I have a terrible habit. I have a tendency to suck a genre dry. Over and over again. I go through phases. Currently, I’ve drained the paranormal genre of its juices. (Oof, that’s a terrible pun. And completely unintentional.) All the books next to my bed, stacked up in my office, not to mention my living room, have were-something, vampires, witches or demon hunters on the cover. There are some of the “classics” of the genre, which I’ve re-read and there are even a couple upcoming titles that I picked up at BEA last month. But they’re all about to get shoved over. I’ve reached the point of no return. At least for right now.
Of course, two months ago, I was totally immersed in contemporaries. Not romantic suspense. Straight contemporaries. Do you know how difficult it is to find those? Right now, it’s a bit difficult. The stack next to my bed had been building up for about six months. And right now it looks like I’m about to head off to a historical binge. This is standard reading procedure for me. My Mom says that even as a small child, I did this. She’s have to read endless fairies tales to me. Or animal fantasies. She claims I even made her read the entire Oz series. That one I rather doubt. Even I doubt that I was that precocious a child. Even now, that’s a pretty long stretch of my attention span.
I first started reading romances in the early 1980s. I remember being in India, visiting family, and seeing comic strips in the daily paper of Barbara Cartland novels. Seriously. I can’t remember what the title was, but I remember clearly reading the strip every day. Which I’ve always wondered who greenlit those. It’s incongruous, to say the least. That same trip, my great Aunt introduced me to her Georgette Heyer collection.
As soon as I got home, I ran off to the library and used book store in town to stock up. Between those two, I brought home about 35 Cartlands. (I know!) Which I had to sneak past my father. He’s one of those “disapproves of romance novels” types. It was ever so nice of them to number the books, so that I could keep track of the ones I’d read more easily. And that’s how I’ve gone on since. I read my way through those books. And then onto the entire Heyer oeuvre. Followed by Mary Stewart. After that I discovered Harlequin. 6 new books every month! My little public library in Upstate New York subscribed. And of course I was hooked. But I’ve never been someone who would read a contemporary and then a historical. It’s always been a bunch of one genre at a time.
Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to be moving on to. I’ll be immersed in a story and when I come to the end, I discover that I’m done. I just can’t read another (fill in the genre) at this time. Onward to the next. That’s among the best things about working in a library. Between all the professional journals that come across my desk and publisher catalogs/websites, I’m constantly learning about new titles and new authors I should be picking up. I make lists to help me keep track of release dates. I have a spreadsheet set up as well as cataloging software that helps me keep track of what I’ve read. It’s possible I’m a bit OCD about my books. I think quite a few librarians are, to tell you the truth.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I stop buying books in the genres I’m not currently reading. Any time I run across a book by an author I read, the book gets picked up. And it gets added to a the next “to be read” pile. The next cool book I read about on a blog? Gets picked up and added to the pile. Once a book gets read, it gets cataloged and shelved on my already overwhelmingly overflowing bookshelves. Maybe I need to check with Wendy to see where she gets her storage boxes.
No related posts.
Having just been faced with putting our house on the market, I had to do some serious bookshelf gleaning. Some, I admitted with reluctance, just weren’t going to make the move (assuming we find a buyer, which is another nightmare altogether). Others were boxed and put in our storage POD in the name of ‘a neat, uncluttered, roomy appearance). Others are still on my shelves for comfort as much as the idea I might want to re-read them in the next however long it takes to sell the house.
I found that most of the books (aside from reference materials) were series mysteries. Even though technically, they’re all in the ‘mystery’ genre, they’re all different. I love glomming onto a new character and watching them develop over time. Romance doesn’t allow that same kind of growth, given the requisite HEA. (Although I did write a sequel to one of my romances and had a lot of fun continuing the relationship — not surprising it was a ‘mystery-romance.’
I burned out on paranormals — well, I hardly sparked any flames. Not my thing, although I tried.
What I’m finding now that space is a major factor, is that I’m using the library more, and hence, am willing to try lots of new authors and maybe even some new sub-genres.
Yes!
A fellow Barbara Cartland reader.
I was a bit more obsessed. I read ALL of her books. Yep, over 300 of them including the book on the magic of honey.
I normally only stick to historical romances but there’s such a variety there that I too can go through stages. I’ll read all Beauty & The Beasts romances or Pirate romances or sweet Regencies.
I am a contemporary snob. I love the straight contemporary and if it has an athlete as a hero that’s even better.
I do like historicals but can only read them in short spurts. My sister-in-law only reads historicals. LOL We all have such different tastes.
I mix the up generally unless I get stuck into a series.
Patty, I love athetic heroes! Which sportsmen would you recommend (other than those created by SEP, Rachel Gibson, Deirdre Martin and Kate Angell)?
Jill Shalvis has a book coming out in a few weeks that I would recommend and Erin McCarthy has a couple sports hero books. There are others that I have in my library at home, I will check them out and give you some other suggests soon.
I mix the up generally unless I get stuck into a series.
Patty, I love athletic heroes! Which sportsmen would you recommend (other than those created by SEP, Rachel Gibson, Deirdre Martin and Kate Angell)?
