inkognito, thanks, the site is very amusing. The old covers are funny, and the parodies of them are hilarious! It is interesting that the paperback cover art for romances was already heavily stylized. Elements of the stylization are still around too.

I had an English teacher who knew Shakespeare, poetry and good literature inside out and backwards. I was shocked when I visited her house and found rows of romance novels on her bookshelves. She offered to let me borrow any I would like to read at home. I noticed she stressed the "at home" part.

As secret vices go, a tendency to read trite romances is not so very bad. I read my share growing up. They were more fun than the will-he-ask-her-to-the-prom teen romances some of my classmates were reading. They bore me now, but I have an affection for books that once brought me pleasure.

The covers were so much fun to see. You would recognize the period instantly from the covers. even though at the time I'm not sure we knew there was a formula.

Thanks! I enjoyed that.

Rosefolly

My 50-year-old niece is having to undergo six chemotherapy treatments, three weeks apart, following a hysterectomy where the removed cyst had a small malignancy. The doctor wants to be absolutely sure there is nothing else there, and we agree; but she nevertheless has to endure the procedures. She (an English major) is re-reading stacks of Danielle Steel books that she and my sister-in-law traded back and forth, both as mind candy and a way to take her mind off things. And more power to her, of course. In that vein, I am taking her my tapes of As Time Goes By, which she has never watched.

The funny thing is that when I was a teenager I actually read some of the books shown...back in the days when I did read romance novels. Essie Summers set her books in New Zealand and reading her books is what made me want to go there. I wanted to see the countryside she wrote about. Later, much later, my desire to visit NZ was enhanced by LoTR being filmed there. One of these days I am determined to visit NZ and see it for myself instead of reading about it or watching it on film.

Very amusing site. There is a patient at the hospital where I work (we have frequent flyers, just like airlines) who has stacks of these vintage books, brings them with her every time. She said it is okay that she has read them many times already because she doesn't remember them. She is 90 years old, bless her.

I used to keep a steamy romance hidden around the house somewhere for reading when I was down with a bad cold. It would make the symptoms ease better than Nyquil. But I don't get colds anymore and if I got one I suppose today I would play freecell all day!