Speaking for myself, I don't care for sex or violence if it's gratuitous, i.e., when there's no reason for it. In romance novels I get, you pretty much know that sex will come up at some point in the story because of the feelings of the protagonists. I can accept this as it fits. I really like it if there's genuine caring going on and sex is used to show there is not only desire but some sense of commitment and caring occurring. I feel uncomfortable when there's coldness and nastiness being praised. It distresses me when people are heartless toward each other and sex is a weapon. I also think it depends on what the author is trying to do in the story. If violence is used but is not regarded as glorious then I think it's there for a purpose. I do have problems with some of James Patterson's books because he overdoes the psychopathic killer thing. I don't like this "Well if you have one serial killer in the novel to scare the bejabers out of people, why not have two or more." This is overkill. I suppose that's why I'm unwilling to read horror novels. I don't like anything too gruesome. If I can't find something I like about the author's characters, it's probable I might not care for the book. If the writing's good, the story's good, and I care about the characters, I'll read a book even though I may not care for the language or there's descriptions of sex or violence. Regards, Kim. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon Curry Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:29 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: 2 questions for the gang I'd just like to put my vote out there for mindless frivolity. I enjoy it all--strong language, explicit sex, all of it. I figure there are volunteers out there who are better at reading and proofing serious work. Me, I like fluff. I can read more of it, and I read enough serious required texts that I feel no guilt about asking for an explicit romance novel to proof. Shannon At 08:41 PM 2/26/2010, Roger Loran Bailey wrote: >I am going to have to agree with you on that one. I have nothing >against sex scenes and I have nothing against the very most graphic and >explicit sex scenes, per se. But how many body parts rubbing against >how many body parts described in how many ways can there be anyway. It >also happens that the more sex scenes and the more explicit the sex >scenes there are in a book the less interested in it I am likely to be. >That is because the book as a whole is likely to not have much depth to >it. That is to say, they tend to be mindless frivolity. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4903 (20100228) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4907 (20100302) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.