Guilty Pleasure Books: Tell us yours

[K. Riehl]

This thread is for those of us who occasionaly read titles and authors that are, how shall I say, not quite the best of breed?

The requirements are that you admit to your vice and list at least one title for others of us who occasionaly indulge in the formulaic, the action for actions sake, the 41st in a series of slice and dice barbarian/slave girl stories.

I admit my vice and recommend the Rikard Braeth books by Allen Wold.
A gun hard wired into his nervous system make Rikard a "Lightning fast one man killing machine. Able to fire 6 rounds before opponents even touch their weapon" The titles are Jewels of the Dragon, Crown of the Serpent, Lair of the Cyclops.

There is a place for the guilty pleasures, and that place, is here

 

[Adasunshine]

Eddings is a total guilty pleasure of mine... I don't care how repetitive they are, I just enjoy them...

I also view my precious Harry Potter as a guilty pleasure but they do bring me so much joy I continue not to care!

xx

 

[Talysia]

Another vote for Eddings, I'm afraid. I guess it's because I read most of them when I was younger, and they stayed a favourite.

I also used to enjoy the Aurian series (I can't remember what it was called) by Maggie Furey. That was a long time ago now, though.

 

[The Ace]

Off genre, but fun Lillian Jackson Braun's Cat Who .. feline whodunnits, Koko and Yumyum, the two siamese are gorgeous.

 

[nixie]

Edding's Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium and Tamuli.I also like to pick up the occasional Enid Blyton and CS Lewis

 

[HappyHippo]

Auel's Earth's Children; I know they're prehistoric bodice rippers, but if I'm feeling down, I'll re-read, also Jennifer Crusie's books, because there's always a happy ending.

Staying in fantasy/sf, Elizabeth Moon, because the books are a bit of a no-brainer, Eddings and Pratchett.

(Although, with an eight-year-old, a seven-month-old, and a thirty-two-year-old, I currently feel any book is a guilty pleasure, because it means I'm not doing something I'm supposed to be!)

 

[Pyan]

Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard.

Yes, I know, I know................

 

[Damascena]

OK, I love and recognize way too many of these! I enjoyed Eddings, especially the first two books, and I noticed a few others I've read with not so guilty pleasure, too.

I very much like Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" (I think) series, mostly because of the richness of his universe. I'm currently reading Catherine Asaro's "Catch the Lightning" one of the Scolian Empire series (that might not be the official name of the series, but that's how I think of it). Since I use talking books from the Library of Congress ...my series books *never* come in order, so, unless I want to make my library crankly by hanging on to books just waiting for the previous one ...I have to place the events in order from context clues, and pretend to forget events when reading an earlier installment. I'm used to it (shrug) so I don't mind ...much, anyway.

 

[j d worthington]

Hmmm. Mine would probably be a lot of the pulps of the '30s and '40s, and a few things from before. I'd say my favorites would be the Doc Savage series (there are 182 by the original writers plus a handful by writers in the '80s); some of my favorites being The Squeaking Goblin, Mad Eyes, Haunted Ocean, The Giggling Ghosts, The Men Who Smiled No More, The Munitions Master (that one got very grim and nasty), The Annihilist (ditto), According to Plan of a One-Eyed Mystic (gotta love that title)... yeesh, I could go on all day....

The Shadow: especially the first of those I read, The Eyes of the Shadow. Why? Because, for a little kid (which I was at the time) it was the first time I saw a hero of that type actually in danger... in disguise in an gangland speakeasy, and someone catches on that this is the Shadow... and he's got an entire den of these nasties out for his blood. He made it out, but I'll never forget the image left in my mind of him moving away from a wall where he'd paused for a moment, and leaving a bloody handprint... and then being out-of-commission for a good while while his aides are facing such things as being buried alive.....

And the Fu-Manchu books of Sax Rohmer. Yes, those get awfully formulaic, and lord knows they're completely un-p.c.... but they are fun, and sometimes Rohmer manages to pull of a genuinely eerie atmosphere and air of creepy menace that's quite memorable.

Heck, I even like The Avenger, which was not the best of the pulps, but had some very nice things to it... the originals were written by Paul Ernst (under the house name Kenneth Robeson -- same house name as used for Doc Savage, which was largely the work of Lester Dent, as the Shadow was largely the work of William Gibson [281, I think, out of 325 of them]), and the later ones were the work of Emile C. Tepperman (in the '40s) and Ron Goulart (in the '70s)....

 

[littlemissattitude]

Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books. Even more, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels.

 

[Happy Joe]

Guilty pleasures; Probably those books (and authors) that gave me the most entertainment as a young 'un (in no particular order);
Doc Savage, E.E. Smith, J. W. Campbell, early Heinlein, Andre Norton, Schmitz, Piper and Lienster.

Enjoy!

 

[elvet]

Every now and then I like a cheesy romance. Right now I'm reading one of the Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter books, Night Embrace.

 

[mightymem]

Mine has got to be Richard Laymon, I always indulge my self in his books after a rather complicated or long novel. I also read Harry potter for the same reason.

 

[Bikewer]

I thought the original Conan books were pretty much fun; all of Howard's stuff , in fact. I became inordinately fond of the Remo Williams stuff too. Chiun was such a wonderful character.

 

[ambershadow]

Eddings is one of mine along with pern books. Just light fantasy to keep me out of trouble when I'm out of new reading material

 

[Stormpirate]

I still, on occasion, pick up the R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike books that I used to read as a teenager. I can finish one in an afternoon. Books like Weekend, Remember Me, Teacher's Pet.

 

[Duchessprozac]

One of my guilty pleasures is The Moonshae Trilogy by Douglas Niles. They are pure derivative fantasy but I read them when I was about 12 and I still like to revist them every so often.

 

[Rosemary]

I was going to put Eddings but I never feel guilty about re-reading his work. However, I shall have to own up to re-reading Robert Jordan's WOT. After reading so many other authors, Jordan does not appeal quite as much these days....

 

[jenna]

I don't really feel guilty about reading any sort of book, as long as I'm reading, it's all good! But in the spirit of the thread, I have to say I enjoy the occasional epic romance or similar, for example Rivalries by Dona Vaughn or A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford.

 

[Fahim]

I'd probably say my guilty pleasure is Piers Anthony and Ayn Rand - just because how much people seem to enjoy putting those two down If you want formulaic, then it has to be Oliver Strange (and later Frederick H. Christian), the Sudden books are so formulaic that they belong in a chemistry book