Books Good for Sensual Seduction?

I’ll admit it: romance novels have always made me a bit squeamish. It’s not that I’m a prude when it comes to sex, but more that I’m a prude when it comes to literature. I remember very distinctly my mother’s horrified reaction when, at age eight and tired of waiting forever for a prescription in the drugstore, I picked up a nearby Harlequin paperback to pass the time. “Ew!” she squealed. “Put that down! Those novels are such trash!”

[Oddly, she hadn’t responded nearly so vehemently the week before when I showed her my new pet mouse that I had found in our basement. Romance novels must be even worse than vermin, I decided. I vowed to stick to more literary reading in the future.]

To this day, I’ve never been able to read a romance novel all the way through. But they remain a potent genre, as Michelle Buonfiglio of the Romance: B(u)y the Book blog will attest. And whether or not you fall for the alpha male hero or the virgin heroine, it would be hard to deny that some of the foundational elements of the romance genre are becoming more and more prevalent in other fiction genres as well. (Twilight, of course, being a prime example.)

So perhaps I can get my fix of the intersection between literature and romance in other ways. Recently, Maura Kelly at Marie Claire.com interviewed Jack Murnighan, editor-at-large for Nerve.com and author of a new book called Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature’s 50 Greatest Hits. From that interview, Maura gives us the list of “8 Ways to Use Books to Flirt (Even if You Don't Read Much).”

While I’m not sure I like the premise of having an excuse not to read much, the “8 Ways” she lists are actually quite cute.

JACK: Like a suggestive skirt, a suggestive novel, such as Nabakov's Lolita -- or a book with a suggestive title and cover, like another book I wrote called The Naughty Bits -- will send a signal. (Whether or not you want to send that particular signal is up to you.)

The article also offers suggestions of good literary one-liners, ways to sound brilliant at a cocktail party, and how to talk sexy about books.

Share your thoughts. Do you like romance novels? What are your favorite “suggestive” books? Have you used books to flirt?

--Rachel Frier

Photo romance novel: Romance Book Covers; Jack Murnighan: Marie Claire