So I’ve got a few things I’d like to get off my chest…and off my shelves…and out of the boxes in my garage.
Bookcrossing, here I come!
Over the years I’ve bought and inherited a lot of romance novels. I love books. I have eclectic reading habits and when I’m reading I tend to read voraciously. Now I’m reading less and it’s time to lighten my hoard.
At this point, I’m only talking about lightweight romance novels. I may soon come to a point where I’m unloading Ludlum, Clancy, and other novels with deeper stories. I’ll let you know when I get there.
What is a lightweight romance?
There are some characters and some stories so compelling that I’ll stay awake reading at night until my eyes burn and I’ll only have an hour to sleep before I have to start my day. Sometimes I just can’t leave a character hanging or wait to find out what happens next in a story.
Lightweight romance novels do not fall in that category.
You know the type I mean. The stories are basically variations on the same theme. They’re roughly 180 pages of girl gets some — I mean boy — and lives happily ever after.
Every now and then one of these stories or characters catches me by surprise, but for the most part they’re quite forgettable. These are the books I read when my mind is racing and I need to divert my attention. If I need to take a break from a project but don’t want to get involved in a book that’s going to demand my attention, I pick up a lightweight romance.
In other words, lightweight romance is what I read when I don’t have time to read. The great thing about these books (for me) is that I can put them down just as quickly as I pick them up. I can usually polish one off in an hour or two…but I don’t have to.
I am content to read a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, a half a book, or whatever I have time for…and just put the book down until the next time I feel the urge to pick it up. That urge might come at any time, even a week or more later. I can even ::gasp:: stop reading the book.
There are some books that I read more than once just for sheer pleasure. Those I tend to hang on to. My other term for lightweight romance is throwaway.
So, I’ve rambled on all this time to say that I’m finally throwing some away. I’m using Bookcrossing to release these books into the wild so that someone else might have a bit of entertainment. Who knows? They may even end up in the hands of someone who really appreciates them.
That said, I’m not planning to read all of the books I release. Those that I have read (and manage to remember reading) probably won’t get more of a recommendation than lightweight romance novel — unless I think they’re either outstandingly cute or unbearably tedious. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t choose all of these books. I’ve looked at a few of the back covers and realize there’s no way I’ll open the book for long enough to actually learn more than the back cover. Somebody, somewhere, is into the notion of being spirited away b a sheik, lord, or Indian brave, but that’s just not me.
Most of these are paperbacks and in good shape. Some are a little wrinkled from being read in the pool or hot tub. Read and release, recycle, or refuse. Just please check in and let me know the book’s fate. I joined Bookcrossing years ago, long before I became the i specialist, and never really got a chance to “play”.
So, that’s my spiel….