Guilty Pleasures

As a library school graduate and a lover of books, I'm sure I should be advising people to elevate their lives, morals, minds, and whatever else with educational nonfiction and literary novels, but the fact is I just can't. As interesting as those types of literature can be and as important as those books are, sometimes you're just in the mood for something not that challenging. Everyone's reading related guilty pleasures are different but here are mine:

1. Children's Books: I'm 27, so I have not been the target audience for children's authors for quite some time. This has not stopped me thoroughly enjoying their efforts. It should come as no surprise that there is something inherently soothing about rereading one's favorites from childhood, for me mimicking the kind of comfort that generally comes from being with my parents or sleeping in my childhood bed. For most of my adult life this meant occasional forays into the children's section for specific or pulling out my own well-worn copies of books with which I'd had a long relationship. Since beginning work in a public library setting I have branched out to newer children's titles and have also rediscovered a love of several forgotten favorites. I also cannot minimize the impact of children's nonfiction as the more sophisticated items are many times very engaging and informative. Some of my picks: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Ramona, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Harriet the Spy

2. Young Adult Ficiton: OH YA LIT! HOW I LOVE YOU! While YA has been around for years it is only within the last 5-10 that it has become the phenomena it now is. Beginning with the Harry Potter craze, titles for young adult readers are more prolific than ever, and a welcome change from my own teen years when I jumped right for Newbery Medal Winners and lighthearted series directly into deeply inappropriate for a 13 year old, but still entertaining romance novels.  There is currently some debate as  to whether adults should be reading young adult novels which I truly don't understand. If the point is the situations are not relevant to adult lives, well I also don't plan on hiding my crazed spouse in the attic, but no one would judge me for reading Jane Eyre. If the concern is the quality of the writing, first I question why are we allowing our children to read something sub-par and second I challenge someone to read a John Green novel and to question the quality of his prose. Finally, if its a question of literary merit, there are plenty of extraordinarily literary YA novels and even if I'm not reading one of them I am not going to read just one novel for the rest of my life and probably not even for the rest of this week.
Some of my picks: The Hunger Games, Graceling series, Ashfall, Vampire Academy, and anything by John Green

3. Romance: And I'm not referring to something like Ian McEwan's Atonement or Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'm talking trashier the better bodice rippers, bonus points if it includes the words pirate, rouge, or rake in the title. I can't help it, I just love to turn off my mind sometimes and enjoy absurd situations. In all honesty, I usually skip the sex scenes as they generally distract me too much the patently obvious fact that it's actually nothing like the writer's imagination.
Some of my picks: Johanna Lindsay, Nora Roberts, Beatrice Small and Mary Jo Putney are some favorite authors

4. Graphic Novels: Working with children I frequently find that many parents are reluctant to let their children check out too many graphic novels as they identify them too much with comic books. Even in the cases where that's true I am of the mind that no matter what a child is reading, it's just important that they're reading. Besides you never know what someone's "gateway drug" book will be that causes a love of books to all of a sudden click. Beyond that concern there are some wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated graphic novels that can be considered nothing but classics, due to their long lasting effect on the reader. Honestly, this is a genre that I am still discovering, as I myself held comic book prejudice. As a teen I read, and thoroughly enjoyed Maus, which I view as one of the first of the modern graphic novels.  recetly rediscovered the genre through the Walking Dead series and am excited to learn more.
Some of my picks: As I said I'm new to this but right now I have Persepolis, Fables, and Sin City on my reading list.
 
5. Humorous Memoirs: I don't care if it's one person's opinion and if generally it's an actor or comedian with their own agenda. They're engaging and viewing the world through someone else's much funnier  viewpoint often allows me to laugh at myself, an absolutely invaluable skill.
Some of my picks: Tina Fey's Bossypant and Mindy Kalings's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Well that went on much longer than I thought! Please keep in mind that most of my picks are generally what I have read recently and will probably change by the end of the month.