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09/20/2005: "Chick lit"
Song of the Day: Tori Amos - Liquid Diamonds
I hit the jackpot today when I checked out Borders' 3 for 2 book sale - they had both The Time Traveler's Wife and the fourth book in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next quartet, which were both books I'd been dying to buy, as well as a few intriguing titles to pick from for the third (I ended up with Carlos Ruiz Zafron's The Shadow Of The Wind - I usually don't like buying books I haven't read before, so we'll see how it is).
The last time I went in there, the 3 for 2 sale included The Time Traveler's Wife, but nothing else that I wanted to buy - it was all chick-lit. And I have major issues with chick-lit.
Chick-lit, as it's been branded, is like Bridget Jones. Hundreds of pages of prose about weight loss, dating, fashion, and not much else. Sure, I found Bridget Jones endearing, but then again, I only saw the movie. I just can't fathom why the market has been flooded with hundreds of chick-lit novels.
You can always tell chick-lit by its cover. It's one of two things - a picture of shoes, or a cartoon of some impossibly skinny, lanky, leggy woman in a fablulous outfit. Just as the content of the books are wanting for some variation, so are the covers.
And the term "chick-lit" is possibly what infuriates me the most about the whole situation. It either implies A) the "chicks" in these books are completely representative of the female population as a whole (which is entirely possible, but those who know me know that I'd never be lumped in with them), or B) these books are the only sorts of books that "chicks" read.
I'm a girly girl. I like reading about fashion and makeup in women's magazines. But I'm a girly girl with a brain. I want novels to be at least a little intellectually stimulating.
Replies: 3 Comments
Oh no. You like pink and girly things. You can't like intellectually stimulating material or it will make pretentious peoples' heads explode.j@inlucesco.com">j!!, Wednesday, September 21st
<3 J. :D :DBrooke, Wednesday, September 21st
You can love me, because that is your duty, but where are my cookies?j!!, Wednesday, September 21st