A lone, small voice in a sea of donnishness....

Rebecca Traister of Salon has penned an essay in defense of chick-lit and "silly novels by Lady Novelists," the quotes courtesy of George Eliot, circa 1856. I don't know exactly what it is within women that we seek in our reading. Love, community, validation? All three? Perhaps, but when I close my "silly novels," I'm a happier person. More balanced. Able to face the laundry, the seven pages I have left to write for the day, the kid's bickering. I don't know why, but I do know that I'm not alone. Women as a group are voracious readers. A book is a shared cup of coffee, not just with the author, but with the friend who shoved it in your hand, and said, "You have to read this book!" It's a wise person who recognizes that sometimes people do not read to educate themselves, or swoon over an author's words, sometimes they read merely to live.