Literary Infamy

EDITED to make actual sense after I appear to have missed the fact that a cat went keyboard surfing and messed up my post. Many thanks to Jeffe for alerting me!

Have you ever made someone else cry with your reading choices? I have that distinction. It was a holiday party and the idea was to bring your favorite book already wrapped. We then did a blind exchange. All the wrapped books were put under the tree, we drew lots and went around picking books. The gal who got mine opened a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - a book I still love for world building. She started to cry. They were not happy tears. To be fair, she's a teacher. Getting a nonfiction book was a little more than she could handle. So yeah. I still feel guilty about that one. Fortunately, someone else wanted the book and offered to trade a historical romance with her. Happy ending.

That's actually my only real brush with literary infamy. My reading tastes are wide ranging and not all that controversial. I'm probably more interesting (or demented) based on the books everyone else likes that I dislike. However. That's another day's navel gaze.

The book(s) that I enjoy that might surprise you are those written by Mr. Chuck Tingle. Oh yes. Space Raptors Butt Invasion. Hugo nominated!

I love Chuck for so many reasons. I mean. What's not to like about a man who so effortlessly and gleefully trolled the ever-living hell out of the Rabid Puppies when they did their damnedest to game the Hugos? So much admiration.

And what's not to love about a mentally ill man finally finding his niche and his joy in writing unlikely homo-erotic and occasionally politically on-point porn shorts?

The stories are fun. They're filled with lovely, unambiguously consenting, enthusiastic sex partners. Perceptions get twisted - in one story a dude falls in love with a handsome building. For several pages of that story, I had to consciously tell my logical brain to shut the hell up - because in my own weird mental world, all inanimate objects have a spirit, which would make them not so inanimate anymore, right? Where do I get off saying it's impossible for a guy to fall in love with a roadside diner and then spend pages having hot sex with it? I like that I have to shove my assumptions about what's possible aside in order to consume the candy this man writes. Besides. There are worse slogans in the world than his: Love is real.

Does It Surprise You that I love TWILIGHT?

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to 2017! May the year bring us opportunities to make ourselves and the world a better place.

Our topic to kick off the new year is The Book People Might Be Surprised To Learn You Love & Why.

I mulled this for some time - because "love" is a strong word. But the books I truly love come as no surprise to anyone.

Thus, I'm picking Twilight.

I've written defenses of this book on a few occasions, so it might not come as a surprise to longtime readers. But I had a conversation with one of my readers recently where she was shocked that I liked this book and series. I wouldn't necessarily say I love this book - though I did when I first read it - but I've kept the series on my shelves and I reference it in teaching.

The book bowled me over when it came out - and a bookseller friend handed it to me. I read it before all the hype, which helped with my expectations. I think it's an amazing example of what can be achieved with building amazing sexual tension in an entirely chaste relationship. More than that - and this is what I explained to my reader friend - this book lit up a huge number of readers. I know so many adults who said this was the first book they'd read since graduating from school. Any number of my favorite book bloggers, the most wonderful and supportive of people, started out as Twilight fans and moved on to read more books in the genre. (For example, Jen Twimon and What's Beyond Forks.)

When books become hugely popular like this one (and series) did, often there's a phenomenon of criticism. Praise begins to feel fatuous - after all, everyone has already gushed - and it's satisfying in some odd way to point out how it's not all THAT wonderful. Look, a flaw!!

But my point is that this book enchanted me. I bet I bought easily five more copies in those early days and gave them to friends, who also loved it. We read the series and discussed it. I had friends whose kids went to midnight release parties to get the next book which - believe me - had simply NEVER happened before that. One friend's 12-year-old son asked her to lie to his friends when they called, answering the phone and telling them he was doing chores, so he could read the new release undisturbed - and without being mocked. That's a powerful story.

So yes, I love Twilight. I love it with the nostalgic affection of how much it initially seized my heart and imagination and sucked me in, as only the best stories do. And I love what it did for reading and for the fantasy and paranormal genre overall.