Dating By Numbers

Dating By Numbers has to be the most hilarious book that I have read this year! It is a Harlequin Superromance that was released in December of 2017.

The premise is that a woman who is an economist tries to find the perfect algorithm for finding romance. Of course she finds a man who does not fit into her equation that she falls in love with. I found that reading her impressions of romance and her attempts at dating made me laugh out loud.

I appreciate that the author Jennifer Lohmann cites Modern Romance and Dataclysm in her introduction to the book as her research for the book.  It is hard to promote Azid Ansari's book in our me-too culture. I read and loved it before the account of his scandal came out. And honestly Dataclysm has been on my list of to be read books for awhile.

 I have this thing for bringing paperback Harlequin books down to the whirlpool in my apartment and just kicking back and relaxing. When I feel seriously indulgent I will bring down a can of LaCroix. Sometimes as an educated woman I feel like I need to downplay my love affair with series romance novels. But I have started to own this aspect of myself more and more.

I started out analyzing this issue by reading books like Reading the Romance, Dangerous Books for Girls, Loving With A Vengence. I could go into a serious socio-cultural analysis on how romance novels have been treated with a level of stigma and why over the course of time. I would honestly say that I do prefer contemporary romance over old school romance for a variety of reasons. Assertive women, not viewing rape in a romantic light, and women who have strong interests of their own are included in my reasons that I prefer contemporary romance.

But I will put my dream of teaching a course on the socio-historic progression of the romance novel on hold on this blog for right now. (That and a course on the way fairy tales have impacted our culture are courses that I would love to teach someday) What I truly loved about this book was a woman who thought analytically about romance (like I did when I was a single lady) and bringing more of the current culture of internet dating into the book.

I laughed quite a bit as I read this and enjoyed my whirlpool indulgence quite a bit. It helped me forget the stresses of trying to find a job and living in the midst of our Trump era presidency. That may be why I love novels like this right now. I need the aspect of escape that a book that makes me laugh accomplishes. I recently heard on a Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast about the sales of skin care products have been on the rise in this past year. They debated if this was a good thing for feminism or not but at the end of the day they still felt the need to do their facials. In an odd way sometimes I hold a similar dance with romance novels but I will sometimes put on a facial from my Fab Fit Fun box and allow myself the chance to relax. I do not think that there is anything more relaxing than a book that makes me laugh!!!