Romance reading friends & relatives

My sister who is also an avid reader is a book snob! She will occasionally pick up a romance but always gives me the impression that she is lowering herself. She takes on a snooty attitude (which she does well) and says, "Well, I'm in the mood to read trash!" GRRRRRR. We were on our yearly camping trip a few years ago when she ran out of stuff to read. I had just finished Lisa Kleypas' Suddenly You and handed it over to her. Over the next two days she was pretty quiet, reading very intently, and commenting occasionally "Whew, wow, this one is hot. Renee, I can't believe you read this stuff." I know, shocking! I'm the conservative older sister (supposedly) who never got in trouble and always did what mom said. My family tends to put me in a slot. But it's too much trouble to set them straight. I may appear conservative but underneath I'm very liberal.

My sister gives me the impression that she thinks I'm some sort of neanderthal for reading romance. I love her dearly but I think her social status has corrupted her. Her husband was assistant to the mayor, a high ranking city government position. So she has been hanging out with the mayor's wife and assorted political wives and they formed this book club where they read all the latest highbrow books. Egad! To be fair my sister is a great person! We connect on so many levels. Just not in reading tastes. ::sigh:: Oh, well. Surprisingly to me she loved Suddenly You and asked me if she could loan it to other friends in the book club, which she did. I never saw it again :) But I don't think it converted her by any means.

One of my favorite friends reads a little romance. She loves Nora Roberts and we have shared many of her books. But she does not like historical or paranormal. She really likes Catherine Anderson too, but I find some of her books way too saccharine. She also likes Julie Garwood contemporaries (heh) and Jayne Ann Krentz (liked her but heroines all seem the same so I quit reading her). I prefer darker rather than light. She hates anything dark and tends toward the sickly sweet. She also likes inspirationals and I can't stand them. Too preachy. (We attend the same church, but I guess there are different levels of sinners :) Last week, she asked me what I was reading and I told her "a vampire romance" and she gave one of those "are you insane" looks.

Then there is my next door neighbor. We share some interests since she reads an occasional historical romance (like Judith McNaught's historicals), but she also adores Danielle Steele. (::gag::) She buys every one of Steele's books in HB so she has a huge collection. And she likes Nicholas Sparks (::double gag::). To each her own, of course. Just makes it hard to talk books.

Thank God for you reader bloggers out there in blogland!