Myth 8: Reading romance is a sign that you're uneducated, unfulfilled or unenlightened

Harlequin Mills & Boon's annual romance report says that

the image of the dissatisfied housewife devouring romance novels is not, and never has been, true of the majority of the genre's readership.

For a start, approximately 9% are men. Two-thirds of romance readers graduated high-school or college and nearly 60% entered the workforce (full or part-time).

Prolific romance best-seller, Marian Keyes, is bothered by criticisms about readers of romance saying,

it's just another way of making women feel shit about themselves, by making fun of the books they write and read and the issues in them. If they were a group of men writing thrillers who had the same impact around the world they'd be celebrated.

Of the $6.31 billion net revenue from US publishing retail sources in 2006, romance accounted for 21% of overall sales ($1.37billon), second only to religious/inspirational sales (and including the sales of The Bible). The following year when they took the Bible out of the race, Romance topped the chart by a mile. Romance's nearest commercial competitor was the science fiction/fantasy leviathan which, although it had the much bigger public profile (and probably double or treble the unit cost further skewing the dollar-based stats), accounted for just under $500 million.

There are other clues to the mass popularity of romance amongst readers, 161 authors with 288 titles dominated the best-seller list in 2006. And did I mention the 64 million readers who read at least one romance in 2004?

That's a lot of unenlightened, unfulfilled and uneducated readers spending a LOT of money on their sad little habit.

The fact is that there is nothing unenlightened about enjoying stories that celebrate love or relationships. And if you're reading a romance, you're ahead of the estimated 27% of Americans (for instance) who didn't (or couldn't) read one single book in 2007 (AP-Ipsos poll 2007). So that's a big tick in the 'educated' box. And unfulfilled? Well, have a chat to the behemoth that is the Romantic film industry. Adding a little vicarious romantic pleasure to your day does not a sad, pathetic loser make. It just means you like to feel good.