I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately thinking about aspects of the online romance community that I don’t like. Rather than re-hash the same old gripes yet again, I’d like to channel Pollyanna and focus on a few things I do like.
Book recommendations: Thank you so much to everyone on Twitter and the comment thread of my recent Borders post who recommended Mary Stewart. I starting reading Nine Coaches Waiting last night and I’m in heaven. It sucked me in from the very first sentence and is shaping up to be the sort of book I know I won’t want to end. I think I can say with confidence that my reading slump is over.
Interesting Discussions: I appreciate the thought-provoking posts and comments at the various blogs I frequent. Much attention is given to the bloggers themselves, but I firmly believe the people who comment on posts are just as important in making a blog a place worth visiting. Some of those who regularly comment are themselves bloggers; others are not. All have something worthwhile to contribute to discussions.
Information: I get most of my information on upcoming releases, authors, and publishing news from book blogs and sites such as All About Romance.
Posts Which Make Me Laugh (For All The Right Reasons): Bloggers such as Mrs Giggles and Karen Knows Best have a special ability to make me spew coffee over my keyboard. Kudos also go to Katiebabs for regularly making me laugh with her excellent series of WTFuckery posts.
What do you particularly like about the online romance community?
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I like a variety of things about the online romance community. I love know smart and knowledgable readers and writers are, which is not at all surprising, and is actually very rewarding to me. I’ve learned a lot from others who love the same books I do.
I love the support and the intelligent discussion when it doesn’t turn into a us vs. them battle. I don’t see the point of nastiness. Agree to disagree and move on. I have no problem with differing viewpoints, in fact I’ve read discussions that have persuaded me to change my mind on occasion.
I love joking around and being silly on occasion, to gush about favorite authors and hotties. I love people’s enthusiasm for books and for writing. The romance community is a passionate, diverse, fascinating group of people, and I love being a tiny drop in that bucket. It’s very gratifying.
Aw thanks.
Major love for your blog also.
There are so many blogs I visit and would love to recommend but that list would be too huge.
What a great post. Put me in a good mood for the day. I really love this book blogging community. This community has revived my love of reading when I had let it get stale. Besides reading I love discussing the books I love and blogs and twitter have made that a true pleasure. Thanks for the great post, I’m checking out they links you posted.
(BTW, I think Katiebabs owes a lot of us new monitors for all the coffee she caused to fly with her WTFuckery posts lol)
A very timely post, at least for me, since I’m finding myself getting very irritated. I just need to keep reminding myself that no matter what happens, what comes down the pipe, some people will always sing the same tune – just louder and more insistent.
Um, so what do I like about the online romance community. Hmmmm, probably the camaraderie. I also appreciate that there are several bloggers I can go and visit when I need a break from The Stupid. Bless you all – you know who you are.
And that’s all I got at the moment. Now to crawl back into my hole and decompress.
On a selfish level, beyond the friendship and the fun and the frivolity of it all, I love learning about new books, chatting about old faves and I am in LOVE with linkage! It’s like going to the best kind of school, every darn day
Thanks Polly: a very apropos and needed post!
At this moment I kinda feel out of whack with blogoverse but that is probably due to personal moods :S What I love about the romance community is the joy of finding other peeps who make you go: Oh.My.Gosh…you too!
So many things I recognize of myself in other book lovers and the fun of booktalk will never go away 
The book recommendations and discussion!
@Stacy ~: I also love being a small part of a diverse and vibrant community.
@katiebabs: I keep adding to the blogs I visit regularly. It’s getting ridiculous.
@Fiction Vixen: I’m so glad I put you in a good mood! Writing the post and reading these comments has lifted my spirits. I was originally going to post a very negative “Fuck You”-style post which might have been entertaining in its own weird way but would only have put me in even more of a downer. I’ll save the FU post for when it’s really necessary.
@Janet W: I’m all for linkage. It’s how I discovered so many of the blogs I now visit regularly.
@Leontine: I know just what you mean. Finding people who have similar views to you is wonderful, both in terms of taste in books and outlooks on life.
@Victoria Janssen: While some discussions drive me insane, I love them for the most part.
I like how everybody unapologetically LIKES romance books. It seems like a small thing, but it’s not.
Of course, I dislike when a blogger goes on a “why don’t romance readers / writers / lovers get respect?” tear. You don’t see miniature airplane model builders whining about no one else liking their hobby. They just get on with it.
I love the range of people one finds — and believe me, I’m so much more grateful for the friends I’ve made than I could ever be annoyed about anyone else. So it’s all good.
But I’d also like to make a plug for thinking — a lot of what I’ve read in Romlandia has made me think more, while I read, about what I read. That I then get to write about what I’m thinking about — it’s really good.
Oh, yeah — and the book recommendations (my TBR is very very full, thank you all so much). And the laughs. And the generosity of spirit, which is all overlooked too much of the time. Just yesterday someone did something gracious out of the public eye, and I was so appreciative.
Really, I have a lot that I like — so thanks for making me list it. It’s good to be reminded, isn’t it?
I just like talking to people who love romances as much as I do! My mom likes to read but doesn’t like romances; and my papa reads romances but doesn’t really talk about them much. So that’s fun.
I also love book recommendations. And I’m happy you’re liking Nine Coaches Waiting! I’ve been wanting to re-read that one for a while.
mmm.. hard call
I love how insane some people are. (We have had the reality TV discussion before right?)
I love how I can lose hours to blogland and pure procrastination.
I love to argue.
Though have to agree with Venus, that actually seeing a large number of people actively discussing and loving on romance novels is great, even seeing knowledgeable people hash it out over differences of opinion in regards to rom books, tropes et al, is awesome sauce for a person with limited RL contact with rom readers.
I like how quickly the kerfluffles die down. In a few days, it’s old news. Most people won’t remember (or care) if I said something they didn’t agree with!
@Venus Vaughn: I also love being able to share my enthusiasm for reading with others. I don’t know many people in RL who read as much as I do.
@Magdalen: My TBR pile is reaching towering proportions!
@heidenkind: My RL friends don’t share my love of romance, so I know just what you mean. For many years, I was ashamed to admit to liking romance novels. I no longer care what people say about it. Funnily enough, I get far fewer jokes about crappy books now. Perhaps it’s all in the attitude.
@Edie: It gets so wild online at times that it really could be a reality show!
@Jill Sorenson: That’s true. Most kerfuffles are yesterday’s news as soon as the next one starts!