but I highly recommend Susan Isaacs (especially hear earlier stuff e.g. Magic Hour, Compromising positions) for easy reads, perfect for the airplane, holidays etc.

[YohoAhoy]

Janeite - if I say that I started reading Oscar Wilde because Morrissey-the-great-and-marvellous was a big fan, does that answer your question?

I love, love, love The Smiths.

Separated at bith?????

[GetOrfMoiLand]

The Madonna book by her brother is compelling trash. He is so 'me me me' it's funny (must be a family failing).

[janeite]

YohoAhoy - omg, omg - are you me? Jane Austen and King are my favourite writers and I also love Oscar Wilde. If you love The Smiths as well then you are my secret twin sister!

[Sunshinemummy]

Oh Cake or Death is also wonderful. Also Covered in Bees is a big fave! And the one about Achilles. Feel like I must go home and watch some now. Love love love the Death Star Canteen sketch!

I read the Madonna book by her brother - it's really awful but impossible not to read. He makes himself look like a horrible little man.

[JeffVadar]

Have just had an email from Amazon and am seriously tempted by the book about Madonna by her sister - just to counteract the Doris Lessing...

Smiley - I originally wanted the name Cake or Death, but it was already taken .

[RustyBear]

I am probably the only librarian in the UK who hasn't read Wuthering Heights - in fact, except for Jane Eyre, all Bronte pretty much leaves me cold...

Guilty pleasures are probably too many to mention, but the Dr Who & Torchwood books must come pretty high on the list...

[YohoAhoy]

Have to confess, Bucharest, that I haven't re-read, and it's a good few years since I did read it. I've read plenty of other pap in a similar vein though.

[MarshaBrady]

I am reading Doris Lessing for the first time after a recommendation on here.

The Golden Notebook too no less. Tis good.

[Hassled]

I've never managed George Eliot. Or Doris Lessing. And I once lied to impress a boy about having read The Brothers Karamazov. I never have, and I probably never will.

Maeve Binchy is my guilty pleasure. I adore her. And Ed McBain - US detective stories.

[Sunshinemummy]

Jeffvader I really like the supermarket sketches and anything where god appears (as James Mason)!

[Botbot]

I haven't read any Doris Lessing or Margaret Atwood either. Or Angela Carter. Though The Golden Notebook has made it as far as my to-read pile: maybe this year...

Guilty pleasure - Harry Potter.

[GooseyLoosey]

Historic murder mysterys - you know the kind of thing - monks chasing serial killers. I love them! Hide them on a top shelf behind more intellectual material though!

[Bucharest]

I loved the Da Vinci code when I first read it.
Then I reread it and realised just how badly written it is, and got all that he'd made all that money.....

[YohoAhoy]

No Doris Lessing or Margaret Atwood here either.

My guilty pleasure would have to be, gulp, The Da Vinci Code (plus others of that ilk)! I really enjoyed it. I'm not a fan of chick Lit, so I guess tosh-lit is my substitute.

The more heavily-laden with conspiracies the better.

That was cathartic

But bearing in mind my 3 favourite writers are Jane Austen, Stephen King & Oscar Wilde............

[JeffVadar]

Sunshinemummy - @ Eddie Izzard too!

[Pogleswood]

I haven't read any Dickens,except A Christmas Carol,read at school.I do feel I ought to,but there is always something I want to read more..and I get irritated by the silly names.
I don't think I feel guilty about anything I read,though I probably should!

[bluebump]

I still haven't read many Jane Austin etc despite buying quite a few when I've come across them in charity shops.

My guilty pleasure is Penny Vincenzi, I scoffed when someone bought me one and i've been now been known to see if there are any new ones in Oxfam when I go in

[procrastinatingparent]

Children's books are perfectly acceptable literature, janeite - although since I tend to revisit my childhood collection most at times of stress, I guess I should properly characterise it as escapist fiction.

Yes, never read Eliot or Hardy.

[janeite]

As an English graduate and English teacher, I have read only a few Shakespeares, which worries me occasionally.

I have never read 'War And Peace' and I gave up on "Middlemarch" in boredom.

Guilty pleasures -
re-reading children's books (am revisiting Narnia at the moment) and I read a lot of teenage fiction and pretend it's work!

[Maria2007]

Ooooooh Jackie Collins, oh my god, had forgotten about her! I once discovered loads of Jackie Collins novels in one of my mother's cupboards, hidden behind far more respectable books! And obviously not displayed on the bookshelves for all to see, you understand I read them all (I was a teenager at the time). Don't think my mum ever found out .

(I'm now really embarrassed. Have admitted to liking chick lit, Shopaholic books, Erica Jong (bleurgh) AND Jackie Collins- but I was a silly teenager when I read Jackie Collins!!) I do have a more serious side to me, I feel the need to stress .