How did you start?

I'm in a Master's program for Library Science, and one of my instructors just had us read a excerpt from a terrible book written in the late 80's about why women read romance novels. They cited among the most "boredom" as well as, "sex education".

I immediately defended the genre. But it got me thinking about how I began reading them and why...

I was addicted to the public library when I was little, and started reading series books. I started with Nancy Drew, and then moved on to the Boxcar Children, and then on to the Babysitter's Club. When I got a few years older, I started reading Sweet Valley High books, and I think that's where it became easy for me to pick up a romance book. I started with Avalon Career Romances, and then Harlequin Regencies, and then became a full-fledged romance reader after that.

Ironically enough, one of my best romance-reading friends also got into them in the same way that I did.

So, I'd just like to hear your stories...

-Ireland

It makes me crazy to hear comments like those your professor read--- from literary snobs often look down on the romance genre. I on the other hand find romance novels such fun.....My reading tastes have always been very ecclectic - a little of this... alittle of that. Some days heavy books that challenge me, other days fun stories like those found in romance novels....

I think I first found romance novels during summer breaks from college. I remember finishing exams and making plans for the summer. I'd run by a bookstore looking for a fun read and there they were. They make such great beach reads. Then I was hooked....

My story is similar to yours, Ireland. I grew up in libraries. My grandmother was a school librarian for years. My mother's office was housed in the county library when I was in middle and high school, and I worked in the county library during the Summer when I was in high school. The "romance room" was irresistible to me because it was strictly off-limits to me. The older women working in the library wouldn't let me shelve books in that room. They didn't want me sneaking a peak at the lurid covers. Naturally, that's the first place I headed whenever they weren't watching my every move. I would sneak one off the shelves and hold it in front of another book to read during my lunch break.

Hearing about Nancy Drew brings back memories of other books that got me hooked on reading in general. Did anybody else read Holly Beth Walker's "Meg books", Meg And The Disappearing Diamonds, Meg and The Ghost Of Hidden Springs, Meg and The Secret Of The Witch's Stairway, etc.? I also was addicted to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, the Cherry Ames-Student Nurse series; and the Trixie Belden books.

There was also a series of serialized biographies of the U.S. Presidents' wives that I would love to find again, but I can't remember the name of the publisher. They were written in the mid-60s for teenage girls. They may have been scholastic editions or library editions. Dolley Madison's and Abigail Adams' stories were especially memorable.

CC

Like some of you I started reading serials as a young person, The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames. The I graduated to Grace Livingston Hill, Elswyth Thane, Elizabeth Ogilvie and Georgette Heyer.

Those were all pretty tame compared to the ones I am reading now like Stephanie Laurens, Sabrina Jeffries, etc.

I am an eclectic reader but when I want to relax I really enjoy a good romance that takes me to a different time and place and usually ends happily.

I read the usual series like Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, but my favorite was The Hardy Boys. (Does anyone else remember the Disney dramatizations of The Hardy Boys?)

Then when I was about 14 I discovered Emilie Loring and Barbara Cartland. But Georgette Heyer pretty well put an end to reading them. She was the best!

I remember practically devouring Barbara Cartland's books and read Grace Livingston Hill, too. This thread is making me nostalgic. I may get weepy. LOL

CC

I grew up watching my grampa reading Barbara Cartland and my mother reading all the harlequins she could get her hands on. But I didn't read much romance myself until the last couple of years or so.

I did, however, read a little bit of Judy Blume and a few sweet valley highs in middle school. And then I discovered Jane Austen my freshman year of college and steadily devoured all of those. I also read a bit of Daphne du Maurier. Also, my college roommate was a big Victoria Holt and Catherine Coulter fan, so I did pick up some of those via osmosis. Then, a couple of years ago, after I had my second child, I got to this point where I mostly wanted to read stuff that had happy endings - and here I am!

Ditto Nancy Drew for me. Nancy had Ned Nickerson after all! But my favorite girl sleuth was Judy Bolton who actually grew up, had a real romance, and got married. I also read the Donna Parker, Annette Funicello, and Janet Lennon books (remember those?) and there was always a bit of romance in them.

Somewhere in there I graduated to reading historical romances -- Desiree by Annemarie Selinko; several of Anya Seton's books, especially Katherine (I was in love with John of Gaunt); Forever Amber; and Gwen Bristow's Jubilee Trail come to mind.

CC, I remember biographies of the presidents' wives but they might not have been a series -- I bawled over the one about Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel, and how she died shortly before he became president. And there was one about Mary Todd Lincoln that was similarly affecting.

The year I turned thirteen I discovered romantic suspense and gothics and I couldn't get enough of 'em: Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart (I loved The Moon-Spinners), Phyllis A. Whitney and others of that ilk. But it was especially gothics that got me hooked on romance -- you know, the ones with covers of the young woman standing in the shadows of or fleeing from a mansion or castle with the obligatory one-lighted window in an upper story, turret, or attic. I liked things mysterious and a bit spooky as long as there were logical conclusions and everything worked out for our heroine.

Ditto Georgette Heyer.

As for the more racy romance novels that came out in the early 1970s and changed forever how the genre is defined (for better or worse): I think it was Kathleen Woodiwiss who first grabbed me.

Talk about nostalgia! I remember Jubilee Trail and Forever Amber. Gwen Bristow also wrote Calico Palace which was very good also. Lavryle Spencer and Dorothy Garlock were my early romance favorites too and still are.

My Mom read a lot of Gothics so naturally I read Mary Stewart, etc. when I ran out of Cartland and Loring. I still have many books by Stewart, Holt, and Whitney and they are still keepers even 40 years later.

Carminowe, I am so glad to see you back here. We've missed your input!

I believe we must be talking about the same books re: The presidents' wives. They were about the size of the Nancy Drew Hardy Boys books and had similar graphics, really colorful. I am determined to find them now. I'll let you know if I am successful.

CC

I came to reading books very late. I was 21 when I went to the USA for year as Au Pair. I took with me

an unfinished John Grisham - The brethren
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice & Northanger Abbey

after that I read

Harry Potter 1-4
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
The Hobbit
The lord of the Rings and winter was there.

At that point I had no books left to read and was scheduled for a skiing weekend. BUT in my room I had a trunk which was filled with stuff and books from previous Au Pairs. Most of them Steven King and 3 Harlequin Presents. I bought a couple of them until the nanny next door told me they have tons of them at the library. I think I read all their HP and Superromances.

