Does Buying These Books Make Us Romantic or Indicate a Lack of Romance?

Data from Amazon which is subject to interpretation...

Love Is in the Air as Amazon.com Announces the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in America

Sales data of romance novels, relationship and sex books reveals Alexandria, Va. as the most romantic city

SEATTLE, Jan 28, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced its list of the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in America. After compiling sales data of romance novels, relationship and sex books since Jan. 1, 2008, on a per capita basis in cities with over 100,000 residents, the top 20 most romantic cities in the United States are:

1. Alexandria, Va.         11. Washington, D.C.
2. Cambridge, Mass.        12. Pasadena, Calif.
3. Miami, Fla.             13. Bellevue, Wash.
4. Irvine, Calif.          14. Seattle, Wash
5. Ann Arbor, Mich.        15. San Francisco, Calif.
6. Orlando, Fla.           16. Columbia, S.C.
7. Berkeley, Calif.        17. Tallahassee, Fla.
8. Scottsdale, Ariz.       18. Austin, Texas
9. Arlington, Va.          19. Richmond, Va.
10. Atlanta, Ga.           20. Knoxville, Tenn.

In taking a closer look at Amazon.com's "romantic" data, the company also unveiled that:

-- Virginia really is for lovers, with three cities -- Alexandria, Arlington and Richmond -- ranked amongst the top 20 Most Romantic Cities.

Well, regardless of interpretation, at least we're working on it. ;)

Romantic Christmas

When I was a young girl, of say 5 or 6 or 7, 98% of my experience of Christmas came from the television and it was a very romanticized version.

It was the era of Christmas specials. So Dolly Parton's Christmas Special was followed by Andy Williams' Christmas Special, Donny & Marie's Christmas Special, and so on. It was that kind of time.

It was always snowing for Christmas in Hollywood. I can remember that there were a lot of scenes of snow falling outside windows while people gathered around a huge, stone fireplace that looked to be burning real wood, and sang romantic Christmas songs to each other while they wore brightly-colored sweaters. Occasionally they sang while they went on sleigh rides but mostly they gathered by the fire, singing and briefly chuckling at lame jokes between songs.

I thought: this is why people love Christmas. You get to canoodle with the one you love in front of a fire and you sing each other romantic songs. How great is that?