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How Did You Get Into Reading Romances?
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message 51:
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Lisa Kay, Tinker Bell
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Sep 01, 2015 09:54AM
Oh, yes. Love the gowns, Margaret.
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I started reading romances when I was about 13 years old. My mother had some romance books. Then there was an older girl in our neighbour who read harlequins and she borrowed them to me. Later I became very religious and stopped reading romances for many, many years. One day I was in flea market and saw an old harlequin (felt very nostalgic) and bought it. Since then I have been reading romances almost every day. I also started reading them in english because there wasn't enough reading material in my language and the translations aren't very good. For example slang and jokes etc. don't translate well. First it was very difficult to read in english and I had to use translation book a lot. I like historical romances and recently have been reading more contemporary romances and erotic romances. Life is enough depressing so I don't want to read depressing books. I want to have HEA.
True about HEA endings, Katariina.
I have been reading since i 11 years old and i started with Nancy Drew. I remember going to my cosin's house and psetering her to let me borrow one book ( she had the whole serise ). So every time i went she would let me borrow a book eventualy she gave the whole series. After i finished that series i got intreasted in the V.C. Andrews books ( don't read much of those anymore ) and i always loved the ( Francine Pascal Series Sweet Valley High ) i used to love reading those books. My mom also had a collection of harlequin romances that i would sneak and read because my mom did not like me reading them. That is how it started and my dad ( who passed away Oct 15 ) did help me get romance books to read.
Joeera, I loved those Nancy Drew books. My grandmother would buy them for me. I'm not sure what happened to them, but I sure wish I still had them.
I still have the whole series that my cousin gave me.
Nancy came in second to my Black Stallion books. I was such a Walter Farley fan in my childhood! ♥♥
Amanda wrote: "I've always loved to read, probably since the day I learned to. Loved the princesses growing up and any fairy tale cartoon that had that happily ever after....romantic movies as well that weren't c..."Exactly like you said, Amanda! For me was the same!!!
First the fairy tales and then all the rest! LOL
I've always read romance and I never stopped! But I love all the other genres: I grow up when Fantasy was born, so I can truthfully say that for me Fantasy = Romance+Intrigue+warriors+magic! The same is for SF.
Basically I think that if a book is fincion, then in most genres you'll find romance woven into! It's unavoidable!
Even the classics are romance! Think Shakespeare! Who would twitch nose to his work!?! And shall we talk about Tolstoy? The snobs never read Anna Karenina?? Or Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak, or Great Gatsby...
Or Asimov, or Heinlain ... there're so many!!!!
So when people snob my romance books always say them that!
And look what happened with Gone With The Wind: when I was in elementary school it was considered romance, but nowdays it is an obligatory read in school!
So, my romantic friends, I'm happy to say to all that I read and love reading romance in all forms! And that means ALL boooks! :)
You're so right about GWtW. LOL!
@ Mei , not yet I'll take a look I remember when I first discovered romance books , I was 15 , I was spending summer holidays at my grandmother’s . One afternoon I was so bored I didn’t have anything to do ( no internet back then :) ) , I decided to go and look into my mom’s and aunt old room, I went through their old stuff and then I found a collection of harlequin books, I picked one out of curiosity and I started reading and I couldn’t stop. I was hooked on romance since then, especially the HEA ones, I believe that everyone deserves a HEA , it’s not a realistic thinking but I really hope so :)
Liliah, I agree, everyone
does
deserve a HEA.
HEA = Happily Ever After ☺
I remember having a conversation with my mom not too long ago (in the grand scheme of things) about romance novels. It started with 'your sister and I don't read smut, but I think you'll like this one". I think it was a BJ Daniels novel. I had to laugh when my sister followed it up with 'mom, you're reading 50 shades right now".There's just this aura surrounding the entire romance genre that for some reason still makes people avoid the genre or hide it when they read it. I think that the advent of ereaders has really helped this. People feel that they can now read whatever they'd like in public with noone the wiser because there's no cover for people to see.
@Jonel I have a kindle but I still feel uncomfortable reading smut in public , I always check if people are looking at me ( as if they know :D )
Thanks God for the privacy of the eareders!
I've always been a reader, fantasy, paranormal and the classics were my go to genre for a long time. The thing with me though is I love, love. My own Mr Darcy isn't very romantic which I forgive him for lol so I get my fix from books. There's something magical about old fashioned courtship, the clothes, the secrets looks and forbidden touches.
