As long as there have been romance novels, there have been romance novel covers. Trends in covers have gone from long-locked men with rippling chests standing over fragilely beautiful females, to iconic covers, back to the rippling chests, onto more icons, and back again.

Do you prefer one type of cover over another? What's your favorite romance novel cover (share in comments!)

Nalini Singh has released two chapters of Heart of Obsidian, her newest book in the Psy-Changeling series, on her website. If you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now.

[Click for a SPOILER!]

Livescience recently did an article mentioning words that exist in other languages that we really need in English. This one pertains to book readers the most:

Tsundoku: A Japanese word that is “the act of letting books just pile up unread on the floor and nightstand, where they function more as decoration than literature.”

Do you practice tsundoku?

Entertainment—whether it's books, music, TV, movies, or art—is a way for people to connect to those around them, escape from those around them, find an emotional touchstone, or simply entertain themselves. And since it's all entertainment, it's natural that the subgenres would blend into each other (it's not an accident that we cover TV and movies at Heroes and Heartbreakers as well as books—romantic fiction is spread across genres!).

It makes sense, then, that authors would get inspired by music, and vice versa. Many authors create playlists for the books they're writing, using the songs as a sort of Pavlov's dog to get them into the creative process. For example, in a post she wrote about the tracklist she did for Chaos Burning, Lauren Dane (whose twitter feed is filled with what she's listening to at the time) said,

Music is one of the things I use to keep my head in the story despite constant interruptions from kids, other books to deal with (copy edits, final pass pages, promotion, all that jazz).

[We got the beat...]

With Star Trek: Into Darkness opening today in the United States, it's a good time to recall that the original series was actually controversial in its time, featuring the first ever interracial kiss on television.

Romance has blazed many trails, hasn't it?

Do you have plans to see Star Trek: Into Darkness?

When you're reading, do you ever deliberately throw yourself a curveball? That is, challenge yourself to read in a romantic subgenre you normally avoid?

For example, say you're primarily a paranormal romance fan; have you ever made yourself pick up a contemporary set in a small town? A historical fan trying what has been buzzing in New Adult? An erotica reader looking for some romantic suspense?

Do you challenge yourself for the sake of  a reading challenge, or stick to the romantic subgenre that works best for you?

Earlier, we reported on the casting for Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series being turned into film (and Chelsea Mueller assured us “it's going to be okay.”)

In addition to the three leads—Rose, Lissa, and Dimitri—the producers have announced more cast members, including the parts of Mia, Mason, Jesse, and Karp. Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) has already been cast as Kirova.

Here's Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters' description:

St. Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school–it's a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St. Vladimir's–the very place where they're most in danger. Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy's ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi–the world's fiercest and most dangerous vampires–make Lissa one of them forever.

Mia will be played by Sami Gayle (Blue Bloods), Cameron Monaghan (Shameless) will be Mason Ashford, Ashley Charles is Jesse Zeklos and Claire Foy (White Heat) will play Karp.

Interestingly, the producers have decided not to feature Eddie Castillo in this film, since it's only later in the series that Eddie's actions and role become important. The producers commented, “Basically, it is difficult to find a charismatic, high-caliber actor to play an unfortunately but necessarily reduced role. We all felt it best for the first film and the Eddie Castile character himself to wait for Frostbite, where Eddie's role is more full-bodied so we could find a more special actor. Apologies for any pain this decision may cause…”

Filming begins in two weeks, with a scheduled release date of on Feb. 14, 2014.

Many of the books in the New Adult category feature college students falling in love with each other.

In reality, how many women end up marrying the guys they dated in college?

If you didn't marry your college boyfriend(s), how different would your life have been if you did?

Watch Downton Abbey: The Cast on Hopes for Season 4 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

PBS has just announced the date of Downton Abbey's Season 4's return: January 5, 2014. And they've shared a video featuring cast members teasing us about what might be happening to their characters.

What do you hope to see in Season 4?

We were sad when Amanda Bonilla and Shawntelle Madison shared the news that their publishers wouldn't be continuing their respective series—but then very happy that the authors would continue to publish more books in the series on their own!

Which made us wonder—what unfinished series (book or television) do you really wish had gotten an ending?

If any of us who happen to also be parents were asked what we'd like to do most on Mother's Day, chances are we would want to answer (even if we didn't say it out loud) that we'd like to read.

(Because it might be seen as kinda rude to say “I want to do this totally solitary activity” rather than “have eggs Benedict with you guys, of course!”)

If you did get the chance to read yesterday, what book was it? What did your appreciative family members do for you?

Nearly a year ago, Tori Benson did a post (You Can't Go Home Again: Rereading Old Favorites) about rereading a book she used to love.

But let's flip that around—what book that you initially disliked, or didn't understand, did you read later on in life and finally 'get?'

Maybe you've already seen this, but really, you could stand to see it again, because it is just so much fun. Kristen Wiig returns to the big screen this summer in Girl Most Likely, playing a failed playwright who “awkwardly navigates the transition from Next Big Thing to Last Year's News”

Girl Most Likely will be in theaters July 19, 2013.

Another day, another scientific study that confirms what many of us already knew: “carrying a guitar increases [a man's] chance of getting a date by 31%.”

But reversing the gender doesn't have the same results; “But this technique only works if you're a man, women are not seen any more or less attractive if they carry a musical instrument.”

Who are your favorite musician heroes?

An article in ScienceDirect confirms what some of you have been saying all along—that women find men with heavy stubble most attractive, but judge bearded men as most likely to make good parents. Here's the salient quote:

Women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive...Masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased. [B]eardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring.

There are many examples of heavy-stubbled heroes, but not as many of bearded heroes—do you have any favorite bearded heroes? Do you agree with this study?

Even though your To Be Read pile is taller than the Empire State Building, you're looking forward to a book that hasn't been released yet—so what is it?

What's your most anticipated book for the second half of 2013?

We've discussed books being made into films many times at H&H—what books should be made into movies, what books were better than the films (and occasionally vice versa), and which actors we'd like to see portraying our favorite characters.

But one topic we haven't asked—what movie do you wish you could read as a book? 

You've read the entire backlist, you've stalked the author's website for news of future releases, and you might even have set up a Google alert.

But you don't have any new material to read. That's one of the reasons we're doing “If You Like...” posts, to help out readers desperate for more books that have that element of a particular author?

What author would you most like to find authors similar to? We'll gather your suggestions and see if we can assign future “If You Like...” posts for her!

Even the most determined 'do not re-read' reader has a book they've read at least twice. Maybe it was because you loved it so much, because you forgot what happened in it, or because you found yourself stuck somewhere with only a previously read book to read.

So—what book have you re-read the most?