+ = Romance Novels

There is a certain formula for a good romance novel, and yet each author has her (or his??) own twist to their story and characters that makes for either really good read or a really lousy kinda-like-porn read. You know what porn-like stuff I'm talking about... where the story is flimsy at best and all the characters do is fornicate like mink. Or something. While the former is, oh yes, a love story at its best. You'll care for the characters, love their imperfections, you'll root for them, you'll watch them fall for each other, and then hurt when things don't work out and melt when they do.

I'm a hopeless romantic (ya think?) and these books showcase men we'd love to fall in love with but can't quite find in every day lives... I'm also overly stressed with med school life (ya think??) so these are a way to de-stress. I mean, how much more brain-dead can you get? Heh. I mean, I can read "Calvin & Hobbes" or "Foxtrot" but those make you laugh and you need your abs muscles for that. I dunno what it is, but I dig reading romance novels when I need to unwind and don't want to use any neurons for reading.

And while going through my bookcase during my mini-vacation, I read some romance books (I'm going through my books as it's arranged in my bookcase, befitting my obssessive compulsive tendencies) and I realized something quite unfair. When the heros have these love issues of the past (yknow, old wives who didn't love them, women they loved who cheated on them, blah-blah-blah), then they can be all cynical and dark and brooding and it's forgiven. Because women love a tortured soul (yea, right!). And it's the heroine's job to get the guy to open up and trust her and learn to love once more (somebody gag me with a spoon). Pssssh.

But if it were the other way around... ah. God forbid a woman should be cynical and brooding and dark when experiencing a heart-break. No. They're supposed to be sweet and still good and be, yknow, virginal still. Heaven forbid that a woman should have deep and heavy issues that can't be forgotten after a good horizontal mambo (TM Trish).

Women, who are supposed to be delicate and young and naive and innocent... and we aren't even allowed a good goddamn cynical sulk and brooding negativism when stuck in a love story. And men, who are supposed to be strong and mature and wise and non-judgemental wither and form so-called truths based on one lousy experience?? Spare me. As Meg Ryan voicing Anastacia in the movie "Anastacia" said, "Men are such babies". I hear ya, sister.