Anyone else tired of all the Romance books appearing in the book section?

I am. They made up like 60% of the books last time I was in Fred Meyers. Anyone else thinking it's getting a bit ridiculous? :/

   If the amounts of genres of books mimicked my life, then I'd be happy... however its hard to enjoy a romance book when it avoids me like the plague.  There all horror novels as far as I'm concerned, may just start sticking with Manga; though that's not realistic or comparable to my lie either XD

Doesn't bother me if it's clean. And sadly this happens in every form of entertainment: clones and carbon copies flood the markets, and soon the majority of it's form of entertainment is made up of one certain genre. It's a weak attempt to cash in quickly on a concept or someone else's success.

It would be better if we saw more fantasy, mystery, etc. but I guess it isn't too big of a deal to me really.


EDIT: To clarify, I'm not happy about it, but that isn't really so much about how many there are as it is about how people try to cash in on everyone else's work.

Eirinn :

My thoughts exactly, Though, I prefer a good adventure honestly. (Sonic X had both. XD )

Maybe this is good for people like you and me then. Cashing in on everyone else's work. I wonder about that myself sometimes. I mean, we mimic our heroes, and favorite artists at times, so, yeah. Similarities will definitely show up. But if it's your own thing and you're just learning from those who got it right, it shouldn't be a problem.

The difference, is, exactly that. Is there a difference?

I know that most movies fail here. I swear every romance is the same. Sonic X being the first one to knock me off my socks in years. That and Silver's relationships to Blaze.

I'm kindof guilty of liking W.A.L.L.E. I mean, man, I KNOW it was typical, but since it was robots, and it was more of a lighthearted thing I really enjoyed it. Maybe because it was a more innocent relationship. (I really like those).

Sword legion : My apologies for the double summon here.

Well said. Certainly food for thought, I mean we can emulate role models and build off of other peoples' good ideas without producing carbon copies. For example, we would have no Jak & Daxter, no Crash Bandicoot, and no other platformer had no one built upon the idea set forth by the original platformer game. And had we not had people build on ideas from early games like dragon stomper, we would have no RPGs.

So for stories, games, etc. anyone who makes a new series or title in general will almost always be using an idea that has been used before (oh you're making a platformer? Sonic and Mario have been doing those for decades), so the idea would be to really make the book/game your own work and not a derivitive work.

Thought provoking post indeed.

Eirinn :

I used to really think about that too. My brother, bombchu link quoted something an artist he looks up to said one time.

"Only God is able to makes stuff from scratch, The rest of us need templates, bases, and inspiration."


I hold myself to high standards like you do in this area, that's something I think we've had in common. one of my favorite vilians I made up in my head is actually a lot like Zant, in character and design, until I redesigned him to make him more unique. Though his character is still much like Zant. As he became more an more engraved in my own world and stories, he changed, and I finally have an original character rather than a rip off.


Look at Sonic. The guy who made that said he was inspired to make it when he was playing Mario bros, and was trying to complete the game as fast as possible. He thought. "What if there were a game that was all about speed like this?" And sonic was born. As time when on, Sonic became a lot different. Which is good. It's like a newborn child I guess. Looks a lot like all other newborns at first, but circumstances, the mind and time all change it over time, and soon the individual becomes himself.

That's the mark of a person who just wants to make their mark in the world.

The people who clone the same dumb romance story are not. They are not artists, but product makers, who want their money. So, that's what they do.

Well, this is what you get for walking into a Fred Meyers.

I was in one once while I was on the West Coast, and got the impression that the only people that shopped there were the type of people who bought romance books to begin with.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have a healthy respect for romance novels, and have read some aloud to my girlfriend on numerous occasions. It's a fun little hobby, and it keeps things from ever being too dull.

However, a big part of why you see so many romance novels is because, well, they sell. Middle aged women and teenage girls are the types to go to book stores generally. It seems odd to think about it, but at least three quarters of the people I talk to (who read books that is) are women.

Men just don't have that same interest it appears. And I'll be honest, I barely read either. I find most books to be kind of bleh. What little books I do read, are, you guessed it, romance novels (granted, I read them aloud to someone who is interested in those books, I have no interest myself).

If you want to see less romance novels, go to a real book store, like a Barnes and Nobles. They have plenty of non-romance books, and even put them in specified sections so you never have to see another romance novel again.

Now with 50 Shades getting popular, it's a lot of romance/erotic books too.

I'm not really annoyed with it, I just focus of the sections I like or look online. Though it is too bad that there are some good writers out there who just can't make a penny of their books cause everyone is too busy buying fast food novels. But who am I to judge. Other people like what they like; good for them.

I guess I buy my books from a different section from my local bookstore, then. Not that I mind having a little bit of romance in my novels.