Fiction_L Archives Romance/women's fiction-how to group together (fwd) Dates: 1/12/00,1:50 PM  through  1/12/00,3:57 PM  (2 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2009-current     2007-2008     1996-2006    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to January 2000 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Fiction_L" <fictionl@nslsilus.ORG>
REC'D: 1/12/00, 1:50 PM

>Is it appropriate to put these books in the romance section? We use this for
>books where the main story is a love interest. It also includes 'glitz'
>(rags to riches stories), historical romance, romantic suspense, gothic
>romance, regency romance, hospital romance and romantic comedy.

As a hard core romance fan, I would never quite trust a library that
did this. I read romances all the time, but not the other, especially
if it is "literary." A lot of "women's fiction" is literary, and I
much prefer genre fiction, personally.

>Should we re-name the romance section with a broader term, such as Love
>which will allow more scope for what is stickered there?

Maybe, if they are really about love relationships exclusively.

>
>Do I create another genre/class called something less sexist than
>'contemporary womens fiction' and leave the romance section as it is?
>If so, what could I call the new section?

How about "Women's Lives Today?"

Mary K. Chelton
unrepentant, in-your-face romance fan

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Home: Work:
Graduate School of Library
35 Mercury Ave. & Information Studies
East Patchogue, NY 11772 Queens College
516 (as of 4/1, 631) 286-4255 254 Rosenthal Library
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718/997-3667 or 3790
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"I would like, to begin with, to say that though parents, husbands,
children, lovers and friends are all very well, they are not dogs."
Elizabeth Von Arnim
1866-1941

FROM: "Ann Boles" <aboles@yavapaicold.lib.az.us>
REC'D: 1/12/00, 3:57 PM

I feel exactly the same but opposite. I moved away from romance books
before I left my teens, and I love literary fiction. If you put the two
together, I think you would be doing a disservice to both groups of readers.


>>Is it appropriate to put these books in the romance section?
>As a hard core romance fan, I would never quite trust a library that
>did this. I read romances all the time, but not the other, especially
>if it is "literary." A lot of "women's fiction" is literary, and I
>much prefer genre fiction, personally.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ann M. Boles
Yavapai County Library District
172 E. Merritt, Ste. E
Prescott, AZ 86301
520-771-3191
aboles@yavapaicold.lib.az.us
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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