Monday, April 26, 2010

My "LOVE" for Mills and Boon

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST (LIKE ALL MY OTHER POSTS) IS ABOUT MY OPINION ABOUT THE MILLS AND BOON BOOKS. IF YOU LOVE THEM; THEN PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS POST RATHER THAN CURSING ME AT THE END OF IT. I AM NOT GOING TO ABUSE THEM; BUT I AM MERELY GOING TO EXPRESS MY VIEWS.


Those fans who are still reading this post, then blame this post on my blogger friends N, V and S as they encouraged me to come up with this one.

M & B - they are famous for their "fictional" love stories, mushy mushy take on almost everything from a hair pin to toilets to the girl's sandals and what not! All the things, features, characters are usually smooth as silk! Well not literally; but the explanation for each thing aims at one goal only - make it mushy and romantic.

And the characters! Oh my; they are so picture perfect. The guy is always very tall, way too handsome with broad shoulders, amazing arms, great body and extremely good at everything he does. The girl is usually the most beautiful lady alive (in all the books with different names), again blessed with flawless complexion, perfect curvy body, silky hair, blue eyes with a tinkle - deep as ocean and very prominent cheek bones (ah, don't we girls dream of this?).

In all the books; you will find more not less same characteristics in the characters. Roses and velvets spread all around the book; the perfect moon appears with a soothing breeze whenever there is a love making scene that goes overboard all the time. Mills and Boon books are grandfather of what Sydney Sheldon explains when it comes to erotica; as Sydney Sheldon uses around 15-20 pages on such details; while M & B uses 150 odd pages!

The story - The perfect guy meets the perfect girl; they have a perfect rosy rosy love story, their compatibility can give our gods and goddesses a run for their money. Something happens between them and they have to leave each other. And at the end they again meet and live happily ever after!

In short; M & B books are like our typical hindi movie stories minus the songs! There would at least be hundreds of M & B around; but almost all of them have the same story.

You know their worst impact? They actually make girls believe that there exists such perfect guy and they keep hunting for one until they meet one! Poor them; for they are unaware that such characters do not exist in real life.

Now before you guys jump from your seats and ask me why am I talking about the irony of girls only. The reason is that only girls read M & B. Even if guys do; they do not admit that they read them! Well, they are known as girly girly books; so that's obvious right?

Time for disagreement now. Shoot!

45 comments:

  1. I have always avoided M&B because of its mushiness. But the perfect girl and guy concept is really dreamy. I'm so gonna not read any of 'em even if its the last book on earth.

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  2. i want to atleast one in my life :), but reading same kindo of stuff again and again doesn't make it boring :P

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  3. No disagreements at all Neha.In fact I couldn't agree more with you.
    But let's just think of Mills n Boon as fairy-tales rather than romance novels.They are just meant to leave you with a feeling of fuzzy,romance mushiness.I'm not a Mills n Boon hater..coz well these books come in handy at times when you're feeling disgruntled with life or sick of your boyfriend/partner/husband maybe? :P
    But yea they definitely do not make for good literature. :)

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  4. Nondescript ! Monotonous ! Misleading ! unskillful ! Just plain crap - that's what Mills & Boons is about !

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  5. I have always been against mushy-mushy tales. So I never tried reading M & B :) I prefer sci-fi to such books. And after reading your post on it, I will definitely not read any M&B book :P :D

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  6. did not get opportunity to read these love story books but have a desire to read at least one.

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  7. A bhabhi used to read And is a big fan of M&B. Once/twice I opened the book(though I do not read) just of curiosity And....

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  8. No disagreements on my part, even though I don not mind admitting that I have read heaps of them so far and would like to read more once in a while.

    Just like Samadrita rightly said, they do not make up for good literature but they do work as great relaxation, no brainer reads of the mushy world of romance.

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  9. At one stage, I loved reading M&Bs. But after a while, read them once in a while...like after reading some heavy stuff and then later abandoned reading them altogether!! :D

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  10. Have read one or two...
    Never could digest the all-so-perfect-love scenes and characters in the fiction..

    So never felt like continuing..!!

    :)

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  11. M a guy and i have read them ....

    And liked them...

    And would like to read again too...

    I like the romance is portrayed in them .... :)

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  12. And all plots lead to the bedroom, don't they? It's ridiculous, I think. I am sure boys read it too. Because unlike other mush novels, almost the whole book is devoted to what-they-are-looking-for? :p

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  13. You missed out something. Well, not all M & B books have perfect guys and perfect girls. In some books there are plane janes ending up with the perfect guy.
    Well, I liked the post. Thanks for considering my suggestion and writing about it. :)

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  14. One look at the illustration and you don't want to read it. Once, I gathered courage to read few pages(just to know why many girls love it) and vowed to stay away from it as long as I lived.

