Used Book Store visit

[meganbmoore]

 

Went to my preferred used bookstore before work. Naturally, I found nothing I was specifically looking for(mainly Terry Pratchett, Martha Wells, Dorothy Dunnett, Jane Lindskold and Diane Duane) except for one thing that wasn’t even for me, but did find some odds and ends, mostly fantasy. Tried looking at the scifi and was again reminded that even though I like scifi, I can’t touch most of it because it seems to think taking the average fantasy, exploration or historical plot and adding space ships and aliens and A.I.s and such suddenly makes it more intelligent and serious and "better’ fiction. Scifi and I will not be nearly as good of friends as I’d like us to be until it gets over itself. I added a few fantasy titles on principle, though I did grab one title that sounds like it could be interesting scifi noir.

I also spend a lot of time staring at the Cassie Edwards books. There were about two shelves of her books. My eyes almost went blind from all the "Savages." I was looking for Something for Somebody(which I did find, and which was cheap enough to be a non-issue and Edwards didn’t get a penny of it anyway.) It apparently involves girls raised as boys, accusations of witchcraft, and falling in love with your kidnapper. Oh, and according to the back(this part I remember a bit more clearly) the hero is on a vengeance quest against her family for introducing his brave and noble warriors to alcohol and ruining them.

I may dazzle you with the glory of the back description and interior excerpt when I get home. It currently sits in the car, hidden under good books.

But, seriously, I know a good chunk is the publisher wanting to keep her books recognizable…BUT ENOUGH WITH THE "SAVAGES" ALREADY!!!!

Honestly. It was painful seeing how hard they were trying with the names. It made J.R. Ward’s "h" obsession look brilliant and original.

I also looked at many of the other authors I read in high school and the beginning of college. I shook my head at myself. Not, mind you, that I feel any shame in reading romance novels. I have developed taste, though. I now only read bad romance to revel in the bad, cheese, and crack, as opposed to, ah, thinking the bad ones are good. Though I do also read actual good ones.

But, seriously, I think there were around 40 different "Savage" titles…I had to go over them 3 times to find the one I was looking for.

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I initially read "Savage Wrongs" as "Savage Wongs", which while more appropriate was NOT the title.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

If I read these things, you can except many Mighty Wang comments...because that's what the books are about.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, in the course of browsing through far too many of those listings on Amazon to check out Bad Heroine Names, I found at least ONE example where she wrote an Indian romance that WASN'T about hapless white women being won over by the Savage Mighty Wang! This one actually had an Indian heroine hooking up with Indian guy -- but she was an orphan raised by a white family, presumably to keep her from being too "exotic" for white readers to identify with. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mighty Wang comes into play in helping undo the effects of her assimilated upbringing, or getting her in touch with her birth culture, or something like that; fortunately, the text excerpts they had online didn't go nearly far enough into the book for me to find out. ;)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I remember that one from high school. The heroine's adoptive father gushed endlessly about how she would be far more beautiful than any white woman could be in the traditional white wedding dress because of her *insert 10 adjectives* skin and hair.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

...riiiiiiiiiight, because all of that 19th-century idealization of fair skin, the lighter the better, somehow skipped past his family. And to think that Chanel bitch got the credit for making tanning fashionable in the thirties, when this fictional trendsetter beat her to the punch by so many, many years!