Laura’s Comments (group member since Oct 05, 2015)

Laura’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

Doh! 😂

"A book with multiple names on the cover or title page"?

Nadine wrote: "Laura wrote: "Maybe for some a little bit different, it could be:

"A book with multiple authors' names on the cover"

Then it could be a collection or collaboration but also those books that have ..."

Aren't artist names also still on the cover? Looking at a few examples, it seems that the artist is listed.

Welcome to Lovecraft
The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye

I suppose it could be:

"A book with multiple authors' names on the cover or title page"

Maybe for some a little bit different, it could be:

"A book with multiple authors' names on the cover"

Then it could be a collection or collaboration but also those books that have quotes from other authors on the cover.

You can also view it as more competition. In a typical poll, there’s the bottom and middle prompts thrown in. Now it’s a poll of a bunch of popular prompts, all vying against each other.

I’ve heard both “asexual” and “ally”

I’m so excited to finally read this one 😃

I grew up with my mom reading a ton of Stephen King books. It was sort of a rite of passage once I was allowed to read them. I also remember the horror of watching the original movie (probably at way too young of an age). The sewer scene is one of my most vivid movie memories. In hindsight, I was mildly traumatized. But what’s childhood without a fee movie monsters?

I’ve read a ton of King’s books and even started this one a few different times. I loved it but always got distracted early on. I’m hoping the BOTM will be my push to finally finish it. I do remember it being VERY different from the movies though.

I want to run a prompt idea by everyone. I’m watching Netflix right now so I want to make sure I’m not totally off-base. We’ve had some prompts based on specific topics (like witches in this poll). I’m wondering if it would be popular to have one that encompasses multiple “hot topics”.

“A book inspired by the tv show ‘Explained’ (fiction or non-fiction)”

Topics covered so far, with a complete second season still to be announced.

The Racial Wealth Gap
Designer DNA
Monogamy
K-Pop
Cryptocurrency
Why Diets Fail
The Stock Market
eSports
Extraterrestrial Life
Exclamation Mark (!) - history of punctuation
Cricket (sport)
Weed (marijuana)
Tattoo
Astrology
Can We Live Forever?
The Female Orgasm
Political Correctness
Why Women are Paid Less
The World’s Water Crisis
Music
Cults

There isn’t typically a hard end time. If you get your vote in before Friday at midnight, there shouldn’t be an issue.

But if it’s stressful for you, feel free to just message your votes to a mod. No need to worry :)

Doing that now :)

September 29:

This is a friendly reminder that the Goodreads community guidelines apply throughout our group, including discussions about the 2020 reading list. In particular:

- Not everyone shares the same point of view, and that diversity of opinion is what makes Goodreads a great place to share your ideas. Respectful, lively debates are encouraged, but consider the impact of your contributions on individuals and the community as a whole before jumping in.

- Hate speech, bigotry, threats, and ad hominem attacks are not tolerated. Criticizing the opinions of others is permitted, but attacking individuals for their opinions is not.

Unfortunately we have recently had to remove a member from the group who had repeatedly violated these guidelines and had ignored several reminders from the moderators about the rules we ask all members of our group to follow. It wouldn’t be fair to discuss this individual situation in the group but if anyone has questions then you are welcome to message any of the moderators privately.

I genuinely believe the moderators have strived to take reasonable feedback. We have specifically reworded members' prompts at others' requests. For instance, we changed the "LGBT" prompt to include more identities, at your request.

My memory is too awful to identify other examples, that's just one I noticed while re-reading old threads to compile the close call list.

But picking and choosing situations just to criticize others is not acceptable.

Rachel wrote: "I'm a little confused about how the items for the close calls polls are being chosen. I know we were discussing at one point whether it was by upvotes only, or by the total (upvote - downvote), but..."

The mods are still discussing to determine a final list but it will likely be a combination of the two. That way some of the really popular ones get a second chance since some people's bottom preference may have changed since voting the first time.

Yes, I am working on an updated list now. I specifically am removing those and some of the other similarly worded prompts.

I used that wording because as a moderator, I have to look objectively. I have to consider if the prompt loses clarity with no examples in parenthesis. That’s why I said I didn’t see an issue. Not to be dismissive. I really must reiterate (again) you that you find negativity when there is none meant.

Context is important in our reading and language. In this context, I don’t think abnormal is a synonym for non-traditional. But again, it seems as though it is arguing for the sake of arguing, I agreed that we could remove it ;)

I think it’s very important not to equate non-traditional with abnormal. Those are very different concepts.

But with that in mind, I don't see an issue removing the examples entirely.

I think the word “genre” wasn’t the point of the post. I actually had to really go back and read to even know which post said it.

“Own voices” was an emerging idea in that people were talking about using it as a metric when looking at the author vs. character portrayal.

Try not to find things to “oppose” in people’s ideas. Focus more on what they’re trying to say.

Keep in mind that I didn’t necessarily vote for the broad prompts you’re referring to, Rebecca. I can’t say without specifics.

Just because we moderate the process doesn’t mean it reflects individual mod preferences.

Rebecca wrote: "Very disappointed own voices didn’t even show up as a close call."

I downvoted the prompt just because I think that it’s almost too easy to fill. I would rather have it be another layer of challenge on top of just ‘own voices’. I’m not sure what that would be.

Maybe some like, An ‘own voices’ book by an author from a country you didn’t read in 2019

That may be just because we just had the prompt recently.

Here’s some lists for challenged books from the 21st century:

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/fr...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/558297...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/59059/...

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/to...

There’s definitely repetition but at least they’re not the same classics you se on banned lists all the time. Might be my push to finally read The Kite Runner.