Poll

Romance is a broad category; this poll includes a mix of the most popular 2009 titles on Goodreads in historical romance, romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and paranormal romance.

Nice to see that GR at least tried to make the effort :)

Thank you for finally posting this poll! Romance tends to get a bad rap, but today's novels are not exactly your mother's old bodice rippers. Romance novels account for over 1/3 of all sales in popular fiction and 1/2 of all paperback sales last year. GR should recognize their devoted romance readers. There are a LOT of them! :)

Thank you for recognizing the popularity of romance and adding this category.

Thank you so much, Jessica:) It's good to know that GR is sensitive to reader needs.

Thanks Jessica. This is very much appreciated.

I've only read ONE of the books listed on this poll and it wasn't a 5-star read, so I can't vote. But I'm glad to see GR acknowledging that romance novels are important enough to deserve its own poll. Better late than never. Thanks, Jessica! :)

Thanks for recognizing Goodreads members' love of romance!

Thanks for posting a poll for us romance lovers! There are a lot of devout romance readers here on GR! :)

I'm surprised Twilight wasn't up there...

Ella wrote: "I'm surprised Twilight wasn't up there..."

These are books published in 2009.

This poll is very much appreciated :) It's about time Romance books get some credit when credit is deserved.

I would have thought that something from J.R. Ward would be on the list :(

And Destined For An Early Grave is Urban Fantasy, not Romance.

There are other "mistakes" on the poll and a lot of romance readers have said so but just didn't comment in the thread. It wasn't well-researched.

The Goodreads Choice Awards polls are not compiled based on market research or an editor's preference, they are based on statistics--how popular a book is on Goodreads and how it is typically shelved. The books listed on the romance poll have both a high number of ratings and also are strongly shelved as romance. For example, Destined for an Early Grave is strongly shelved as paranormal romance.

So it's a sort of lemming thing. Everyone else is running off the cliff, so I will too. That just about sum it up?

That might be Jessica but it's still incorrectly shelved and GR should have known that. If you're a UF and PNR reader you'd know the difference and would be pretty mad going to the store/library to pick up a paranormal romance only to be stuck with urban fantasy that doesn't have the same focus. "Silent on the Moor" has a similar problem. If all your polls are like this then you're misleading readers who want to try something different because you're giving incorrect category information.

I am one of those people who originally shelved Destined For An Early Grave as paranormal romance, but I have to agree that it is urban fantasy after finally reading it. Great book!

People, people just be happy we have a poll. Nitpick later, when I'm sure feedback will be welcomed.

Manda wrote: "Ella wrote: "I'm surprised Twilight wasn't up there..."

These are books published in 2009."

Oh. Sorry! :)

Grr...Diana Gabaldon is NOT romance! In a praphrase of her own words (from "The Outlandish Companion"), "A romance is the story of the courtship; I wanted to tell the story of a MARRIAGE." Yes, there are romantic elements, but overall it's a work of historical fiction and fantasy.

Emiline wrote: "Grr...Diana Gabaldon is NOT romance! In a praphrase of her own words (from "The Outlandish Companion"), "A romance is the story of the courtship; I wanted to tell the story of a MARRIAGE." Yes, the..."

Once again--this poll is comprised of books that READERS classified as romance.

Many romance readers classify Gabaldon as romance regardless of whether she considers herself romance or not.

My Barnes and Noble shelves Gabaldon in BOTH the romance and the general fiction sections.

I know MANY, MANY romance readers who classify Gabaldon as romance. And to be pedantic about it, there are MANY, MANY romances that also tell the story of a marriage. Not the courtship. I could name several by Eloisa James alone.

Jessica was good enough to create this poll for us. It's not perfect. I realize that there are a couple of books in this poll that are more romantic elements than straight up romance, but there is some wiggle room. The books in this poll are MUCH closer to romance than the books in the ChickLit poll were to being actual ChickLit.

So let's all just chillax.

Emiline wrote: "Grr...Diana Gabaldon is NOT romance! In a praphrase of her own words (from "The Outlandish Companion"), "A romance is the story of the courtship; I wanted to tell the story of a MARRIAGE." Yes, the..."

I agree and also see it as more historical fiction (except maybe the first one, lol!) but that is the problem with relying on how the books are shelved. Not everybody will agree on where it belongs. However, in this case more people shelved it as historical fiction (104) vs. romance (40)...though some may have shelved it as both I guess.

Eastofoz wrote: "That might be Jessica but it's still incorrectly shelved and GR should have known that. If you're a UF and PNR reader you'd know the difference and would be pretty mad going to the store/library t..."

I have the first three in this series and two of them say PNR right on the spine. UF and PNR, like many genres, can have a lot of cross over. And not everyone will agree how to classify a book.

I'm not crazy about romance... I dunno why I'm chatting here then...

Emiline wrote: "Grr...Diana Gabaldon is NOT romance! In a praphrase of her own words (from "The Outlandish Companion"), "A romance is the story of the courtship; I wanted to tell the story of a MARRIAGE." Yes, the..."

I can't even begin to say how much I agree with this. I was so upset to see her book placed in that category. Anyone who read this book would know this is not where it belongs.

Calafiorecaol.com wrote:

"Emiline wrote: "Grr...Diana Gabaldon is NOT romance! In a praphrase of her own words (from "The Outlandish Companion"), "A romance is the story of the courtship; I wanted to tell the story of a MAR..."

I can't even begin to say how much I agree with this. I was so upset to see her book placed in that category. Anyone who read this book would know this is not where it belongs.

Are you saying that those who catergorized Gabaldon's book as romance are lying about having read the book? Clearly many people did label the book as romance since readers'shelving determined the books included in this poll.

I believe someone said 40 people categorized it as romance. And personally I don't consider that alot when you look at how many people read Diana's books or when you compare it to the number someone said classified it historical fiction, which is what it is. I've also seen Diana speak about people classifying her books as romance, she as the author does not like it or agree with it. Am I saying they didn't read it, not necessarily, however I will say they didn't read it very well. And that's my opinion, it doesn't have to be yours.

Calafiorecaol.com wrote: "I believe someone said 40 people categorized it as romance. And personally I don't consider that alot when you look at how many people read Diana's books or when you compare it to the number someon..."

One thing to keep in mind is that many people do not shelve their books into categories at all beyond the default shelves of "read", "to-read", or "currently reading". In fact, there may very well be more people who don't do it then there are people who do, so 40 people shelving it as romance is not necessarily reflective of the actual readership by itself. However, if you look at the members who have shelved it into other categories as a sample of the whole readership it does seem to indicate that more people consider it historical fiction or another category other than romance.

This is why I'm confused as to how it got into the romance poll. I'd like to see the data where all the choices came from. It doesn't really bother me that people think of it as romance - to each his own. But I'm just curious, considering the shelves that are showing on the book detail page, how it got to be included in the romance poll vs. the fiction poll.

I think it is great that GR is doing this and I realize it is the first try and will be a learning experience. I also understand how they would want to use the shelving data as the criteria, but I think there are just a lot of inherent problems with doing it this way. Maybe next year they might consider letting people nominate books in advance, add a write-in vote, and expand the categories beyond a top level genre.

One reason this categorization is a bit of a problem is that people will likely use the polls for ideas on good books. Those looking at the Romance category will assume that Echo is a romance and pick it up expecting romance, only to discover that it isn't really a romance. Further, categorizing Echo into Romance may skew the vote because people will be voting in this category who don't even typically read romance and who perhaps haven't read any of the other Romance choices.