You Won't Believe What I'm Reading

[mtlawson]

I've been reading, but alas, it's non-fiction at the moment.

Still, the title ought to give a few people pause:  Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels, by Sarah Wendell (aka Smart Bitch Sarah) from smartbitchestrashybooks.com.

Yes, you read that right.

No, I'm not planning on starting a romance novel habit.

I am enjoying the book a

Comments

[amusingmuse]

I double dip. I prefer reading Regency romances. A good one has plenty of witty repartee or amusing antics to make me chuckle. My husband made some snide remarks about romance and I finally dug out one of my Barbara Metzger's. I heard chuckles and laughs out of him as he read the incredibly amusing "Miss Lockheart's Letters".

Some of the stereotypes make me roll my eyes. I mean the hero can no longer have congress with his 'bit o' muslin' after he meets our heroine...even when they are 'at daggers drawn' without a hint of even attraction yet. yeah. right.

[mtlawson]

Yes, the stereotypes in both the books and the readers were amusing. One of them, that romances will give women an unrealistic expectation of men, made me laugh out loud. I think men IRL bust that bubble without any help from women at all.

I have this uncontrollable urge to grow a mullet now.

[tracy_d74]

I don't like traditional, heaving-bossom-throbbing-rod romances. I just can't stomach them. If there is a story with a romantic thread, I'll go for that. I just need for the characters to . . . you know . . . think. I like a little rational thought with my emotions. But that says something about me. I'm not an all emotions or all thought person.

[mtlawson]

One thing that the book brought out was that Romances have changed quite a bit from the 70s/80s borderline rape stories. Behavior in those stories would (at the very least) end up with the hero getting a restraining order on him IRL.

What I also found interesting were the number of women that had info in the book who have a complete disconnect between what they like in their Romance hero and a guy IRL. One of them speculated that it was because they could see inside the hero's head, which made things more obvious, but still I found that very surprising.

[tracy_d74]

That is interesting about what you like IRL vs. book. But I think that is true. In Pride and Prejudice the movie, at the end, what Mr. Darcy says to Lizzy is ...amazing. But if a guy said that IRL I would totally think he was gay.