Thursday, August 20, 2009

While the mice are away...

WRITERS WORKSHOP PROMPT: What will you be doing now that the kids are back in school?




"Guys, I'm eating junk and watching rubbish! You better come out and stop me!" ~Kevin, Home Alone.

We got cable TV at our house during my impressionable pre-teen years and I loved it. So many channels, so many movies, so many scrumptiously edgy music television stars. Yes I did want my MTV. But I also wanted what I shouldn't. I wanted to slide the lever on the control box up to the forbidden channels. I knew they contained rubbish unbecoming to a young mind and I so wanted to sneak a (itty, bitty) peak. And this curiosity wasn't limited to the television set, I wanted to read "chapter nine" books too (my sister and I called them this because it was always around the ninth chapter that things got steamy) the shame of it all.

But now that I'm older and far more particular about what I want floating around in my mind (I really do try to seek after good things) I have tried to abandon unbecoming stories on television and in books alike. I don't want to hear or read bad language and I'm not interested in seeing or reading the explicit details of one's (or two's) personal business, no more chapter nine books for me. So I'm a little ashamed to admit that while my kids have been away at school I have been reading smut (and eating junk too. I got LOTS of chocolate for my birthday).

I told you in my last post about the book that I can't recommend, in good conscience, but that I couldn't put down either. This book is full of explicit language (really bad), explicit "love" scenes (bad, bad) and horrible--fist clenching, teeth grinding, MADDENING-- infidelity (I just wanted to jump in there and strangle someone) and you my dear friends still, even after my careful warning, can't wait to hear the name of it...for shame.

So I, against my better judgement, will tell you...

It is called Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston and I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT (but tomorrow I will tell you why I didn't put it down even though I should have, why I loved it, and how it has helped to make my marriage better than ever... all without giving away anything from the book of course).

9 comments:

stephanie said...

love it!!! found you from mamakat.

my sister and i had this small black and white tv we would put with the back facing the door of our bedroom so our parents wouldn't see the trash we were watching in our preteen years. good times, good times...

Claudya Martinez said...

Well, I'm intrigued.

KatBouska said...

I love this post!! I love that SO do not reccommend a book that you absolutely reccommend.

You crack me up!

The Royal Family said...

thanks for vising. cute blog

Jessica B Photography said...

About a year or two ago, I picked up The Memory Keeper's Daughter (forgot the author's name) thinking it would be good - twisting plots, secrets, loss & mourning, etc. However, the story took a turn for the worse when the wife decided to be unfaithful to her husband (who lied to her in the first place!) It ended up being (in my opinion) awful, vomitous, and a wretched life for these characters. But I felt like I had to finish it. I couldn't walk away from it, leaving me hanging, without knowing how truly awful it was. Ugh.

Oooh, last novel I read was The Well & The Mine by Gin Phillips and I really like that one. And it fits the bill of clean-ness.

Tara McClendon said...

I think it's safe to say recommended with reservations: do not condone said actions. :]

Los said...

I have no kids ... yet ... so, now that kids are back in school, I'll be dealing with more traffic going to work ... sigh.

~~Mel~~ said...

Definitely going to check this out! Thanks!

MaryRC said...

putting it on the reading list now!