Stephen King has beaten JK Rowling to the title of the UK's favourite literary guilty pleasure. A survey carried out on behalf of the Costa Book Awards 2006 has shown that the thriller writer is the most popular choice among readers looking for an indulgent read, with the adventures of Harry Potter coming a close second.

85% of those surveyed admitted to having an author they turn to for sheer gratification, but whom they might not admit to reading in pubic. Third place in the survey was tied between John Grisham and Dan Brown, while the fourth position was split between Danielle Steel and Catherine Cookson. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels were placed fifth.

Who is yours? Mine is Jilly Cooper... can't resist those big bonkbusters full of ridiculously posh show jumpers.

Georgette Heyer. Though I will admit to her, cautiously.

Emma

God, I think I am so literary-anal, I don't have any guilty reads. Reading and writing are the only things I can do without feeling that I really should be doing something else.

Rudyard Kipling.

Still not acceptable, politically or culturally.

But such fine writing.

Pete

Pete, yes, he really can write. Apart from anything more sophisticate, my children know The Elephant's Child more-or-less by heart, because it's so well written you can't forget it.

Emma

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Actually, I don't feel guilt about Heyer, just defensive in front of people who don't know the work, and judge her by her imitators.

Rudyard Kipling. Still not acceptable, politically or culturally. But such fine writing. Pete

Oh I love Kipling too, especially his poetry.

But you've reminded me of what my guilty pleasure probably is, which is Victorian/Edwardian/Roaring Twenties adventure novelists like Sax Rohmer, Sapper, Valentine Williams, Edgar Rice Burroughs etc. I like the "classic" stuff from that era too, like Conan Doyle, John Buchan, H.Rider Haggard, The Four Feathers, E.W.Hornung (who wrote Raffles and - I only just learned - was Conan Doyle's brother-in-law.) etc etc etc.

But it's the pulp stuff that's the guilty pleasure. The sort of books that Bertie Wooster's high-minded girlfriends always seem to disapprove of, I suppose.


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Oh and I occasionally read Doctor Who novels. They don't count among my favourite of guilty pleasures as their quality is somewhat variable, but they are pretty unbeatable on the guilt and shame factor. "Look!" I want to shout to the disapproving faces on the train, "OK I know I'm a grown man reading a book with a picture of a Dalek on the front, but really, I'm not a retard or a paedophile or one of those people that rings you up at 10pm to try and sell you double glazing... And only the other year I read James Boswell's life of Samuel Johnson! Right the way through! Have you ever read that ? Well have you ??!! Oh, you have... OK, well, I'll just go back to my Daleks then shall I..."

Oh I love Kipling too, especially his poetry.

But only if you exclude the truly appalling If.

It's a great thread, but I agree with Sappholit: I don't think I feel guilty about anything I read - though I'd happily admit that not everything is written for the highest of brows - because I don't think some books are more virtuous than others. I could say Hello and Woman's Own in the doctor's waiting room, but I'm not ill very often and I've never had the least desire to buy a copy of either.

My chief guilty pleasure around books is reading at all, when I should be doing the wash/cooking the supper/being nice to the children.

Emma

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Though I entirely recognise the feeling of guilty pleasure, and perhaps I'm just reacting to it. My family in theory subscribed to the principle that all reading was good reading. But it was made very clear to me in childhood - without a word being spoken - that Ruby Ferguson's pony books, or Lorna Hill's ballet books, which I devoured, weren't as 'good' (now there's a loaded word!) as Noel Streatfeild or Alan Garner.

I'm a big fan of the Georgia Nicholson books, but I don't feel guilty about it (even if they are aimed at 14 year-olds). I buy them as soon as they come out, and find I'm speaking like a girly for half a week afterwards.

But only if you exclude the truly appalling If

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Hmmm... Well I don't dislike If as much as many people seem to, but it's not one of my favourite Kipling poems. I mostly like his ballads which just read out loud so beautifully, such as Christmas In India:

Dim dawn behind the tamarisks - the sky is saffron yellow - As the women in the village grind the corn And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow That the Day, the staring Eastern Day, is born

It might be verging on doggerel but the man definitely knows how to use a molossus.

And hey, I just (re?)discovered that it was Kipling who wrote "For the female of the species is more deadly than the male" which again scans pretty nicely for a line that is still in common parlance a hundred years later.

But then again I like The Green Eye Of The Little Yellow God too, so what would I know. And I'll take Cole Porter over Shakespeare, too (except for some of the sonnets, particularly the 29th).




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Actually, scratch that, I probably wouldn't choose Cole Porter over Shakespeare, twas said in haste. But I would choose Porter's lyrics over most "serious" poets.

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While I remember, another poet I like, who probably falls into the "guilty pleasure" category, is Banjo Paterson.

But only if you exclude the truly appalling If.

If you can keep your head while those around are losing theirs,
Chances are you haven't grasped the situation.

Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree and Enchanted Wood books

Katerina

I really rate If, especially the lines:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

I also like the line about not dealing in lies. There are worse mottos to live by, I think.

Griff, molossus - isn't that something to do with sugar?

Katerina

I came across this at the back of my volume of Kipling poems:

The Appeal If I have given you delight By aught that I have done Let me lie quiet in that night Which shall be yours anon: And for the little, little span The dead are borne in mind, Seek not to question other than The books I leave behind.

Interesting don't you think, given the modern-day approach to Kipling, which is all about the man and the history and rarely about the work.

Griff, molossus - isn't that something to do with sugar?

Indeed. It involves taking three lumps of sugar in your tea, all of the same size. And if you have scones at the same time it is known as enjambment.

Which for some reason reminds me of a fabulous mixup in a conversation yesterday. We were discussing film directors and one person said their favourite was David Lean, quoting Brief Encounter. No, said someone else, that was directed by Stephen Spielberg...!

There has to be some good comic material in Brief Encounter Of The Third Kind... I just have to find it...