Booking Through Thursday: Decorum

From Booking Through Thursday:
Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them?

If language or sex are important to the plot of a book I’m reading, I don’t have an issue with them. In some cases, it’s more jarring when authors back away from strong language – it comes off as phony, and strange. With sex, I don’t really sit at the bookstore and go, “well, I’m desperate for a book that has actual penetration described,” but if it comes up, I’m cool with it.

I will admit that a couple of Laurell K. Hamilton’s books have been off-putting for me, not because I mind the sex (I mean, her male characters are HOT) but because there was more sex than plot, and while I may refer to her work as “Monster Porn” or “Faerie Porn” in jest, the reality is that I do read these for the story, first.

That being said, I have to add that while explicit porn may not float my boat most of the time, censorship is wrong. Just as we all have the power to change channels or turn off a television, we have the power to choose what we read without external forces helping us. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

Language has power. You should wield it wisely, but you shouldn’t ever be afraid of it.