Guilty reads

We all have our guilty reads. (We call them toilet reads, to put a snobbish twist to it.) Mine are Agatha Christie, Leslie Charteris, Ian Fleming and (I am really exposing myself here) Harry Potter.

But according to Nick Turner of Guardian Unlimited, Steephen King has been crowned as the top of guilty reads in the UK.

"Stephen King: we love him, but we don't want people to know it."

Stephen King has apparently beaten JK Rowling to the title of the UK's favourite literary guilty pleasure. The survey was carried out on behalf of the Costa Book Awards 2006. Harry Potter came in a close second.

The report says: 85% of those surveyed admitted to having an author they turn to for sheer gratification, but whom they might not admit to reading in pubic. Third place was tied between John Grisham and Dan Brown, while the fourth position was a split between Danielle Steel and Catherine Cookson. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels were fifth.

"It is commonly acknowledged that many of us want to be seen to be reading a book in public that makes us look good … but as this survey demonstrates, most of us have an author we regularly turn to for an easy and enjoyable read."

Now you know.