For my travelling time home I picked up a Hailey North and progressed from her directly to Lisa Kleypas and my sister's Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Now I can't imagine daily life without a book. But as a child or YA you had to beat to read a book, besides those we had to read for school.

Julia

My mom used to read historical romances and I'd sometimes read those but I can't remember how old I was when I read them.

The very first romance I picked out for myself as a teen was one of the Second Chance at Love series (Silouhette?) I was feeling down about my first quasi-boyfriend and the title really caught my attention as did the back of the book description. I then read as many of those as I could get my hands on. I still have the book. I didn't really read any young adult or teen oriented stories once I got into high school. For me it was all fantasies and then romances. After high school I didn't read as much for years. Only over the last few years did I start reading young adult books and also started getting back into reading romances. Thanks Harry Potter! :-)

I had a whole slew of YA books in HS, from Rick Brant to Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, with a few Trixie Belden ones.

When I was out of the Navy in 1975 I lived two blocks from a huge used bookstore, and when I was current on all the Louis L'Amour books I ran across a shelf with Emilie Loring books on it. I'd already been a Helen MacInnes and Mary Stewart fan. I started buying the Loring books, and got up to whatever number it is I still own (in my catalog here).

Fast forward to last winter when I was pointed to the J. D. Robb books; I liked the first four or five, so I started collecting those, then thought I should try one of Robert's non-cop books. 50 or so books later...

I'm not a buyer of other romances much, though; the budget won't take it. If I find something highly recommended by you all, I'll borrow it from the library. I tend toward the slapstick comedy contemporaries.

I can't ever remember not reading, so it's hard for me to pinpoint when it started. I was one of those pull the covers over my head & read with a flashlight children. I was also fortunate to live within walking distance of the library & was there several times a week during the summers. CC, I also went through all the biographies you talked about.

Louisa May Alcott & Daphne Du Maurier were favorites.

As for romance, I was a big Hayley Mills fan & when I saw The Moon-spinners movie from Disney, I went straight to the library for the book. I, too, read Heyer, Holt, Witney, etc. I remember finding Lucy Walker books that were set in Australia in the outback & I REALLY wanted to go there; still do.

To this day, there is nothing like escaping reality for a while in the magical world of books.

I also can't remember not reading. As I posted on the Johanna Lindsey thread...the first adult romance I read was Captive Bride. I was completely hooked. I used to hide my romances between my mattress and my box spring and read and re-read every romance I could get my hands on. I'd bike 3.7 miles to the Ransomville Free Library and read Harlequins and Silhouettes by the bag full...except I brought them home one book at a time, stuffed in the back of my pants/shorts/jeans so M & D didn't find out. Now I can read three or four books a day with some uninterrupted time. I'm told I'm really smart, have a great vocabulary, and amazing recall for plots and authors and I put the credit all on reading romance vociferously as a tween, teen and adult! So much for boredom!!!

My reading addiction began, like so many others, in grammar school. I don't know if anyone remembers those Scholastic book catalogues, but my father ordered from them every month during my grade school years. At first he chose the titles - usually
random and subjects he thought would be of interest to me . He also wouldn't tell me what he requested, so it was always a surprise when the orders came in. I remember being the envy of my schoolmates because, while they ordered one to three books, I went home with sometimes up to ten. I loved those Mercer Meyer books and Marcus Pfister's The Rainbow Fish!

In third grade, my father gave me a boxed set of Ann M. Martin's The Baby-Sitters Club series, and I just fell in love with them. From then on, my father allowed me to choose my own books and even took me to Waldenbooks every weekend. I don't really know why we didn't join the public library, so even at an early age, I had a large personal collection.

In middle school, I wanted to expand my reading horizon, so I started going through my mother's collection, which consisted of many romance novels. Of course, once she noticed what I was reading, I was forbidden to go through her books. Didn't stop me, though I did have to resort to James Bond-like tactics to get my hands on them. lol My aunts didn't care and would share their favourites, two of which I still own - Judith McNaught's Perfect and Linda Winstead's No Angel's Grace.

My high school years introduced me to classic literature, but by this point my reading tastes included action/adventure novels (Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series continue to be one my favourites!), science fiction, and mysteries. I also attended an all-women academy, so I was introduced to even more romance authors (Julie Garwood and Dara Joy being two of them).

These days my reading list is still eclectic. I'll read just about anything, especially if they've been highly recommended.

Anyway, thanks for this thread (and thanks for reading - I got a little carried away lol)! It brought back a sense of nostalgia. You know, now that I think about it, many of the books I've read carry memories of some event or another in my life. For example, during the whole week that I was off from school because of the Blizzard of 2000, I distinctly remember being so happy that I was able to finish Julie Garwood's Ransom! haha Good times.

*edited because I got my blizzards mixed up! lol

aznstalette -

I'm the same way with linking memories of a particular event in my life with what I was reading at the time. For example, I have the most wonderful memories of reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I read it during the week between the end of semester classes and my college graduation. My grandparents lived out in the country near the university I attended and I stayed with them during that "off-week", lying on the porch with my iced tea and looking out over the pasture, reading Catch-22, waiting for "the rest of my life" to begin.

>18 katybear: Katy and aznstalette - I also have book memories specific to life events. I took Watership Down on a road trip around Canada with my parents when I was 11. It worked out perfectly because it was a very long trip and a very long book.

According to my mother I've love books since the day I was born. I also (apparently) didn't like those "little kid" books, I wanted real stories, longer books.
The first real book I remember reading was The Little House in the Big Woods. My first grade teacher actually called my mother one day, (never a good sign) and said that I was bored in her class, and asked if she could give me a book. Not sure why she felt she had to ask. So I blame her for my bookaholicism and the fact that I have no space in my apartment! I also thank her for turning that pivotal point in my life. Years later when I see her occasionally, she always says to me "You know I always knew you had a book hidden under your desk reading in class." My response, "Yeah, you probably gave it to me!" Thanks, Mrs. Wilmarth....
As for romance novels, I blame my mother first, who claims that while she was nursing she used to read to me whatever she was reading herself (even the tv guide), so I could hear her voice. As it turns out most of those books were Harlequins! Secondly, I blame my grandfather who didn't realize that I was picking out teen romances at the bookstore (To Have and To Hold, etc.) which I read over and over again.
And then thirdly my aunt, who learning that I was interesting in more adult romancy books gave my A Breath of Magic, and so it began.
Now I have worked in a bookstore for the last 8 years and I have more than 1200 books in my little one bedroom apartment! I'm only 24 people!

