People read different kinds of books for different times in their lives. Sometimes they need to be taken out of their world and themselves and just be immersed in the story: they need escapism! That is where romance novels score so highly. They have a feel good factor and a recent study showed that reading a romance novel actually reduced hormonal stress levels dramatically. A postcard I have on my wall shows a group of people crammed into the London tube (the underground)like sardines (a daily reality for commuters), with one woman saying to another “I cannot understand why you read romance novels”. The bubble over her companion’s head shows a tropical island, sunshine, gorgeous beaches and a hunky man kissing her hand. I rest my case!

Add to this the RNA’s stats about the background of women who both read and write romance novels which is largely educated to university standard and beyond, the fact that Georgette Heyer’s novel, The Infamous Army is the only novel in the library at Sandhurst becuase of it’s excellent depiction of the battle of Waterloo and it becomes clear that the kind of sweeping arrogant generalisation in Angry Librarian’s post is at bets ill-informed at worst ignorant.

But it isn’t. There is and never has been an official literary canon, so what constitutes literature comes down to a matter of taste and whimsy. The study of literature is not concerned with the merit of a work, but what is being said, and how it is said.

While Harlequin romance novels may be formulaic and considered trashy by many, so were Ann Radcliffe novels in their day. Yet posterity views Radcliffe with a somewhat kinder view than she may have been afforded in her time. It’s impossible to say that, 100 years from now, an author operating in the romance novel milieu will not garner fame for exceptional literary quality despite having spent most of his or her life peddling what is considered the dregs of fiction by today’s fashionable literati.

Creating an argument for the sake of arguing. How about addressing some real library issues?

I still like the elitist crap you post, though.

Add Playaways and CDs to that list . . .

We are all about InfoTainment, but at least my job isn’t about to be cut every 4 months.

yes, we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on crappy literature purely for the entertainment value. but guess, what? we also have nearly the highest circulation levels in our state. and in the public library world, circulation is everything!