Wherein I accidentally read 3 pornos this week

Thing I just googled: porn vs erotica vs romance.

My kindle suggested this free novel to me a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, "Sure, that looks cool. I need a nice escapist book. This one is called The Scotch King, and the cover has a crown on it. Must be some historical fiction about whisky and royalty."

I opened it and wow did I get a surprise because the book is total, like, Fifty Shades fan fiction (maybe? I don't really know my fan fiction terminology) and is just a lot of sex scenes with a story woven through. I have nothing against sex scenes, but these were definitely the most saucy and graphic ones I've ever read. I was a little embarrassed, so of course rather than stopping reading it (I mean, I really need fast-reads so I can beat my dad in our GoodReads Challenge this year, and I have a leg up on him now that he's dead), I just decided to tweet to the universe that I was reading porn.

Then I felt kind of guilty because porn has a negative connotation (though I don't think it should -- but I'm also not up on the ideology and academic arguments that support it), so I wondered if it was erotica instead. I'm still really confused, but trying not to think about it.

I never made it through Fifty Shades (i read the first, but not the others), but I did manage to finish all three of the Scotch Series, actually not even realizing it was a trilogy until I got to the third book. My Kindle had sent me the whole series as a group.

Anyway, that was my first experience reading really graphic, um, romance novels? And I had some observations.

1. I am a total sucker for plot. I really somehow needed to know what happened to these characters.
2. I didn't actually enjoy the sex scenes and kinda skimmed them for a while.
3. I went back and re-read them because I wondered if, now that both my parents are dead, maybe I could have a future writing really dirty romance novels? It seems like they are pretty thin on plot and maybe don't take a lot of time to write.
4. I will, in fact, read anything that is set in Scotland. Anything.
5. I have now, for sure, screwed up my targeted Kindle advertising, but ...
6. I am going to DESTROY my GoodReads Challenge this year, even though I started very far behind.

What are you reading this week?

3 comments

  1. πŸ˜‚ I'm reading the RED ACCORDION diaries! I laughed out loud quite a few times while reading this entry. I love your writing and sense of humor. I accidentally came across your blog back in May, when I was searching for another Brigid on Facebook. Your mother was dying at the time and having been through that myself, it really struck a chord with me. I was also born and raised in Louisville. So I started following your blog. Later I realized that we have a mutual friend, Kathy Lee-Jarvis. I haven't mentioned you to her yet ...but I suspect that you might even be related. I think it's about time to give her a call. It's also about time to listen to some of your music. πŸ˜‰

    Jeanne (who now lives in Florida)

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    1. WOW!! This is amazing, and I'm sorry I missed the comment until just now. Thank you for writing, COUSIN! :)

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  2. Considering which folder Gmail assigned my notification of this comment to ...it's a wonder that I ever saw it. I'll check on your schedule when I plan my next visit to Kentuckiana.

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