Ilithyia, I love the missing comma. "I'm only 24 people!"

Should we call you Sybil? ;)

Nope...my boss was walking past and I didn't have a chance to proof read! sorry!...but now I'm leaving it there ;-p

I wanted to let everyone know that I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your stories.

I wanted to contribute that mother, also, read romance books to me while I was a baby. As ridiculous as it may sound, it seems that that love for romance, at least for some of us, started at a VERY young age.

I can remember being 9 or so, and watching my 13 year old cousin get in trouble for sneaking her mother's romance books into her room to read. I was four years younger, and had read numerous romance books by then!

The first author I really loved was Julie Garwood. I still have all her books and turn to them like security blankets. Some of the books I've read what seems like hundreds of times...I used to go through and read only the most heartfelt scenes in about an hour or so, at least on a monthly basis.

Thanks guys!
-Ireland

Ireland, I love your comment about Julie Garwood's books being like a security blanket. I feel the same way. When I can't get into a book or nothing appeals to me I pick up one of Garwood's and reread it. The familiarity just plain makes me feel good! I will be so glad when he new medieval romance comes out the end of this year.

I also grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Sweet Valley books. And then in Junior high i began reading Dean Koontz and Clive Cussler. And then during high school i read a little, but not nearly as much as i do now. I was too busy playing sports and partying.

And then i think it was my senior year when i read Cold Mountain and loved it. I followed that with Outlander and i was hooked.

oh my gosh, Julia Garwood has a new medieval coming out?! i'm so excited! i couldn't really get into her contemporaries, but i absolutely love her historicals.

Great thread topic! It seems we all share the common theme of starting to read books at an early age in childhood. I wonder if that's why my love of reading has stuck into adulthood?=)

Anyways, I've loved reading for as long as I can remember. My mother told me when I first started bringing home those stapled paper books from kindergarten (I'm not sure what they're called, but they aren't books..more like intro books for very, very young children...) I would insist on my parents reading them to me over and over again. I loved being read to, which naturally morphed into loving to read myself.

When I was 5 or 6 I would read books to my younger brother, in addition to reading them myself.lol. When I grew older I read Nancy Drew (I think I still have them somewhere too) and also Sweet Valley High and Judy Blume. My favorites as a pre-teen was The Babysitter's Club.

My favorite place to go to was the school or public library. It got so bad my parents had to limit the books I could get!!

As to when I started to enjoy romance books. Well, I think around college. I love the romance story and the heroine falling in love. Romance books are my guilty pleasure, when I want a fun read (though, really, all reading is fun for me.lol).

This topic really made me think back...I discovered books when I was around 8. It was a series of children's book by Michael Ende (who wrote lots before he wrote "The Neverending Story") and Enid Blyton that got me started. My mom gave me my first regency "The Grand Sophy" by Georgette Heyer (a book I still have in my library, although it is in German and a bit ratty now) and I was hooked and have been ever since then. I read lots of different authors, McCall Smith, Gabaldon, Garwood, Wodehouse, etc. just to name a few. But Georgette started it all and her books have a very fond place on my shelves.

I can't remember when exactly I started reading romances. Probably around middle school. My absolute favorite books when I was little were the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery, and there was plenty of romance in them. My mom has always read romance novels so I started reading some of her books, got caught and denied, then started sneaking them. I somehow convinced her that Harlequins weren't as bad since they were usually short so I was allowed to get them out of the library. I must have read every one my library had. And in the meantime I was still reading all of her books by Johanna Lindsey, Catherine Coulter, Jane Feather, Teresa Medieros, Betina Krahn, Jude Deveraux, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Nora Roberts, and more I can't even think of right now. They were mostly 80s books since this would have been the early 90s, and I would say the majority of the covers were bodice rippers with Fabio. I'm not particularly a big fan of Fabio but he does bring back fond memories. :)

Oh and I just remembered I also had a gothic romance period probably right before I was allowed to read the Harlequins. That was full of Victoria Holt / Philippa Carr and Phyllis A. Whitney. There were also the tamer romances by Maeve Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher. I also read a lot of mysteries at the time, mostly Mary Higgins Clark. I started reading Jane Austen in high school and loved her books as well.

When I started reading in general, I have no idea. I've always read a ton for as long as I can remember. We'd go to the library at least every other week, most often more, and I would load up with as many books as I was allowed every time. I'd pretty much pick an author and go through every single book by them I could get at my library (or get transfered to my library), and then move on to the next author.

--
Just had to add that another of my absolute favorites when young was Christy by Catherine Marshall. I still occasionally re-read that along with the L.M. Montgomery books. I was also into the YA "Dark Visions" and "Night World" series by L.J. Smith which tended to have a romantic storyline as well.

Hey, Opus! Welcome to the group!

CC

I also got started on the series books like Nancy Drew and Dana Girls -- anyone else read The Dana Girls? And the Bobsey Twins, ha, showing my age. When I was in high school, I got on kicks with authors instead of genres. After staying up all night reading Hawaii I went on to all Michener's books, then Leon Uris, then the Winds of War -- and I fell in love with 19th century writers later. Jane Austen and the Brontës and George Eliot. Middlemarch is one of my favorites. I have run out of 19th century novels to read, so I'm trying to write one now, ha.

Ireland, if your professor could read these comments he might change his mind about us. I too began my reading habit when I was very young. My mother was one of the few women in our rural community in the 50's-60's who worked outside the home,so I spent a lot of my time alone with a book, any book. Then in middle and high school I worked a class in the school library, and I could surround myself with books. I found a book written by a man named Frank Yerby and I was absolutely mesmerized. Racey was a mild discription of his books for those times. They were mostly set in New Orleans and all historical, but they brought the "feel" of that time and place to a young girl on a farm in Kentucky. I absolutely knew at that time that with books, I could go anywhere and meet anyone. After exhausting the supply of Yerby books I went on to Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Anya Seton, and Gwen Bristow. Then hit the Gothic phase, and more of what we find today. I love Diana Gabaldon and do enjoy the idea of series writing. One thing I would like to say is that many times it has been said to me that I have a wide range of knowledge. I am sure I have the many wonderful historical romances I have read to thank for that. Much research goes into the good one and any bit of new knowledge that can be picked up, while enjoying the story just goes to show that we are Absolutely not wasting our time on so called "boredom relieving " novels.:-).

