MacLean is the antidote to Reynard

So I finished the Gabriel's Inferno trilogy and I even read the sort-of sequel novella The Prince.  AND I ordered the sequel to that, The Raven.  What is wrong with me??  Fortunately, The Raven is the last of Reynard's books so far.  Because apparently these books are like potato chips -- I don't like potato chips at all, but once I start eating them, I can't stop.  BUT I am now on the third book of Sarah MacLean's Love by Numbers trilogy and even though, yes, these are fairly standard, predictable historical romance novels, I would call them feminist historical romance novels, because in all three books, the heroines are self-sufficient, plucky, and quite subversive.  Now, I have seen plenty such characters in many romance novels, but usually said characters are "tamed" by some man in the end.  Of course, in order to be considered a true genre romance novel, the main two characters must get married in the end.  So that still happens.  However, the women do not have to change in these books in order for these marriages to take place; the men essentially end up taking the women on their own terms.  So there is not this horrible "breaking" process that happens; the women get to remain intact, still spunky, subversive, and unique.  So I have no problem admitting that I am a fan of Sarah MacLean's work.

I was inspired by running across both of these summer reading lists last night:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/the-ultimate-romance-erotica-reading-list?utm_term=.ijAG1xbGO#.aiqQWqx0E

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2015/05/29/15-best-lgbt-summer-reads-include-anne-rice-kevin-sessums

I added all these books to my shelfari page (http://www.shelfari.com/shanascudder/shelf).  Obviously my shelfari page is a joke.  I have 3,286 books listed as "to read."  I think my Goodreads page is likely more realistic (https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1750471?shelf=to-read).  I was thinking last night as I was obsessively adding new books to my shelf that I don't actually know which I like more: reading books, reading about books, collecting book lists, or collecting actual books.  I think this is quite odd.

But I think it all goes back to the fact that what I want to do most of all is WRITE books.  I'm still working on that part, but I think seeing everything that's out there makes me feel like maybe someday a book by me could end up on one of those lists.