Friday, January 2, 2009

Reading and Supernatural Romances

Just finished Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Upon the Midnight Clear is the first of the Dream-Hunter novels I've read, and I will be looking for more of them in the future. I love her Dark Hunter series, and the Dream Hunter books look to be as good.
I'm almost done with Christine Feehan's Turbulent Sea, another in her series about the Drake sisters (seven daughters whose mother is one of seven daughters). I've been reading Christine Feehan's books for a few years now, her books are what got me interested in the supernatural romances. I have a couple of anthologies with CF and several other authors, whose books I then purchased because I liked the short stories they wrote for the anthology.
I have 4 or 5 books by Kim Harrison that I haven't read yet, but will be reading soon (her For a Few Demons More hooked me on the series and I had to go out and get them).
Most of my reading is done when I take the car in for mechanical work (I can read while it's being worked on) or at DH's doctor appointments (I read while I'm waiting for him).
I will say that I don't read a lot at home anymore, mainly because when I do, time gets away from me. I get caught up in whatever world I'm reading about, and everything else disappears. I was reading Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon, started at 8 p.m. and didn't quit until I had finished it at 8 a.m. the next morning (what can I say, it grabbed me by the eyeballs and wouldn't let go). That was a hard book to read, dealing with the abuse of Acheron as a child (and it was horrific), but at the same time, it was a look at what made Acheron the god that he is, and gives some explanation for why he relates to the Dark Hunters as he does in her other novels. I think I went through half a box of tissues reading that book (yeah, I cry at the sad stuff in books, and I laugh out loud at the funny stuff too, got me a lot of weird looks in study hall when I was in school).
I'm going to have to get another bookshelf for my books if I keep collecting them. I used to have enough books to fill shelves on a 6' wide by 8' tall wall (floor to ceiling), that was my science fiction/fantasy/horror/true crime/murder mystery collection. All of those books went to my son (yeah, he's a bookworm too, he started reading my books when he was 5 or 6). One of his wife's sisters is a reader, and she goes to his house every week to borrow 5 or 6 books (she says he's her own personal library...lol). Now my grandsons, who are 12 and 15, are reading them, which thrills me no end. The books I'm reading now wouldn't interest them, I don't know many men who are into supernatural romances (or any kind of romances, for that matter), but I always keep my books, I might want to re-read them at some point in the future (hell, most of the books my son has, that were mine, I've read at least 3 times, and some of them, I've read 10 or 15 times). I have Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series, and I've read all of them 3 times already.
Every time I re-read a book, I get something new out of it, mainly because I've learned new things or been exposed to new ideas since I read the book, and that gives me a different perspective. It's one of the reasons I love to read. Well, that, and when I was a kid, it was the best escape in the world from a brother who was a pain in the ass and an abusive mother, not to mention bullying kids at school (it's really hard to bully someone when she has her nose buried in a book and doesn't hear you). I used to drive my mother batshit nuts when I was reading because she would tell me to do something, and I didn't hear her (I wasn't there, I was in the book and had blocked out everything going on around me. I can still do that if the book is really good). When I read, I don't really see the words, it's like I'm watching a movie in my mind, which is one of the reasons I don't like movies made from books. Those movies are hardly ever true to the book, too much is left out, and they're never what I've seen when I read the book.

5 comments:

  1. Yay, your taste in books is pretty much parallel to mine (at least, the paranormal romance part, and I'm also a sucker for the historical romances). I never got into Christine Feehan, because something about her books just got too repetitive for me, and though I don't read them anymore, LKH's books are what originally got me into the genre. I've been meaning forever to get into Kenyon and Harrison's books (I think I read one book by Kim Harrison, on loan from a friend, and really enjoyed it). I think my lasting favorites for the genre are Lynsay Sands and Katie MacAlister, and Kresley Cole(awesome series) since those are the only three I can think of who have never come out with a book I didn't like. Others, who I am either currently 'on', or have paused reading, waiting for books to be released, or who I liked for awhile, but eventually tired of the series (bad habit for me) are: J.R. Ward, Lara Adrian, Nalini Singh(really good!), Jaquelyn Frank, Lynne Viehl, Alexandra Ivy, and Larissa Ione.

    And, re: seeing the book in your head? Totally what I do as well. I am just happy that most of the books I read don't tend to get made into movies, though I get irked with the few that do. xD

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  2. Susan Sizemore is another author who does supernatural romances, she's also very good. I haven't read all of the authors you listed, I'm going to have to look for them now :)
    Supernatural romances are becoming popular enough that Harlequin now has their own line of them, called Nocturne. I've read a few of them, but they seem rather formulaic to me, which is one of the reasons I quit reading anything by Harlequin years ago.

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  3. I love the Anita Blake books--even after Obsidian Butterfly when the Doomcrotch took over the series. :) I'm excited for "Skin Trade" in June! Have you read her Merry Gentry series? Even more sex, but also a lot of fun.

    I have two Dark Hunter books on the way to me from Booksfree.com, I'm excited to read them.

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  4. I haven't read the Merry Gentry ones yet, I started one a few years ago, and it didn't grab me right away, so I put it down and haven't picked it back up. Maybe I should try reading it again and see if that has changed. I'll have to see if The Science Fiction Book Club is going to have Skin Trade when it comes out (that's usually where I order my books, if I don't buy them in paperback). I'll check out booksfree.com too, that's sounds like an interesting website.

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  5. Ugh, yeah, I've heard about the Nocturne books when they started coming out with them, read the backs of a few, but the plots never really interested me, for pretty much the same reason.

    And I seem to remember reading I Hunger for You by Sizemore, but for some reason, while I found it enjoyable, it just didn't capture me enough to want to pursue the series.

    And definitely check out a few of the ones I listed. If you're looking for something very different (different for me, anyway), I'd recommend first looking at Kresely Cole and Nalini Singh. I don't know why they strike me as so different than a lot of the books I've read, but they just seem to stand out, for some reason.

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