To be totally addicted to romantasy books?

Yes, agreed. ‘Easy read’ isn’t a perfect term either. I don’t think we need to sort of minimise or apologise for whatever we like to read!

Yeah, I think calling something an ‘easy read’ is a better description for me. It doesn’t have the negative connotations of trash / trashy. In the last few years I’ve needed easier to read books and frankly they’ve kept me going through tough times. The formulaic nature of them (such as the happy ever after guaranteed in a romance novel) has been exactly what I’m looking for.

Maybe trashy is a better word than trash. But the easy read, you know what will happen because its the same as every other book in the genre. Just light hearted "fluff"
I dont "love" every book I read. Most are good. Solid 4 star reads. But I don't love them.

I guess I don't see calling a book an easy read trashy novel as a bad thing necessarily.

All of this!!

Game of thrones is a prime example of a fantasy book being judged simply as ‘fantasy’ because it’s written by a man.
Throne of Glass is an incredible series of fantasy books but gets judged as ‘fairy porn’ when there’s very little sex especially compared to GoT!

We have a different opinion on that and that’s fine. You can call them trash if you want. I’m just saying for me, that’s not how I choose to refer to books that I love and that have given me lots of enjoyment. I find it dismissive to call them ‘trash’, particularly as somebody has spent time writing them and will be talented enough to do so. It’s up to each one of us to decide what language we want to use to describe what we read.

Someone has taken weeks/months to write that ‘trash’ 😔

Some of the books I like are definitely trash. I dont care though. They are light reads in between my deeper stuff.
I can both enjoy them and recognise that they are trash.

I refer to them as'my trashy novels'.

Why?

What really pisses me off is that a lot of books that are called 'romantasy' would simply be called 'fantasy' if they were written by men. There are fantasy series with strong romantic subplots and a ton of smut in them that don't get called 'romantasy' simply because they have male authors. Jay Kristoff, who writes very dark, gritty, violent fantasy novels, pointed this out himself at a talk I went to by him.

Essentially, people who judge and sneer at others for their reading habits are snobs who don't know half as much about books as they think they do. And sneering at romance/romantasy comes with a side order of misogyny (internalised or otherwise) too. Popular culture that's created or consumed by men rarely comes in for anything like the snobbish critique that women's popular culture interests do.

I read pretty much all genres. I read literary fiction and classics, certainly, but I also read crime, psychological thrillers, horror, fantasy, romantasy, spy thrillers, dystopian sci-fi, you name it. Reading is something that's meant to be enjoyable. Books aren't medicine that you have to force down to improve yourself. Whatever you enjoy reading is perfectly fine.

Your partner sounds awful. He's looking down his nose at you and probably an insecure baby who knows he doesn't measure up (either literally or figuratively) to the men in your books and is scared you'll demand something better from him.

Cassian never once looked down at Nesta's reading habits!

I don’t understand why people talk down about books that they enjoy. I read loads of romance, thrillers etc. I enjoy them and so I talk about them in a positive way. I work with someone who will say “I really enjoyed X, but it’s just trash”. I don’t get it. Each to their own I guess but I respect the books that I enjoy and don’t consider them to be rubbish or trashy. I would say read what you enjoy and don’t get drawn into criticising something that is giving you pleasure.

I love Rosa King’s Dragonland series.

Please could you recommend some more books

I can totally relate, any particular recommendations? 😏

I love romantasy, but am selective about them because so many are written in the first person present tense, and I hate that.

I refer to them as'my trashy novels'.

All reading has value.
I really, really despise literary snobbery. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable so read what you enjoy.

YANBU.

My friend nagged me to read ACOTAR and I was reluctant because it's not my usual type of thing but gave in and then moved on to Throne of Glass, Cresent City and Fourth Wing.
I've read Quicksilver/Brimstone and Alchamised as well this year.

I've reread Fourth Wing and I'm rereading ACOTAR before the new ones come out.
I don't kid myself that they are great literary works but they are great escapism from work and bills.

Tell.your dh to mind his own business. They have got value to you because you enjoy them.

I love romantasy books too!

Me and my husband run an entire shop based around fantasy role play and tabletop RPG's, he does the face to face general stuff and I do the background - admittedly romantasy books are never exactly high fantasy and most of our reading is generally a bit more world buildy and lore heavy than most romatasy novels, but occasionally I can get him to read one and he does enjoy them. He calls it fairy or dragon porn too mind 🤣

Sometimes he pops out with a quote and a little play along when we are in the moment and I love him for that.

I was going to say something like this.

Completely ignore him - can't bear book snobbery and reading any books is more worthwhile and valuable than 90% of what most people spend their time doing these days - i.e. scrolling.

In every genre of books (from classics and literary prizewinners to very commercial) there are good books and bad books. People who think all mass market fiction is trashy don't know what they're talking about.

Worse things you could be addicted to...
Your partner should mind his own.

Thanks for this thread - lots of new book recommendations! It goes without saying YANBU. I read lots of book genres but romantasy is my go to for escapism.