This and That

I know I have said (complained, whined) in the past that I am an island, that none of my friends or family truly understands my passion for romance books. A lot of them know and I’m sure in the back of their minds they are thinking “she’s a wee bit of an odd one isn’t she”. Thank heavens I have an on-line community I can share with. I have one sister who is semi-understanding, and one friend who somewhat shares my love of the romance genre. I am happy to report I am no longer an island of one. This friend, after a 2 year hiatus due to RL has come back to the romance reading world. Our public library system has an atrocious selection of romance books. They don’t even have Bliss or Dance on file. I know, I checked. Can you imagine such an oversight? Because of this, I am the main supplier of books for my friend. I’m about as comfortable as I can be in loaning them to her, as she also shows them the proper respect they are due.
Being the main supplier puts me in an odd situation. I always give her the best of the best, in my opinion. There are a couple of genres she doesn’t care for, but other than the rare book she hasn’t been able to get into, she loves what I love.
Has this I wonder sometimes given me an inflated opinion of my own tastes? Having someone almost unanimously agree with me, while good for the ego always causes something of a shock when I read a review on a book and it gets a completely different grade than I have given it. This happened recently when a book I quite enjoyed received a terrible review. All the points the reviewer mentioned on why she give it a bad review, I agreed with, yet when the reviewer closed the book, she hated it and when I closed the book I loved it. Now, it’s not that the reviewer is wrong and I’m right. That would be just way too presumptuous wouldn’t it? Besides, it’s an opinion and how can anyone’s opinion be wrong. Facts can be wrong but opinions can’t be. That’s what makes it interesting though when I disagree with someone about a book. I may not agree with them but I love that they love books just as much as I do.

It looks like books are starting to arrive now in the book trading group. I don’t know about anyone else who has received books yet, but when I get home and there they are, it feels so good I almost question whether what we are doing is legal or not. I’ve gotten 4 books so far with more to come and I don’t’ know where to start :) What a delicious decision I’m going to have to make. This should get me out of my slump.

Is anyone else like me when they get a book they have hungered for a while? It’s like I’m too excited to read it. I just have to hold it for a while, check out the back, check out the front, savour it, put it down and move to the next one and repeat the process then start all over again. It can take ages to actually start reading sometimes. So are you a savourer or do you just jump in with both feet?