The 2009 Romance Recycles Reading Challenge
Hello, Gypsies! And welcome to the first annual Romance Vagabonds Romance Recycles Reading Challenge! No, it’s not about saving the planet (though that would be good). It’s about the words, plots and cover images that the romance genre re-uses from book to book to book. It’s not a bad thing. I, for one, love me some marriages of convenience. But we Vagabonds thought it would be a fun challenge to see how many of these concepts we could cram into the coming year’s romance reads. You can read as few (12) or as many (infinite!) as you want. It’s all up to you! So, here are some swell rules…
The Challenge? To read 12 romances in 12 months that feature recurring or recycled title words, plots and cover images.
Choose 12 books (that’s one per month) that exhibit one (or more) element(s) from the three categories of words, plots and images common to the romance novel as we know it. For the list, click here.
For example: For January, I might choose to read Letters to a Secret Lover by Toni Blake, which features the words “Secret” and “Lover”(#9 and #3 on the word list), a small town/big city gal/guy plot (#4 on the plots list) and has horses on the cover (#6-animals-on the cover image list).
OPTIONAL: Challenge yourself to find books that have as many elements as possible in one book. Laura Lee Ghurke’s The Wicked Ways of a Duke, for instance features “Wicked,” “Ways,” and “Duke” from the word list; a rags to riches/marriage of convenience plot; and has both mantitty AND ladyback on the cover! That’s SEVEN points! Score!
By the end of the year, you should have read at least 12 books that adhere to the tried and true traditions of the romance genre. And will (hopefully) have had some fun chatting with us about the books in the process. At the beginning of each month, we’ll blog about the challenge and we can all chat throughout the month about the books we’re reading for the challenge.
So, Vagabonds, are you up for the challenge? Commit below and we’ll add you to the list! Oh, and since January is already halfway over you can either do 11 books for the year OR read a category this month since they’re pretty short. It’s up to you!
