I belong to that generation known as the Baby Boomers, born between the years1946 and 1964. Just shortly, many members of my generation are going to begin retiring.
Why should that matter to the romance genre?
Well, for a number of reasons. For one thing, statistics show that Baby Boomers buy
considerably more books than do members of Generation X or the Millennium Generation (also known as Generation Y), and according to one study, women aged 45-54 are forty-eight percent more likely to buy books in quantity.
Many in the publishing industry are hoping that as these Baby Boomers start to retire and have more leisure time, they will spend even more money buying books. But will they—and will they do so within the romance genre?
The answers to those questions are difficult to predict and, obviously, will depend on several different factors. So it will be interesting to find out.
Like everyone else these days, Baby Boomers have dozens of leisure activities besides reading competing for their time and interest. DIY projects, gardening, grandchildren, quilting, and travel are just some of those mentioned by my friends whenever this topic arises.
As might be expected, Baby Boomers also have a variety of opinions about the romance genre. Among my friends, some are happy to read about heroines of any age, while others want to read only about heroines their own age. However, the former have little or no interest in chick lit, and the latter seem to be more interested in women’s fiction and point to authors like Maeve Binchy, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Rosamond Pilcher, Belva Plain, and Anne Rivers Siddons as some of those whose work they have enjoyed over the years.
Many of my friends spend a lot of time rereading old keepers from the romance genre. Author Mary Stewart is cited more often than any other as a perennial favorite.
In fact, one of the main things I always hear when I talk to my friends about reading is that their taste in fiction hasn’t changed much at all over the years.
We’re the generation who grew up reading the romantic suspense of authors like Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Helen MacInnes, Mary Stewart, and Phyllis A. Whitney; and the romantic sagas of authors like Catherine Gaskin, Susan Howatch, Brenda Jagger, Malcolm MacDonald, and Frank Yerby.
Because our taste in fiction has remained fairly consistent over the years, many of us still adore the works of these authors and others like them. So these are some of the kinds of books we still look for on today’s bookshelves.
What authors did you grow up reading? Who were your own favorites? Has your own taste in fiction changed over the years or, like that of my friends, stayed pretty much the same? If it has changed, how? If it hasn’t changed, what would you like to see in the romance market that you don’t see there now?
No related posts.
As a young child, I absorbed Nancy Drew and every book that featured horses. I adore the Black Stallion series, My Friend Flicka and its sequels, Misty of Chincoteague, and Black Beauty. Then I expanded to Louisa May Alcott, the Bronte sisters. Long before I picked up my first Harlequin, I was hooked on Victoria Holt, Mary Higgins Clark and so on. The Dwelling Place got me started on Catherine Cookson. In college I started reading more historical romances as a break from all the required reading that I then had to write papers on. (Back in the late 70s, books involving the Inquisition were very popular.) For the last 25 years, my list of authors has grown immensely as I keep getting introduced to new works in the different romance genres. The most significant recent expansion is that I now read more paranormal than I did five years ago.
Great column!
I grew up reading Victoria Holt, Johanna Lindsey, Catherine Coulter, Julie Garwood, Danielle Steel and a million and one Harlequin Presents authors.
My reading tastes have changed drastically, but I still remember those days fondly.
As far as what I’d like to see, I don’t know. I love so much and it all boils down to the characters and the story, regardless of genre. I want to feel. That’s it. Make me laugh out loud, bawl my eyes out, stay awake reading until I get to the end because every little noise in the house is making me jump, and I’m a happy camper. And in romance, do all that while making me fall in love all over again.
I was a huge fan of Nancy Drew while growing up until I discovered romance. Since then my tastes have grown into other genres but I still love a good romance or mystery/suspense. That hasn’t changed and I don’t think it will. I’m hoping you’re right about the Baby Boomers buying a lot of books. Research has shown that it is important as we grow older to keep our brains challenged and involved. That’s a good reason to read.
Oh what scrumptious questions! I’ve always loved to read – first the Bobsey Twins, then I graduated to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys then it was Agatha Christie. In high school I read a lot of horror (Steven King, in particular) and romances – particularly Mills and Boon. I loved Anne Mather and Georgette Heyer but then in college I got into more serious fiction and read books by V. S. Naipaul, Samuel Selvon, Toni Morrison, etc. Now I love paranormals and some chick lit and I continue to read the more literary fiction like Small Island by Andrea Levy which I just finished and completely loved! So I guess my taste is all over the place. In romance – I’d like to see more historicals and more stories set in places I don’t know too much about. Those were the kinds of Mills and Boons I preferred – the ones that were set in Greece and Spain and I still like exotic settings.
To keep a minimalist post: My two favorite authors were Jude Devereaux and Stephen King. I’m the type of reader who will read the back of an aerosal can. I love words.
I loved the stories.
My taste in fiction has remained pretty much the same, though I’ve wandered into more contemporary waters lately. Devereaux was the master of men in loincloths and the women who loved them.
Now I find myself wanting stories that will speak to me NOW. I’ve ventured into present day romance, and I love it. Some people say that contemporary is dying out or what have you. I say bring it on.
Grins*
I lived for fantasy and horse novels right up into my late teens, while dabbling in Anne Rice here and there. Oddly enough, I hated Romance, most probably because the only Romances I saw were the Historicals and Westerns my mom and best friend read, which I will not pick up to this day. I discovered that there were other genres of Romance by sheer fluke when I stumbled onto a Gothic Romance site, and began doing some exploring into the genre. That lead me to Paranormals Romances, which, aside from the occasional Fantasy novel, I read almost exclusively now.
