Second Annual NaJuReMoNo

Last year I started a partially tongue in cheek response to National Novel Writing Month that I called National Just Read More Novels Month or NaJuReMoNoMo. Last year I was new to the blogosphere and a little taken aback by the NaNoWriMo phenomenon. The goal of NaNoWriMo participants is to “write” a 50,000 word “novel” within 30 days. Tod Goldberg is one of many who have written very lucid deconstructions of the silliness of the effort.

Fortunately, I think most of the participants don’t take it very seriously. At Balticon this year I met a woman who had “won” three times. She seemed otherwise sane except for being at science fiction convention. Geekwif, one of my blogfriends, ran the gauntlet this year. All in all it seems to be a harmless diversion.

My complaints with NaNoWriMo are few and petty:

• If you are going to have a month long competition, you should pick a longer month, especially one without a major family holiday near the end of it.
• Writing is hard and should be left to the professionals. This of course does not apply to blogging.
• Finishing quickly is not a virtue. I think the ladies out there will vouch for me here. A good novel is going to take more than a month. Obviously NaNoWriMo ignores the requirement for good.

I think the good writers that have spent a lot of time writing something worth reading deserve some recognition. January is a cold long useless month and perfect for reading. That is why I encourage people to spend the next 31 days reading novels.

My silly web-meme is much easier thab NaNoWriMo and better for the economy. Use those holiday gift cards from BigBoxOfBooks™ or OtherBigBoxOfBooks™ or even OnlineSiteWithEveryBookEverWritten™ and load up the nightstand with novels, not dietbooks or memoirs or Gooey Plus Plus Programming Manuals. Spend a month wallowing in the fictitious worlds of your favorite writers. It is a great excuse to polish off all the books you have been meaning to get to.

Sorry, Crock. Self-help books don't
count for NaJuReMoNoMo

The rules are the same as last year. No memoirs, no matter how fictitious. Books must be started from the beginning and you can't have read them before.

Once you have completed even one novel, you have earned the right to post one of these crudely drawn icons on your website. Pick the icon that matches the number of novels you finish by the end of January. If you want to, update your running count throughout the month. You can either use the Copy_Image right-click to save the icon to your own computer or copy and paste the text into your own post or template. If you copy the text, you may have to remove some linebreaks to make the image work.

	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/yyz9cr" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>
	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/y5hjbf" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>
	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/y5a9kn" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>
	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/sfmjg" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>
	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/wewz4" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>
	<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yxcwk3"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" width="100" src="http://tinyurl.com/y6a3sk" border="0" alt="NaJuReMoNoMo" /></a>

If you go past ten, you are either cheating or have enough time on you hands to make me highly envious. Feel free to create your own icon, banner, or blinking Flash animation. Just spread the word.

Happy reading.