Old books. Don’t you just love them? Well, I do, but my nose certainly does not – which makes for itchy and sneezy reading. I have a lot of fun looking and reading through books that were published before I was born. Except for Stormfire. I don’t wanna go there. **shudders**
I don’t have to search and buy these oldies, some of which can be expensive. Have I mentioned before how awesome my Grandmother is? If not, she is!
My Grandmother has been reading for over 60 years and in her time, she has collected and read a substantial amount of books. I like to think that I read more books than the average person, but I haz nothing on my Grandmother when it comes to reading, experiencing and seeing the changes in romance novels over the years.
Here are some books that she bought in the 60’s and 70’s upwards. And yes, she keeps them, so most of them are first editions. 🙂
From those to today, my Grandmother has had no problem adapting. She’s a big fan of the BDB series by J.R Ward and she’s pretty much embraced Urban Fantasy and Paranormal romance… all at the young age of 74.
I was chatting with Has about this the other week, and it got me thinking. What will romance novels be like in 50 years time? Will that generation of romance lovers have problems with the books we love and read today? *ponders*
Since I can’t predict the future, I can go back and sample some of the books in the past. I have this lovely gem, which my Grandmother kindly leant to me, which will be read and reviewed next week:
The Ring of Fear by Anne McCaffrey!!! The pages are incredibly thin, and I’m sure my nose will have a twitchfest, but I’m so excited as I’ve always wanted to sample McCaffrey’s romances, but they are incredibly hard to find and I think pretty much out of print.
So, I’m curious to what other peoples thoughts are: Will werewolves, vampires, shape shifters and all things supernatural still be popular in 50 years time? Will the future generation of romance lovers have problems with the books we love and read today? Or do you think authors are producing the best in the genres in this age?
What a great post! You will love Ring of Fear. It is one of my favorite re-reads 😀
Awesomeness! Have you got a cover on your copy? I looked on Amazon and found this: 😀
Cover: Ring of Fire
I love that your grandmother reads the BDBs! What a wonderful thing you both share.
Thank you, Patti. 🙂
Heh, she's re-read the Ward books a couple of times over. lol
We are forever book swapping and she currently has my copies of the Demonica series by Larissa Ione.
Wow, what a great grandma…
I can't wait to hear what you think about this book. Never heard of it before but I'm really curious now.
Demonica series? That so cool. My gran would run away screaming. I think she's not for the paranormal stuff.
Have a nice weekend hon!
Oh, wow, that's cool. I'd forgotten that Anne McCaffery wrote romances. Neat.
I love your Grandmother! 😀
This reminds during our chat – I should do a post on the covers that got me into trouble. I think the older covers were actually worse than the recent ones although there have been a couple that were O_O 😀
The older Ellora's Cave ones doesn't count – that has its own sub genre.
@ Sushi: Hope you had a great weekend yourself. 🙂
@ Julie: Yup, she wrote romances very early on in her career. I haven't got a clue if they were good or not, though. 😉
LOL! You should do a poll and see what comes up trumps.
I think there are definitely some from the past are doozies – mainly historical romances.
But, I have to admit, some of Ellora's Cave's cover are…painful to the eye.
Yup – its like the Sims but with steroids and Viagra overdose and yeah estrogen! Have you seen the size of those man titties!!!!
Its kind of horrific though- they have reissued many of the older covers with better ones but some of them still exist out there 😀
**grins**
Man Boobies!!
I'm not a fan of the Sim lookalike covers. Perhaps they are limited money-wise, but surely anything is better than those?
I know that covers in print books can be just as important as the book itself. I've been guilty, on occasions, of picking up a book purely based on the cover, though, that's mainly on new authors I haven't tried before.
I once had a friend who judged a romance novel based on how attractive the male model was – mustaches were a NO NO and hairy chest was like NO WAI. Personally I thought she was missing out on a potential good book but I could def understand her views on mustaches. 😛
Moustaches are not so bad, but the hairy, scratchy beards? No thanks. 😀
I can sympathize with the itchy nose–I love libraries, but after about an hour, my eyes start watering and I'm miserable! Too bad. 🙁
I don't think supernatural creatures will be all the rage in 50 years. This trend has got to have an end at some point. I think/hope female characters will become stronger and more independent.
I enjoyed Ring of Fire, but it's not easy to find now as it's out of print. 🙁
@Heidenkind
I'm not so bad with library books, but books older than 10-20 years, I'm like a watering pot.
I think that it will still be around, but I agree that the trend will end. I do believe that it's become mainstream purely because of Twilight.
@Bea
I haven't been able to read Ring of Fear. 🙁
The book is like 25-30 years old, and the pages are horrendous. I swear that the pads on my fingers were irritated to the touch when I attempted to read it.