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Where do all these strange books come from?

escargot1 said:
I'm currently working my way through the Pick Me Up magazine True Life Library. :D

er, I mean :shock:
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I wonder how much checking they do as to whether the stories actually are true, it's £500 a story, which isn't a bad return for a few hours writing....

But then they'd have to call it "Made It Up" Magazine....
 
I really do not understand the recent trend in "abuse porn" paperbacks... they even look the same with the cowering child's photo and the "handwritten" titles, who on earth buys these? I'm a social worker and I've worked with people who swap them at work for god's sake ("ooh, you must read this one, she gets locked in the coal shed"). I find work difficult enough to stomach recently, I don't see child abuse as "entertainment". :(
 
Timble2 said:
I wonder how much checking they do as to whether the stories actually are true, it's £500 a story, which isn't a bad return for a few hours writing....

But then they'd have to call it "Made It Up" Magazine....
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They're all true stories. Most have resulted in court cases which have been reported in the press so they can be checked in seconds with a quick google.

The magazine is made up almost entirely of readers' contributions, such as stories, tips, photos and jokes.

Tell you what, to prove it I'll send in a photo and see if it's published. ;)
 
escargot1 said:
Timble2 said:
I wonder how much checking they do as to whether the stories actually are true, it's £500 a story, which isn't a bad return for a few hours writing....

But then they'd have to call it "Made It Up" Magazine....
Click to expand...

They're all true stories. Most have resulted in court cases which have been reported in the press so they can be checked in seconds with a quick google.

The magazine is made up almost entirely of readers' contributions, such as stories, tips, photos and jokes.

Tell you what, to prove it I'll send in a photo and see if it's published. ;)
Click to expand...


Dagnabit! I thought they might actually check, I'll have to think of another money making scheme. Fire away with the photo Scargs. ;)
 
Tell you what. I'll come over and burn your house down, then you can hit them with your 'My Mad Internet Arsonist Stalker Ordeal!' story.
We can split the dosh. :D
 
Burning the house down's probably a bit excessive, though it would tidy the place up. You could just set the wheelie bin on fire and we could have "Near Miss Tragedy in My Mad Internet Arsonist Stalker Ordeal!'.....



And sell the story to the Daily Mail as well;

"Two weekly bin collection nearly causes tragedy"

"If the bin was emptied weekly then the mad arsonist wouldn't have been able to start a fire," said shocked householder....etc

OMG, I'm bored
 
Nice try, but the Daily Mail won't touch it unless you can throw in some benefit scoungers and a few immigrants. ;)

'Islamic householder who claims an amazing £20,000 in benefits is demanding a new wheelie bin at YOUR expense'.
 
In a story slightly related to the topic in hand, I notice that Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes - arguably the progenitor of all this "misery porn", has recently died.
 
Peripart said:
In a story slightly related to the topic in hand, I notice that Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes - arguably the progenitor of all this "misery porn", has recently died.
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But his books were better written and based on truth. Much as it pained some of his contemporaries to admit it.

It cant have rained as much as it did the film though. worse than Mombai in monsoon season.
 
ramonmercado said:
Peripart said:
In a story slightly related to the topic in hand, I notice that Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes - arguably the progenitor of all this "misery porn", has recently died.
Click to expand...
But his books were better written and based on truth. Much as it pained some of his contemporaries to admit it.
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Well, his mother disagreed with much of his more lurid stuff, but I'll concede that most of the book was almost certainly based on truth. Trouble is, all these other books claim to be true, too, whilst seeming to compete with each other in the search for the "perfect" awful childhood. I don't blame McCourt for telling his tale, but he certainly set a miserable ball rolling.
 
Neither Pelzer nor McCourt 'started' the misery memoir genre. Christina Crawford's 'Mommie Dearest' pipped them both in 1978. :lol:
 
I was in Cambridge yesterday, perhaps I've not been paying attention, but a new subgenre has gone mainstream and acquired it's own section in bookshops, eating into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Sections - Borders call it Paranormal Romance, Waterstones The Lady and the Vamp!

Yes, it's been around for a while, the vampire is the ultimate tall, dark handsome stranger, and truly mad, bad, and dangerous to know. In his prime a lot of women would have offered their heaving bosoms to Christopher Lee's Dracula, and more recently Angel and Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, were the bad boys that women go for. I suppose Ann Rice had a hand in it as well, though her vampires are pretty pansexual. However, on top of this there's always been a trickle of anaemic imitations. Unfortunately with Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, this bloodless version has gone mainstream, and even more pallid imitations are emerging - Mills and Boon with fangs.

Girls, vampires are supposed to be Dangerous, not just a bit moody with interesting cheekbones!


Can we have our evil vampires back please?
 
I suppose Ann Rice had a hand in it as well, though her vampires are pretty pansexual.

Is that people who get it on with the washing up?

Oh come on people that was one of my bestest jokes ever
*sigh*

I'll just get my coat
 
Those stories from Pick Me Up Magazine remind me of a similar magazine that a good female friend reads a lot of. We lived together a few years back, and the magazines were always around and so I'd end up reading them as well. So many of the stories were written in such and overblown and sensationalist tone as to be completely hilarious.

I remember one story, which if I tried to recount would simply sound like a tragic tale of a young man's suicide, but the way it was written it was so ridiculous that any time one of us mentions it now we both crack up laughing. Another story was about a ghostly figure with large blue eyes staring in at a window. Somehow we'd worked out that we'd both been picturing Elijah Wood as we read about it, so now it's become something of an in-joke - don't look out the windows at night, mind you don't see Elijah Wood staring in at you!

I can't imagine my friend would read the sort of "misery porn" described elsewhere in this thread, and as far as I know she doesn't read much true crime, but I imagine she'd enjoy the latter. She does enjoy crime/murder/etc documentaries and she reads a lot of Holocaust books and things about the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

I don't think there's anything sinister in her reading tastes at all. She's one of the least sinister people I know. The idea about gender differences is interesting, though, and something I'd never thought about. Would it seem more suspicious if she was a man? Assuming I knew the hypothetical him as well as I know her, I don't think I would find it so, but after thinking about it, I'm pretty sure other people would find him rather odd.
 
Oh, I love those misery mags! :D

As my old granddad'd say,

There's always some poor bugger worse off than'ee. ;)

There's a definite Jeremy Kyle theme, isn't there?

I mean, you feel sorry for the woman whose boyfriend ran off with her sister, until you look at the pictures and note that all three of them have more tattoos than teeth. :lol:
 
Is it possible that people like them because a happy ending is implied? The abuse victim has become strong enough to write a book and in the reader's mind, attain fame and fortune - which seems to be all that a lot of people want.
 
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