"Hello. My name is Hippo Q. and I read chick lit."

I didn’t start reading chick lit until I finished graduate school. Before then, I rarely had the free time or the will to sit and leisurely read a book that wasn’t related to my coursework. Since I graduated and moved to an apartment a mere 2 blocks from the public library, I’m a fairly avid chick lit reader. Of course, I read the classics as well, generally alternating between chick-lit and something along the lines of Dickens, Hardy or Austen to stay engaged. But I feel somewhat ashamed of my interest in such frivolous, and sometimes poorly written and predictable reading.

A few days ago, a coworker noted that chick-lit and romance novels are pretty much the same thing. I beg to differ...to a point. Chick-lit, to me, is a minor step up from the more romance/sex focus of romance novels. Most chick lit has romance and sex in the plot, but, unlike romance novels, they also include a more in-depth exploration of the female main character’s navigation of the professional, personal and social demands of being a “modern” 20- or 30- something in the city. And I can relate to that.

So for now, my bookshelf will continue to be stocked with an assortment of both the classics and chick lit like: The Nanny Diaries, The House of Mirth, Everyone Worth Knowing, A Tale of Two Cities, Bergdorf Blondes, and Bleak House. BTW, I'd recommend them all (yep, I read a lot in my free time).