Here are some related articles I'd like to share. I've spent countless hours online reading articles about books, and these are just some interesting ones about the romance genre that I've come across. Opinions, as always, are welcome.

Rewriting the Romance, Lev Grossman from Time magazine (features Julia Quinn)

Love For Sale, Chris Szego from The Cultural Gutter

theRomanceReader.com Stats

Perceptions of Romance Readers

Don't Mess with Romance Readers

Thanks for the links aznstarlette. It is interesting to see how the stats for the romance reader and genre. I actually have seen a few men browsing the romance genre when I'm at the bookstore so there may be closet male readers out there.hehe.

Anyways, I can see why Nora Roberts was annoyed with that DC metro advertisement. (and I did not know she was native to the area I live in, how cool!) That also irks me too because I enjoy reading "popular" mainstream fiction. When I go to the local bookstore, 50% or more of the books in the front are romance. All of the books are mass-market paperback fiction books. If you want to read something intellectual, you have to search for it because it's not going to be sitting out front that's for sure.=)

book,
I am not in the closet and when I go into my local bookstores, the clerks know I am going directly to the romance section. At one particular store, they even know my preferences, and when I walk in they tell me if they have a new Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Today I went in and the lady went to the back and brought me a Lisa Kleypas that I had been looking for that they didn't have on the shelves yet.
Romance is about all I read except for cereal boxes and prescription labels.

Richard

Richard is not by himself, either. We've got several male members in the group. I think it's great. I like hearing the male perspective on romance novels.

My husband has read all my Linda Howard Medina series, Suzanne Brockmann's SEAL books, and Amy Fetzer and Lucy Monroe's military/special ops books. I doubt I could get him to crack the cover on a Kleypas novel, but he's enjoyed the ones he has read.

CC

While I do read a lot of romance, I hate the stereotype that all romance readers do is read trashy romance. I find that most romance readers simply love to read. I like classic literature, nonfiction (which is right up there with romance in sheer volume of what I read), magazines, blogs, even graphic novels. Basically, anything I can get my hands on.

As to how I got started, it was like many of you. I grew up reading series like Nancy Drew, Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, etc. My grandma read Victoria Holt, Grace Livingston Hill, Barbara Cartland, so I read those from her but was pretty young at the time and didn't really appreciate the love stories. She also got me started on John Grisham. I really started reading romance when I was about a freshman or sophomore in high school. The first series romance I read was a Silhouette Intimate Moments that took place in Arizona. The heroine was a physical therapist and the hero was a sheikh. Anyway, I was hooked and read a ton of series, mostly Harlequin Presents. And then I started reading historical romance for the longer, more in-depth storylines because I went through the harlequins too quickly.

Book, I think that in the bookstores that I go to, the romance novels are way in the back. At least they are at Borders and many of the small independent bookstore carry hardly any romance especially historicals. They might have some new releases up front but I find that best sellers, general fiction and non-fiction take up most of the front of the store.

I do read other things but romance is my mainstay. I did just finish Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and that was very good. Of course I will now hesitate to buy almost anything in the grocery store. I do like her writing.

I have also noticed that small, indie booksellers do not carry romance or much mass market paperback fiction at all. This is a shame because I like to support the locals but have to turn to big chains and ubs for my romance habit!

pmpayne, my neighborhood Borders (literally 1 mile down the hill) takes up the entire space once used by the second floor of a JC Penneys. It's huge, especially in comparison to the former Waldenbooks it replaced in the mall.

There are 30-foot long shelves on your right as you walk in the mall entrance (it also opens to the outside). The first two are sci-fi and fantasy (both sides); the next two are mystery (also both sides), and the next two are romance. Then the CDs start.

Romance isn't hidden. When I first walked through the store a year or so ago when it opened I was a little surprised at how many books in the category there were; I know better now. ;)

Maybe Honolulu's readers need more romance novels to compensate for the high price of living. ;)

I think it depends on the store where they put the romance section (and others). In the B&N I go to the way the store is set up, all the fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, and romance are toward the back of the store so it's quite a walk to get there. In the Borders near me, the sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, and romance are all toward the front right next to the cashiers. When the line forms, it goes right by the romance shelves. You can't miss it.=)

#37
gracer,
I agree with you that the stereotype of romance readers just reading "trashy romance" novels is not accurate and that it comes down to a lot of us enjoy reading period.

booklover and gracer, there's a passage in one of Nora Roberts's books (Second Nature, contained in Summer Pleasures) wherein the highly successful novelist who's the hero tells the heroine that he once made a good living writing romance novels:

"Most novels have some kind of relationship with them. A romance simply focuses on it, rather than using it as a sub-plot or a device."

Makes sense to me. Alistair MacLean, Dick Francis, Helen MacInnes and many more of my favorite authors put a romantic sub-plot in their books.

I have to chime in and address the "trashy" reputation of the romance genre...IMHO this is really the fault of the industry itself and how the genre was promoted (and still is) when it took off. If you take a look at the book covers of the late 80's until just recently it is easy to see why the "bodice rippers" (as my husband calls them) got their name and connotation. It is very difficult to fight that perception since it is now so firmly planted into peoples' minds. It has always bothered me that the "cover" generally does not keep it's promise. Romance novels overseas, in the UK, Australia and in Germany don't have the same sort of covers at all and generally are a lot more neutral.

opus, in Germany historical covers are even worse.

This is the cover of Stranger in my arms



and the really horrible part is, the sides on the pages are clored red. I looks like you are reading something straight out of a bordello.

The contemp cover look granted not as bad in the German version, but they don't do much for me.

Susan Elizabeth Pilliph covers

Julia

Ok, juck, I agree and stand corrected on the overseas part regarding the covers. Your Lisa Kleypas sample looks exactly like the covers we see and have been seeing here for the last 30 years, at least. Our chick lit is getting a little better these days.

