Genre drug of choice

I love romance novels. I would rather read them than most other genres. Here's part something I wrote a while back that I would like to share in defense of this genre which has been often snubbed as light or poorly written literature.

Throughout this economic recession, the market for romance novels is increasingly successful. What is a better way to get your mind off everyday troubles than to read a nice, easy novel with a guaranteed happily-ever-after? In 2008, romance fiction in the U.S. generated $1.37 billion in sales. In addition, it remains the largest share of the consumer market at 13.5 percent. In North America, romance fiction comprises 54.5 percent of all popular fiction sold. Approximately one third of all women in the United States read romance.

Romance is women’s fiction, made by women for women. Thus, 90.5 percent of romance readers are women. The 2009 survey from the Romance Writer’s of America Assoc. reports that “the heart of the U.S. romance novel readership is women aged 31 to 49 who are currently in a romantic relationship.” In spite of its established readership, many readers are closet romance junkies.

            Closet romance junkies are any number of average people seen reading, on subways or in parks, but too embarrassed to admit that they enjoy romance novels because of the genre’s bad reputation for “trashy” novels. If called out on their choice of literature, closet junkies react with quick denial and profuse embarrassment. They will go to great lengths to hide this guilty pleasure. For instance, HIDEABOOK.com is an online business which caters to romance readers. The website advertises “stylish book covers for your trashy romance novels”, which are described to “protect paperback books and keep people wondering what you’re reading”.

            My pal Amanda, one of the same friends from high school who called the books “porn novels”, became a closet romance junkie after reading one from my favorite romance author— New York Times bestseller Sherrilyn Kenyon. A year or two later, I sent her another Kenyon novel as a gift. Upon receiving it, her roommate suggested that they flip through it to make fun of all the smutty parts. Later, I received a phone call from Amanda, complaining that there was too much plot because they could not readily find the sex scenes. I asked her, “What did you expect?” She said more sex scenes, though she still loved the book.

            As you saw in the example of Amanda, closet romance junkies will even feign dislike or a low opinion of the genre while around non-junkies. Yet soon as they are left alone, they head straight for the bookshelf. Some junkies even have a habit of bingeing, which usually occurs after a drought of romance in their reading repertoire or an instance of emotional excess. I plead guilty to the former, though I am proudly out of the closet.

My challenge to many people is try reading a romance novel. A real one from the romance aisle. A good one. There are dozens of sub-genres to search through (almost every fiction genre can be found as a romance sub-genre) and many many good authors to choose from. I mostly stick with action-paranormal romance novels myself.

As for the increased interest paranormal and supernatural in all genres of books (esp. romance novels), in movies, TV and other media, I will save that for another day... maybe tomorrow.