When I was young, I used to choose books expressly based on whatever seemed to have a good story. From Enid Blytons ( Yes I know she is many ist things now ! ) and Anne of GG to all my Nancy Drews to so many other books that I cannot even recollect. The ultimate reason for picking up a book was to be told a good story, a yarn that would entertain me, take me away from the mundane and would allow me to fanaticize about time and places and people, that had no bearing on reality! I was the 4th friend with George and Bess with Nancy in River Heights or going on picnics with Ann of GG at King Edwards Island. Good stories and interesting characters were the mainstays of what I chose to read and it led me eventually as a young adult to To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, East of Eden, War and Peace and Tagore’s novels. And they blew my mind away! I discovered Literature and life would never be the same; this is what art and writing was about – ideas and expressions and mankind! But I also discovered that which was not “Literature”, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robins, James Hadley Chase and Jeffrey Archer! And oh! yes, Mills and Boon romances.
The reaction I often get when I mention the above line up is usually a wrinkled nose along with a very condescending “Really?” . That inevitable look of surprise on people’s faces when scanning my book shelves, where tucked among Charles Dickens and Umberto Eco, they discover a historical romance novel! The idea is if I read Elizabeth Gaskell and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, I cannot really read a Judith McNaught novel and vice versa. It’s almost as if I have some kind of reading disorder and cannot truly be a sensible reader. And this is where I have a problem. I make no superior claims of literature or ideas from these authors; but do we always have to read something superior? Yes, great literature elevates the soul, makes us sensitive and opens our minds to new thoughts! But do we need greatness constantly? Do we not need some fun, now and then? Is not greatness better appreciated when you take a break and come back to it, like all good things, that improve in some temporary absence? Don’t we love our classics a little more, after having read a popular or a modern fiction? And ideas? Is it something that exists in an exclusive commune, available only in certain kind of books by a certain type of author? I personally completely disagree with the thought that ideas can only be absorbed from the so called great works. Sidney Sheldon gave me the the first understanding about Jewish persecution (Bloodline); I was a 13 year old living in India, absorbed in Indian culture with a detour to everything English as part of the colonial hand me down. World War was taught in school and there were chapters on Holocausts, but it was a pulp fiction novel that made me realize what persecutions means in flesh and blood. The Spanish Civil War and the Cold War politics, both came home to me via again Sidney Sheldon novels, Sands of Time and Windmills of Gods respectively. I learnt about South American politics from Harold Robin’s The Adventurer and more facts about turn of the century America from Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel than in my standard school textbooks, getting a regular A in history all through high school. I went on to get a Masters degree in one the most prestigious universities of Asia, that only admitted 40 students across the country every year for their International Politics course. All those pulp fiction novels laid the foundation for my interest in international affairs, introducing me to the larger world, beyond my regular ecosystem and set me up in a path of eventual academic excellence. Yes, I built upon those nascent concepts by reading many classics and thought provoking books, but the path, many a times was lit by such “light reads”. And this is not just about academic success; I first became acquainted with Bach’s music in a Mills and Boons novel, The Shadow Princess; and have been in love with it ever since. My parents were both very musical and Hindustani Classical and Indian popular music along with a lot of 60’s-70’s Pop and Jazz always played on in our home. But the whole world of Western Classical burst upon me , thanks again to my non highbrow reads. My life is infinitely richer because when I looked, I found great ideas in every book. Besides, who am I to judge what someone else reads and vice versa again! I think I can safely say I am literature connoisseur , but some books hailed as masterpieces, still do not make sense to me. (Gustav Flaubert’s Madam Bovary & Middlemarch by George Elliot! Sigh! ) Reading therefore, I firmly believe is a very personal affair between a reader and their book and what works for some, may not and will not work for others. And unless you read all kinds of books, how will you know, what works and does not work; and what entertains and what educates? Finally, at the cost of sounding cynical, in today’s day and age of digital blitz, I feel thrilled to simply see someone pick up a book and read it. Do we really need to make a case of reading casteism now? Is it not simply enough that you are reading a good story that entertains you even if it does nothing else? Is entertainment not important? Does it not refresh us and help us face life and its challenges better? Is it not a fact that many multimillion dollar industries of films and series thrive on the concept of entertainment? Then why do we look down on entertaining books? Why are they a guilty pleasure? A good story that delights you is a value in itself, even if does not add a single additional word to your vocabulary.
