August is full of Romance. Along with Bookstore Romance Day (Elizabeth’s post), August is also Read-A-Romance Month. What is that? According to an older version of the website it “was conceived and launched in 2013 by freelance writer and romance advocate Bobbi Dumas, after she realized there was no one place where the community celebrated romance all together, at one time, in a concentrated way. The theme this year is The Romance Of Reading, The Magic Of Books, so many of the authors have written books that include magical elements.

There are three pieces to the month, this time around. The calendar has three entries on each day. The first is a guest on the The Romance of Reading Facebook page, the second is a blogger on the Read a Romance Month website and the third is an ongoing project called #100DaysOfGreatBooks.

I don’t recognize very many of the authors, but I also don’t read very many books with magic in them. I do like Julie Anne Long’s stories and she posted on August 10 about Reading Makes Us Better. She says story is about “our universal human experience: friendship, yearning, suspense, surprise, unrequited crushes, secrets. And this is why we read. It’s about the search for and reveling in a shared experience, an opportunity to root for each other, an opportunity to vicariously, briefly, live another life. It’s an opportunity to feel empathy.” I completely agree with her. Each blogger has recommendations plus the #100DaysOfGreatBooks links has recommendations, as well.

So August is about reading romance novels. Off to read more romance (although I should be writing it).