A long time ago, I was infatuated with romance novels. I read two or three per week. I loved them. I was a real connoisseur. But I realized something tonight. The reason I no longer read romance novels (and haven't for some time) is because I am no longer disillusioned with the idea of love. I realize that it doesn't exist, so I no longer want tonread about it. Or, maybe, my tastes have just evolved. I dunno. Anyway. The kinds of books I like are few and far between. I used to be into time travel novels, but there's only so many times you can read of the hokey ways authors send their characters back in time before you tire of it. I used to be into fantasy novels, but I realized pretty quickly that most of them pretty much stuck to a familiar formula: magic and/or some magical force and/or some evil wizard/troll/elf/other magical creature caused some problems for a group of people and they had to work it out and fix it, not through the use of magic, but through the use of wits and/or human characteristics. El Yawno.
So, now, my tastes tend to lean toward an amalgamation of all the things I used to read: I like books that are based in history with some magical element, some human element, and some fantasy element combined. Which is why I plan to be one of the first to buy my friend Jennifer's book when she finishes it and gets it published. She's a good writer -- no, a great writer -- in the vein of Gabaldon and Neville. I dare anyone to dispute me. En Garde.
