The last time I went to the library, Stephenie Meyer's Science Fantasy novel about alien occupation of Earth, The Host, was sitting on the return trolley. I wrestled with myself for a moment, then I thought, fuck it, summer blockbuster fun.
And you know what, you literary, superior intellectuals out there, I really enjoyed it. Every bit of it. I'm sure hundreds have sneered and picked holes in it already, but, I liked the story. I wanted to see what would happen next. I liked the characters, I cared about what would happen to them. All the stuff about death made me cry through lots of it. I didn't want to put it down and I read it fast. I would have been impressed if she'd left it at the sad ending, but I was happy that she tacked on a happy ending afterwards, because I like my endings happy, if truth be told.
I'm also reading The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver. She's an excellent writer, the prose is great, the persona is convincing, the setting is perfect and the introduction of the well known real people as characters was a welcome surprise.
Except. Hand on heart... though I'm not finished The Lacuna yet, it's only just getting into its story, so we will see - I still probably enjoyed The Host more, in terms of entertainment and involvement.
*Horrified Silence*
Yup. Deal with it!
On a different note, is it strange that I need people to see the same edition of the books I've read or it doesn't really feel like the same book? Both of these have other covers I think, but it just seems wrong if they're different to the one you know.
5 comments:
I am SUCH an intellectual snob (sad but true) but I LOVE some thrashy books for precisely that reason. I love a well-crafted well-meant book.
And I like my endings happy as well. (In the literary and the sex sense.)
And while I'm in an agreeing and gushing mode, I also spend TOO much time when I put my books into a computer database scanning in the correct cover because otherwise it's NOT the SAME book. (You are SO right.) And this down to the 2 for 1 stickers.
Wow, mwa, I forgot about your library habit.
The 2 for 1 sticker is committed!
I really like the Lacuna (possibly helped by having spent quite some time in Mexico - had visited the murals and homes mentioned in book). However, I started it and stopped and then re-started it 6 months later. That's the life of a reader!
Enjoy whatever it is you enjoy. And send recommendations out there; I'm always struggling to find something good.
-Carina
I've hardly been reading recently. I hope I get more time to now. The Lacuna is so evocative, isn't it? It must be great if you've actually been there.. and seen the murals - wow.
I like reading it all, really. Well. Not those 'my mother tied me to a radiator' books. I think they're just cynical marketing on the part of the publishers.
Fuck snobbery. Read and enjoy what you love for the reasons you love it.
By the way- I loved The Lacuna. It went to my heart.
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