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My Life is Gay Enough - part 1/2

20/9/2013

4 Comments

 
My life history in book genres.  

This post is about how the book genres I’ve enjoyed have changed as I’ve got older, including

As a child. At first I really enjoyed children’s books, as you’d expect, mainly Roald Dahl, then his young adult books. I loved The Twits, Matilda, The Witches enchanted me. I remember, even as a young child of 6 or 7 thinking how magic it was to read a book and be transported somewhere else entirely, all through just reading words on a page. I have fond memories of family holidays in a static caravan in Dorset, trying to grab every single moment to read through all 800 pages of the collected diaries of Adrian Mole, between family time and TV.

As a teenager. Then for some reason – probably my inner geek – I got massively into science fiction – Aldous Huxley, Arthur C Clarke, John Wyndham. I literally couldn’t get enough of them.  The Day of The Triffids, and The Midwich Cuckoos are two books which I can still remember; their portrayal of a dystopia is brilliant. I think the science fiction was a good antidote to the classics I was forced to read during GCSE and A level English. Dickens, Chaucer, Hardy didn’t really do it for me. I couldn’t bear the pages and pages of description with not an awful lot happening. I remember skim reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles and missing the rape scene because it was so subtly written! We discussed it in class and I was very embarrassed. I didn’t mind Wuthering Heights, or Villette by the Brontes, maybe because there was a good dose of drama, angst and romance.

When I came out at 18. I read a few coming out, gay books, either given to me by helpful female friends in a ‘this is camp, so are you, you’ll love it’ way, or borrowed from various gay youth groups I went to: The Milkman’s On His Way by David Rees; 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous by Graeme Aitken; Sucking Sherbert Lemons  - and its sequels by Michael Carson. And they were fabulous! If you fancy a bit of a retro camp laugh, you could do a lot worse than Aitken or Carson, I can assure you.

At university. When I’d sort of settled into being gay, I really got involved in chick lit. Just before uni, in my gap year, I was at a YHA in Australia flicking through the ‘bring a book, take a book’ section and among all the science fiction I’d already read, and black spy horror books I wouldn’t touch with someone else’s bargepole, I noticed a purple book which caught my eye: the Llama Parlour by Katty Lette. Can I buy a vowel, as the Americans say. But, Oh. My. God. I’d found my people, I’d found my humour, I’d found my fiction. It was a whole new genre I never knew existed, and in fairness it was probably pretty much in its infancy then, compared to now. I went to a book shop clutching this paperback, which I took all the way home from Australia - I still have it, I’m sentimental like that about books - and asked the assistant what other authors like that I should read. And from that moment, there was no stopping me: Marian Keyes, Jane Green, Lisa Jewell, Penny Vincenzi. One of my all time favourite books – and I’ve fought for years with being able to *come out* about this - is Rachel’s Holiday, by Marian Keyes. It’s about a woman who’s admitted into rehab because her family realise she has a really bad drugs and alcohol addiction. Can you spell funny and bittersweet?

Have you changed what you read as you've got older? Or have you stuck with pretty much the same genre through the years? What do you think of 'my' genres here? Love, hate, or meh? I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time

Liam Livings xx

4 Comments
Carol
20/9/2013 04:42:19 pm

How funny that you should mention Rachel's holiday. I got it as a free download to iBooks from Srabucks ages ago and read it on my summer holiday this year. I loved it too.

I went from Enid Blyton (Faraway Tree, Famous Five) to Judy Blume (including her iconic book in my secondary school - Forever - it was so 'naughty' we all read that I still can't believe it was in the school library). Like you, I'm now all about the chick lit cos I haven't got the time, energy or attention span to read anything harder or 'more grown up'.

Xxx

Reply
Liam Livings
21/9/2013 05:41:27 pm

Hi Carol, Glad you loved Rachel's Holiday too. I've not spoken to anyone who's not actually loved that book. On Marian's Website it's the highest rated of all her stories.
I read some Enid Blyton too, but not that much.
Nothing wrong with reading chick lit because it's not 'grown up' romance, is the most popular genre by a country mile, as I've learned from the Romantic Novelists Association.
xxx

Reply
Sylvia link
24/9/2013 09:39:16 pm

I don't read too much chick lit, but I usually find myself enjoying it when I do.

When I was younger I would read pretty much anything and everything. Animal Ark, The Worst Witch, and Mallory Towers were probably my first favourites, but I'd read anything I could get my hands on, basically anything I was allowed to check out of the library. Most I adored fantasy and books with talking or intelligent animals and magic.

In my teens I started to gravitate more towards horror and got into Stephen King.

Then at uni I started on fanfiction, and got more into romance, and now I just tend to read a few from each genre a year. I love paranormal stuff, romance or not (but they're usually romance anyway, really, aren't they?)

Most of all these days, I just like books that can depress me. If I cry or want to claw my heart out of my chest, I call it a win :D Huzzah for angst! \o/

Reply
Liam Livings
24/9/2013 11:44:56 pm

Hi Sylvia, I find that good chick lit is a welcome guilty pleasure.
They sound like magical childrens books you read. Did you enjoy The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?
I read some King too. Misery was great, as was Needful Things.
Good to see you 'mix it up' across the genres too!
If you want a book to make you cry, check out The Fault in Our Stars, or The Lovely Bones.
Liam

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    Gay romance & gay fiction author

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