Readers can only borrow what the library has in stock; and last time I visited my local library I didn't find anything on the shelves I could have bought in the last three years. Romance isn't just the bodice-ripper of popular imagination, and it's not all about tycoons and virgins either. Plenty of books that can be found on the general fiction shelves are written by members of the Romantic Novelists Association - I know, because that's where I look for them! Kate Johnson, Stansted

I am, for the third time, reading through the whole series of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books. Fabulous reading full of brilliant characters. You really feel you are at sea with the whole crew. Being somewhat diverse in my choice I also adore Ian Rankin's policeman Inspector Rebus. Terry Wise, Kampala, Uganda

I think the answer partly lies in the fact that libraries are buying fewer "romance" books. If they are not getting the newest novels, people can't borrow them. I'm finding the definition of romance in the article rather fuzzy, too - and by the way, "bodice rippers" enjoyed a brief vogue in the eighties. The term, like "chick lit", is now a lazy journalist's way of lumping a whole unrelated raft of books together. Trisha Ashley, Dwygyfylchi, Wales

I'm re-reading the Flashman series. While mostly for amusement, there is serious history in each memoir of the world's most infamous poltroon. Other than that, Samuel Brittan's treatise on laissez-faire, Against the Flow is very good. The Mind Gym, for once an entertaining and non-patronising tutorial on personal advancement, was a recent read that proved very worthwhile. When I've finished Flashman, the plan's to re-read Gogol's magnificent Dead Souls. Mark McFarland, Hong Kong

My lament is that many of my favourite authors are ageing fast, fast deceasing, or lately deceased. I wonder whether we shall ever read the likes of Hammond Innes, Alistair MacLean, Noel Barber and M M Kaye - to cite just four - again. Dick Francis appears reluctant to pick up the pen again. Wilbur Smith keeps producing excellent stuff, as does E V Thompson. Personally, I love a mixture of adventure, romance, crime and travel all thrown into one, and that is what I endeavour to offer in my own modest works. It is sad that the market nowadays seems dominated by tomes of chic-fic and lad-lit, with their depressingly negative emphasis on the humdrum, the sleazy and the sexy. As for libraries, absolutely out of the question here (except for research). But I adore rooting through secondhand bookshops and rescuing discarded, yellowing and dog-eared treasures for our own collection, to read as a relaxation from... guess what?...writing! Mike Bent, Oviedo, Spain

I have just looked at the PLR figures and I would say that, once the children's books have been taken out of the stats, crime and romance run about equal - as they have done for many years. In my view people read for comfort or for escapism; romance provides the comfort and crime the escapism. But to say romance is dead when two of the top five authors are indisputable romance authors (the other three consisting of two children's authors and a crime writer)is rather skewing the facts. Catherine Jones, Thame

Why begin this article with the words "bodice rippers"? These were a sub-genre of romance in the 1970s and have long been defunct. With regard to romance novels of today, the genre is actually spreading out into a lot of sub-genres, which is why it isn't always as easily identifiable as it used to be. One of those sub-genres is "romantic suspense", by the way. I write historical sagas and modern novels, always with a romance at the core, and I'm moving steadily up the "most borrowed" list, not down it. No 69 last year, 41 this! Anna Jacobs, Western Australia

I do read thrillers and both historical and contemporary fiction but the books I keep, and return to, are the ones by the great romantic authors such as Dorothy Dunnett, Elizabeth Chadwick, Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen. Fenella Miller, Colchester

My first thought when I read the PLR top list was "Catherine is dead, that makes a difference". At the moment I have a mixture of history and travel books from the library for research purposes. I've bought and read a mixture of sagas and modern day romance. I used to borrow Mary Stewart's thriller romances but because I like to re-read them, I've bought copies secondhand on Amazon. Let's be honest, there's very few novels that don't have a love story at their heart. June Francis, Liverpool

The older generation (female) love older romantic authors like Cookson. The younger generation like real life stories. If Cookson was still alive and writing books she would still be top of the list. Name and address withheld

The definition of "romance" must have been very narrow for such a result to be read into the library figures. There is scarcely a book in the library that doesn't contain a romance, including crimes and thrillers. Readers can only borrow what is on offer in the library: it is easy to easy to find a John Grisham, much harder to find favourites such as Kate Walker, Penny Jordan and Sophie Weston. The continuing popularity of 'old' romantic writers, e.g. Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, and of today's romance writers, e.g. Katie Fforde, Elizabeth Chadwick and Joanne Harris, bears out the fact that romance is very much alive and thriving in the world today. Liz Harris, Watlington

I'm reading more biographies written by ordinary people. I find them more interesting than famous tell-alls. There are a lot of good "cosy" mysteries out right now. I don't want a bunch of descriptions of bodies and blood. Elizabeth Fraser, South Carolina, USA