In Mild Praise of Romance Novels
I could sit here and tell you about the times I’ve sat down and read Shakespeare, or The Iliad, or Grapes of Wrath. There are any number of Great Novels, or Great Plays, or just Great Books in general that everyone should have to read to be considered human beings. Maybe someday we’ll discuss them, but for now, let’s chat about why sometimes all I want to read is a really formulaic, predictable, slightly smutty romance novel.
Day-to-day I’m immersed in an unstable, constantly changing, unbelievable world. My job seems to require being constantly stressed and always engaged in the minutiae of the daily news cycle. I’m also not saving lives, feeding the hungry, or housing the needy, and lately I’m not even sure I’m making the world better by doing it. So some days, the toll it takes on my soul seems immense and irreparable. I’m also not ready to make the leap into something else (it could always get better, right?!). So how do I get out of my own head?
ESCAPISM
Cue the romance novels. I’m not talking about the Nicholas Sparks kind of romance novel, or even Jane Austen (although she’s also a favorite). I’m talking about the smutty kind whose covers are adorned with women in dresses and men beginning to take them off. They’re the perfect form of escape. They’re entertaining without having to think too much about it. I usually buy them in real book form, so my brain hasn’t engaged the blue light from a device that has my bleary eyed focus. I also know that it’s going to end happily, so if I only have the energy to read a page or two before falling asleep, it doesn’t matter.
Now, not all romance novels are equal. Some are poorly written or promote abuse (mental, sexual, or physical) — ahem, I’m looking at you, Fifty Shades of Grey — and some are just bad. However, there’s just so much content in the genre that at one point, my rabbit hole got deep enough that I wasn’t reading anything besides romance novels. I still wanted to be able to discuss other kinds of literature, so I set a few rules for myself.
- Pick two or three authors, and only read their books. The formulaic nature of these books, which I praised above, can also get very boring if they’re the only thing you’re reading. By limiting the number of authors, you get your own version of the very best of the genre without having to weed through the dregs.
- Pick a sub-genre or two. Personally, I found romance novels set in the modern era to be too unbelievable and it broke through my sense of escape. As a result, I committed myself to Regency-Era Romance novels and found authors who primarily focus on that era when writing.
For a restful vacation, recovering from a bad day, or removal from the current world in which I’m living, I find these novels to be an effective way of reading without having to think about it too much. Granted, that’s not generally the goal of reading, but sometimes, it’s exactly what you need.
