It's My Party and I'll Read What I Want To!!!

Yesterday I had an epiphany. So I had just finished another Stephenie Plum novel...One for the Money (review to come tomorrow)...and I was on goodreads defending my choice to read/enjoy such crap. Here is the thing. I am a grown-up and I've read a lot of books. I mean, a lot. Some of those books were classic/canonical literature; some were looooooong legal treatises; some were silly children's stories. But why is it when I read fluff, I feel I have to justify it?

It might stem back to the way my mother made me feel guilty about reading The Babysitter's Club series when I was thirteen. You guys, she did not want me reading that. Instead I was to be reading Jane Eyre and War and Peace. You may think I am kidding about the War and Peace part, but I assure you most vehemently, that I am not kidding. She probably read it when she was five.

So here I am, feeling guilty now that I like Janet Evanovich's novels about this detective because they are total garbage. I mean, she writes well, don't get me wrong, but it is complete fluff, and I start writing my review in apologetic tones because I'm not supposed to read this kind of stuff, let alone enjoy it...I mean really laugh and think it's funny, so I find myself writing my justification for sort of falling in love with this Jersey girl and all the while I am think to myself, who cares? I can read what I darn well want to read.

And so there, world (cough...Mom...cough). I can read what I want to. And here is a list of books that are total fluff that I proudly enjoyed.

1. One for the Money
2. Three to Get Deadly
3. Anything by Mary Higgins Clark
4. Angel's and Demons
5. The Da Vinci Code
6. Okay, okay, all books by Dan Brown
7. And as long as I am at it, pretty much everything I've read by John Grisham.
8. The Pillars of the Earth - because let's be honest and call it the soap opera that it is
9. Jodi Picoult novels...just a little bit because they are a tad on the drama-rama side.
10. The Devil's Company (David Liss...I'm in love with his main character, Benjamin Weaver, a Jewish P.I. in 19th century London. He's sort of hot for a book character.)
11. C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series (fluff disguised as historical mystery)
12. The entire Twilight Saga (when something touts itself as a saga, you know you are in for some drama)

Alright, now we've cleared the air and I've let my freak flag fly. I feel better. And I will continue to read my heart out, including my fluff and nonsense novels, and I will not apologize for it anymore!