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TRASH FICTION: This is how it works. The books are grouped in various loose categories. These are not mutually exclusive, so Barrie Keeffe's legendary No Excuses turns up in both the rock & roll and the t.v. tie-in sections. (On reflexion, it might be appropriate for the comedy category as well.) There's also an A-Z index of both book titles and authors. Virtually all pictures are links. Each book is listed with publishing details, the blurb from the back of the cover and my own comments on it. This is followed by an entirely spurious rating, a mark out of five in each of three categories:
Entertainment Value Hipness Quotient Artistic merit is a relative term - you're not going to find much here to rival Evelyn Waugh or PG Wodehouse for elegance of style, but Fuel-Injected Dreams is a better written book than Diary of a Female Wrestler, and it'd be churlish not to mention the fact. Entertainment value is perhaps more what you're after from an exploitation novel. At a basic level: is it physically possible to read the book in question? If so, will it bring you any pleasure or amusement? Drummer is by any objective artistic standards (assuming such things exist) a load of old tosh, but it's cracking fun. The other key question is: how cool is this book? Is it worth leaving in a visible position when you've got people coming round? In this calculation, the cover and theme are perhaps more important than contents; my assessment is given here in the score for Hipness Quotient. Even if it's as unreadable as Guerrilla, it might still make for a conversation piece. All comments and ratings are mine, and are entirely subjective, but I'm more than happy to enter into argument on any of them, and to make adjustments if you feel really stongly about anything. I'm also happy to receive any contributions, either additions to existing entries or assessments of other books. Or if you have a site you want to link. Get in touch and argue the toss. This site should expand as time goes on. Check out the what's new section from time to time.
Alwyn W Turner At the last count, there were more than 1300 pages on this site. If you get lost, click on the logo in the top left of the screen, and it'll bring you back here.
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