Misc. Monday: Sparse Posting Now, Many Posts Later...

Once upon a time I was thinking about what sorts of different things I'd like to do in 2013. I know, of course, that I need to get back to some of the tried and true stuff like Follow Friday and, you know, actually surfing the internet beyond my own site...but I also wanted to change things up a bit. One of the things that I'd really like to do is a theme month. Or two. But let's start with the first one.

So I was sorting through my own thoughts during a particularly slow night at work, and I thought: February will be Urban Fantasy month! Yes! And I thought about all of the authors and series and books and movies I could write about, all of the things I've never gotten around to mentioning before. I made a schedule. It's a brilliant, perfect schedule written on the back of a test sheet from the photo printer.

Yeah, I'm not going to do Urban Fantasy February.

Every time I tried to open one of the books I hoped to review for that theme, my mind just kind of wandered. Turns out I'm not in the mood for urban fantasy right now. One of the things that I've learned about reviewing is that a fair review can only start with a book that I did not force upon myself. I should start every book with the mindset that it might be my next 5 star read, and if I can't do that I should set it aside. So urban fantasy month will just have to wait.

What I actually have been in the mood to read is romance, particularly contemporary romance. So February is going to be romance month here at Reading to Penguins. And if I had a lot to talk about with UF, it's got nothing on my romance itinerary. Just you wait.

Here are my goals for Romance month:

1)28 days of posting: at least one short post every day, be it book review, movie review, show review, or other commentary.

2) With the exception of a few off posts already scheduled (for blog tours and whatnot), all posts will relate back to romance as a genre or concept. Some of the things I anticipate including are:

-The formulaic nature of romance writing.

-Who reads romance novels and why.

-My top 10 favorite romance authors

-Cover Art. Oh God, the romance cover art.

-Movie reviews of some of my favorite (and least favorite) romantic movies, including some of the Nicolas Sparks movies, Disney films, Jane Austen adaptations, and possibly (if I'm feeling snarky) the Twilight series. But I make no promises there.

-Lots and lots of book reviews. Everything romantic I can squeeze in from now until the end of February.

3) Hopefully the month will end with a contest or giveaway, the particulars of which I still have to work out.

In order to make all of this happen, I have to write some posts ahead of time. Like, right now. So, while we still have a few things coming up in January (Sandman review, 1 more misc. monday, and hopefully a follow friday), I may be somewhat absent, but it's only because I'm planning for the good things to come. I hope you'll join us here in February for romance month, and as always, Happy Reading!