Literati SnobberyPosted on 2:31am Thursday 7th Oct 2010
99.99999 times I would rather pick up a good book than watch television. When I say a good book, I mean one that I'm really going to enjoy. It could be something by Tracy Chevalier, whose writing is spare, beautiful and totally brilliant or equally one of the incredibly prolific Norah Roberts' fabulous page turning romances or a fun, flirty Jill Mansell who is the Goddess of Chick-lit. I am not a literary snob and those people that are drive me mad! Recently a friend was very dismissive of a book I had thoroughly enjoyed, saying disparagingly that it was Chick-lit and it wasn't the sort of thing she would read. What when she wasn't watching I'm a Celebrity and Big Brother.  Why are some people so snobbish about books and reading? Reading is entertainment and one genre is just as viable as another. I read everything from Mills & Boons through to Huxley, Solzenitzen and Sartre. My friend certainly wouldn't have approved of this week's choice, Chrissie Manby's Crazy in Love. Described as light-hearted ... and about a shallow hollywood celebrity type, it could have fallen into all the stereotypical pitfalls but no, her books just get better and better. It takes real skill to make this type of writing so effortless. |
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