King takes literary guilty pleasure crown

LONDON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A survey commissioned by this year's Costa Book Awards found that horror author Stephen King is the top guilty pleasure writer for British literature fans.

The Guardian reported that with 85 percent of those surveyed admitting that they have a favorite guilty pleasure author, King narrowly beat "Harry Potter" creator J.K. Rowling for the top spot on the literary list.

"The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown and legal drama writer John Grisham tied for third on the list, while author Catherine Cookson and romance novelist Danielle Steele tied for fifth.

Taking up the list's sixth spot was fantasy author Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld series helped confirm his position on the guilty pleasure list.

"It is commonly acknowledged that many of us want to be seen to be reading a book in public that makes us look good," Simon Trewin, co-author of "The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures -- 1001 Things You Hate to Love," told the paper, "but as this survey demonstrates, most of us have an author we regularly turn to for an easy and enjoyable read."