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message 51:
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Lauren
(new)
Oct 01, 2013 08:26AM
Oh no! Can't you get an extension?
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Mod
Well good luck!While you're here though - aren't monthly nominations supposed to start today? Or do you want me to post them?
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1 - 6 = Yes7 = A
Good luck with the rewriting, Lu :)
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I hate to do tis to you, but having relooked it again, I'll rather go for C.
What's the topic of your thesis?
Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Lauren lol you have completely frazzled me. I can't make nominations yet, we need to see what we are going to do with the themes and BoM's!"Lol, sorry! But whatever we decided the AoM is staying the same and one of the BoMs will be open-ended.
Sorry I'm a bit late to the party
1. Yes
2. Maybe if I'm available, does online discussions count?
3. Ok, sure, but not too sure what it means
4. Sure
5. Sjoe! But ok lol (I read slow)
6. Yes
7. A, the less complicated the better... I struggle to figure tough things out lol.
1. Yes
2. Maybe if I'm available, does online discussions count?
3. Ok, sure, but not too sure what it means
4. Sure
5. Sjoe! But ok lol (I read slow)
6. Yes
7. A, the less complicated the better... I struggle to figure tough things out lol.
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1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. I read quickly so it doesn't really bother me
6. Yes.
7. Option A is best then C. Option B is WAY too complected!
And finally on a personal note. I would love to get into reading the book of the month more. (In the past they've usually been books I've already read.) And I'm looking forward to finding some new and exciting books, I have been in such a reading rut! I feel like this shakeup will make a big difference and I am also willing to go back to netgalley despite my aversion to feeling obligated to write reviews :)
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5 A's
3 C's
1 B
Ok can someone check this please? I think Barbara is the only one left to vote? If so her vote won't make a change. If it is more than Barbara then we can wait. Anyone wanna confirm? Everyone happy with how the votes has gone?
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@Lu: There are a few other active members. Jax and Jennifer, off the top of my head. But not sure how many people you want to weigh in?If A wins then I assume the November themed BoM will be contemporary fiction, based on the last poll?
@Crusader: Why didn't you vote for the yearly themed challenges, by the way?
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Because you don't listen to the little people.
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What's the number after eleventy?
Just joking. I'm deadly serious, so don't blame this on the coffee.
Are you really serious? What do you mean we don't listen to the little people? You're a moderator, you're part of the "we". And everyone has an opportunity to nominate challenges (and make up their own rules for those challenges) and vote for them. You chose to do neither this year.
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Honestly I was too busy with other stuff to pay the challenges any mind and I think I might have even missed that they were being nominated.
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What I meant with Barbara, is that she is the only one who has commented in here but not voted yet. I went on those who have been talking in here.
It would be really easy to put this to a poll if you guys want? Or any other suggestions.
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I realise this is off topic and basically impossible but what the hell.
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"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a book stamping on a human face—forever."
Edit: Overreaction on my part. Stepping away now
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We have lots of ideas on how to make this better for us but we are already participating. But other member might not agree because our BOM (as it stands) is obviously not enticing them to read it. Maybe we are missing something??
Didn't we try something like that a while back? I remember discussing the same issue at one point...Carolien, when you compiled the stats for the BoM, was there anything on genre?
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Not sure if I am a typical member in this case.
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A lot of the books are a little obscure and some are down right weird. Surly we would get more participants if we all just nominated any book from any genre that we have been looking forward to reading or have heard good things about??
I am sure members must be intimidated by the fact that they have to research (for example) what city the author was born in or how many people are on the cover of the book.
It also can't be very enticing to choose from a list of 5 books you have never heard of. Which I think must be happening because from what Carolien says the number of readers only really picks up when the BoM is VERY popular.
I think maybe because we read so much, especially within our own genres and spend so much time cruising this site looking for new and different thing we forget that the average reader really just wants to read the latest Dan Brown best seller...
