I’ve been tasked with my second book. The first one was an education on the romance genre in general, and I intended a lot of snark humorous commentary¹, which I think I successfully got out of it. I would like to reiterate that I wholly enjoyed reading it, even if I could only take it a couple chapters at a time, and my enjoyment was probably not in the fashion that the author intended. But enjoyment was had, and the book was returned to the library and, well… I kind of want to buy my own copy and read it again and hug it forever.

…damn. I don’t know what happened, but it sucked me in. Which, admittedly, is what books are supposed to do in the first place. That’s why – I apologise for bringing this up yet again – Twilight was so successful, both in the “seriously love it to death” adolescent and middle-aged woman demographic (which I saw first-hand, as both my teenaged sister and my mother completely loved that series), and in the “Let’s make fun of it” review crowd, which I am most unashamedly a part of, and that certainly wouldn’t happen if I absolutely loathed the whole thing. If you truly hate something, you want absolutely nothing to do with it. Constantly talking about it means that you derive some enjoyment from it, even if it just means you enjoy pointing out how much it bothers you.

Cleolinda made a remark on Made of Fail’s most recent Harry Potter episode.

…you have to admit to yourself that the phrase “I like making fun of it” involves the words I, Like, and It.

[…]

Life’s too short to go around recreationally hating things.

I believe the latter quote should be embroidered on a pillow and propped up next to her “I just want to be a doper person” cross-stitch, but that’s just me.

My point is that these reviews are honestly because I enjoy doing this, and I don’t want to come off as mean-spirited. I know I started that way in the beginning of Virile Viking, but it turned into honest discussion about the book’s themes and how it works in society. And I get it, I understand its appeal, and I don’t fault the author or the book for being as popular as it is.

But I’m repeating myself.

In any case, I’m announcing my next book, which is Pleasure 2035 by Cameo Brown. I’ll be seeing if I can order it from Amazon – I have a gift card – and it looks like it would be absolutely delightful to read.

I also want to go over some structural changes I’ve been considering. Trekkiegirl, who chose Very Virile Viking for me, is going to give final thoughts and why she chose it for me (which I’m still waiting for but wedding planning is taking up a lot of our free time). To that note, I’m thinking maybe final thoughts for every book by the person who chose it for me, with a similar bit on why it was chosen.

Secondly, I think I’m going to start condensing the posts. There’s absolutely no reason why I had to go seven posts for Virile Viking; I can say what I need to say in two or three. Maybe even one, depending on the book.

I’m excited, this is going to be a lot of fun.