My favorite covers are for the Kerry Greenwood Phryne Fisher series from Australia, although they are strictly speaking mysteries. They actually have some correlation between the book and the cover. And the title is related to the plot, too...I am hard-pressed to find any correlation between the stupid titles in the romance genre and the actual book. They seem as disconnected as the covers.
I really wished publishers would ask us what we as readers would like to see in covers. It is certainly obvious that the illustrations rarely relate to the contents of the book. I find these "clinches" between muscle guy and woman in over saturated colors too clicheed and without imagination. If I didn't review the books prior to purchase I would never buy a single one based merely on looks. Good thing, since I have a huge collection of them ;-)
Britta

Mind if I revive this topic? =)

I started reading romances about a year ago. Before that, the only things I read were manga and assigned readings for school because I never really liked reading. Then, when I picked up the manga version of A Girl in a Million by Betty Neels at a used book store, I thought the story was interesting and similar to the types of manga I like to read, so I decided to try reading my sister's Harlequins. Et voilà! I was hooked and now can't stop reading them! I really wish I got into reading romances earlier though... There are a lot of out of print books I want to read. ;_;

My first memories of books are of my father reading Ozma of Oz to me. I read most of the normal girl stuff - Nancy Drew, Misty of Chincoteague (very popular in Virginia), etc. I remember reading a book that may have been classified as young adult when I was around 10 or so about a girl who went blind, and her experience with getting a seeing-eye dog and going to high school. There was a tiny bit of a potential boyfriend storyline at the end of the book, and I think I wore that part out.

My first real romance was a Barbara Cartland paperback I found at my aunt's house in upstate NY, a historical set in the French court during the period the child queen Mary Stuart was residing there. I think I was 12 or 13 at that point. I stuck with Barbara exclusively for a long while before I got bold enough to pick up Kathleen Woodiwiss. I took a decade+ detour off of romance into fantasy and science fiction, but now I'm pretty much doing all romance, all the time, reading-wise.

Great topic! It's always interesting to read about how others got started into the romances.

And Starlight, you sound like me, hehe, though I started reading romances a bit earlier. I never got into Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys and such; I first started out reading manga* romance in my early/pre teens phase (mangas were extremely popular in my school). I had a friend who was crazy about manga and bought a lot of them, which she subsequently started piling on me to burrow so she can have someone to share discussions with. Well, I found that I actually enjoyed manga, even if some of the general themes were a bit... risque to me at that young an age, including step-sibling relationships and yaoi**. Though in essence, I believe that my early exporsure reading into those themes helped me keep an open mind regarding future romances of similar or more daring subjects.

In the manga, I found the romances to be cute and sweet, but as I grew older, I started finding them lacking in fulfillment and significance. A lot of the manga romances revolved around elementary age to high aged young adults (I'm sure there were more adult themed romances in manga format, but I never got around to them), and to me, those young adults weren't in their Happily-Ever-After stages at all, which was what I was subconsciously looking for in the stories.

I didn't realize strictly text based romance novels until mid teens when my mother signed up for a trial of some free books from Harlequin. She had a SuperRomance novel lying around. I picked it up in curiosity and just started reading it for the sake of having something to read (I don't remember the book, but it's still at my parent's house in my old bedroom bookshelf). Then.. viola! Hooked on romance! My mother started subscribing to Harlequin because she got hooked as well. We read Harlequin SuperRomance, Romance, Intrigue, Blaze, and Presents, though not together of course, heh. I remember my mom hiding the more sexually explicit ones, notably the Presents ones, in her bedroom, but I still found them and continued to read.

From there, I'd frequent the public library more often to find romances and sneak them out under cover of reading other "more presentable" material without the half-naked men on the covers, so I didn't only read romances ;P And whenever I can manage it, I'd buy the used romances usually on a cart in front of the store at Half Priced Books, reading anything from science fiction to contemporary to historical and anything in between.

And now, here I am, still reading the romance novels :) It's an addiction that I've no intention of moderating. I love romance!

*Manga as defined by Dictionary.com is "a Japanese graphic novel, typically intended for adults, characterized by highly stylized art."

** Yaoi (やおい) is a popular term for fictional media that focuses on homosexual male relationships, yet is generally created by and for females. Though I accepted this theme, I never really got into it. It was very popular among the girls in my age/school group for some reason, often resulting in a bit of fanfiction regarding various males of other established characters. Like I said, anime/mangas were extremely popular at school.

(Edit: It cut off my last bit of explanations! So adding it back in.)

I got a much later start than most of you. I had struggled all through school, never liked it even though my mom was a big mystery reader.

One day my boyfriend (now DH) bought me a bookcase that was full of books. Several genres like memoirs, it had an OJ Simpson 'How great he is' in football book, history of war, mystery and of course romance. I tried a few and the only ones that could hold my attention was the romance. It was specifically Harlequin Historical Romance books.

At first it took me almost 2 months to read one book, but it had enough of "something" to it to keep me trying to finish until I started getting better at reading. Now I can finish a book in just a few days depending how much time I can devote to it of course. Ever since, Harlequin Historicals have been my weakness, I guess since they are what finally got me to read more and better, I am loyal to them and to the genre of Historical, it is my secerity blanket, if I feel like I am starting to burn out on reading, I pick up one of my old Harlequins and get back into reading.

This has been the first year I have ever tracked how much and what I read, so it is interesting to see. I also belive that all of you wonderful people have helped me increase my reading. I am finding that I am more will to try different and credit the great suggestions from everyone at LT. I have even began to branch out, I have read a few memoirs (not OJ Simpsons) and I find that I really enjoy some of them. I used to think I had to own all my books, (maybe because it took me so long to read them), now most of the librarians know me by name.

I am so proud of myself for overcoming something that scarred me a lot when I was younger. Thanks to all of you for playing a part with recommendations and this monthly book that we are reading and discussing together is great, I have never actually been a part of a book club. It is kind of fun now that I can read the book fast enough to participate.

Ok -I have rambled long enough, thanks for this thread, it is neat to share and see everybodies stories like this. Simply Wonderful !-)

The American manga market is extremely lacking in josei manga, which I think is one of the reasons why I switched to romance novels. I got tired of reading about middle schoolers and high schoolers' romance lives; it's pretty restricted at their age. And even then the story might not even center on romance at all. (oh the horror!)

I was also frustrated with the types of stories that were out; a lot of them were pretty weak and shallow to me. I wanted to find something that had a little more depth and substance, but even then I didn't like the fact that I can finish a manga series so fast. I read all fourteen Harlequin manga that were released in their Harlequin Ginger Blossom line. Most of them were terrible, but I liked a few of them, though even then I enjoyed them 10x more when I read them in their novel form. There's just a whole lot more to the story. :D

It's so great to see other romance/manga readers! My reading discoveries were opposite, I've been reading romance since I was a teen but have only been reading manga a little over a year. With regard to the teen shoujo type manga, I do sometimes get frustrated by the romances (would it kill Clamp to let Syaroan and Sakura kiss, just once??!!) but sometimes it's nice to have that innocence.

