Trashy Books again

[ailbhe]

I was thinking about them and the comments I received yesterday and I thought I'd ask all you lovely people to take two seconds to check the relevant boxes just for kicks and giggles.

[Poll #136889]

Comments

[artela.livejournal.com]

I have responded to the poll with a couple of ticks as I don't entirely agree with any of the answers in full :-) (Contrary... me?)

Trashy, to me, only means things like Mills and Boon and the male equivalent western/war "booklets" (so that's a mixture of "genre" and "all three of: plot-driven, badly crafted and soap-opera style"). Trashy is those "booklet-style-novelettes" that used to come with paper covers rather than cardboard *g*

When you start talking about "real" books, if I don't like them that just means, IMO, that omeone has questionable taste, but it doesn't mean that just because I don't like it it's trashy :-)

[ailbhe]

So would you define a well-written Mills and Boon as not a Mills and Boon? I mean, do you use "like Mills and Boon" as shorthand for "all three of: plot-driven, badly crafted and soap-opera style", or is a Mills and Boon trashy even if it is carefully crafted?

[artela.livejournal.com]

It's those trashy, pulpy, no-thought-required, novlette things my sister used to read (to the exclusion of all else). If its well written the author really ought to go to a proper publisher and turn it into a proper book :-)

Note: Since trying the one or two M&B books of my sister's that looked like they might even have a hint of some sort of storyline beyond "boy meets girl" when I was much younger, I resolved never ever ever to try to read one or the wretched things again.