Genre fiction fills a void for readers.

Some like the puzzle solving simplicity of a mystery. That sense of right and wrong is justified. It's probably why there are so many police procedurals on TV.

Some people love horror. the idea that no matter how bad things get for your protagonist (really? you're going into the barn full of knives and other sharp tools?) you know you're smarter than them and you'd never be caught in such a predicament.

Some love post-apocalyptic/ world starting over from the remnants of the old one. I admit, i like this one, too. The familiar mixed with the new. Old West morality in a new order. Where is Doc Holliday when you need him?

But romance - and we're not talking the omigosh, he DIED half way through the book and now our heroine is mourning him romantic books - but true genre romance - has a place, too.

In a world full of viruses (both biological and computer), in a world of divorce and death and bad news and bills - isn't it nice being able to escape to a world where the men are always men and the women are always feisty? That no matter how much the author puts your favorite characters through, at the end, he or she completes the contract and delivers you a HEA.

everyone's genre fits their own escape. Just because it isn't yours, please don't put it down.