If paranormals seem tired, try some Science Fiction Romance.
Action, adventure, and otherworldliness. What’s not to love?
Jess
For the record, I get my storage boxes at Big Lots. Oh, how I love me some Big Lots.
I know a lot of readers who are like you. They glom on to one “type” of book and gorge until they get their fill. I only did this during my teen years. I’d discover an author (Mary Higgins Clark and Barbara Michaels being too biggies) and would work my way through every book by them that my tiny public library owned. I think the last author I gorged on was Patricia Cornwell. Right after I graduated college, and I could once again “read for pleasure” I worked my way through the entire Scarpetta series. Back-to-back-to-back.
These days? My attention span is shorter. I tend to hop around. Even though I’m on a serious Harlequin binge right now, I’m still mixing it up by reading across various lines. For example, I just finished an Intrigue, and now I’m about halfway through a Harlequin Historical. After that’s finished I’m leaning towards picking up a SuperRomance or Kimani title…..
I think we were seperated at birth. I usually read about 5 books in a genre and then need to move on in order to change with my moods.
Sometimes though, if I across a bad book it will either make me change faster, or make me want to hint down a perfect version of what that book should have been.
When I was in 4th-6th grade, I went to the school library, started at A, and read all the mysteries. Then I started at A again, and read all the horse books. At some point, I paused to read all of the Andrew Lang fairy tale books (which were not, according to Mr. Dewey, fiction). Then I started at A again, and attempted to read everything else.
In 1st-3rd grade, I read every book about dinosaurs, then started on hummingbirds (fewer books, and not as interesting, alas).
Now, though, I’m more apt to bounce around and read different things depending on my mood.
I do the same thing. I’m currently in a fantasy reading mode but I have a few historical romances on my stack I’m getting anxious to get to. I think I appreciate each genre more when I don’t read them for a while.
I read a couple books in a genre, and cycle through them. But not just romance genres, but sci fi, mystery, literary fiction, thrillers, etc. Which means I’m not much of an expert in one genre or another!
I’m a binge reader as well…John Grisham, James Paterson, Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts…and the older I get, the more I seem to stay clear of “reading” romance…and yet it is the only thing I write, lol.
Maybe when you get around to your next binge on the romance genre, you can check out my first published book; The Road To Love. I am a new romance writer (well, newly published, but have been writing it my whole life), and hope that my book fits well into the category of books you can read spending a lazy day on the beach. If I play my cards right, maybe when you get to that genre again, my second one will be published as well, and I can suggest that one for your collection as well.
Lisa Renee Faust
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheRoadToLove.html
http://www.myspace.com/road_to_love
I read all of the Oz books as a child, and as an adult went out of my way to be sure I owned all 14. Then I read them all to my kids, who will probably fight over them when I am gone.
I definitely get into a particular genre and then stay there as long as it suits my mood, often past the point of satiation. I read myself sick with a new author, too — discovering a writer with a lengthy backlist tends to make me binge.
I’m definitely one of those readers who goes all out with a genre. Right now I’m in a historical romance bent having just gotten out of a single-title contemporary streak. Don’t know what my next one will be, but I’m excited to find out.
Unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of creating “to read” piles like I used to when I was in high school. I now live in a small New York apartment, and I don’t have the room to accumulate books. I also don’t have the money (a very, very sad reality). But I’m lucky enough to have just moved to an apartment half a block away from an amazing branch of the New York Public Library library. It has a great collection of romance. Happy days!
I have started then restarted a catalogue of books that i have read or own. they never get very far. I think this is due to a short attention span or maybe I just have to many books. I am also a librarian and i know a few others that shelve their books by Dewey. I dont go that far but i know the appeal of being able to find a book when you are craving it without digging through boxes in the shed.
Oh, oh, me too!! I am SUCH a binge reader.
I didn’t quite do like Dayle and start at the A’s and read through, but in grade school, I read all the horse books, then all the dog books (ah, Walter Farley, ah, Albert Payson Terhune!), then all the wild animal books (White Fang!), then fairy tales and magic books, then science fiction (Andre Norton! Isaac Asimov! Robert Heinlein!), then–
When I got to high school, I tended to read according to subject matter. I was on a WWII binge for quite a long while.
It’s harder for me to binge these days, believe it or not, because I’ve pretty much read everything. Yes, ALL the J.R. Wards, ALL the L.K. Hamiltons, ALL the J.D. Robbs, ALL of Jayne Ann Krentz, in all her infinite variation. I think I may have missed a few very early Mary Baloghs, but not many. And so on and so forth, ad infinitum.
There are some authors I haven’t glommed onto–but that’s usually because I’ve tried a book or two, and discovered they really weren’t my cup of tea. Others are more like– I’ve enjoyed Luanne Rice, but I can’t read all hers back to back, because they are too similar in odd ways. Still, I think I’ve read most of them. I just have to pace them out.
Sometimes I binge according to genre, and sometimes I want to alternate amongst genres. Depends on the books and how good they are and what kind of mood I’m in. I’m halfway through a paranormal romance, and paused to read two historical romances, because they were favorite authors.
I’ve gone to a Sony reader to help with the storage issue…