In the May 6 New York Times Book Review, Joe Queenan has an essay on the joys of reading bad books http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/books/review/Queenan.t.html?ref=books
"Bad books are an essential part of life," he asserts."Most of us are familiar with people who make a fetish out of quality: They read only good books, they see only good movies, they listen only to good music, they discuss politics only with good people, and they're not shy about letting you know it. They think this makes them smarter and better than everybody else, but it doesn't. It makes them mean and overly judgmental...."
"I would rather read 'The Good, the Bad and the Undead' by Kim Harrison [about vampire hunters] than one more novel about an enigmatic woman in a famous painting...."
However, he issues a caution: "As with bad movies, a book that is merely bad but not exquisitely bad is a waste of time, while a genuinely terrible book is a sheer delight."
Queenan mentions several books that qualify as sheer delights, and offers guidelines for identifying others. This is a valuable resource to bear in mind when the MTPL Thursday Night Book group is drawing up its schedule.
--Charles
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