Keepers
I have been thinking recently about the number of romance books on my keeper shelf. For some reason, I thought that I had to have at least 50 books that are so great, so wonderful, that moved me in some way that I kept them on the “I want to be buried with these books” shelf.
Imagine my surprise when I did a quick count and found only 17. Yep. 17. How pathetic! I’ve been reading romance for about 20 years and only 17 books made it to the keeper shelf???
So, without further ado, here are the aforementioned books (in no particular order):
Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
Flowers from the Storm - Laura Kinsale
For My Lady’s Heart - Laura Kinsale
Getting Rid of Bradley - Jenny Crusie
Something Wonderful - Judith McNaught
Heaven, Texas - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Then Came You - Lisa Kleypas
After the Night - Linda Howard
Her Secret Thrill - Donna Kauffman
Knock Me Off My Feet - Susan Donovan
Wicked - Jill Barnett
All Through the Night - Connie Brockway
Saving Grace - Julie Garwood
Indiscreet - Alison Kent
By Design - Madeline Hunter
Untie My Heart - Judith Ivory
Black Silk - Judith Ivory
Interesting to note that out of the 17 mentioned, only 6 are contemporary romances. I am not a big historical romance reader (would read 4 or 5 contemps to 1 historical romance), yet 11 historical romances made my keeper list.
Originally published in Poptart - Musings of a Pop Culture Tart
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Imagine my surprise when I did a quick count and found only 17. Yep. 17. How pathetic! I’ve been reading romance for about 20 years and only 17 books made it to the keeper shelf???
So, without further ado, here are the aforementioned books (in no particular order):
Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
Flowers from the Storm - Laura Kinsale
For My Lady’s Heart - Laura Kinsale
Getting Rid of Bradley - Jenny Crusie
Something Wonderful - Judith McNaught
Heaven, Texas - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Then Came You - Lisa Kleypas
After the Night - Linda Howard
Her Secret Thrill - Donna Kauffman
Knock Me Off My Feet - Susan Donovan
Wicked - Jill Barnett
All Through the Night - Connie Brockway
Saving Grace - Julie Garwood
Indiscreet - Alison Kent
By Design - Madeline Hunter
Untie My Heart - Judith Ivory
Black Silk - Judith Ivory
Interesting to note that out of the 17 mentioned, only 6 are contemporary romances. I am not a big historical romance reader (would read 4 or 5 contemps to 1 historical romance), yet 11 historical romances made my keeper list.
Originally published in Poptart - Musings of a Pop Culture Tart
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Labels: bibliophile’s affair, romance baby
I've yet to read Loretta Chase and Laura Kinsale. I've been meaning to but somehow, i just keep putting their books off LOL. I do have them though.
Now my keeper shelf will always include the ff (in no particular order :P)-
SOMETHING WONDERFUL - J McNaught
PARADISE - J McNaught
A KINGDOM OF DREAMS - J McNaught
PRINCESS - G Foley
THE DUKE - G Foley
THE PRIZE - J Garwood
HONOR'S SPLENDOR - J Garwood
BEWITCHING - J Barnett
ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT - C Brockway
THE PROPOSITION - J Ivory
UNTIE MY HEART - J Ivory
THIS HEART OF MINE - SE Phillips
KISS AN ANGEL - SE Phillips
AFTER THE NIGHT - L Howard
WELCOME TO TEMPTATION - J Crusie
Hmm, just 5 comtemps. But unlike Tart, i read a lot of historicals. So that's okay i think LOL.
4/06/2006 04:11:00 PM
A keeper shelf? I have keeper boxes - somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 banker-sized boxes.
I have about 10 Catherine Anderson; numerous Lori Fosters (though some I keep because I like others in a series); bunches of Linda Howard (but almost all category, only one single title); Sharon Sala; and alot of categories. There are a good number of historicals, but I'd say 95% are contemporary.
4/06/2006 06:54:00 PM
Harlot - so this Gaelen Foley chick is quite good then? Do you recommend that I read hers?
Bawdy - Yes, I know there's a lack of LH. I could probably have a second tier of keepers and add a few of hers like Kill & Tell, Mr Perfect, Diamond Bay and Midnight Rainbow LOL.
2nd Amdt (do I call you 2nd for short? LOL) - whoa, that's a lot of keepers!
Aggie - this is my romance keeper shelf...my non-romance keeper shelf is twice as big, but still not a lot of books on it. I'm notoriously picky and fussy with books. Plus, I don't keep a lot of them. Usually buy it, read it and then hock it off on Trade Me LOL.
4/06/2006 07:58:00 PM
Tart,
After i've read THE DUKE, i've looked everywhere for GF's books (at the time, her books weren't being released here). Then i luckily got PRINCESS in a book fair. I LOVED that book so much, it reminded me of the time i first read McNaught and discovered the beauty of romance novels. ;)
I highly rec both books, but read PRINCESS first LOL.
4/06/2006 08:59:00 PM
I have keeper shelves. I have a serious lack of willpower to whittle my selections down. In my Diana Palmer phase, I have 98% of her books on my shelves, same with Nora Roberts. Doesn't mean I've read or will read all of it, just that I wanted a complete collection as I could get.
Then there are stray books...I stopped counting at 500 paperbacks. I think I will just have to tighten my belt, take a deep breath and grab the top 10.
It would include
Bel Canto
The Bronze Horseman
Tatiana and Alexander
Welcome to Temptation
The Duke
Perfect
Paradise
Something Wonderful
Kingdom of Dreams
Bewitching
Coltrain's Proposal- Diana Palmer
OMG...I cannot do top ten. It's so damn hard. It's to much work for my recovering body. It will just have to wait!
4/07/2006 02:57:00 AM
Tart - I'm with you, I think I have about 50 but it's probably less and if I ever did some re reads it would be less.
I agree w/you on LK- FFTS and JM-SW both in my top ten.
I must be the only one who did not care for LC- LOS. She's not made it to my keeper shelf yet! I'm a big fan of Julia Quinn but I've only read each book once.
4/07/2006 11:34:00 AM
A while ago I put a list of my top 10 favourite books of all time (or some such thing) on my blog, and - although I'm a person who's supposedly really into romance novels - the only romance book I could honestly put on the list was a Shannon McKenna book.
I like SEP, too, but putting her on the list would have meant bumping off maybe "the quiet american," or "shogun" or something - forget it!
Anyway, I'm not slamming the genre, of course. I'm as into the shit as you guys are. I just often remark on how I compartmentalize the romance novels separately from the so-called "literary" books. They really are different. I've got 2 separate "keeper" shelves at my place.
4/09/2006 02:05:00 AM
Trollop
Reese, I completely agree with you.
I think the romance genre has such high demand, that the books are popping out like crazy, and publishers/editors are not very selective of the material they put on the stands. So much of it is really badly written; quite embarrassing.
I wasn't a romance reader until a couple of years ago, and while I've found some wonderful novels, I, very sadly, have to admit that most of the stuff out there is gad awful.
I'm not reading as much romance anymore b/c of this. I'm back to historical fiction, drama, I love well-written chick lit; any good novel will do.
Always eager to hear recs :P
4/09/2006 11:48:00 AM
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