I had foresight, dear readers and fans, and started a Google document long ago to catalog all my romances, just by author. I had this list linked to my Droid so that when I was in a store and found a good book, I would double-check to make sure that I didn't already own this book. And half the time, I already did. (Saves on the trouble of returning the item.)
The Google doc was nice for awhile. Obviously, it wasn't a public document, and my archaic style of categorizing the "already read" books (in red) and "to read" books (in black--yes, that's most of them) and "really want, so don't hesitate to buy" books (in green) served its purpose quite nicely.
But now not only can I catalog them by genre, sub-genre and sub- sub-genre, but now I can arrange them by whether I read them or not, as well as utilize the rating system and review space. I just wish I had these features when I started reading romances almost 20 years ago.
But, as you can see in the bottom right corner of the above pic, that's almost 800 titles to type in. Holy balls.
As I've already included 20 titles, I'm thinking of all the creative, helpful ways I can sub- sub-categorize them. I can also peruse the categories other Goodreads members have created in the same vein of books as me. I'm happy to be able to not just push a novel onto my romance "shelf", but I can coincide it with shelves like "erotica", "historical", "pirates", "western" or "cowboys", "Regency", "tough read", "fluff read", "bad books", etc. W00t.
But, as this is a good way to streamline my hobby and clear my mind, it's more time spent away from writing, which is the crux of this whole charade. I own 800 romance novels. As a published novelist, I believe that is seen as eccentric, colorful and "a bit of all right". After all: one can't practice a trade if examples are not readily available. As it stands, I believe I'm just weird...a crazy cat lady who has a shit-ton of romance novels, of which most stand unread.
I guess the point of this tirade is that, while it will take awhile, the Google doc will allow me to include all my titles on Goodreads in a fraction of the time. We'll see how much I surprise myself with tomes I remember enough to include a review, even a meager one.
...And on that point, my reviews until now have been quick, pithy and more self-worthwhile than I think will be helpful to other members of Goodreads. When it comes to romance novels, I feel the three points I focus most on in my reviews are the writing style, character makeup and interaction, and the sex. The sex, of course, is crucial. And maybe that will be helpful to a few romance fans.
JLH
