These adult pulp fictions (early porn?) were on a table filled with vintage books, magazines and records on a stretch 0f 8th Avenue between 21st and 22nd Street in Chelsea. I'm sure they were considered risque back when John McCain was a kid but these images look pretty tame by today's standard. As a 12-year old boy, I've heard of these adult novels from classmates but could never get my hands on one. The books that I did manage to find (and read) were mostly Jackie Collins novels that I checked out from the public library (unbeknownst to my parents, of course).
Nowadays, I prefer to read (less risque but just as entertaining) travel essays like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, and humorous fictions like Me Talk Pretty One Day and Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me Anymore.
So what is your reading genre of choice?
26 comments:
I used to read the Superman comics that my cousins had. . .LOVED them.
My genre. . . Literary nonfiction. . .Hmmmm. . .. I wonder why! :-)
I like photos of lots of books.
alec baldwin doesn't love me anymore? oh my I'll have to check that out!
I like to read everything, I'm nearly finished reading Teacher Man by Frank McCourt and before that The Color of Water,it was excellent.
A few months ago,I've read Teacher Man, like Lily just above, now I'm going to begin La Réserve by Russell Banks and I wish I was able to read in English...
j'adore ces vieux livres, j'en fais collection.
I love these old books, I do collection.
Surprising to see how the US society which was so puritan has changed over the last decades!
I read anything, right now Stefan Zweig.
It's interesting to see how much wilder "beasts" we have become in that area ;) ... Interesting historical artefacts and records, Ming.
Ming
Glad to know you love"A year in Provence". I read it 3 or 4 times.
In French and in English.
So humorous and so...true!!!.
I use to read essays and biographies and historical and many things. No fiction.
I am making myself read photography books on lighting, composition and the likes. Also I just gave myself a copy of Henri Cartier-Bresson's Paris photographs. Wonderful! I like the title of that one book Ming, "Reckless Virgin" has a current events ring to it.
Murder mysteries!! I love Agatha Christie and early P.D. James stuff.
I also love nonfiction - business, sociology, history.
Peyton Place was one of the first books that I remember from high school days (I think) which had some nasty word or something in it (I can't remember now) but throngs of high school age kids flocked to the dime store to look at a specific page to see those words. The store owner sorta laughed and let them go on doing it and that made the book dog eared.
Interesting photograph.
I like a bit of everything. Currently reading Anthony Trollope "Barchester Towers."
I think Reckless Virgin was required reading in high school. But I could be mistaken.
I've been reading all the Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald and Michael Connelly LA Noir lately. And I'm almost done.
A few months ago I discovered Parnell Hall and really get lots of laughs out of the Stanley Hastings mysteries.
What a great photo - those women defy gravity. It's a wonder they don't tip over.
My reading preferences tend to be eclectic, but science fiction has been the one genre that stays with me on a steady basis.
Just finished "Feersum Endjinn" by Iain M. Banks. Quite entertaining.
A Year In Provence. Read the follow up too. Hysterical.
Just finished The Crow Road, by Iain Banks. Iain Banks writes weird fiction. Iain M banks Sci Fi, and yes they are the same person. ading lke musci eclectic.
Abe, you and I are the only ones of the same era I think. I remember sneaking a peak at my mom's copy of Peyton Place! I miss those days when the racy stuff was a little hard to come by. Now that I think about it, my mom might have been a tad racy herself! Love it!
yikes, Ming.... where did you find those books?
I'm reading mostly non-fiction these days.
These covers couldn't get publisheed today by the morality squad.
Love this photo, and the fact that you found these books in my old nabe. Used to read a lot of serious stuff but find I no longer have the patience. Lately, I'm with you: travel books and David Sedaris—and always detective fiction, but only if it's well written.
Virginia -- I think you and I are of the same era, but I had my own copy of Peyton Place (well hidden, of course)!
And I remember sneaking peeks at "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* [but were afraid to ask]". I wonder how accurate it was. Hmmm. Never did go back and check. I always enjoyed those SRA readers in fifth grade too. I guess I tend toward non-fiction - history, science, biography, sociology, geography, cultural observations - but have no idea if any of it can be considered literary. ;^) About fifteen years ago, a collegue handed me a "romance" book, which was something I'd never explored. Well, it's simply porn with a plot, if you read Susan Johnson. Yikes! Who knew! Give me Jane Austen instead.
I love The Reckless Virgin, she looks like a right naughty girl on the front cover!!!!
I love reading girlie novels, something with a bit of romance and easy to read.
Abe, Virginia & Alexa -- you guys got me all interested in Peyton Place now. I will have to track down a copy and read it.
Lol. That display remind me of a TV show I saw a while ago. One of those shows where people are burried alive by the clutter in their home. One couple was living with their aging mother. A widow, she had a little bedroom that was litterally filled with piles and piles of books. And when the crew looked at the books, they were all exactly like that: "hot" romances for Grand'Ma. Kind of sweet (or sad, depending of your interpretation).
Just finished Vroom with a View by Peter Moore. That book put all kinds of ideas into my head :)
reckless virgin looks highly readable.
Currently, I am reading Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany, the sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun. Great recipes in these books.
*SHOCK HORROR* !!! I can see an elbow!! =O
I like reading those girly English books actually, not sure why though! And I like reading thrillers, sortof!
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