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With 10 days left of January, I'm unveiling the categories for next month's challege to give everybody time to scour their TBR lists, order or request books from libraries or bookstores, and suggest or talk about possible choices with group members.

The challenge is not officially open until the 1st of February, so no advance-reading...LOL

Here are the categories:

#1. February: Read a book whose author's first or last name starts with the letter "F".

#2. Valentine's Themes: Read a book that has a predominantly color "red" cover.

#3. Read a book whose title has either the following words: kiss, heart or love.

#4. Read a book that has a kissing/embracing couple on its cover.

#5: B-day Wishes For our February Girls: Read a book that you have chosen from the shelves of one of our February B-day Celebrants.

#6. Geography: Read a book whose author, setting or a character is from New Zealand. (This is to honor the place where so far most of our group members are from...our New Zealand members we expect you to help us with this..LOL)

#7 Love-A-Genre: Read a book from your favorite genre.

#8. Share-the-Love: Read a book written by a Good Reads Author.

#9. Read a book that was published in 2008.

#10. Read a book that has a person's name on the title. (Ex. Elijah, Megan's Mark, etc).

I thought I'd link to the February birthday girls profiles to help with challenge #5:

librarylass
Margaret
Jodz's profile is set to private.

Thanks, Nichole. I'm bad with links. Keep forgetting them or messing it up.

For #6, and for those working on the Psy/Changeling series, Nalini Singh was raised in New Zealand and currently residing there accdg to her webpage.

Wow Yz! This is great. I'm so happy that the Psy books will fulfill the New Zealand challenge. I was worried about that one! I'm gonna go figure out my books now. What fun!

Wow nice job on the list! Very interesting challenges there!

Lori,

I was worried about that too for a while. Originally we have Texas on the lead, and then we have new membersf from New Zealand which is great. So now, we can continue with the Psy books..LOL..

Tricia,

Glad you like it. Remember, you can read books for this challenge that you are reading for other challenges too or BOM reads in other groups.

Oh dear, after posting my previous answer, I went back to verify my data, and realized that there are 4 members from Texas.

I'm going to apologize for that oversight, and definitely Texas would be our geography category in March..Sorry again to my Texas GR friends.

Not a problem :)

We love the challenges regardless! hehe

I am having a really hard time with the kissing couple category! Most of the books I own and haven't read are bite to the neck kind of embraces. I'm open to suggestions!

LOL...actually..I have been looking at covers for the past few minutes looking for an actual kissing couple in my TBR shelf...maybe we should change that to just an embracing couple..what do you think?

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I can find several to fit the category if it were just embracing. Maybe just edit the category to include embracing?

I will...as long as there is a couple on the cover.

These monthly challenges are such a great idea! I am FINALLY starting to read the books that I've been buying and meaning to get to! I'm always so bad about borrowing more and more books from the library instead of picking one off my own shelf. This leaves the books I own collecting dust while I'm reading against a due date. It's really some sort of disease! Or at least some sort of disorder!

Tracey,

Yes, Feb challenge starts Feb. We have Jan going on, and there is also the A-Z book challenge that is for the year.

Melissa,
I know what you mean. I actually put titles in my Feb list that are books I owned for quite some time now and haven't read, because I keep visiting the library and bringing more books home.

Great catagories. Some of the ideas cross-challenge? If that makes sense. I am reading Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow and the cover for my mini-read and the cover is also mostly red. So 2 for 1 =)

LOL...Yes..Kenjii...

There is no cross-categories within the challenge. you have to pick a category and place that book there ,even though it also fits the other categories.

But you CAN cross it with other challenges in other areas like A-Z book Challenge or the Challenge in the PNR group or BOM reads.

Makes sense?

Oh good. I'm glad you changed it to an "embracing" couple. The book I chose, he is kissing her face but they aren't lip to lip. I was afraid that was going to be considered cheating! I really need to read this book though. It's been on my shelf forever!

Melissa brought that to my attention while I was too busy ogling book covers in my bookshelf for an actual kissing couple..LOL..and realized that there is almost no "kissing" couples...just kiss in the neck or throat type...LOL...

Yz: do you think they do that "tease" cover on purpose?

also, yes, I understand what you mean by 1 book per challenge within the category =D.

With regards to the book covers, I think I agree with you, Kenjii. Such a tease..but at the same time, because the lips don't really touch, I guess it adds to the sensuality of it.

Some fantastic challenges there that I'm going to enjoy using to explore more of our library collections. The kissing/embracing one will be interesting - most of my covers they're embracing and it's never a full on kiss (i.e. mouth to mouth). How come I only noticed now?　I'm going to put myself out to see if I　can actually find a full-kiss cover.

Let us know if you find one with a full kissing couple cover..so far I've found none.

Quick query: 1) do we count e-books? Quite often if the library I work for doesn't buy some titles I will purchase them myself via e-book.

Yep...e-books count.

Also audiobooks and re-reads.

I, too, am wondering about the full on kiss on the cover. Is this a no-no or is what is being used just to tease? I'll be peeking at book covers the next time I'm in the library and bookstore! Has it always been like that?