We are rather limited in genre. It might just be my own bias, but I feel like we mostly have YA novels (which are usually YA fantasies and/or romances) for BoMs. Personally, I totally ignore almost all of those. The BoM occasionally branches out into other popular sff genres (like epic fantasy) or into crime thrillers, but rarely go beyond that.I think it would help to go for books that are very popular, highly acclaimed, highly anticipated, or have cult status, although that also varies widely among readers, depending on tastes. People have to nominate those books though, and a lot of the time we tend to nominate more obscure or niche titles from our tbr piles. Half the time I've never heard of the title that gets chosen. In contrast, I almost always recognise the BoMs for the sff group I follow, even if I don't want to read them. Perhaps we need to think more about the group than just our tbr piles when nominating?
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We really do need to worry less about what we need to review for our blogs and what books we need to read to complete for a challenge and concentrated on making the BoM as inclusive as possible. Maybe we have been selfish...
Note I totally include myself in this!
As a group we really do have very diverse reading preferences, which can make life difficult sometimes but it can also make it interesting. We could have "main stream" nominations from 4 or 5 different genres for the members to choose from! Surely that will gather more interest.
And I personally am far more likely to read a book that is outside of my usual genres if it has a lot of hype then if it is obscure. And i'm sure that is true of most casual reader.
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@Lauren F: I am less likely to read a book if there is a big hype about it because normally that means I will not like it. Weird I know but true.
All I wanted to add is that I have refrained from reading most BoM's because I hadn't heard of them and wasn't prepared to buy them. I have refrained from nominating BoM's because my tastes are very different from the rest and I had the feeling no one would want to read the books I wanted to read. But maybe that is more my problem than anything else.
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I realized after commenting last night that another reason I don't get to BOM is that by the time we announce the book, my reading is mostly planned for the next month. I am fairly time constrained between a corporate job, 2 young children and studies so to manage book challenges, I have to plan my reading carefully. My books also get circulated in a wide family circle so weird and wonderful is not always a great idea.
There are some groups who select a month in advance and I wonder if that will help. So in October we vote for the December BOM. It just allows more time to plan the reading into your life. In fact, one of the groups, announce the book and immediately create a thread for people to list where the book can be obtained and what special prices are available. If it is also around for 2 months to discuss that allows ample time for participation.
@LaurenF: Maybe we have been selfish...Note I totally include myself in this!
Yeah, we've all bee guilty, except perhaps for Barbara who has refrained from imposing her tastes on others :)
@LaurenF: And I personally am far more likely to read a book that is outside of my usual genres if it has a lot of hype then if it is obscure. And i'm sure that is true of most casual reader.
@Barbara: @Lauren F: I am less likely to read a book if there is a big hype about it because normally that means I will not like it. Weird I know but true.
I actually agree with both these things. On the one hand, I avoid a lot of popular fiction, even in genres I normally enjoy, eg. Dan Brown, because I often find it boring. But sometimes hype draws my attention, eg. if the book is highly acclaimed for its quality, if it's been like that for many years, it's got cult status, it's considered a seminal book of the genre etc. And sometimes I do just read popular fiction - like Life of Pi - because there's a movie coming out or something.
@Barbara: All I wanted to add is that I have refrained from reading most BoM's because I hadn't heard of them and wasn't prepared to buy them.
It seems like this is our main problem. I also wanted to add that I would only buy/read a book I hadn't heard of before if it had a very strong reputation. It's not worth stepping outside of my normal reading and spending money for an average read that I can't talk to other people about because they've never heard of it. If it's the kind of book loads of people have read - like Life of Pi - then it's at least worth reading to have a bit of extra dinner-table conversation.
@Carolien: There are some groups who select a month in advance and I wonder if that will help. So in October we vote for the December BOM.
We could do this, if we put in an extra nomination this month. It also means we could choose a Word of the Month that fits the BoM. I hadn't thought about it before, but it could also help my planning if I request fewer review copies for books published in that month, knowing that I need/want to make time for the BoM. The disadvantage is that people will have to commit to hosting discussions two months in advance, and their plans might change.
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I actually hadn't thought of it this way. But unfortunately this is probably another symptom of my selfish reading habits. 99% of my reading is done electronically so most book are only minutes away and I get them the day they are released. That being said I agree whole heartedly with the the advance selection idea. Especially for people who order their books on line and have to deal with the post office, I know Lu has had some terrible problems in the past!
