Comments on: Romance Novels as an “Addiction”

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:10:12 +0000

Heloise wrote:

I can’t help but notice the irony of using a ‘long term healthy relationship’ metaphor to describe your experience reading books that are about the most exciting, often short lived aspect of ‘long term healthy relationships.’

Holy resurrected posts!

I agree that novels focus on those exciting aspects of new love or love in conflict.

I don’t think a quiet satisfied long term marriage would be that fun to read about.

But…

azteclady wrote:

I mean, for a romance novel to be satisfying for me, I need to believe these two people will make it after the lust/pheromones driven period has passed–in other words, that there is a chance for them to have their highs and lows the way Kristie describes them.

If after reading a novel I don’t think that the protagonists can cope with boredom, illness, financial setbacks, etc. together… well, then it’s not a successful romance for me.

I also agree with Azteclady’s points.

By: azteclady

azteclady — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:40:13 +0000

But are the books really all about the short lived aspect of relationships?

I mean, for a romance novel to be satisfying for me, I need to believe these two people will make it after the lust/pheromones driven period has passed–in other words, that there is a chance for them to have their highs and lows the way Kristie describes them.

If after reading a novel I don’t think that the protagonists can cope with boredom, illness, financial setbacks, etc. together… well, then it’s not a successful romance for me.

So yeah, I’m projecting my expectations on the couple at the end, but the writer builds the foundation for those, and if it’s not sound, well…

By: Heloise

Heloise — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:38:27 +0000

I can’t help but notice the irony of using a ‘long term healthy relationship’ metaphor to describe your experience reading books that are about the most exciting, often short lived aspect of ‘long term healthy relationships.’

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:40:44 +0000

Kristie– that’s a great metaphor. Having been married for 12 years, I definitely get where you are coming from. Maybe I should try to use the more positive metaphor of a long, healthy relationship from now on to counteract all the addiction metaphors out there!

By: Kristie(J)

Kristie(J) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:47:38 +0000

I kind of compare my reading of romance novels to marriage. When I first came back to them after an absence of a few years, it was like the first bloom of being married. Everything was exciting and I discovered so many great books that got me all excited. Years later in my romance reading, it’s more of a comfortable familiar feeling. I still get the occasional real high from reading a spectacular one. But it’s still of great comfort reading them. Just like in a marriage of some years, it’s the comfort of it that is the best part.
And sometimes reading romance books just looses its appeal (just like in a marriage some days you don’t think you can live with your partner one more day *g*). But then that feeling goes away and the desire for romance comes back.
Don’t know if any of that makes sense or not *g* but that’s kind of how I see it – a life long love affair with different stages.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:14:05 +0000

Christine, I think having the many subgenres is huge. I personally cycle through historical, contemporary and paranormal.

And I love the way you put this:

It’s fuel for the soul and who could ever burn out from that?

Who could, indeed?

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:55:08 +0000

I don’t think I could EVER get burned out from reading romance. I’ve only been reading romance novels for the last two years, but I’ve loved and craved any kind of romance since I was a preteen whether it be the romance in all kinds of movies (not just chick flicks) or even in TV shows. Heck, I even wanted romance in real life! Actually, I still do. And thanks to my husband of 15 years, I have that and I’ll never get tired of romance. It’s fuel for the soul and who could ever burn out from that?

I think I can echo what MoJo, Taja and Jessica said in that I may get tired of a specific subgenre, like say vampire paranormals. But with the amount of variety in romance subgenres these days, by the time I explore other genres, there will be something new and refreshing in vampire romance again. To have something different to look forward to whether you’ve decided to explore a new romance genre or you’re coming back to one that you put aside for a while, kind of makes being a romance reader rather fun, don’t you think?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:49:42 +0000

I agree with you, Moriah, on the “feeling overwhelmed” bit. I read several multi-author blogs which post upwards of a dozen reviews a week, and I have to remind myself that not every person writing on that site is reading all of those books, or if they are, maybe they don’t have jobs and kids, but are in a place in their lives that affords hours a day of leisure (Or maybe maybe reviewing IS their job? Or they are Adderall addicts?).

Taja, that’s good advice. I think I need to lay off historicals right now, for example, so I just started Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace last night, and I am finding it so different in style and tone that I have to keep rereading paragraphs. (Actually, I am not even sure that book counts as a “romance” at all).

By: Taja

Taja — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:46:22 +0000

I started to read romance novels a couple of years ago. Since then, I had times I couldn’t/didn’t want to pick up a romance novel, lasting up to several months. Obviously, I always came back and I not once thought “I’m done with them.”

With the benefit of hindsight, I think each time it happened when I read too many similar stories (I started with historicals). There are only so many feisty, foot stomping and curls tossing heroines I can stomach before I’m fed up with them (and I didn’t have a high tolerance for them to begin with). I soon branched out and now I read all kinds of romance novels. And I try to vary the sub-genres I read. Again, there are only so many angsty vampires …

So I would say, it’s not reading romance per se that gets you burned out, it’s reading the same sub-genre or the same type of hero/heroine that leads you there. There’s definitely a cycle there, IMO. But then, having read romance novels for some years now, my tastes have changed (evolved?). Novels I once thought okay don’t cut it any more (and I tend to see this as another kind of cycle). I still find romances that get me my “high” (probably even more because of all the blogs now); and it helps that I’m interested in stories, like why they work or don’t work, so there is something for me aside from the “high.”

But who knows? Give me a few years, and romance novels per se might not cut it any more.

By: MoJo

MoJo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:48:47 +0000

I cycle through all my interests. I have too many to juggle all at once and some lose my interest over time, so I pick up something else to juggle. I may come back to it; I may not.

With romance, I missed the back half of the ’90s and front half of the ’00s. I wasn’t writing, so I wasn’t reading it, either, plus, I had too much to do in my real life.

Instead of feeling refreshed coming back to it, though, I felt overwhelmed because I didn’t know any of the authors (“bestseller”? 15 books on the shelves? Never heard of her), and the landscape had changed so drastically. So I fell back on historicals and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I’m only now beginning to crawl out of that hole and I’m feeling overwhelmed again because there are so many more choices now than there were before.