Yesterday, Twitter was buzzing about the NY Times Article on how romance e-book sells have out paced other genres. The conclusion was that readers felt more comfortable reading novels with the sexy covers on e-books in public rather then the print copy. I did a double take. Such a broad assumption surprised me because . . .

I am a grown as- woman. Who gives a flying f--k what people think about my reading tastes. I mean really . . . was that the major drawl for people to buy e-readers so that they won't have to discuss what they're reading? Was it yours? I have an e-reader and that thought never crossed my mind. I bought my e-reader because, everyone else had one, they looked cool and I wanted to be cool too and I finally had the money to do so! LOL!

Seriously, I brought my Kindle back in February. Back in February the Hubster and I were talking about getting new furniture and while we were talking about that, he mentioned that he wanted a new gun (he's a cop, so don't worry). So, I'm like if you get something, I want something too, because that's the way we roll in my household – LOL. So it ended up that he got his gun, I got my Kindle, the kids got something and we didn't end up getting our new furniture until Black Friday. Yup, nine months later. Hey, it was a close thing as we both want iPads and Queen wants an iPod as a matter of fact so do I. – LOL.

Anyhoo, I digress, but this post is called Friday Ramblings, so bare with me . . .

The first grown up romance novel I ever read with Velvet Angel by Jude Deveraux. I was eleven years old. Once I closed Velvet Angel, I was hooked to romances for life. I spent any money that I could find on romance novels. Back in the day, it was Jude Deveaux, LaVryle Spencer, Judith McNaught, Linda Lael Miller, Julie Garwood, etc. I read those books everywhere. I didn't care who was watching me, what they said. And I don't remember anyone caring what I was reading. In hindsight that might not have been a good thing, but I think because I was a black girl growing up in the inner city people were just grateful that I was reading instead of running the street. And two, I come from a large extended family of readers. While I'm the only one who reads romance, and I read a lot more than the rest of my family, everyone reads to some extent. I learned about The DaVinci Code when I went home for a visit when I pregnant with Queen and my aunt and my mother were analyzing the book and the biblical ramifications. Nothing says home to me like sitting in the hood listening to my family argue about politics, books, etc. It totally boggles me, because some of those same people in my family make stupid decisions in their personal life.

Oops. Rambling again, hence the title of this post! LOL!
The only time, I remember being criticized for what I'm reading was when I was sixteen and Jackie Collin's Lucky came out. I was reading it at my aunt's house and my aunt had a hissy fit and snapped at my mom and my other aunt who were in the room for letting me read it. Of course, I barely remember the fight because my face was still buried in the book while they were arguing. As I finished the book and actually had the book for years (it actually still might be in my basement somewhere), I'm assuming that they ended up dropping the matter.

As you can probably tell, my reading romance has never been a big deal in my family. They would tend to get annoyed when I would ignore them at family gatherings and read instead, but that's about it.

I'm assuming since my family never had a problem with me reading, I just didn't care what others thought about my reading tastes. I have no shame reading books in public. I have no shame standing in a bookstore, grocery store, whatever, taking my time scanning titles or walking through the store in public reading a book. I read when I go somewhere and I know I'll have to wait. I read if I happen to be going to lunch by myself. I actually prefer to take a physical book with a smexy cover when I'm out in public and not an e-book because when I have ShaNayNay people usually interrupt my reading time with e-reader questions.

Also, I know I have young kids. The other day Queen sat next to me on the couch while I was reading and was looking at the cover. She was trying to point out all the words that she could read on the page I had open (she's six it wasn't much). She asked me why I was reading that book. I told her because I'm grown and if she wants to read my book so bad she better stop looking over my shoulder, get out her flip book (it's a book I made for her to help her with her sounds) and practice her sounds so she learn more words to read better.

And that was that.

Well, that's my story. What is yours? I can't wait to hear it!