National Just Read More Novels Month 2010

The viral internet sensation that is National Just Read More Novels Month (or NaJuReMoNoMo for kinda short) continues to steamroll along. Now in its fifth year (which is 237 in internet years), NaJuReMoNoMo encourages people all over the world to take some time and curl up with a good book. There are tons of sites and memes and contests that encourage writing, but without readers writing is futile. Every year, I and other NaJuReMoNoMo participants dedicate ourselves to reading novels every January. By doing so, we are creating a demand for quality fiction and spreading the word about good books and authors.

January was picked because the weather is dreadful and it is a nice long month to catch up on all those books on the nightstand. Nobody is hectoring you to write a novel, so you might as well read one.

2009 was a fantastic year with over 30 formal participants and more than 250 books read. We had all sorts of blogs pass on the good word and many previous participants are listed here. I want to give a special shout out to Gautami Tripathy who is one of our charter participants and runs a wonderful bookblog here.

The rules are whatever you want to make of them, but here are the guidelines I go by:

1. Must Be A Novel. Works of fiction only, please. Memoirs, non-fiction, how-to books, and Garfield collections don't count.
2. Memoirs Aren't Novels. No matter how made up the story, anything ostensibly true isn't a novel. Also known as The James Frey Rule.
3. Start and Finish in January. I guess if you got some cool books for Christmas, Hanukkah or some other gift-giving event and jumped the gun, you can't be blamed. But I only count books I start and finish within the 31 day window.
4. Re-reading Doesn't Count. Try something new. Read something by your favorite author or try an entirely new author or tackle that novel you have always wanted to read.
5. Have Fun. Nobody is grading you or paying you or judging you. Read what you like and like what you read.

The big news this year is that we have made the social networking jump and joined Facebook. Join the NaJuReMoNoMo group and start discussing what you are reading and how you are progressing. I'm hoping this will open up the challenge to a lot more people including non-bloggers.

For bloggers we have the usual bevy of logos and badges that you can plaster your site with. I'm just linking to the Photobucket album so that you can pick and choose what you need. Just click on the slideshow to get taken to the album where you can pick and choose images. I'm doing this rather than providing code because you can take advantage of all of the Photobucket social networking links as well. So tweet and facebook and whatever other way of oversharing you have.

The green, silver, and gold multiple winner badges (3x. 5x, and 10x respectively) can be mixed and matched to document the exact number of books read if you want. Last year's top winner was a triple gold reader. But you only need one novel to qualify and the blue winner badge is plenty.

Nothing is a better entertainment value than a book. So read and share the novels you like and spread the word about NaJuReMoNoMo.