As for the issue of hosting, maybe we could appoint a co-host?? Which is great in an average month because you need 2 people to spark conversation. (And lets face it, at times we have been struggling.) And they could take over in months where something unexpected comes up. What do you think??
Hi, would someone be willing to host the book I wrote, OPERATION: GENOCIDE?
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We also haven't sorted everything out as you can see by this current thread. But hosting would depend on someone nominating your book when nominations open.
Back to this current issue.
Guys I don't know what to do. I really don't. To be honest I would more than happy to just have 2 group reads with no theme or anything, just nominate what we want. Nominate 2 months ahead and have hosts. But what I want, not everyone wants.
Someone please take over and tell me what to do here. For once in the 5 years of this group I don't want to get involved.
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I don't really read the BOM, New Release or AOM but I was asked for my view so here it is :)1. Yes
2. Possibly
3. Yes
4. There will still be 2 bom's
5. Ok
6. Ok
7. Now the real question. For the Bom's should we:
I like A or C
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Stick up a poll for us basically checking the following:
1 Do people agree that we add hosts for the BOM/AOM.
2 Do people agree that we nominate two months ahead.
3 BOM will be for two months at a time, but with two added each month
4 Then ask people to vote for these options:
Either we have two BOMs and we nominate theme based for one and any book for the other
Or we have two BOMs and we vote theme based (as is the current process for one) and the second one should be linked to a Challenge
Or we have two BOMs and we nominate anything, vote and the top two nominations go through.
At the end of the poll, put the link to this thread if possible in a message and ask that if they vote, they come to this thread and provide any additional feedback here.
I think those are the main decisions and we need some participation. Get votes in by Sunday and then you can open nominations (for the next two months) on Monday. We all know this is coming, so we can ensure the nomination process is short and sweet. Close nominations by the normal day in the month and put polls up.
If you need help, send me a message. I'm working at home tonight so can help you out as an alternative to building pivot tables of sales data!
I think we can just make changes now and see how it works out. My suggested course of action:1. Go with option A.
2. Set up a nomination thread for a Nov-Dec BoM - contemporary fiction
3. Set up a nomination thread for a Nov-Dec BoM - open
4. Set up a nomination thread for a Jan-Feb BoM theme
5. Close nominations on the 10th as usual. It's enough time.
6. On 1 November, set up the two nomination threads for the Jan-Feb BoMs. One open, one based on the theme chosen after the nominations in step 4. Also, a new thread for the Feb-March theme.
7. Jan-Feb BoMs are chosen when voting ends on 20 November. Members have the rest of November and all of December to get the BoM and plan their reading accordingly.
This means we will skip the Dec-Jan BoM. Lots of people will be on holiday anyway, and it'll give us a chance to extend the voting/reading gap by one month.
For now, I think it's worth just seeing how these changes pan out. We can make adjustments later. I would like to know from our silent members why they don't participate, but if they're not interested in commenting on our threads, then I don't see how we're going to get their opinions, even with a poll. Those of us who do participate have offered ideas about improving the BoM, and I think that gives us enough to work with for now. We've already started implementing the host system (Carolien made a great start on the PG Wodehouse thread). we've also discussed the importance of nominating more popular/acclaimed books as BoMs, rather than making more selfish nominations for obscure books on our TBR piles. Lets focus on that and see how it goes.
This is probably going to be my last word on the topic for a few days. I'm going on holiday for two weeks, so I won't be able to post as often.
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1. Go with option A.
2. Set up a nomination thread for a Nov-Dec BoM - contemporary fiction
3. Set up ..."
Sounds very sensible, lets get cracking!
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Options 1: Carolien's suggestion - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Option 2: Lauren's suggestion - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Option 3: Lauren's suggestions but that I rework it so that we do have Dec-Jan BoM's
I am willing to do whatever the majority decides. Thanks for everyone who has contributed to this discussion, I really appreciate it.
Do we vote here? I vote for Carolien's suggestion.
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