Guilty Pleasures . . . Why hide them?

We all have those few authors that we hide in the back of the bookcase. My question is why? Why are we guilty of reading? Just because it is a “trashy romance novel” or “beach read” does not make it bad. Yet, we hide them in among the classics and old literature class textbooks as if we are ashamed. I have to confess that I still have books that I refer to as guilty pleasures, but I have come to embrace the quick read and own up to my guilty pleasures. As an English major, writer, and teacher I read constantly. If I am not reading I am writing. However, every once in a while in between the “greatest American novel” and the “100 Best of British Poets”, I need time to let my brain relax a bit. Read a book that makes me laugh out loud or taps in to my delusional romantic fantasies.

In today’s crazy and hectic world people are always on the go. I always have something that needs to be done. Clean the apartment, write a story, finishing reading for class, finish reading for the lesson, write a lesson plan, grade papers—I could continue the list, but I think my point was made. When in between all my responsibilities in life do I have time to just relax and do something for me? That is all guilty pleasures really are. They are the singer that we blast in the car on the drive home from work, or the author we read after finishing a long paper. They are the things we keep around to make ourselves feel better when we are having a bad day or to give our brain a break when it has been working on overdrive for days.

I think that we hide them not out of embarrassment, but selfishness. Most of us don’t care who knows about our guilty pleasures, but we don’t want them to join us. We want to be able to blast the music and sing badly off key to an empty room or to curl up in the corner of the couch and laugh hysterically at a book without questions from others. Our guilty pleasures act as the solitary activity we hold just for ourselves. Whether it is wacky and crazy or simply reading getting lost in the fantasy world of a good book, it is ours. Everyone needs to keep that one thing especially for themselves otherwise we lose our sense of individuality.

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