Faye - The whole yaoi thing really took me by surprise after discovering manga LOL! I'm happy I started off slowly with the genre with series like Fake instead of just jumping into ones like Gerard and Jacques, which I do like now but it would have had me running for the hills if I had read it first.

Onyx - That's very cool that your husband bought you a bookcase full of different genre books! What a great way to figure out what your favorite is.

Fun topic! I remember the first sort of romance book I read (besides Gone With the Wind which I read when I was in 6th grade for the first time) was The Night of the Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt. My girlfriends told me to read it (I was a high school freshman in the 70's) and I was then hooked on Victoria Holt and the gothic type of romance, but they were all pretty innocent. I did read one blockbuster Rosemary Rogers book but didn't really like it too much. Then, I discovered Georgette Heyer, and read all of hers, and began to read every regency romance (G rated) imaginable, including a million Barbara Cartland's.

Eventually I stopped reading romances until just this past year when I got back into them. I had already been reading a lot of Jane Austen and JA fanfiction on line and published books after the 1995 BBC production, and it was just a natural progression into more steamy kind of romance books. My favorites are now Scottish Highlander romances due to adoring the Outlander books, while waiting for the next book to come out. I like most kinds of time travel books now because of Outlander. But, now I'm also into reading period and humorous romances like Julia Quinn's, Celeste Bradley's and Lisa Kleypas.

I was an avid reader when I was younger and, in junior high, devoured the babysitters club and started to moveon to more mature books. I tried the Sweet Valley series, etc but they just didn't hold my interest.
My library had just gotten a bunch of Victoria Holt books and I loved those. I also started to read some Westerns that had relationship angles (but they were really written for men just had a small romance component). Anyway, I was stuck, not really sure what I liked, so my aunt, seeing what I was reading (historicals and westerns), thought I might like to try some of her romance novels. She had a ton of romance books (in boxes in the garage) so I would go over and borrow books from her. The first romance novels I read were Nora Roberts' Cordovia series and early Jayne Ann Krentz and Johanna Lindsey. I've been hooked since!

I wish I have an avid romance reading relative so I can mooch books off of her.

Starlight, I love seeing people revive the old threads, it's great to know y'all are meandering around and making yourselves at home! :)

I think the lively and varied conversation is what makes this the best group at LT.

CC

Well, Cinderella was my favourite fairy tale when I was five. :o)

Either my local library or my school library used to carry a line of American historical romances written for teens, which I read repeatedly from the age of about 10 to about 15. I couldn't identify them now, although I remember that there was one set in (I think) New Orleans in 1812, and one set around the Alamo, and one on a wagon train heading out west - all very exotic to a 12-year old history freak in England.

My parents had most of Georgette Heyer's books and I absolutely devoured those as a teenager. I read a fair bit of Austen in my teens as well, plus Jane Eyre and some other similar stuff. From my mid teens, I used to borrow a lot of the category romances that my mum borrowed from the library. (Although, to be honest, I read just about everything else my parents left lying around, too. Most of Agatha Christie's books and a fair bit of R.F. Delderfield, for a start.)

I cannot remember NOT reading.
And for reading romance.. I had quite a lot of years when I didn't read any romances. I did when I was a teenager, and then lost the habit. For many years I read mostly thrillers or mystery. Right now I read a lot of romance again. To me, these books are fairytales, and at least right now I read to escape from this world into another. Then again, that has always been the reason I read. To think that you can take a break and jump into a book, and close the covers on your way in, and be in the world of the book. Need I say that I feel a bit confused, even dizzy, if I get interrupted, or when the book ends?
I guess that I started to read romances again when I stopped caring so much about what people think about me. I have had some funny ideas about what the "right things" to do are, and what "a real adult" does. To hell with that, I do what I like. If I want to read about "Happy Ever After", who's to say I shouldn't? If I want to build snowmen and drive snowracers, who's to say I shouldn't?

I have always read a wide variety of books. As a kid I would read Nancy Drew and Judy Blume but never in a serialized way. I did get more into Sweet Valley High and I never missed a Girls of Canby Hall book (I soooo wanted to go to boarding school).

In college I read so much as a theatre major, I was really burned out after I left. So about two years after I graduated I started reading again. I tended to read classic literature, like Hardy and Austen. I was going through a tough time though and I needed something light and easy that would not make me think of bad things. After reading Tess of the D'ubervilles I cried for a few hours. It was exhausting.

I then decided one day that I would, against my better judgement, check out a regency romance. It happened to be by Stephanie Laurens, and I loved it. I slowly started reading more. Now I read a lot. They are just so easy to read, and the story has a happy ending. I love that the women tend to have a strong character (at least in the ones I read) and can best the men. I still read the lit that I always read, I just read a few of the romance novels in between.

Best of all, I no longer feel like a loser for reading them. My boyfriend rails on me for it one in a while. I tell him that to me reading a romance novel is equivelent to reading something by Tom Clancy or George Pelecanos. They are quick, fun, easy and interesting. Just my heros are women and his are men.

CatyM, were those historical romances for teens the Sunfire books? Each book was set around a teenage girl (16 - 20 years old) set during a historical event or time period. One of my favorites was called Amanda about a spoiled Boston girl who joined the Oregon trail with her dad. In each book, they meet two boys and end up with one at the end (the big romance is the kiss at the end).

I loved those books! I forgot to mention them in my summary but they definitely helped me love historical romances. My sister and I both loved those books so much that we both have a copy of the whole set (she "stole" the copy from our parents house and I had to recreate my set through used book stores - I'm still slightly bitter about that!).

reesa00, it's quite possible they were. Having googled Sunfire, a few of the plots sound vaguely familiar, and the timeframe is about right - it would have been the late 80s and early 90s when I was reading them.

I was born into a reading addicted family and have stayed happily addicted all my life (fortunately my husband and two sons are also enthusiastic readers).
I am usually reading at least six or seven books concurrently. Right now I am reading Robin Jenkins’ Poverty Castle, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ The Foreign Field, The Man Who Challenged America by Laurence Brady, Private Places (an anthology), Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen and A Passion for Nature The Life of John Muir by Donald Worster.

Some of the Touchstones are not responding properly.

I work at my local renaissance faire, and a few years ago I was having a massive withdrawal about a month after faire ended, so I searched on Amazon for books set in a renfaire.