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  15. OHH, M&B, and how i cherish each moment reading them....They are the 2nd best thing to have happened to world literature, after HP.

    The first book i read was when in 6th or 7th and my life was transformed. From a naive, dumb, stupid boy i became an intelligent, smart and mature lad, almost overnite...I owe everything to M&B....Nice post, loved reading it. TC:)

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  16. @destiny child

    Actually not all boys get this novel looking to read all tht stuff ... and maybe thats why boys dun like to tell that they read M&B, because this is the first thought that comes in other's mind.

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  17. @ Communi, hahahahaha..I know what you mean..but thik hai re..many people love them..let's leave these books for them right? :D

    @ Lincoln, welcome here..thank you for your comments..read one book..no harm in that..maybe you end up reading many more :)

    @ Sammy, even I don't hate them..but they are same kinda books with extreme erotica as Saurabh puts it :P when sick of the guy in my life; I read Harry Potter :D

    @ Vidhu, lolzzz :D

    @ Avada, try one book; you may like it :P

    @ sm, yeah try it out once :)

    @ Hobo, hmmm lolz :D

    @ CB, I know what you are trying to say; but I still can't bring myself to read those same kinda books :)

    @ Shilpa, I have read a couple of them fully and rest cover to cover :P

    @ Vinz, welcome back :) the same reason I didn't read more than 2 M & B :)

    @ Truck Driver, welcome here..thank you for your comments..nice to see you admitting :D I find those overboard :)

    @ DC, this was one reason shared by another blogger over the e-mail when I posted a status on facebook :P

    @ Nethra, I have read only couple of them..so missed out on this point :D I am so damn glad you liked the post..:)

    @ Holy Lama, lolz...even I have decided to stay away from those :)

    @ BK Chowla, :)

    @ ZB, errrr, I know your opinion about HP; so are you sarcastic by any chance? I am confused as I know the kinda stories you write too :D

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  18. Yes I read mills and boons once and swore to myself that never will I read it again...I got bored after reading it.

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  19. Erm ,if you have read older M&B, say 10 years back, you will see they don't match your description/perception at all...
    And, as for the perfect guy, yeah, girls think about getting him whether they read or not... But when you actually meet that guy, when you do fall headlong, you will see that M&B didn't even come close to describing what perfection can be!
    Plus I did tell you the reason (in confidence) why girls read such books and boys do not... I assure you, it's not for the L-word you think!! :D

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  20. Nice write up. But I have not read any of these books.

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  21. i can;t understand why people read books.........the only book i have ever read in my life other than the text books....was the ALCHEMIST which i believed too be a good book....but then it may the world is stupid or i didn't understand the book even a bit............

    as you say....that books have all handsome smart guys with some awesome awesome girl...think the book are booking more of filmy.........

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  22. I have read just read 1 M&B book. But yeah, its too mushy and erotic for my taste :P.

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  23. If I ever do try to pursue a doctoral research on M & B, I will definitely cite your blog. In fact, I will also cite some of the comments.

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  24. those were the days!...once upon a time before the idiot box swallowed our free time, the M & B was every teenage girl's companion...it was like one book a day and sweet dreams at night...not there are wilder dreams after Bold and The beautiful!

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  25. I havent read any M&Bs yet...Though I have heard a lot about them.

    Yeah as you were describing the characters, I was thinking of how familiar those were with Sidney Sheldon's depiction of a perfect man and a gorgeous woman and their love. And lo!! you mentioned it....

    Yeah, M&B or no M&B, such perfect guys dont exist!!! :-)

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  26. M&B and Sidney sheldon are the types i don't read... its just that i never felt anything interesting about it... nice post :)

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  27. Neha,

    Feel good books and movies sell. If fiction makes people happy why not. There is no absolute happiness anyways.

    By the way, perfect guys exist - to start with I am the one :)

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  28. You know i found a very very old M & B in my aunt's cupboard one day and we were talking about it when my cousin came(my aunt's daughter , 13 yrs old) and replied "Oh please , stop readin g these teenage book mom!!!!" .God knows, what should i have replied to that ;)

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  29. Am yet to read des books....
    but after dis post n comments it seems better to avoid them as i am not into Utopian mindset and thinking ....

