Hooray for GENRE-ary!!!

January is a strange time in book world. Publishers and authors go into a thirty one day hibernation cycle, leaving the crazy vampire bookworms among us with very little new blood on which to feast. Thankfully it also means we don't spend a month frantically buying up as many books from the given year as we can in an attempt to plough through the ones we're ashamed not to have read when we compile our best of lists (I'm looking at you, December).

In previous years I have used January to catch up on those books that I just couldn't get to by New Year's Eve. However, with apologies once again to Telegraph Avenue, I have decided to declare the first month of 2013 Genre-ary, during which I will only read genre fiction. I have accumulated a nice little pile of crime, fantasy and sic-fi books on my desk that, if it weren't for this month, I probably would never read. First up: Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas.

And so begins Genre-ary, a month to sit back, relax and just enjoy myself while pretending that I am not absolutely salivating in anticipation of the newies from JM Coetzee (coming in March), Javier Marias (also March) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (coming in April).