The only books I found were Mercedes Lackey and a romance novel - Katie MacAlister's Hard Day's Knight. The romance had me skeptical, but I was more willing to give it a try than force my way through the Lackey book (which I have since tried to read and I was right - it's not that good). Turns out I loved the book! It took me a while after that to really get into romance... I went through all of MacAlister's books and branched out from there - I love my local library's stash of Zebra regency romances!

ankhet - I think it all works both ways. I read Hard Day's Knight about a year ago and it made me really want to go to a ren faire!

For myself, I believe I started reading romance before I could read. Fairy Tale picture books led me to Bobsey Twins and then to Judy Blume and a series called 'Sweet Dreams' back in the 80s (pre-Sweet Valley High) to Jane Austen to Nora Roberts, etc. Nowadays, I tend to read mostly mystery and thrillers, but even so, they all have romance in them - just not always a happy ending.

I can't remember much about my pre-teen years, mostly because nothing much happened. I know I started reading romances very early because my older sister was reading them, and there was nothing she could do that I wouldn't try to do better.

Jmaloney17 - I'm with you. I've gone through a stage of feeling a bit bashful about reading romances, but having read Dostoevsky, Zola and Hardy, I can admit that I like to read novels which don't make me feel like roadkill afterwards. Just a little quirk of mine.

I don't remember not reading or being read to. I was raised to revere books and to take special care with them if I was borowing someone elses book. Even if I didn't like them, someone else would, so I would take care of whatever books I had, and repair to the best of my ability even books I didn't like.

I read the golden books when I was very small, my parents Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys followed by Sweet Valley High and then my dad's science fiction books. I had read a few Harlequin romances in my early teens as they were the only books the only daughter of my mothers friend read, so when I was stuck at her house they were the only thing I could read. We would hole up in her room and read in silence. I really didn't enjoy those books much.

However, by my late teens, I ran across Heinlein's Friday. I really couldn't believe that my dad had this book on his shelf as it was MUCH dirtier and explicit than the one and only romance novel I had bought a year earlier. My parents had caught me reading the romance tore it up in front of me, stating that they didn't want me reading such filth. I honestly didn't think the book was bad at all, and enjoyed it. Ripping the book up, however, horrified me. Soul-deep, heart-sickening, horrified me. *THAT* made an impact. If they really didn't want me reading it, they could have just donated it to somewhere, they didn't have to destroy it. I wish I could remember the title or the author. I'd buy it again.

When I started running out of SciFi to read, and I had pretty much exhausted the Fantasy section of the library as well, romance seemed the natural progression. Luckily I had recently married, so I could have all the romance books I wanted, and they would be safe. I even got my husband to read them, although he insists on using a book cover.

I'm still a bit scarred from the dramatic distruction of my first romance book. If I go to my parents house, I make sure they never see the book I'm currently reading and that it's safely hidden in my purse. If they visit here, I never let them past the front hallway and kitchen.

Hey Taleri! If you remember the plot of first romance you read, maybe someone here or on Smart Bitches can help you find the title and author. :)

Thanks for the offer starlight. :) Unfortunately what I remember is generic enough to be any one of a dozen books, though I'd appreciate any ideas. The heroine was a redhead; the hero was a general in a rebellion war camp, and the black haired camp follower (or general's secretary?) who wanted the general for herself hated the redhead. I'm pretty sure the guy slept with both of them. The book was fairly long (400 pages?) with a (usually) stereotyped romance book cover. It wasn't part of a series. It would have to have been published pre-1993 and since I bought the book at a goodwill store, I couldn't go back and get another copy.

I just came up with an idea of why I like reading romance so much.

These books are about women and men who faces difficulties, obstacles to their happiness, and they overcome them.

Books like these give me inspiration to keep on going!
We all need fiction with happy endings, IMHO!

hallontass - I totally agree! I'm at a point in my life where I need lots of happily ever afters!

Thank you, katybear!
I wish you all the support and all the happily ever afters you need!

Hold on! and good luck!

I too cannot remember not reading, when I was younger I loved Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. Then when I started Secondary school I discovered Sweet Valley High, so then started visiting the local library on a regular basis. Thats when I became hooked on Mills and Boon, hours and hours and hundreds of books in my teenage years, then Borders came over to the UK and I discovered historical romances Lisa Kleypas and Mary Balogh being my all time faves! So am still hooked on reading, always will be.
It does annoy me though that us romance readers are considered quite uneducated and empty headed, I personally do not think it matters what you read, any reading improves your vocabulary, plus it's a personal choice of which genre you're in to.

I started with Nancy Drew also, Trixie Belden, Donna Parker, read Archie Comic books. My mother and aunt read Harlequin romances and you have to remember the time era when I say this, but my aunt would read it first, put her inital in it and if she thought it was ok for a teen to read she would put an ok in the corner so it would read EokforS! Times have changed. Now I have published my own time travel romance and it is even risque! Shirley

Hi, Shirley! Welcome to the group!

Taleri, my story is somewhat similar to yours.
Although my mother encouraged me reading, she was hawk-like about what it was that I read. I was encouraged to read Christian fiction of all stripes, anything from the church library being fair game (including 'inspirational romance'), but when I brought home a bunch of Sweet Valley High, she destroyed them. (She currently claims it was because they were too 'advanced' for my 6th grade self, but if that was true, why not just keep them for a couple years, and give them back to me?)
In 7th grade, a girl I rode the bus with loaned me Savage Thunder by Johanna Lindsey. I was immediately hooked. I had to hide them rather well, though, and I'm sad to say that several were found and burned (!!). Eventually, I asked for a foot locker for Christmas, and my 'subversive' aunt got it for me. As long as I kept them locked up, they were safe.
Currently, an entire wall of my library is dedicated to romance, and my mother is not actually allowed in my home. (For more reasons than just this, of course)

ET: Fix spelling

This is going to be a long one, Lilyfyrestorm, but your post triggered something and reminded me of my own story so much, I wanted to respond. This is why I am not ashamed to be seen reading a romance novel in public:

My mother was really strict about what I read or watched on TV. We NEVER discussed anything of a sexual nature. When I got my first period, I was terrified and didn't have a clue what to do. She handed me a booklet and turned around and walked out of the room. I was forbidden to wear makeup or date in high school. My skirts always had to be knee level and not a hint of cleavage could show. I wasn’t allowed to wear slacks because it defined my body too much (although I never understood why having my bare legs uncovered in a skirt didn’t do the same).

