What is your favorite trashy novel?

[OmahaBlueDog]

.. or at the very least, your novel with absolutely no socially redeeming or literary value other than it makes a 3 hour plane ride just fly by.

My favorite airport store in the whole world is the used book store in the Milwaukee Airport. It was there that I discovered Harold Robbins novels. It's a pretty easy theme to follow -- poor jewish guys who grew up in tough neighborhoods become fabulously wealthy and bed great looking women - often. "The Raiders" "The Betsy" "The Storyteller" and , of course "The Carpetbaggers" all have gotten me through many plane rides. I'm also fond of W.E.B. Griffin novels -- the theme of which are that the military is secretly populated by wealthy, brave men who hang out in hotel suites, bedding beautiful women, when they are not out shooting at Germans, Japanese, Koreans, or Al Quaida.

[Elidor]

1. Venus on the Half-Shell, by Kilgore Trout

aka Philip Jose Farmer

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. I remember reading that one in High School

I was a huge Kurt Vonnegut Jr. fan as a kid (God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is still among my all time favorites).

I'm not certain it meets the "no redeeming value" test, though.

[crim son]

3. I think it was called "Desiree."

A fool might argue that because there were a few historical references, it wasn't complete trash. But it was, and I loved it. She put handkerchiefs in her bodice, fer gawd's sake!

[peacefreak]

4. Exit to Eden by Anne Rice.

Written before she found vampires & before she got God. Completely trashy, with some friendly bondage & whips. Nothing like the horrible movie with Dan Ackroyd & Rosie O'Donnell.

[lost-in-nj]

5. Yeah

this is my favorite one to

the movie sucked


lost

[Dr. Strange]

10. I listened to that on cassette.

Check out who narrated it: http://www.amazon.com/Cassettes-narrated-Gillian-Anderson-Bellows/dp/0679421718

[DemoTex]

6. "Bangkok 8" and "Bangkok Tattoo"

Jon Burdett

[PassingFair]

7. Valley of the Dolls...

but I was 15 when I read it.

Pretty racy!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Sometrhing by JM Simmel. A bunch of people get stuck in a collapsed building. Forgot the title. -nt

[MissMillie]

9. The Thorn Birds

pure crap.

[MorningGlow]

13. Oh, the memories!

'Twas pure crap, and so was the miniseries, but I enjoyed both. My mom bought the book for me (and she never buys books) when I came down with the chicken pox at 17 and suffered mightily (because of the pox, not the book--the book helped me get my mind off scratching).

[spinbaby]

11. Anything by Judith Krantz

All sex and shopping and fashion and shopping and tawdry affairs and shopping and betrayal and shopping...pure bliss.

[grannylib]

17. Yeppers. Totally vapid crap. It's great.

I can't do it often, but every couple of years I read something of hers, just for kicks.

[mitchum]

12. "Platinum Logic" by Tony Parsons

[Iggo]

14. 79 Park Avenue -- Harold Robbins

Read it when I was 12. (Boing.)

[CBGLuthier]

15. The Betsy indeed

And the movie is even better.

Lord Laurence Olivier rutting on top of that maid at the age of 70.

[Orrex]

19. That poor woman! She should have retired waaaay before 70

Damned social security crisis!

[quip]

22. ...

:spray: :thumbsup:

[Westegg]

16. I found it in my parents' room-- pure pornography...

...or it seemed to me at the time. I was maybe 12. This was the '70s. It was a paperback. No idea what the book was--whether it was legit lit or true porn. I can only remember two lines from it now:

1) "She wasn't fit to wash my shoelaces."

2) "All this, and only fourteen."

[Orrex]

18. I think that was The Great Gatsby

Took his shoelaces very seriously, that Gatsby.

[triguy46]

20. Hard to beat "The Carpetbaggers"

[leeroysphitz]

21. The Godfather was pretty trashy. n/t

[quip]

23. The Song of Solomon

"Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies."

Boobays! :P

[OmahaBlueDog]

27. In another thread, we had a big debate over a school handing out Bibles.

I say have your kid ask lots of questions about the Song of Solomon (called the Song of Songs for all you Catholic folk).

[quip]

28. There is some juicy passionate stuff!

The whole OT is filled with lust, gore, etc. Not a great kids book-- cherry picking is a good idea IMO.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. anything by Julia Quinn ~ deliciously decadent

exquisitely craptacular :loveya:

[The Straight Story]

25. GDP

:)

[OmahaBlueDog]

26. I'll agree no socially redeeming value..

but painful to read!