Chick Lit and Romance Novels: An Indulgence

Chick Lit as defined in Wikipedia is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humourously and lightheartedly. Although it sometimes includes romantic elements, Chick Lit is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre because the heroine's relationship with her family and friends is often just as important as her romantic relationship. This Chick Lit genre became popular in the late 1990s with titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to Chick Lit. The number of titles in the "Popular Chick Lit" list? An astounding 69,648 at the last count!

As for the Romance Novel, all females read these at some stage in their lives, usually during adolescence and beyond. I remember I started reading Barbara Cartland novels at the start of boarding school. We bought the books from the Grenier's bookstore in Seremban town or the newspaper vendor who came on weekends to the College.

I only became aware of Chick Lit when B started buying the "Shopaholic" books by Sophie Kinsella. Then there was Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary, followed by other Chick Lit authors and titles. Not surprisingly, quite a number of Chick Lit (and romance novel) titles have been adapted to film. Like Eat Pray Love, etc. Hence the popularity of romantic comedies (read: Chick flicks)! My favourite film genre. (More on this in another blog post). In retrospect, I have read quite a few Chick Lit titles and enjoyed them because they are rather light reading, 'but not (too) dumb'! Like romance novels, they make for good escapism. A few recent titles include, Chocolat and The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris.

In our local bookshops, especially the MPH outlets, I notice that Malay Chick Lit feature quite a bit, next to the many books on faith and religion. Many TV dramas adapted from Malay fiction (especially Chick Lit) have in turn popularised the reading of these books. I was tempted into buying two titles because I had watched the dramas and found the stories interesting enough to go on to read the books. When I bought Love You Mr Arrogant, it was in its 12th printing, while Kerana Terpaksa... Aku Relakan was in its 13th printing. Reading these books was easy (I finished the 772 paged KTAR within two days, and the 462 paged LYMA in one - a record of sorts for me). But I wish the editors would work harder on the English bits of conversation found therein. But then again... maybe that is how English is spoken nowadays.

Note: We all know that the term 'Chick' is American slang for 'young female' and Lit is the short form of Literature.
Ref: chicklitbooks.com; chicklitclub.com; chicklitcentral.com

Bridget Jones' Diary/ Helen Fielding Ex Libris CNB 0583
Eat, Pray, Love/Elizabeth Gilbert. Ex Libris CNB 1782
Chocolat/Joanne Harris. Ex Libris CNB 
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris/Jenny Colgan. Ex Libris CNB 2030
Love You Mr Arrogant/Aliesha Kirana. Penerbitan Karyaseni, 2013. Ex Libris CNB 2002
Kerana Terpaksa... Aku Relakan/Umie Nadzimah. Penerbitan Karyaseni, 2014. Ex Libris CNB 2073
(In Progress)