Currently Reading:

Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger.

Okay, guilty as charged. I read chick lit. What inspired me to write this confessional post (besides my anonymity, which everyone knows is a crucial part of recovery) was the character in the book, Bette, who has just confessed her own addiction to romance novels. It got me thinking about our bad literary habits. Mark Twain said that the man who reads bad books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them, or something like that. So, read Moby Dick or stop reading completely?

I've always believed the opposite. I remember learning about so called "urban lit" in college, pulp fiction for the urban community, in the same league with chick lit and romance novels. It would be so easy to write it off as trashy, and yet I can't help but remember that science fiction used to be to literature what chick lit is today. Comic books used to be considered a waste of time, and now we have Watchmen by Alan Moore, one of Time's 100 Best Novels.

Maybe chick lit and urban lit are still just getting a foothold, written by authors still developing their art. Maybe quality is all in the eye of the beholder. Either way, Everyone Worth Knowing could lead to Where the Heart Is could lead to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe could lead to The House on Mango Street. Who gets to say where the line between chick lit and women's literature falls? Let's just remember, we all started off reading Curious George and Winnie the Pooh.