Adopt a Guiding Light Fan!

Even though I stopped watching Guiding Light ages ago, I'm sad to see it go this Friday. I mean, it has been on the air for 72 years. I have a soft spot for anything that has managed to stick around that long.

As I was watching a retrospective of the show on Sunday, it occurred to me that watching soap operas (or "the stories" as most of the people I know used to call them) nurtured my taste for series fiction. Around the same time that I was heavily invested in the lives of the Bauers and the Spauldings, I started reading those huge family saga books that were written by authors like Howard Fast. I abandoned series fiction for several years after that, but lately I've found that I am drawn to it again. Perhaps because TV has been a constant in my life, I prefer to follow characters through more than one book.

Chances are you have a long-time Guiding Light fan in your midst. Maybe it's your mother, your auntie, or your kindly old neighbor. After this Friday, she will probably be missing "her stories". Why don't you help her with the transition by taking her a few books? Maybe if she has failing eyesight, you could read to her a little. Do any of you have some suggestions for series that might hook a soap opera fan?