When I was in middle school, I had a girlfriend who was addicted to Romance...Harlequin, "Flowers in the Attic"...a bunch of different stuff I had never heard of. She would sneak these paperbacks into her math book and would be reading them in class. There was a whole group of us girls...none of us cool or popular, but really great friends-- and we would all go over to Romance girl's house after school-- (her house had a pool and the best snacks and super laid back parents so it was the natural hangout)-- and she would read to us from these books-- super sexy, tawdry stuff...all the love scenes....and we would sit there, enamored, eating it up with a spoon. We were all 13!--just starting to grow up, figure this stuff out- these books were our Bibles, our maps....we couldn't get enough. As I got older- Romance stuck with me- books, movies...I don't care--I'm a sucker for a good love story and sweet gestures. It just makes you feel happy! We all need a little more of that.
What a great memory, Katie! The world has changed so much and I really miss the laid back times of growing up in the 70's. No cell phones glued to our palms, no computers, texting, Facebook (UGH!) or Twitter... Don't get me wrong, technology has it's place, but "back in the day" we walked across the street and spoke to our friends face to face, or like you said, went to the favorite hangout spot to whisper secrets, discuss hopes and dreams, or just joke around and be together. I don't think our kids get that opportunity as often as we did.
Anyway, thanks for sharing such a happy memory!
Becky ♡The Bookworm♡ wrote: "What a great memory, Katie! The world has changed so much and I really miss the laid back times of growing up in the 70's. No cell phones glued to our palms, no computers, texting, Facebook (UGH!) ..."My pleasure, Becky! I smile whenever my mind goes back there-- happy times.:)
Loving the stories!
Very neat story, Katie. I could totally picture it.Yes, Becky, sometimes I wonder about it all. Thinking of taking a "tech free week-end" one of these days. Probably would be good for my soul.
Neat, Karishma. Love libraries. They open the world up to so many people.
Though I started reading novels at 12, I have been reading romance for around 2 yrs only. I was pregnant at that time and was very anxious. I needed something to keep my spirits up and happy. So I went to the library and picked up a romance novel ( which happened to be "The flame and the flower"). I loved it so much that I read all of KEW's books and continued reading historical romances. The HEAs make me happy anytime:)
Yup, HEA books come in very handy at times.
Not from my mother because she doesn't read romances. I'm just a romantic at heart, haha.
My mom always read romances and when I was about twelve or some, she started letting me read the cleaner ones and I was hooked. Now, I'm also a fan of horror, mystery, and suspense, but romances holds a special place in my heart. I love all sorts of romance, from the clean stuff to the spicy. It depends on what mood I'm in and I have nothing against any of the "heat levels". Mom was much the same way, so I guess I get my love of reading and non-judgmental approach to it from her.
My mom is a reader too so when I developed my love of reading, I guess I inherited her books.
Lisa Kay wrote: "Yup, HEA books come in very handy at times."You're so right!
I lived in rural IL growing up and didn't have alot of books to read noone took us to the library or bought us books. My Dad bought a set of Zane Gray books and I read them alot. I was very shy in school so didn't go to libray much but when I got out on my own the man I married was a reader and he took me and our boys when they were old enough to the Library and I read everything and when I started working I started buying books and the covers of Romance books just pulled me in. Then I worked for a company that owned a bookstore and I became addicted. I like all kinds of romance and I have 4 Kindles and 1 Nook all with alot of books mostly romance because I love HEA.
That is a wonderful story, Vicki! I remember reading several Zane Grey books back in my childhood.
Groovy wrote: "I have a question for everyone:What got you on the journey to reading romances?
For me, as a younger woman, I saw an ad in a newspaper from Harlequins. The book covers caught my attention, it wa..."
I too got into reading romance through Harlequinn. I used to pick up the books from my local thrift store for 25 cents each. I loved them all through high school and a little bit afterward until I started moving on up to full novels.
I joined 2 Harlequinn book clubs and was hooked.
*waves happily*I totally can't resist sharing on this one haha!
So I luuurved R.L. Stine books as a kid, specifically Fear Street. When I was 9, I ran outta FS books to read. I'd read them ALL. Dead serious.
Sooo my sister (11 years older) took me to the public library and introduced me to my first romance novel, Silver Angel. That summer, I read every single Johanna Lindsey novel I could find. Also dead serious.
