Pride and Prejudice was the kintsugi of that snobbery. Yes, it's a romance AND it's literature.
A few years ago, I heard a romance author say romance novels are all about hope. The social contract between the author and reader is that there will be an HEA. As the reader, the hope of that HEA bleeds into other areas of your life.
I started the journey into romance novels with the hope of hope. If Katherine Center wrote it or Julia Whelan narrated it (or wrote it), I'm there. Yes--most of my reading is listening.
I was literally just talking about this with friends on Friday. When I was younger, and thought “literature” was all that I had time to ingest, I worked outside of Wiscasset Maine. The only bookstore was entirely filled with romance novels —top to bottom, side to side, not even the smallest section on Eastern European post-modern writings. The owner explained to me that the formulaic nature of the fiction kept her customers returning for more: pretty people, exotic locales, a bunch of sex, conflict and resolution in the end —everything missing from (most of) our lives.
I do not know that the bookstore is still open, but at the time it was living its best life.
I went through the romance snob phase myself during college when I was reading "real" literature. I am very glad to have moved past that version of myself!
I, too, was a lit snob.
Pride and Prejudice was the kintsugi of that snobbery. Yes, it's a romance AND it's literature.
A few years ago, I heard a romance author say romance novels are all about hope. The social contract between the author and reader is that there will be an HEA. As the reader, the hope of that HEA bleeds into other areas of your life.
I started the journey into romance novels with the hope of hope. If Katherine Center wrote it or Julia Whelan narrated it (or wrote it), I'm there. Yes--most of my reading is listening.
Thanks for a great read!
I was literally just talking about this with friends on Friday. When I was younger, and thought “literature” was all that I had time to ingest, I worked outside of Wiscasset Maine. The only bookstore was entirely filled with romance novels —top to bottom, side to side, not even the smallest section on Eastern European post-modern writings. The owner explained to me that the formulaic nature of the fiction kept her customers returning for more: pretty people, exotic locales, a bunch of sex, conflict and resolution in the end —everything missing from (most of) our lives.
I do not know that the bookstore is still open, but at the time it was living its best life.
My indulgence of choice is cheesy thriller novels. Thanks for the permission to continue reading The Davinci Code guilt-free. :)
I went through the romance snob phase myself during college when I was reading "real" literature. I am very glad to have moved past that version of myself!