What Book? Wednesday Question: Most people are guilty of reading a book for pure pleasure with no thought of “learning” anything or wanting to analyze anything about the book or about life.  Often they are referred to as “Summer Reads” or “Pleasure Reading” or a “Guilty Pleasure.”  What book would you recommend for someone looking for a book that will never, ever land in the literary canon, but you completely enjoy for its hedonistic value?

What Book? Wednesday Answer: I have read a large amount of fluff reads in my lifetime.  Depending on who I talk to, I will recount the tales of Wuthering Heights or Hamlet.  If I’m feeling especially self-absorbed, I’ll mention to passer-bys the poetry I love.  “Hey stranger!  I’ve read William Wordsworth and I know what it means!!”  My expectation is that this newly acquired friend will stop in their tracks and say, “Wow, you are amazing and look how smart you are.”  Of course, none of this ever happens.  Most of the time, I get an eye-roll and a look like, “you are not as smart as you think you are, sister.”

If I feel like bonding with the masses, I’ll tell people about my secret obsession with non-literary novels that I can’t get enough of.  There’s nothing like opening up a book without having to think about how this part goes with this that and how this tree is a metaphor for life and blah, blah, blah.  I’m going to go the typical route and say that my favorite fluff read was Twilight and I would recommend it to any woman looking for a joy ride with little expectations.  Twilight is kind of like a one night stand of literature.  You are there for the night with no expectation that this is going to end up as a relationship.

What I completely love about Twilight is that is brought me back to being a teenager.  I remember my first crush and my first love, and how the two of those people were all that I could think about while at the same time feeling incredibly awkward about that.  In my memory these boys were the hottest guys that I’ve ever seen and they were perfection.  Real life isn’t quite the same but Twilight managed to capture the innocence and obsession of first time love.  There’s innocence to the novel that is similar to the innocence of teen love.

While I may like to brag about the many classics that I’ve read, I think that there is value in a fluff read here and there.  I’ll even tell people about the “bad” books that I’ve read and I will announce it proudly and maybe instead of an eye-roll, I’ll get a “me, too!”

Related Reading

• Those Sighing, Giggling Women
• Book Reviews: The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
• Stephen King’s Bad Writer’s List