What a fun entry! I have vivid memories of my father exclaiming to sixish me that I had “more Cinderellas than Cinderella.” — loved as many different fairy tale retellings as I could get, and as a romance fan since eleven, I think that was my training ground. I started with Bertrice Small, Rebecca Brandewyn
Laurie McBain, Valerie Sherwood, Shirlee Busbee and the like, which gave me a taste for big historical romance with strong heroines, and that much hasn’t changed. Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love opened me to inspirational romance and inspirational fiction, which introduced me to Angela Elwell Hunt, Liz Curtis Higgs, Kathleen Morgan, Robin Lee Hatcher, and many many more. If I can succeed in smushing together elements from my two favorite genres, I’ll be one happy camper.
In addition to those mentioned, I also gobbled up paperbacks by an author named Emilie Loring. Anyone remember her? I read them during my teens in the late 60’s but I think they were re-issues from the 40’s or 50’s.
I’m now in my early 50’s and can’t really say whether my taste has changed. I do think the romance genre has broadened to the point (with so many titles each month in such a variety of sub-genres), it’s harder for me to discover the kind of auto-buy author the aforementioned women were in my youth. I know for some a trip to Barnes & Noble is a treat–for me it’s a nightmare!
I have read everything in the library at my elementary school,including “teacher’s guide” of text books.
But I loved orphan stories “Little Princes” “Daddy long legs” “Jane Ayre” etc., later I loved Victolia Holt till I found Kathleen Woodiwise and you ! Rebecca !
Please think this…I discovered that many of us do not get old in our heart. When we are alone, when we don’t look into mirror ,when our eyes are shut,we are always 18 years old. I can tell you why I say this……
I am a “Roosevelt Baby,” born just a few weeks before the death of the president, so am technically not a Boomer. My favorite childhood reading materials were written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Walter Farley, Mary O’Hara (”My Friend Flicka”) Marguerite Henry (I never see anyone mention her, but “Misty” was wildly popular when I was a child), Howard Pease (he wrote a series of sea stories for YA boys, but I loved them!), Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, the brothers Grimm, Thorton Burgess was a great favorite, as was Beatix Potter. When I was in middle school I started tackling the classics, such as “Moby Dick” and “The Scarlet Letter.” I read “Gone with the Wind” in 9th grade, and fell in love with the works of Anya Seton the next year.
As an adult, I gravated to the classics, historical & mainstream novels, & non-fiction. My father introduced me to the works of Willa Cather, who was one of his favorites (and to this day I love her books). A friend started me reading Mary Stewart & Jean Plaidy. I didn’t start reading romances until the late 1980s, when I picked up my first Virginia Henley — she got me hooked on historical romances, which is my romance reading of choice (I am one who reads books by, or in the tradition of, Diana Gabaldon, Marsha Canham, Mary Reed McCall, Diane Norman). I read few contemporary series romances, but I like chick-lit, mainstream fiction, women’s fiction (Anne Rivers Siddons is a big favorite, as is Nancy Thayer),and still read the classics! I have also discovered a hereto unknow to me genre of women’s fiction, written by women from India, or with an Indian heritage (”Serving Crazy with Curry” is the latest one I’ve read).
As to the future, I’m now 60, and reading about 16 year old virginal heroines gets a little old. I would like to see more historical and mainstream women’s fiction, as well as romance, dealing with more mature heroines, although if the story is good, I am not put off by the age of the heroine. However, spare me the TSTL, ditsy, airhead, especially in an historical.
Anna B! We’re soul sisters. I adored all of the authors you mentioned, particularly Laurie McBain. I still wonder whatever happened to her??? I have all of her books, somewhere in my attic, and I’m so glad because I’m pretty sure you can’t buy them anywhere anymore.
As a kid, I was like a lot of the posters here – horse books, Little House books, Jane Eyre, GWTW, Victoria Holt. In junior high and the beginning of high school, I spent all of my babysitting money on Barbara Cartland novels. Unfortunately, I read so fast, they only gave me an hour or two of pleasure. Verrrry short books, and indeed they were same story, different dress. But I loved them. My freshman year of college, I was stuck on campus one weekend with nothing to do, and picked up Sweet Savage Love (I think?) at the campus bookstore. Whoa, man. It ain’t ever been the same since! Haha!
Stef
High-fivin’ the other Laurie McBain fans. Moonstruck Madness is one of my all time favorite romances. I lost my original copy in a move. Some months ago, I HAD to read it again. Yes, there are several used copies available. I bought the next two books in the series and read them again, too! Oh I WISH she would write again!
Thanks, everyone! It looks as though many of us have enjoyed the same novels over the years. Anna B. and Miwako, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my work, too!:smile:
I would like your oatmeal cake recipe. I printed in out, but some of the words were cut off. I can not find it your tour of the castle again.
It sounds wonderful.
Also, I really enjoy your books. Keep them coming.
Hello Rebecca. I am a long time fan and own some of your 80s historicals in hardback. I joined the Doubleday Book Club in order to purchase romance novels in hardback. In those days if you will recall romances weren’t released in hardcover. I am a baby-boomer and a life-long reader. I cut my teeth on fiction by Betty Cavanna,L.M. Montgomery, Donna Parker stories etc. In the 1970s I became addicted to Gothics, Mary Linn Roby,Patricia Maxwell et al.It was about that time that I discovered Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt and Anya Seton. I began reading historical romance exclusively when I read Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers. My favorites are Jennifer Blake,Laurie McBain,Shirlee Busbee. My tastes haven’t changed, however the books being published are much lighter fare(for the most part) I miss the emotional intensity of the older historicals.