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  30. No seriously, I have read only two books so far and loved each of them. I read all kinda stuff. Magazines, Serious literature, Porn, Soft porn, Political magazine, filmfare etc.

    Even my wife has read few MB and loved it, especially the erotic parts. She told me she was waiting all along for some steamy scenes and MB never disappoints. All those ladies who have never read once should run now and grab a copy right away. they dont know what they are missing, seriously. And people who have read once and told them selves that they will never read again are, I dont know, go figure yourselves. TC :)

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  31. I blame all my failed relationships on Mills and Boon..ha ha ha! Gawd, I devoured them in my teens!!

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  32. *applauds* *bows*

    What a take on M&B!! And very well done..Not That I've read many...Just one and the million dollar reviews frm frnds and u noe what's it about..
    Damn...Yuck...I can never connect to such books...and therefore don't read..!!

    And while I leave, *a thunderous applause once again*

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  33. Loved this!My gang of girls are addicted to MB, Nora Roberts, Daniel Steel(i grew out of THAT at 15) and such like!I refuse to understand the deal.though ofcourse I will always have a special connection with MB as they were the first to expose me to sex(yes I was sneaky and read my sisters books)

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  34. Came across a few M & Bs but never felt like picking up...blame the covers :P ....and I see most people up there agree with your take on M & B... toh yeh kaun parta hai?

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  35. mills and boon !!!! my wife is a crazy fan of them... but seriously montonous !!!!!

    it almost follows the same script... !!!

    me absolutely not a fan !!!

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  36. well, i used to love m and b ages ago. just coz it was mushy mushy. well, a couple of books later, i stopped readin it. got too much gyaan on romance and love making. lolz. got tired of the tall dark and handsome guys. as u said, it was the same story in all the books with the names changed. so there was it, my 'the end' to M and B :)

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  37. Hi! Neha,
    As i started reading this post, i was planning to comment- no comments as i have not read any of this M&B, but ur last statement confused me.......but thats the truth.......
    we have malayalam weeklies(even now they are popular lest some reach us as soaps) that had novels in the same style,ive read few of them....
    thats makes me agree with ur opinion...
    :)

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  38. TRUST you to write something like this and YEah the disclaimer on top and then putting it all on the shoulders of your Friends..

    Now will all this hold in COURT OF LAW..

    I have not read any of the M&B but yeah heard a lot about them from a few of female friends .. BUt then as you say girls think such things actually happen wheras in true life it doesnot work out that way .. hmmm

    Anyway All i can say is Good luck to the girls who read them and think the same :)

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  39. I have never read one my whole life with the fear of getting 'caught' with one! (I grew up in a very small town) :)

    I did, though, enjoy this post! I love me some good bashing ;)

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  40. i thank my stars that I never read M&B books

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  41. @ Gayathri, me too :D

    @ G, first time ever - difference of opinion :P

    @ SG, lucky you!

    @ Hitesh, that's strange..if you combine all the blog posts you read; I am sure they will make at least 5 books :)

    @ Harini, agreed :D

    @ PB, lol..

    @ Nalini, M n B were a kinda trend setters..

    @ Insignia, M n B is 200 pages of Sydney Sheldon erotica only!

    @ Rajlakshmi, thank you..

    @A, cliched stuff sells..you a perfect guy? well I will have to ask your wife that :P

    @ Neha, baapre..kids are so smart these days..

    @ Mahesh, try reading one book :)

    @ Book lover, welcome here and thank you for your comments..

    @ ZB, that's interesting..good you enjoy reading these books :)

    @ Saroj, lol :D

    @ Jaunty, thank you thank you..:)

    @ Lucy Fur, welcome here..thank you for your comments..MnB have been trend setters indeed..

    @ Dhiman, ab kyu padhte hai wo to nai pata..read one book and tell me na :P

    @ HW, welcome here..thank you for your comments..they are too monotonous..

    @ Chandana, yeah the same story all the time with changed names..

    @ Bikram, all my friends have commented whomever I have mentioned and they have not minded :P

    @ RepublicofChic, welcome here..thank you for your comments..bashing? well this is all true innit? :D

    @ Anonymous, good then :)

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  42. Hi neha, i am a guy and i really enjoy reading mills and boons, is something wrong with me?...other girls say its really girlish and feminine of me to read mills and boons

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  43. Mills and boons to me just helps to cushion the hard realities of romance. After some bashing from the real romance, then I use mills and boons to calm myself and it's means of visiting new places.🙈💆😁😅

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  44. Romance novels Thank you because you have been willing to share information with us. we will always appreciate all you have done here because I know you are very concerned with our.

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