Sometimes it is a book with a provocative or edgy title: for instance, I have seen "I Am Not Your Negro" lately.

There is a woman, maybe mid-forties, well-dressed, who occasionally comes to the bar; when she is at the bar she sits with her drink and reads romance paperbacks. I find this interesting because a lot of the books people bring in to read are not so much for reading, but rather for people seeing you read it. You know: literature. Tolstoy as a frequent example. Sometimes it is a book with a provocative or edgy title: for instance, I have seen "I Am Not Your Negro" lately.

Then there are the younger guys reading the science fiction or horror books: those are not considered cool, but then they are reading them because they actually like them.

Which brings me back to Romance Novel Woman: from her look and demeanor I would not be surprised to see her reading the latest Hot Book on Politics -- the books that tell you that you are smart, they agree with you. It's the people in Kansas that keep fucking up, for instance. But: romance novels.

I imagine most romance novels are read in the privacy of one's home, like -- well -- porn. But there she is, reading a book with a florid cover of a Handsome Man and a Beautiful Woman. For most regulars at the bar the idea of a romance novel probably just brings to mind Fabio. Which brings to mind his "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" commercials. But that was like, what, twenty-five years ago? The guys on her covers don't really look like Fabio anymore. They want to be taken a little more seriously, perhaps. So the hair isn't quite as dramatic, say.

Maybe she reads them with some ironic detachment. But maybe she just likes the lightness, the fantasy, the reassuring storylines that culminate in a Happy Ending. Because if it doesn't end in a happy ending then it is Literature.

Maybe you sometimes want the White Knight to just be a White Knight, dammit. You don't want to find out that -- halfway through -- the guy who seemed like a White Knight turns out to be a rapist or murderer.

And that, then, is a True Crime book. 


- james james


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