Books Read, from 1985
My 20 year college reunion is coming up, so I’ve been poking around in old boxes. I was surprised, then disturbed, then kind of gratified, to find a book list I kept in 1985. Here are the first five. Four of these things belong together, see if you can spot the one that doesn’t belong:
1. The Wanton by Rosemary Rogers
2. Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko (this one isn’t as trashy as it sounds. Really.)
3. Mindbend by Robin Cook
4. The Queen’s Confession by Victoria Holt
5. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Which one do you suppose was for AP English?
OK, here are a bunch more:
6. War and Peace by Tolstoy
7. Hunchback of Notre Dame by Hugo (in French, perhaps?)
8. Thinner by Stephen King
9. Heaven by V.C. Andrews
10. Lucky by Jackie Collins
11. The Fourth Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders
12. Rage by Stephen King
13. The Prince by Machiavelli
14. Sweet, Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers
I get literary whiplash just looking at this list. I am abashed by the trash.The good stuff is on there because it was assigned. BUT. Look how far I’ve come. (Abeit in 25 years. And wishing peace to my poor, hormonal 17yo self). I read Crime and Punishment last year BECAUSE I WANTED TO. My book list today is, I think, a richer place than my book list of 1985, just as I hope my inner life is richer than it was when I was 17. So, please, laugh at the preponderance of pulp and trashy romance. I am.
And then I’ll get back to A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. And on to Baroque Summer. But perhaps cramming in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest if I can. Just because something’s popular doesn’t mean it’s not good.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
I just kind of love this book list. It’s so funny. I vote “sweet, savage love” as the awesomest title on there. It reminds me of “Judge a Book by Its Cover”’s romance section: http://judgeabook.blogspot.com/search/label/Romance.
May 27th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Rosemary Rogers! OMG, I’d forgotten about her. Your reading list looks a lot like mine at that age. Also–Kathleen Woodiwiss. I was a big Woodiwiss fan. And VC Andrews too. Yep–we’ve evolved!
May 27th, 2010 at 7:04 am
Well, even if your list was, ahem, eclectic, I still think it was rather cool that you kept this record of all the books you read. That has to count for something, right?
But, I think it’s probably good that 25 years later, your lists look far different!
May 27th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Amy, I loved Woodiwiss, too! Which was your favorite? Mine was A Rose in Winter. Sweet, Savage Love was the first in a series about a couple named Ginny and Steve. I cringe to think about it. They’d be together, be separated, terrible things would happen to both of them, and Ginny would be taken advantage of by other men, then Steve would get mad at her for cheating when he was sleeping around all the time in her absence. Ick. Judith McNaught books were similar–they almost always had the “hero” raping the protagonist. My sister had to point this out to me, years later. I hadn’t even noticed. Ah, well, better a feminist later than never.
May 27th, 2010 at 10:33 am
A Rose in Winter, me too! I just loved her books. Almost–but not quite–makes me want to revisit them.