Telynor's Library, and then some

Recently, I went and sorted through a list posted on Goodreads (a site devoted to books and the people who read them), which was touted as the Best Books of 2014, and much to my amazement, there was not one book on the listing of nearly 1000 books that I had read. Now, many of you out there who have been following my reviews might have noticed that I read stuff that's not exactly mainstream. There are very few bestsellers that reach out to me and scream "Try me!" And given my age, the Young Adult/Tweener/Romance genre isn't about to take my interest either.

Not that I don't mind a good fluffy romance now and then for some pure escapism. I adore a well-written romance set in say, ancient Rome, or the Medieval period, the far East, you name it. But of late, ever since the appearance of the Twilight and Twenty Shades (of crap, I must say) series, the romance industry has gone to hell. Historical romance is all Regency tinged with modern bondage, cruel heroes, and hardly a scrap of actual Regency history or indeed anything that would have been appropriate. Or it's alternate-history Tudor fiction that is so badly written and again with little real history, or even romance to it. And I won't even go into the whole paranormal world of vampires, werewolves, et alia, that is out there -- and it's just too out there for me.

As to some of the mainstream fiction, it seems to be lots of magical surrealism if it's coming out of Europe, thinly disguised porn, dysfunctional families, horror novels, and other things that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot net, if just to make a path for myself to the exit. It's depressing.

True, I still have my my tried and true historical mysteries, Elizabeth Chadwick and Sharon Kay Penman for my history, and Jane Austen and Patrick O'Brian for the best that the Regency and Napoleonic eras can offer. And of course, I still have plenty of good, straightforward history and cookbooks that I can dive into.

I guess what I resent the most is that I hate dropping good money on trash. Is anyone else noticing this trend as well? What have you seen out that there that drives you nuts, and what would you suggest for this reader?

Looking forward to seeing your comments.