does anyone else ever read adult romance genre fiction?
sometimes i really like it. ive read a bit of it, maybe about 15 novels, both gay and straight romance. havent read any lesbian romance though.
i like being able to consume a book really quickly and easily. if im on holidays sometimes i just want to stay in bed for a day or two and read a novel without scrutinizing every word the way i tend to do with literary classics. i just want to consume something. i like reading something that i know its going to have a happy ending, i like knowing what im going to get. i usually like knowing that im going to laugh a lot and also its probably going to be a bit of a tear jerker, so its emotionally cathartic. i also like thinking about the ideas about relationships expressed through the characters, the ways that they negotiate intimacy, and the things that intervene in their connection, to do with their circumstances or culture or relationships with others. sometimes the other details can also be very interesting. often the author is dealing with the fact that they are writing in a climate in which their genre is scorned and so they are smuggling negotiations for the validity of their genre into the writing, or sometimes they are smuggling anti-artistic bitterness into the writing. sometimes they go way beyond all of that and they utilise the frameworks of the genre in a way that is very aware and literary.
i definitely think people treat the genre unfairly. most people who talk about how terrible it is havent actually read an example of it. it isnt for everyone, but theres nothing inherently bad about it, in the same way that theres nothing inherently bad about other genre fictions, like scifi and crime. some of it is poorly written, but in my opinion so is some (OK... my opinion is A LOT) of what positions itself as being more "literary" fiction. i get angry when people think that because someone reads romance genre fiction, that there is something about the personality of that individual that is deficient. who are those people to be so above others that they can judge them on the basis of the media that they prefer to consume? its none of their business.
anyway has anyone got any recommendations or want to chat about romance titles? i really like the contemporary stuff. i liked the Lisa Kleypas contemporary ones. does anyone read any of the RITA award winners or nominees? i read a Barbara Freethy novel called "The Way Back Home", it was pretty entertaining, i could understand why it won, because the plot was fairly complex but all the elements were really well integrated, and because traditionally popular american ideologies were expressed in a way that was more progressive and enlightened than some others ive read.
sometimes i really like it. ive read a bit of it, maybe about 15 novels, both gay and straight romance. havent read any lesbian romance though.
i like being able to consume a book really quickly and easily. if im on holidays sometimes i just want to stay in bed for a day or two and read a novel without scrutinizing every word the way i tend to do with literary classics. i just want to consume something. i like reading something that i know its going to have a happy ending, i like knowing what im going to get. i usually like knowing that im going to laugh a lot and also its probably going to be a bit of a tear jerker, so its emotionally cathartic. i also like thinking about the ideas about relationships expressed through the characters, the ways that they negotiate intimacy, and the things that intervene in their connection, to do with their circumstances or culture or relationships with others. sometimes the other details can also be very interesting. often the author is dealing with the fact that they are writing in a climate in which their genre is scorned and so they are smuggling negotiations for the validity of their genre into the writing, or sometimes they are smuggling anti-artistic bitterness into the writing. sometimes they go way beyond all of that and they utilise the frameworks of the genre in a way that is very aware and literary.
i definitely think people treat the genre unfairly. most people who talk about how terrible it is havent actually read an example of it. it isnt for everyone, but theres nothing inherently bad about it, in the same way that theres nothing inherently bad about other genre fictions, like scifi and crime. some of it is poorly written, but in my opinion so is some (OK... my opinion is A LOT) of what positions itself as being more "literary" fiction. i get angry when people think that because someone reads romance genre fiction, that there is something about the personality of that individual that is deficient. who are those people to be so above others that they can judge them on the basis of the media that they prefer to consume? its none of their business.
anyway has anyone got any recommendations or want to chat about romance titles? i really like the contemporary stuff. i liked the Lisa Kleypas contemporary ones. does anyone read any of the RITA award winners or nominees? i read a Barbara Freethy novel called "The Way Back Home", it was pretty entertaining, i could understand why it won, because the plot was fairly complex but all the elements were really well integrated, and because traditionally popular american ideologies were expressed in a way that was more progressive and enlightened than some others ive read.
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