Posts Tagged ‘Books’
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
I never thought I’d say this, but here’s my answer to the reading slump: Stop reading.
About three weeks ago, I had a period of major crunching, and for two solid weeks I didn’t read a thing. My review books lay sulking on the table. The books I’d borrowed from friends were abandoned. Comfort reads were no longer a comfort – how could they be, when I couldn’t even face opening their covers? No newspapers, no magazines, and had the Bernstein Bears appeared I would have shunned them too. In short, I went into total reading freeze. For me, that’s huge.
The main reason was simply a question of fatigue – I’ve been too tired to do anything except work, eat, and sleep, emphasis on the latter. But when it was over, and after getting a solid ten hours of sleep, I successfully opened a book. And from the ashes arose an interesting realization: I was glad to take a break from reading. I was satisfied that I had stopped. I read that book enthusiastically, even though it turned out to be a dud. I was once again happy in the world of literature. All because I’d stopped reading.
(more…)
Tags: Books, Reading
Posted in Books, Jean AAR, Reading, Romance reading | 3 Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Recently, I reread Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March. It’s a book I’ve read with great pleasure before; this time I was particularly struck by the way the relationship between the poet Catullus and society lady Clodia is portrayed. He loves her with all his heart and writes great poems to her and about her; she sometimes admits him as her lover and spends time with him before jilting him again in favor of a rival. The novel leaves no doubt that Clodia is cruel and capricious; however, at this reading, I suddenly felt that I understood her right to jilt him, and her urge to do so. In spite of the undoubted depth of Catullus’ feelings, it is quite clear that Clodia does not feel as deeply for him. Yes, she might have treated him with far less cruelty, as Caesar points out to her, in ending the affair. But for the first time, my reaction as a reader was sympathy with her desire to regain her autonomy in the face of Catullus’s overwhelming love and of his general wonderfulness.
(more…)
Tags: Books, Carla Kelly, Charlotte Smith, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, lovers scorned, Thornton Wilder
Posted in Characters, Reading, Rike AAR, Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Last week on our message boards a discussion arose about category romances – specifically, whether or not one reads them and why. For those of you who don’t know, categories (a.k.a. “series romances”) are the shorter, usually numbered books released each month by Harlequin, Silhouette or Love Inspired(Steeple Hill) in the U.S., and Mills and Boon in the U.K. Currently, Harlequin publishes more than 2 dozen different category lines, and there are numerous obsolete lines in the publisher’s history. (Harlequin also publishes single-titles under the MIRA and HQN imprints.)
(more…)
Tags: Books, category romances, harlequin, Silhouette
Posted in Books, Katie AAR, Romance reading | 61 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Recently, I sorted some of my bookshelves. Truth to be told, I mostly did it in order to procrastinate doing some other work, but when I had finished, I was really pleased: The books looked so neat, with many from the same publishing house standing next to each other, and next time it won’t take me ages to find a specific book. An added bonus, I unearthed my copy of Meg Cabot’s The Boy Next Door, which I had been hunting for the last two years and which I accused both my sister and my father of having borrowed and forgotten to return.
(more…)
Tags: Books, Reading
Posted in Books, Life, Rike AAR | 28 Comments »
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
DIK. Desert Isle Keeper. Most of us have dozens of them, those tried-and-true favorites you re-read time and again. Unfortunately, most desert isles don’t have room for all of my DIKs. Nor does carry-on luggage.
(more…)
Tags: Books, Desert Isle Keepers, Reading
Posted in Books, Jane AAR, Romance reading | 32 Comments »
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Finding a balance in life is challenging. The routines, the career, the relationships, the finances, and family and friends – it isn’t easy compartmentalizing as well as merging all of these together, and too often we become over-involved in one area while others, especially personal relationships, suffer. But it must be particularly difficult for those in the creative arts.
I was thinking about this while listening to Sunday in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim’s musical about Georges Seurat, the Impressionist pointillist painter. Dot, George’s unsophisticated mistress and muse, struggles to compete with his art for George’s attention and finally gives up, marrying Louis the Baker instead; so it usually is. Art is possessive and artists are obsessive and for many of them, love and art are mutually exclusive. When I encounter artists, musicians, actors, and such in romance novels, I often wonder how likely it is that characters of such creative brilliance can find equilibrium between their soul mate and their artistic soul.
(more…)
Tags: art, Books, Reading, Romance reading
Posted in Books, Characters, Jean AAR, Romance reading | 18 Comments »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
For the third time in five years, I’ve actually been asked to either put up my book or leave a public place because people find my reading material offensive. The most recent offender? The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (a fantastic book, by the way). Now, as romance covers go, this one really isn’t so bad - not nearly as racy as Must Have Been the Moonlight, which got me a lecture on the treadmill at my gym. These incidents sometimes make me want to break out the worst 80s clinch cover I can get my grubby paws on, but more seriously, they also make me think about the disconnect between why many of us read romance and what people think when they see us reading romance.
(more…)
Tags: book covers, Books, Romance reading
Posted in Books, Romance reading | 53 Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
It seems that many of today’s lifestyle tips concern a newly rediscovered thrift; a quick glance at the newsstand confirms this. 10 Ways to Save on Household Products bleats one magazine’s subhead. Five Local Vacation Hotspots! blasts the travel section. (Or my favourite from a few months ago: an article quoted Bill Clinton that he now helps the environment by turning off the tap while brushing his teeth. Thanks, Mr. President.)
I gloat that when it comes to leisure pastimes since I’ve always been a pennysaver – or as my friends say, a damn cheapskate. When I read a newly published novel, 99.9% of the time I’ve borrowed it from the library and I can count on one hand the number of times I shelled out money instead of borrowing for free. My rule – no, law – was never to pay full price for a new book unless it was a gift and, since I shopped at used bookstores anyway, I never spent more than $10 a book. Mass market paperbacks? Not a penny above five bucks. Ever.
(more…)
Tags: Books, budget, jean wan
Posted in Books, Romance reading | 10 Comments »
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Last week we showcased our favorite contemporary picks; this week, it’s the historicals (and our two lucky winners…in other words, books that received more than one vote).
(more…)
Tags: AAR Staff, Best of 2008, Books, Desert Isle Keepers
Posted in All About Romance, Books, Reading, Romance reading | 6 Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
Our annual staff poll for best romance is now in its eighth year, and it’s a tradition we’re continuing at a slightly different location: Our news and commentary blog.
Sadist that I am, I always enjoy watching my colleagues squirm as they narrow their favorites down to one. Over the years, we’ve had times of consensus and times when our choices were so disparate that we could hardly pick a winner. This is one of those “widespread choices” years; only two books received more than one vote, though as usual many staffers’ top picks were runners-up for others. The good news is that with so many books to choose from, there’s something (or several somethings) for everyone. To keep things suspenseful (since I enjoy torturing readers as well), this column will appear in two parts, this week and next week. First we’ll focus on contemporary romances. Eight of our reviewers picked them this year, and six of them will share their thoughts in this first entry.
(more…)
Tags: AAR Staff, Best of 2008, Books, Desert Isle Keepers
Posted in All About Romance, Books, Reading, Romance reading | 8 Comments »
