Amid Gloom, Bodice Rippers Fly Off Shelves

“At a time when booksellers are struggling to lure readers, sales of romance novels are outstripping most other categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market. … Like the Depression-era readers who fueled blockbuster sales of Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With the Wind,’ today’s readers are looking for an escape from the grim realities of layoffs, foreclosures and shrinking 401(k) balances.”