I just clicked onto our public library web page to see what kind of ebooks they had. When I clicked on romance, who should first come up but Nicholas Sparks!!! Nicholas Sparks????? It's amazing how vastly different their idea of a romance is to mine. They also had some Zane Grey (?), Danielle Steel (?), Belva Plain(?), a LOT of Debbie MacComber (who doesn't work for me on many levels), Laurel K Hamilton who I've never been tempted to try, Harold Robbins (really - Harold Robbins??? Under Romance????).
There were a lot more traditional romance books too - A LOT of Nora Roberts. But most of what I would consider romance books, I've already read.
But I've a feeling I won't be downloading many ebooks from the library.
14 comments:
I agree. I joined ours so that I could suggest what I want. I occasionally read those (I do love Nora) but - though I own all of her books - I really can't get into Debbie.
This has been my biggest disappointment since getting the Nook
Gina: When I was going through their pages, I skipped a few of them - but I got enough to sense that their romance section - with the exception maybe of Laurel K Hamilton - wasn't very varied.
But then - judging from my own experience and how few people around me have them yet, maybe that will change. And in the article I read in yesterday's paper, they said they would probably double the number of ebooks they stock. But at the moment, my own personal print AND elibraries are better than theirs - heh heh heh.
Yeah, its too bad the "free e-libraries" don't seem up to snuff yet. Hopefully, this will change. I belong to the Queens, NY public library system and I too have been disapointed in their romance offerings.
It depends on the library, some have better subscriptions then others. My current library just has those titles the state pays for and are shared throughout the state. It isn't a good selection and most titles are checked out. The library I used to work for had slightly better selection. They aren't all bad though, I use my mother's card and her library has a TON of good/new titles, though not a lot of variety, there are more romance.
Part of the problem is that not all publishing houses allow their titles to be lent, and then libraries try to by titles that will appeal to the broadest audience, so the selection can be bland and dominated by a few publishers and authors. Personally, I think libraries will be dedicating more funds in this direction in future years. I work in a library and we've dedicated more money for e-audio books over regular audio books.
What Anonymous already said.
Also, part of it is how the vendor classifies the books. It's not necessarily the library saying Nicholas Sparks is romance, but the vendor they puchased the ebook from. Also, it could just be that the librarian buying the ebooks doesn't have a clue about the genre either. Both are distinct possibilities.
My library just started an ebook collection, and we only have about 200 titles. Also, since money is non-existent, we're not getting the HOT, NEW titles, but relying on older titles by well-known authors that are more reasonably priced. Looking at our romance offerings I see Cathy Maxwell, Kay Hooper, Karen Ranney, Elizabeth Lowell, Susan Andersen, Vicki Lewis Thompson and Jennifer Crusie...to name a few. And I don't even buy the ebooks, my boss does. Which means she must have been listening when I gave one of my many presentations here at work :)
That's too bad. Is there anywhere that you can request/suggest that they get a better selection? Maybe find out how they determine what ebooks to offer?
I'm lucky with my library, they literally have hundreds of Harlequin ebooks plus a bunch of other romance pubs. I hope yours gets better!
Could be worse, my husband found the Marquis de Sade in the romance. :-)
Our libraries romance ebooks selection is on the dismal/odd side too. Not that it matters, since it's completely non-functional! -- willaful
Acckkk!! Is right with respect to Nicholas Sparks, for me too Kristie.
Non-existent selection to choose from there, however hopefully things will improve in the future.
Okay, but what is the score now between Brent and Destructo? ;)
Cindys
It's too bad Kristie. But seriously, it's not unexpected. I think it's very hard for us to be satisfied by libraries romance section, because they have so many restrictions, while we are able to buy whatever we want. Also, you're talking e-books. Might take a few years to build up ^_^;
That is disappointing to hear, especially when there are so many options for romance e-books. Though I'm sure it depends on the tastes of the library patrons and what's available for the librarians to choose from. May need to poke my publishers about e-book library donations.
LKH in the romance section? I think she's classifed as horror (Anita Blake) and fantasy (Merry Gentry) at my library. Interesting how they differ :)
I haven't checked out what my library has to offer in the eBook dept. Hmmm. I wonder what I'll be doing this weekend? *grin*
Aww that really sucks! I find my library has a decent selection of new ebooks. I wish their YA selection was better though. But at least they have e-books!
That sucks Kristie. After I read this I went to check out my librarie's ebook "romance" collection there were a lot of Debbie Mc. but there were also a lot of great romance titles. No Nicolas Sparks!
They also had a great YA collection, another of my fav genres!
Now that they have the cheaper/wi-fi nook...I may be able to afford one sooner than I had anticipated!
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