Two types of readers? (Maybe more!)

April 17, 2009 on 9:04 pm | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Victoria Janssen blogged about two types of erotic romance today. I encourage you to read her blog because it’s regularly thoughtful and interesting, but to sum quickly for my purposes, Victoria posits that there may be two (or more, she’s still formulating) kinds of erotic romance – one that’s largely about the sexual encounters the characters have, another that’s an erotic book complete with erotic undertones woven into setting, theme, and plot beyond the romantic relationship succession. I’m intrigued that she’s put the division into words, and pleased that she still included both under the “erotic romance” category.

To link that up with the reader corner – while my husband and I were walking back from the library (beautiful day in Maryland) my mind wandered away from his rambling dialogue about the CR14 red dragon his Dungeons & Dragons group recently slew and into the land of habit examination. I had two stacks of books, one in each hand (reading list below), and was pondering the return date of May 8 and the deadline to read two of the books for a blog book club this week coming.

I’m not a fast reader, but I’ve recently come to terms with my reading habits – the approach that keeps me reading for pleasure on a regular basis. This is me confessing: I don’t read every page. Or every scene. Um, or every chapter. I’m a flipper-through, like the person in the doctor’s office waiting room who thumbs through the magazine only pausing here and there instead of reading cover to cover. Even with books I absolutely loved (Colleen Gleason’s THE REST FALLS AWAY, Ann Aguirre’s GRIMSPACE, Elizabeth Hoyt’s THE RAVEN PRINCE), I skipped. The real test of whether I really like the book isn’t whether I read cover to cover, but whether I go back later to read the parts I skimmed or flipped past the first time.

Last night, Voirey Linger even (rightly) accused me of living for the sex scenes in the book she’s working on. I am guilty – I admit it. Overall, it’s not only the intimate scenes I look for, but the scenes that are about the part of the story in which I’m interested.

I wasn’t this kind of reader as a teenager. I’d devour one book cover to cover in an evening, then spend the rest of the night flipping back to re-read the scenes I especially enjoyed. I’m not sure whether the change has come because I’m busy or because I disregard the value of my dollar and don’t ensure maximum returns for my money, but the bottom line is I’m a skimmer. If I were taking one of those Internet quizzes with nifty graphics at the end? I would totally be the “lots of focus on the sex, nominal external plot” books that Victoria has identified. Even in the non-erotic books, even in craft books and nonfiction, I skim until a conflict or a tidbit catches my eye, at which point I linger until the point is concluded, and I resume the skim.

I’m not sure if I should be sheepish or just shrug and say “It’s what I do.” But I am curious about what you do. If you’re reading and feel like sharing your style, I’d love a comment.

And just because you’ve read this far, today’s library haul:

WANDERLUST by Ann Aguirre (I LOVE this threesome of books and highly recommend them)

PROM DATES FROM HELL and HELL WEEK by Rosemary Clement-Moore for fantasticBria’s young adult book club.

RISES THE NIGHT (Gardella Vampire Chronicles Book 2) by Colleen Gleason (another fantastic series thus far, and I owe my discovery of Colleen Gleason to awesome Romance Divas, where she was Author of the Month in…I think March).

MANUSCRIPT MAKEOVER by Elizabeth Lyon. (Don’t know what I think of it yet, but I’m working on a big project revision so I’m keeping an open mind)

and

LEAVES FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN by Howard Schwartz (a collection of “One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales”). I can’t wait to get started on this book.