I came across this article last week that caught my eye.  The article, titled Book Offers Novel Approach to Weight Loss, talks about a study conducted at Duke University in which obese teen girls reading a book with a weight-management storyline resulted in those same girls losing weight.  This is the first study “to show a relationship between reading and making positive, healthy lifestyle changes,” according to study author Alexandra C. Russell.

This got me to thinking.  I’ve been reading Romance novels for almost twenty-five years.  Could my choice of reading material have an affect on my lifestyle choices?  This begged further attention, so the analysis began. 

I started reading mainstream Romance as a teen.  These books had a great deal of sex as this was still the age of the “bodice ripper”.  I hate that term with a passion, by the way, but it fits in this instance.  In my teenage years (prepare to learn more about me than you likely wanted to know) I did not make the lifestyle choice of becoming sexually active.  In fact, I think the books probably ingrained in me the idea that sex with the right person was the better way to go. And sure, the Catholic education may have contributed as well. So I waited. 

I don’t remember having a specific and detailed “man of my dreams” in mind as a teen.  Unless you count Joe Elliott, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t see him as husband material, even in my delusional teenage mind.  For those wondering, Joe Elliott is the lead singer of Def Leppard.  I was a head banger, what can I say?  But I did have a long list of traits my eventual husband would have to possess in order to win me. 

So we can say, so far, my choices were opposite the realities of the stories, but reflected the lessons involved.  Interesting.

Moving on to my 20s.  I believe it was around this time that Romance had much more variety to them than they do now.  Which is ironic as I’m guessing there are more Romances on the shelves today than there was back then.  I remember reading about drugs in Historicals and about infidelity and experimentation in Contemporaries.  This must have been my own little experimental phase.

However, I did not carry those experiments into my lifestyle.  In fact, my 20s could best be described as boring.  Other than a couple years of partying, my 20s consisted of marrying, settling down, and starting a family.  The true irony here is that you’d think after reading about the ideal man for so long, I would have chosen better.  But I didn’t.  I settled and it didn’t work out.  Whose idea was this analysis anyway?  Oh yeah, mine.  *sigh*

So instead of making choices that brought me my HEA, I went in the other direction.  Again, my choices were opposite of the stories I was reading.

Onto my 30s.  The message is getting through.  By the time I turned 30, I’d lost myself somewhere.  I’d like to think reading about heroines who were becoming increasingly more spunky and independent had something to do with me getting back on my feet and getting a back bone again.  It was by far not the only contributor, but I’m guessing it played a small part.  A good sign my choices had begun to come in line with the literature.  There is hope for this endeavor yet.

To the present.  I now have a quarter of a century of reading Romance under my belt.  Give or take a few months.  I have not found my personal HEA, but I do have a pretty good life.  I like myself most of the time, I’ve worked hard to make a stable and somewhat comfortable home for myself and my daughter.  And though my list of required traits in my hero is considerably shorter, I still have standards and I’m determined to stick to them.

Overall, I believe my reading history has shaped my life history.  Though as we can see, that does not mean one must reflect the other. So, when the detractors say Romance novels give women unrealistic expectations for life and love, I say, bull shit.  Romance novels have given me knowledge, adventure, laughter, tears, and hours (if not years) of entertainment.  They’ve shown me what women can do, what we are capable of, and that redemption is always possible.  They may not have handed me my perfect, real life HEA, but they have kept my hope alive.

What have Romance novels done for you?  Do you believe they have had any affect on your choices over the years?  If you’ve found your HEA, is he (or she) what you had in mind when you were making all those teenage diary entries?  Or do you think this is all bunk and worthless rambling to fill a blog?