All things sexual were dirty in my mother’s mind. I remember getting Catcher In The Rye from a friend to read, and when she found it, she tore it to pieces. Bonanza was even forbidden because Little Joe’s pants were too tight. Romance novels were porn, TV was porn, everything was a temptation or an evil to be avoided.

I was raised as she was raised and it took me a long time to realize that. She was of a generation where women married and had children and that was the end of their expected ambitions and dreams and urges were stifled. It caused a lot of conflict between us, which only got worse after she and my father divorced because he found another woman he wanted more. All her frustrations and unhappiness reigned down on her children for awhile, and it caused me to rebel and experiment. I was a very wild child for most of my 20s and thankful I survived some of the things I managed to get myself into during that time.

My mother was, and is very religious, as is my sister. My sister is ultra conservative, and is the one who gives me "Christian" romance novels for Christmas and would burn all my books if given half a chance. She'd have a stroke if she read any of my erotic collection! My sister is a cookie cutter image of my Mother in almost every way. They have always been closer to each other than to me, and I didn’t much in common with either of them.

Well, my mother has come a long, long way in the past two years. She is still religious, still goes to church every time the doors open, but she has been reading romance novels for the past couple of years. At first, she wouldn’t tell me she was, but after I deliberately left behind a stack of 1st books in several series by various authors after spending the weekend with her, she started asking me for recommendations. And at first, she wouldn’t buy any of her own, she’d borrow mine or ask me to buy her some. But now? She buys 10 or so books a week, knows all the authors’ websites, can tell me what’s coming out and when. We discuss books all the time now, and she always asks me for my opinion. She has turned on the "old ladies" as she calls them (now mind you, she is 77) in her senior citizens group to romance, too and she is always asking me for recommendations for them. I have become their romance librarian.

Recently, my mother and I we were driving back a shopping trip, just the two of us, and we started talking about authors and series and upcoming releases, which turned to the degree of steaminess in various books. I laughed and told her how proud I was that she's come so far in the past two years, and that I was very happy to have something I could share with her that she and my sister didn’t share. We ended up having a very frank discussion about my youth and hers and our first sexual experiences. She shocked the you-know-what out of me that day; and when she said she wished she had read romance novels when she was young, that she was sure it would have made her see things differently and be more tolerant and open-minded, and possibly could have saved her marriage, I was ready to shout hallelujah!

Now, I don't think there is anything we can't talk about, and I am so grateful that this change in attitude has come about just as my 15 year old niece has started on her own path to awareness.

So, I hope your mother reaches the point of enlightenment one day, and soon for you. Maybe next time you visit, you should leave a romance novel behind and see what happens? :)

CC

#76 - CC, thank you for that, what an amazing story! I still can't imagine even having that sort of talk with my mother, though I know she has read steamy novels, but not necessarily romances. I remember she used to read a lot of John D. McDonald and Laurence Sanders books in the '70's.

#76 CC, I really appreciate your story. How wonderful for you and your mother! I think I'll try your suggestion, making sure to leave one I have another copy of, of course! She has mellowed out quite a bit, though, as she does watch "The Bachelor" which I feel quite certain would have been labeled as 'pure trash' if it had aired when I was a grade-schooler!

CC - Thanks for sharing that! What a great story about you and your mom. I'm happy for you that you've been able to find some common ground :-)

Thanks, everybody!

I was between books about year 1/2 ago and my younger sister was reading Pride and Prejudice and suggested I read a Romance Novel. I told her "I am not going to read some sappy Romance Novel" but since we were in the section she starting looking for something with Vampires or Demons ect.. I'm a huge Anne Rice fan. So she pulls out Lover Awakened by J R Ward and that is all she wrote - I was HOOKED, Line & Sinker. When I finished it I went to her Web site to see what else she wrote & realized it was the 3rd Book to her BDB Series (so frustrated) I hurry & grab them all. Since then I haven't really read anything but Romance now. I usually read Paranormal but now Im starting to incorporate Historicals/Highlanders ect..
I'm loving Kresley Cole as well.

Boredom draws me to reading in general. But romance novels specifically catch my attention because the main male characters in these books are men I would like to get to know but will never know in real life. I long since took up skimming over sex scenes in books, and only so I could find the end of that scene.

I am very picky about certain things. I do not like books where the woman is not capable. She does not have to be able to take on the world, run a corporation, or whatever. But no 50s Lois Lanes.

According to my parents, I have been reading and written since before I could walk or even talk. The first romance novel that I had read was To Catch an Heiress bu Julia Quinn. I was thirteen when I picked it up from a pile that my sister was going to give to some place or another, and she let me keep it.

I have been hooked on romance ever since, because of the fact that it makes me feel and makes me believe in hope and in love when I no longer believe in it. I have always been drawn to the written word, the eloquence and brilliance of it. How, at times, it seems like apart of the authors soul was bound to the story that they pulled out. It has always drawn me to books, romance in particular because there is where I can real fall into the world that was created. Although, the truth of that makes me feel rather hypocritical and rather like an addict with the books being my drug.

It is also hard to wrap my mind around that point, the fact that I love to write and even am trying to write my own romance novel(s), yet I don't believe in love myself so how am I supposed to write about something that I no longer believe in?

To put it mildly, I am now nineteen and I have at last count (which was in January, 2008) over 3,536 books. The majority in which are romance.

Hi Notte- Welcome to the group! You'll find lots of kindred spirits here!

I was in 6th grade and bought a bunch of books at our annual Mission Fair- including a bunch of Silhouette Romance novels. Looking back, I question the fact that a nun let me buy a stack of romance novels when I was barely able to see a PG movie alone but I guess they really wanted that 25 cents per book. The first one I read (which I do still have) was Payment in Full. My first regency was purchased at People's Drug (the DC precursor to CVS) on the way home from ballet class. It was a cold and rainy winter night, and the book was An Officer's Alliance. I fell in love with the dress on the cover, bought the book, and was immediately hooked; I still enjoy a good regency, and yes, I still have that first purchase...

ForeignCircus, I had a similar story! I went to Catholic school and my pre-romance start was with the Sunfire books. If you haven't read them, these are very G rated, YA romance novels (kinda like American Girl books but with teens and pretty good authors). Anyway, a nun saw what I was reading and contacted my mom to make sure she was aware of my reading habits.

I think if she saw what I was reading now, she would be much more concerned!