Reading This Can Save You Money

Yes, reading this can save you money

Really.

Here’s the deal. I have been reading a lot lately and been making headway in my TBR stack. Oh, what fun it’s been! I have a lot of books in my pile (well, they’re in book bags in my office) and I just blindly picked one to read last Saturday afternoon.

I’d been to the gym, I’d showered, Surfer Guy and Son 1 and Son 2 were around doing their thing, but not needing me. So I had my corner chair, my chubby paperback, and complete peace…or so I thought.

Thirty pages into the book I was reading, I had to get up. I had to get up and go to my bathroom mirror. I had to get up and go to my bathroom mirror and from my make-up drawer I had to pull out a lipstick. I then carefully and critically applied said cosmetic to my lips. That’s right. I had to get up from reading a book to put on lipstick!

I wasn’t reading a romance. Instead, this was a thick woman-y tome about someone who takes Pilates (like I do) and is a writer (like I am) and who loves her children (ditto) and who really is an all-around great person yet still is dumped by…take a guess…the numbskull she shares a bed with who is having a mid-life crisis.

If it had been after five, it might have driven me to drink. Instead, I’m suddenly slapping on the lip plumper and wielding the mascara wand because the author’s made me doubt marriage and true love and has totally ruined my Saturday afternoon. I pulled out hairspray. Tweezers. Wondered if I should run out to find some horribly uncomfortable teddy instead of the soft tee that I prefer to sleep in.

And then it really hit me. A romance novel never makes me run to the mirror. A romance novel doesn’t make me doubt that I can maintain a romantic relationship with a partner (or that a romantic relationship with the male of the species is worth having at all, because believe me, after reading thirty pages of this book, I was thinking of moving to a cottage where I would live alone with cats). A romance novel makes me smile, not snarl.

I finished the woman-y tome and I wore make-up the rest of the weekend. But you can bet the next book I picked wasn’t a blind choice. I’m reading a delicious historical romance right now and all’s right with my world. So forget the dash to Sephora or Victoria’s Secret. You don’t need to spend bucks to feel beautiful and believe in true love. Go to your To Be Read pile, pick out a romance. Or if you have to spend money, take that trek to your local bookstore. But if you’re having a bad day, or a bad week, or just need a reminder of what it’s like to “Multiply life by the power of two,”* pick up a romance. You’ll feel pretty while you read it, I promise.

I’m ready to replenish my TBR stack, so help. What are you reading right now?

*From a song that captures the best parts of a long-term romantic relationship, “The Power of Two” by the Indigo Girls, on their CD 1200 Curfews.