And here I am 22 years later tee hee.
٩(๑•◡-๑)۶ ⒽⓤⒼ ❤,
Ann
Annie wrote: "*waves happily*I totally can't resist sharing on this one haha!
So I luuurved R.L. Stine books as a kid, specifically Fear Street. When I was 9, I ran outta FS books to read. I'd read them ALL...."
Awesome!
Uh-oh, confession time! I was browsing my library's paperback racks way back in the 60's when I was in my 20's and tried a few of those that would be called "dirty books". Found them eye-rolling ridiculous and/or just vulgar, so never read romance again, until after my husband passed away in '97. I watched the movie "Love Comes Softly" on the Hallmark Channel, and loved it. While the credits were rolling I saw it was based on a book by Janet Oke, and that began my foray into reading Christian fiction, especially romance.
The Michael Landon Jr. film adaption is much better than the book, because Clark's daughter Missy is about 10 years old in the film, and her interactions with her new stepmother Marty are priceless! Where in the book you miss all those because Missy is just an infant.
I was a Christian at that time, but these days I am a Naturalist- believing nothing exists outside the natural world. I still prefer "clean" reads, but not the god-talk/religious proselytizing, anymore.
I enjoy how I can relive the fun, and excitement my husband and I shared through lighthearted romance stories, if they are not full of ANGST and book-length ridiculous misunderstanding! Especially love witty banter and teasing.
I find that I tend to not like too much angst in my books as I've gotten older. I guess I have a smaller tolerance for the drama.
I'm pretty new to romance. Most of my life I've been a non-fiction reader, particularly history. I read every biography in my school library when I was in elementary school and particularly enjoyed the ones that were US History related. In high school, I discovered a love of literature courtesy of two wonderful English teachers, Alice White and Barbara Hughes. In college I read a mixture of non-fiction, as a history major, and literature since it was my minor, mostly reading classics (Poe, Hawthorne, Melville). For the next 35 years as a history teacher, I was mostly history related non-fiction. I am a Civil War reenactor and taught Civil War studies so the majority of my reading was in that time period.
When I retired I embarked on a writing career intending to write historical fiction. After 100,000 words of a Civil War Era trilogy, I started looking into the publishing and how to market my novels. I discovered that romance novels are the most popular genre in fiction. What I had already written had a very strong romantic element to it and I decided that it could be considered a romance novel. So I began researching the genre.
Last November I took the NaNoWriMo challenge and wrote the first 50,000 words of a contemporary romance that is now the prequel (in a weird sort of out of historical order kinda way) to my trilogy. I have been reading romance novels as fast as I can when I'm not writing since then.
My mother read romance all her life and I had always dismissed it as not real literature. But I think romance as a genre has come a long way and encompasses such a broad range of subgenres that it is far more complex than it used to be. I now love reading romance novels as much as I love writing them. I'm working on publishing my first novel, a contemporary second chance story that features a hero and heroine that are over 50, something I think is lacking in the current offerings.
So hopefully you all will enjoy reading my novel, "We Will Ne'er Be Younger" when it is released on November 10th of this year. In the meantime read on and keep the reviews coming. It helps those of us new to the genre winnow the chaff and get to the good stuff!
Good luck on your novel, Mary Ellen
I started reading romance when I graduated from my collection of Enid Blyton's children's books onto my mother's discarded historical novels. Decades later, historical romance remains my preferred reading genre.
About a year ago I found a contemporary romance on NetGalley. It was so out of my normal reads but I gave it a chance. I've graduated to actually buying inexpensive Kindle romance books, all contemporary, but I like the ones with little to no sex and I like it if they have some aspects of a literary story-line. Ultimately, I like the ones that end mostly feel-good
Liz wrote: "It was so out of my normal reads but I gave it a chance..."I have stepped out of my comfort zone this year and read lots of contemporary. I think its good to try something new now and then.
Just noticed this not-so-current thread but I had to comment because I was pondering this very question only yesterday. For me, my love affair with HEA's can be laid squarely at my older sister's feet. She was always leaving her romance novels lying around and me being an avid bookworm, I picked them up and the rest is history. Thanks Sis :).
Great Sis! My sister hates to read. She has never understood my obsession.
Pamela(AllHoney) wrote: "Great Sis! My sister hates to read. She has never understood my obsession."OMG. I can't even begin to comprehend someone who hates to read.
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