tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post5128705288280787358..comments2023-10-18T03:24:20.671-04:00Comments on Your Neighborhood Librarian: On CrapAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07372347723680794611noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-30270524698278623092011-03-16T00:54:40.282-04:002011-03-16T00:54:40.282-04:00I just found your blog. Nice stuff. Funny, intri...I just found your blog. Nice stuff. Funny, intriguing, and for some reason I really love the fishbones.Will Stronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13253387218024392823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-57083357398730016352011-03-15T08:24:08.518-04:002011-03-15T08:24:08.518-04:00Well, Anonymous, you're probably right. I have...Well, Anonymous, you're probably right. I haven't read most of those mens' authors either. But the frequency with which they put out books makes me suspicious of their quality.<br /><br />I can only say what I've observed helping adults find leisure reading for going on 7 years - men are generally really predictable, and women will, as often as not, surprise you. A woman may look like a total Nora Roberts type, but it'll turn out she's looking for gruesome, kinky murder. <br /><br />But when I ask a man if he needs any help finding what he's looking for, 80% of the time, he's looking for Grippando or Baldacci.<br /><br />That's all, really.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07372347723680794611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-32968879580861371982011-03-15T01:42:34.112-04:002011-03-15T01:42:34.112-04:00The gist of this article (which I enjoyed immensel...The gist of this article (which I enjoyed immensely) is that men have limited crap tastes while women have diverse crap tastes. I beg to differ.<br /><br />I haven't read most of the male crap authors you mentioned, but there is a lot of range in thriller writing. The manly-man, high-testosterone stuff by Clancy, Cussler, and others is what most people think of as "guy books," but I find that stuff insufferable, and it's just one segment of the thriller genre.<br /><br />I've read all of Michael Crichton's books and loved them. He is arguably the inventor of the high-tech thriller and, in my opinion, a terrific writer. I also enjoy the medical thrillers, although Robin Cook can be pretty pedestrian. Then there's political fiction, by Brad Meltzer (a very snappy writer), David Baldacci, and so forth. Some legal thrillers are very engaging; Grisham is the one everybody knows, but I think Phillip Margolin is way better. I could go on like this. You'd probably say, oh, all that stuff is basically the same, but it really isn't.<br /><br />Now, you talk about all of the wonderful sub-genres in romance writing. From where I sit, that stuff looks interchangeable. The covers look the same; the titles sound the same. And I know LOTS of women who scarf down mountains of those books and are barely aware that other kinds of fiction exist.<br /><br />I'm not suggesting that thrillers are better than chick lit or vice versa. But your thesis that men's crap lit is all cut from the same cloth while women's reading habits are delightfully diverse just sounds like a matter of perspective to me. It's like a rock music fan saying that all classical music sounds the same, or vice versa.<br /><br />Incidentally, I'm a librarian (cataloger at a university library) so I'm not oblivious to highbrow fiction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-89164875471147158422011-02-25T06:58:37.650-05:002011-02-25T06:58:37.650-05:00You mentioned Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Blight, i...You mentioned Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Blight, in your comment, so now I love you.<br /><br />This is a well-written and funny post. What disturbs me about my husband is that he does not read crap. He reads non-fiction histories, but not like the history of Chairman Mao or Andrew Jackson. He reads <i>Blowback</i> and Gnome Chomsky and books about Republicans doing sneaky, underhanded things (which is everything they do besides breathing, and even then...). And he reads Nietzsche. Over and over again. <br /><br />As for me, my reading is so sporadic anymore now that I have such a short attention span. But I can hardly bear a novel; the last one I read was the one about Lemon Cake last summer. Real life is so much more important to me: Mary Roach, Michael Pollan, even that nappy-headed Malcolm Gladwell. Not <i>my</i> real life, but someone is having fun.fuquinayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05996168855030440765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-27317488144243795872011-02-24T20:25:18.700-05:002011-02-24T20:25:18.700-05:00LOL! Nico-wha? Who? I seem to have erected a total...LOL! Nico-wha? Who? I seem to have erected a total mental gulag around that guy. His name literally never passes through my mind, and the fact that I just now noticed that must be evidence. <br /><br />Both genders read him, though, isn't that right? And young people too? Him and Thomas Kinkade, Novelist of Light: they'll get their own rants!<br /><br />:p:paulahttp://pinkme.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30132689.post-16884623912115341032011-02-24T20:18:48.677-05:002011-02-24T20:18:48.677-05:00"Many women are gobbling up YA novels nowaday..."Many women are gobbling up YA novels nowadays, and I think it's because they have an appetite for the elements of crap - fast pace, snappy dialogue, lots of action - but no taste for actual crap."<br /><br />This is smart.<br /><br />But mostly I'm stunned that you got through a whole post about the crap that women read vs. men without ever mentioning Nicholas Sparks.Sam @ Parentheticalhttp://www.parenthetical.netnoreply@blogger.com