This is cool! The challenges are like hidden eggs on DVD's. Searching for the elusive "kiss-kiss" =D

Yz - taking on the challenge... some New Zealand authors:
You can find some at Kiwi Romance:
and

and:
(look for the black flag with the silver fern on it)
Set in NZ:
Teresa Medeiros Once an Angel

Going back in history:
Old-school Mills&Boons: Essie Summers - pretty much the one who started NZ writers breaking in to the genre.
Yvonne Kalman Greenstone land and sequels - epic romance saga set early in NZ's colonial history. (Tosca & I had a chat about her today)
and
Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge, also published as Green Dolphin Street (also mad into a movie).

Looking forward to Texas in March.
-Annie

LOL@elusive "kiss-kiss". Am guessing that like Yz and Kenjii's discussion earlier it might be a half-kiss, or the expectation of it, is seen as being somewhat more sensual, makes you want to buy/issue it to find out if it's as hot as it looks hah ;-)

Melissa,
That actually cross my mind. Is an actual kissing couple on the cover a publication taboo?...hmmm...

Annie,
Great links! Thanks for the research, and yep, Texas is for March...

On..for the "kiss-kiss" cover search...LOL...

Hi, I'm new & I'm just wondering if the books have to be romance?

Welcome to the group, Karen.

Not necessarily. Even though most of the books we read here are romance, any book that fits the category and if you want to read it, is more than okay.

oh excellent! Thanks, Yz
I really like these monthly categories - will help me choose which books of my tbr to read first! :)

Glad you like them. Have fun with the challenges. They are meant to help us make a dent out of our TBR pile..although I think that everytime I read one book from it, 2-3 get added to it..LOL..

No such luck on the "kiss-kiss" hunt still searching. But it may be fun to post a cover challenge. Like finding and posting the title of a "kiss-kiss" =).

Yz: Do I have to enroll you in my diet book school too? Hmmm! LOL! It's working well for me. I used to not be able to leave a bookstore (or pass a bookstore for that matter) w/o at least searching the bargain bin for a sale book at the least. Damn Dollar Tree made me go over my book budget 3 times last year, lol. I may have to start you off on a strict pgs read/books bought diet, lol. Thins down the books you own real quick when you stick to 5,000 pgs read to equal that ONE book you REALLY want =D.

Great categories Yz!!! Does the kissing have to be on the lips? Cos Cherry Adair's night series seems to have the guys all kissing the gals necks! No vamps involved. Anyway, I don't pub all my TBR on this site (just my library books and my read books). I have my listing of books on my librarything.com account. So if you don't like anything that is on my account on GR, try me over there. I am HunebeeNZ. Cheers Yz these are really getting me digging thru my TBR piles, JOY!

Lucy Monroe's tempt me comes close to the kiss. Have a gander at

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79...

Found 2!!! Hard evidence and Unlawful contact by Pamela Clare both have kissing (on the lips) couples.

GG LL, hehe.

Hey Kenjii! How goes it? I don't know how to find a list of GR authors. I may struggle to get a hold of one of their books??? Help!

You can try exploring the authors tab? Or using your TBR books and clicking them and see if they link to the profile of the author and list them as a GR author. I dunno. Someone else have a better idea?

Well, I feel dirty, slighty perverted and frustrated (not in the sensual way either) - have hunted up, down and sideways for a full on KISS (yes, in capitals - 'cause it's worth capturing). Spent an hr at the local library yanking books off shelves looking for the image. In the end came home and resorted to , , , and and FINALLY found 3 (would you believe): Lisa's Gift by MacKenzie McKade, Burn by Anne Rainey and Not in Kansas by R.G. Alexander. The first two are 2 girls and a guy (and yep, it turns into a love story) and the third is m/m. I have seen enough hands, breasts, derrieres, lips, mouths, legs and feet in the most compromising positions I'm almost anaesthetised to nudity. Almost LOL

You go Tosca. I can at least discreetly look while I am busy shelving at work! But I found mine on my shelf at home.

Thanks Kenjii, I'll give it a go.

I use a quick-ish way to search GoodReads authors - I go to the Authors tab and then click on More Authors on goodreads, then arrange them by popularity from the dropdown menu and then skim through looking for ones I roughly recognise or think I might enjoy. Still longwinded though. Is it just me or is there no way to search for say Romance authors in there?

...and the "kiss-kiss" hunt lives on but the hunger is not yet satisfied. LOL. I am still looking through my stacks.

I have not seen a way to search GR authors by genre. Would be easier. You would think GR would have thought of that useful tool.

LibraryLass wrote: "Hey Kenjii! How goes it? I don't know how to find a list of GR authors. I may struggle to get a hold of one of their books??? Help!"

Hi LibraryLass, I checked out your to-read shelf and you actually have a GR authored book there! Manhunting by Jeniffer Crusie (the asterix by the authoress' name, when viewing booklist, gave it away)

*oops* just saw you've done your list with this book - sorry!

tosca wrote: "I use a quick-ish way to search GoodReads authors - I go to the Authors tab and then click on More Authors on goodreads, then arrange them by popularity from the dropdown menu and then skim through..."

There are 3 books by GR authors on your to-be read list, Tosca!

Thanks Tosca! Now I've added ANOTHER book to my TBR pile. Not in Kansas sounds very interesting.