(no subject)

[skygiants]

So yes, I used to be one of those people who had nothing but contempt for romance novels based on little evidence but a general feeling of EW ROMANCE NOVEL COOTIES. You would not catch me dead reading one, you definitely would not catch me dead reading one in a public place; this is especially ridiculous considering the sheer novel of terrible, terrible books I read as a young teenager. Including Piers Anthony. Including The Color Of Her Panties. (Which, to my everlasting shame, I then passed on to my little brother, who passed it on to his BFF, who had to make a brown paper cover so he could take it to school without getting In Trouble With The Authorities. BUT I DIGRESS.)

But then I grew older, and started finding more shiny ways to procrastinate on the internet, and I started reading the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site - and you know what, the ladies over there make some good points about the general dismissal of romance as a genre. Especially by people who have never really read a romance. Which, at the time, included me. So I am thinking, perhaps this is a thing I should fix! Perhaps I should broaden my horizons. I adore Georgette Heyer, who is classed as romance; I love Lois McMaster Bujold, who is not classed as romance but often easily could be; I have a guilty love for Sharon Shinn, who totally should be classed as romance even if she usually is not. Why should I assume that I would not enjoy well-written romance novels?

Then I went and bought Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, which is not actually a romance novel, but it did seem like the least I could do considering all the staving-off-boredom-during-work the website has brought me. Which was extremely enjoyable, if slightly repetitive in places, and read very much like a book-shaped version of the site. However, that did not actually fix the expanding-my-horizons problem, although it does technically count for my distressingly neglected nonfiction count for the year.

Anyway, having started to think about my own attitudes towards romance novels, I now turn to my flist for your expert opinion.

[Poll #1390713]

Comments

[skygiants]

This is also a book I would read in a heartbeat! BRING ON THE ZOMBIE HEROES, say I.

I do too, sort of, but it took me time to develop the genre-cliche aversion to fantasy novels (you do not want to know how many Tolkein ripoffs I read in my teens before I realized . . . they were all Tolkein ripoffs. Um. SOMETIMES I AM SLOW), whereas the romance novel genre-cliche aversion came from without rather than within, I think. And thus I examine my prejudices! While still wanting to actually read good books, obviously.

[areyoumymemmy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that. Romance novels were not what "smart girls" read, so I didn't read a ton of them growing up. Smart Bitches helped me change my mind on that, as did realizing that romance was a pretty broad category.

I still like romance that happens in and around other things, though! Like if you are on the run from the bird mafia with your zombie ex-boyfriend who wants revenge on the capon who killed him but it gets complicated when you fall in love with an enforcer duck and must choose between the rapidly decaying former love of your life and the sweet-and-sour duck who might be the future love of your life while also fighting off killer pigeons? I would love that book forever.

[skygiants]

Yeah, exactly. It was bad enough fending off the 'why are you reading sci-fi? WHY AREN'T YOU READING WAR AND PEACE?' growing up; I could defend the sf/f, but defending romance would have been a lot more challenging.

Dude, I may have to write that book. Alternately, pitch it to Disney! (Come on, they love heartwarming movies about anthropomorphic birds. Maybe not about zombies so much, but zombies are hot right now, they can probably be talked into it.)

[areyoumymemmy.livejournal.com]

DO IT. OH! Alternately we could write it together as an old-fashioned serial, but online!

[skygiants]

I am so up for jumping on this train for you! LET'S DO IT. *SHINY EYES*