To end, read Voltaire, who was a far more erudite and learned man than yours truly and is a “great” writer and a defines classic literature, and you may believe him! He wrote “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” So let people read! Read even if it’s for the sake of amusement, it will not do any harm and by my experience, may end up in fact doing a lot of good!
Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses & Prejudices... 
Totally, totally agree! I grew up on Enid Blytons and lathough she’s regarded as problematic nowadays, I love her books and will read certain titles even now. I get fed up with bookish snobbery – if I want to follow a heavier, classic title with a Golden Age crime novel I will. At the end of the day I am reading for myself, for the entertainment, pleasure and whatever else that it brings me. You’re so right to say that reading is extremely personal – I know not everyone one will like what I do, but that’s their right and it’s my right to read what I want. Carry on with whatever books take your fancy I say!!!
Hear! Hear! Exactly! I want to read what I want to read and I have my reasons for it as I am sure you do. We should just let each other read in peace and enjoy the process and appreciate it instead of bringing in judgment and snobbery!
Kudos to you for launching into this debate. There is indeed an awful lot of snobbery in the book world – as if you are not a real reader because you’re not reading Proust or James Joyce all the time. But to think any kind of reading is better than no reading at all. That’s especially important with youngsters -if you throw stuff at them that is too hard to absorb, and dull, then they lose all interest in reading entirely.
I don’t happen to care for romance novels at all but I have no problem with those who do. My form of “light relief” reading is usually in the crime genre because though I do enjoy the classics and literary fiction my brain does need to rest. I think of it as having a varied diet – you wouldn’t want to eat haut cuisine every day, sometimes a simple salad is just as good
Thank You so much for your kind words! I agree with you; we should be just happy that people are reading instead of judging what and why and being snobs about it! And the point of diet….bullseye! We need variety, we must have variety!
Bravo!
Enid Blyton, Anne of GG, and Trixie Beldon were my childhood friends and I read my share of Mills & Boon as a tortured teen! I loved historical romance sagas written by Catherine Gaskin, Jean Plaidy & Laura Black (who I’ve just discovered was a man writing with a female pseudonym!) I snuck Harold Robbins books off my dad’s bookshelves from a young age too (also Leon Uris and James A Michiner).
When I started working in the bookshop 13 yrs ago, my (old) boss asked me what I read as a child and teen. I confessed some of the above and got the job. He used that question (he told me later) to weed out the book snobs.
I read and enjoyed (but remember very little about) Middlemarch in my 20’s. When I reread it I will do it as a readalong in the hope you might join me (don’t worry – it won’t be for ages!! I have too many other things to read for the first time).
oooh! Yes Leon Uris and James Michener …loved them! I really like your old boss; the man was a true bibliophile, instead of the pretend variety. Yes we will do Middlemarch together…I promise to join your read along whenever that happens ! 🙂 I must check out those romance authors; think I have a few Jean Plaidy somewhere!
This post was brilliant! I absolutely could not agree with you more!
Thank You! I think the world will be a lot better place if we just let folks read what they like!
Nothing guilty about those pleasures at all! I think it is rather Puritanical and holier-than-thou to insist we read only Literature with a capital “L” as though there is nothing to be gained from a good page-turning romance or thriller. I think people who scowl at that kind of reading do it because it makes them feel superior. Also, I believe it was none other than W.H. Auden who said that one cannot, and should not, read masterpieces all of the time. By that I think he meant that a person needs to temper their reading, all things in moderation, because let’s face it, reading only masterpieces all of the time is exhausting. One’s brain needs a rest, and in that rest is when it can process all the things and form them into deeper experiences and meanings. It’s like my cycling coach tells me, we have 3 weeks of increasingly difficult workouts and then the 4th week is easier for recovery. It is during the recovery week as your body rests and rebuilds that all the magic happens. I think that is true for reading and thinking too.
Your cycling analogy is so apt! You are absolutely right; we need time for our brains to recover and to appreciate or exert our brains in reading heavy texts, we need a break from them. Instead immersing your self in a light read is rejuvenating, gives you time to adjust to the new ideas of a previous read and just rest up! There is some superiority complex for sure at play here from folks who insist on reading “literature” all the time!