I’ve been reflecting lately on how my reading tastes have changed over the years. I loved mystery books as a kid. Probably from growing up watching things like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boy Mysteries and even some Scooby Doo cartoons! Rut roh!
As a young pre-teen I read piles and piles of those Silhouette First Romance books for young adults. Gosh I loved those! Then when I started out reading real adult romance it was pure historical romance for me (these included American westerns, Southern bells, European Gothic and of course those naughty pirate books!). Remember those Zebra romance book covers? They always put a spark in my eye!
I had no interest in contemporary love stories at all. I was swept away with the romance of the hero riding off into the sunset with the heroine after a daring rescue. All the damsel in distress
stories used to make my heart race.
I bought every historical romance book I could find by authors like Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsay, Shannon Drake/Heather Graham, Jude Deveraux, Mary Kay Simmons, Norah Hess and many more.
Then when I had finished all those and needed my next “fix” by those authors I broke down and bought some of their (namely Jude Deveraux and Heather Graham) contemporary romance books and found I loved those too! So I began diving into contemporary romance by assorted authors for the next few years.
Then some of Heather Graham’s contemporary books became thriller/crime/romance stories and I found I liked those too! Great! I began reading more and more of these type books and found myself addicted to Nora Roberts. This was a wonderful find for me because she had so many back books for me to dive into AND (best of all) she writes ALL SORTS of books with romance in them! Then of course there’s the fact that the woman writes like a dozen books a year so I’ve nearly always got a Nora Roberts book to read. Thank you dear Nora!
Next I was rediscovering the YA books of today- which are much different from the 1970’s and 1980’s when I had last read them. The old books were full of sweet first love romance, but almost never nookie (with the memorable exception of Judy Blume’s “Forever”-which is still sitting on my bookshelf). Today’s YA can have all the same sex as an adult romance but in a less graphic way. You know what the characters did, but you didn’t read the details (usually).
About the same time I was rediscovering YA I was for the first time discovering that I actually enjoyed more fantasy fiction than I ever had in my life. As a kid I actually strongly disliked fantasy fiction. Hated books like Narnia, The Witch & the Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz… and others. I would have preferred a trip to the dentist than having to read those books. Truly I couldn’t stand them. Now I find I love fantasy fiction mixed with some romance, much more than other genres. YA combined romance and fantasy for me in a way that I truly enjoyed and it opened me up to reading adult fantasy fiction which I find I absolutely love. Currently I’d say this is my favorite genre.
While I still have a special nostalgic place in my heart for those old historical romances they don’t dominate the type of reading I do any more. I am much more open to assorted books than I used to be. My reading keeps evolving and I wonder where I’ll be five or ten years from now.
How about you? How has your reading changed over the years? What did you start out with and where are you at now?
As a young pre-teen I read piles and piles of those Silhouette First Romance books for young adults. Gosh I loved those! Then when I started out reading real adult romance it was pure historical romance for me (these included American westerns, Southern bells, European Gothic and of course those naughty pirate books!). Remember those Zebra romance book covers? They always put a spark in my eye!
I had no interest in contemporary love stories at all. I was swept away with the romance of the hero riding off into the sunset with the heroine after a daring rescue. All the damsel in distress
stories used to make my heart race.I bought every historical romance book I could find by authors like Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsay, Shannon Drake/Heather Graham, Jude Deveraux, Mary Kay Simmons, Norah Hess and many more.
Then when I had finished all those and needed my next “fix” by those authors I broke down and bought some of their (namely Jude Deveraux and Heather Graham) contemporary romance books and found I loved those too! So I began diving into contemporary romance by assorted authors for the next few years.
Then some of Heather Graham’s contemporary books became thriller/crime/romance stories and I found I liked those too! Great! I began reading more and more of these type books and found myself addicted to Nora Roberts. This was a wonderful find for me because she had so many back books for me to dive into AND (best of all) she writes ALL SORTS of books with romance in them! Then of course there’s the fact that the woman writes like a dozen books a year so I’ve nearly always got a Nora Roberts book to read. Thank you dear Nora!
Next I was rediscovering the YA books of today- which are much different from the 1970’s and 1980’s when I had last read them. The old books were full of sweet first love romance, but almost never nookie (with the memorable exception of Judy Blume’s “Forever”-which is still sitting on my bookshelf). Today’s YA can have all the same sex as an adult romance but in a less graphic way. You know what the characters did, but you didn’t read the details (usually).
About the same time I was rediscovering YA I was for the first time discovering that I actually enjoyed more fantasy fiction than I ever had in my life. As a kid I actually strongly disliked fantasy fiction. Hated books like Narnia, The Witch & the Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz… and others. I would have preferred a trip to the dentist than having to read those books. Truly I couldn’t stand them. Now I find I love fantasy fiction mixed with some romance, much more than other genres. YA combined romance and fantasy for me in a way that I truly enjoyed and it opened me up to reading adult fantasy fiction which I find I absolutely love. Currently I’d say this is my favorite genre.
While I still have a special nostalgic place in my heart for those old historical romances they don’t dominate the type of reading I do any more. I am much more open to assorted books than I used to be. My reading keeps evolving and I wonder where I’ll be five or ten years from now.
How about you? How has your reading changed over the years? What did you start out with and where are you at now?
