The Prejudices of the Romance Genre

This past week, many blogs were posting the list of top 100 books read on LibraryThing, one of the many book catalogue sites on the internet. Kristie(J) posted this list a few days ago and some others followed suit. I decided to join in, but rather than post the whole list, here are the ones I have actually read:

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Animal Farm by George Orwell

Angels & demons by Dan Brown

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The complete works by William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
I don’t know if I should be upset at myself for only reading 18 out of the 100 titles, and as you can see there is not one Harry Potter book in the bunch. Should I feel ashamed for neglecting such classics or critically acclaimed novels?
The LibraryThing list has me thinking, especially after reading Karen Scott’s post on why romance authors are never nominated for any major book awards. Her post was very educational and I have come the conclusion that the romance genre is still considered the neglected step-child in the publishing industry, even though these books rake in billions of dollars for the publishers and booksellers. Look at these statistics from The Romance Writers of America 2006 ROMStat Report:

The overall decline in the publishing industry was not evident in romance fiction, as sales remained steady in 2006 with $1.37 billion in estimated revenue and approximately 6,400 new titles published. Romance fiction was a strong seller—overcome only by the religion/inspirational category.
Romance: $1.37 billion
Religion/inspirational: $1.68 billion
Science fiction/fantasy: $495 million
Classic literary fiction: $448 million
Mystery: $422 million
Graphic novels: $128 million

I still cannot understand why romance is treated with such disdain and ridicule. To this day I get snide comments thrown at me whenever someone sees a book with cover that has semi-naked couple in a clutch or words in the title that say “SIN” “PASSION” “LUST”. Remember my friend who thought I read romance because they are perfect to masturbate to? That pissed me off to no end. To be that ignorant is so sad. BTW, I asked her if she has read the books I gave her and of course she gives me some lame excuse why she hasn’t even cracked open one of these books even though she has a two-hour train ride back and forth to work each day where she could read.

Why does the thought of sex in a book make people uneasy? Just because there are sex scenes in a novel, does not take away from the quality of a book. Even though I haven’t read Harry Potter, I heard that there were some violent acts from the murder of Harry’s parents to various characters getting killed off. That would irk me, especially if my young child was reading this. But the minute J.K. Rowling writes a love story between Harry and a girl or another character where kissing is involved, the public looses it because, “OH NO! Even thought Harry is a teenager and should date, the thought of engaging in such an act where kissing could be involved is not allowed!” So murder is okay but any form of intimacy between a teenage girl and boy is not?

What are the requirements for a book to become worthy of winning prestigious awards? I would assume it is in the writing and the storytelling. Why, so many romances I have read in the past five years deserve this praise and should be placed on all the major book lists. Last year alone, I could name at least 10 books that transcends any label and should have been considered the best of the best for 2007. But they weren’t because they are considered romance.

I am so sick of reading People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and other such magazines and never seeing one romance book reviewed. And when one is so lucky to be reviewed, it is given a small blurb in some column on the side of the page.

I am so saddened and disgusted by people’s prejudice about romance. I will never forget a few years ago, when I went on and on about Anne Stuart’s A Rose at Midnight as one of the best books I have ever read. My co-worker was interested and when I brought in my paperback and yes, it is that one with a man and woman in a passionate clutch, she looked at it, gave it back to me and with a lemon face said, “Sorry, I don’t read this trash.” Didn’t she ever learn, do not judge a book by its cover?

I realize everyone has different tastes and I respect that, but I hope someone will respect mine and not make assumptions on what I am reading. And maybe one day these people who decide which books should be nominated for these prestige awards, will get their heads out of their asses and judge romances not on the covers, or the titles, but the wonderful words inside.

Katiebabs (KB)