Literary junk food meme
Most of my literary tastes could be considered high-brow so here I am, throwing caution to the winds, and sharing my tastes in literary junk food. Tasty these are; high-brow, edifying, and educational not so much.
1. The Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The real appeal here is the world itself. I mean, what's not to like about a low-gravity world where you can walk/jump as the astronauts did on the moon without a space suit plus all the really cool flora and fauna. And the airships. Have always loved zepplins and these are almost as cool. Not to mention the gadgets. And I have to laugh at all the cliches...and some are really, really bad. But this series is really FUN.
2. Paranormal romances. Again, some are waaaaaay better than others in freshening up the same old tired cliches and in not taking themselves so seriously. [But sometimes the ones that take themselves too seriously are somehow more hilarious.] The best manage to avoid making their main characters cardboard and apply the internal logic of their world so that the characters aren't invincible gods - but the best one can say about many of these is that they are wish-fulfillment. Heck, no one is ever ugly in these - well, except the villains. Read enough of these and I want to read a paranormal romance where the romantic hero is a nosferatu straight out of the 70's film as a reality check.
3. Cooking/lifestyle magazines. I have gotten many yummy recipes, tips and tricks from these. But it is soooo easy to tell sometimes when a review or article was paid for by a particular company or industry (Especially during product reviews. Love it that a magazine like Real Simple which is supposed to be dedicated to reducing costs etc. has product reviews of a particular item like hand cream rather than a recipe on how to make it yourself. Hmph. Or their "cheap finds" ain't.) I especially love is the mental doublespeak that allows the editing staff to put an article about healthy cooking methods (i.e. steaming, stir-frying, etc...) right next to an article about deep frying and claiming in said article that deep frying in a "healthy" oil makes the end result healthy. Hilarious.
What's your favorite literary junk food?