Abbreviations (Acronyms & Initialisms) you may run into

[Kris]

Yes, we often distinguish between children's chapter books and picture books.

[Andy Phillips]

Thanks, Aerulan and Kris. I've been using this site for quite a while now and it always seems odd to me when people are talking about something that's clearly an adult fiction book and refer to it as a 'chapter book'. I can't remember seeing anything that doesn't have sections or chapters, other than children's books, as you say. It makes more sense when talking about a more complex children's book.

[Kris]

A confusing term is "Young Adult."
In this group, "young adult" refers to teens/teenagers, whereas 20+ is "adult" (or "new adult").

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Kris wrote: "A confusing term is "Young Adult."
In this group, "young adult" refers to teens/teenagers"

Currently definition reads: YA - Young Adult (often: high school setting/ages)

Are you suggesting a change to that? (If so, what would you prefer that adds clarity?)

Kris wrote: "children's chapter books and picture books."

How shall we better word the listing of chapter books vs kids books to be more clear, while still being very brief and concise?

I strove to make this as quick a read as possible, while giving you just enough to get you enlightened as to what's going on, so you can google your own, or derive value from contextual clues.

Should we bother including things like:

bodice ripper (g sez: 'sexually explicit romantic novel with a historical setting')
Regency (can anyone define this in such a way that it excludes other historical novels? - w sez 'works in the tradition of Georgette Heyer, with an emphasis on the primary romance plot' & 'great deal of intelligent, fast-paced dialogue between the protagonists and very little explicit sex or discussion of sex')
Victorian (same)
(or just leave it at historical romance?)

family saga (w sez: 'chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time.')

And since those are googleable, are they needed here? Or shall we just list them as things you can google?

I've been seeing more reverse harems in the listings, and that's not a definition that pops up in normal dictionaries; and seems to be a fairly reasonable definition: 'features a female main character surrounded/courted by multiple (usually male) characters'

I'm thinking of adding pulp; mainly because of the physical aspects it represents are easy to define.

Fixing tbr to include tr, as that wasn't apparent to Zala.

An interesting aside, the archive versions of this post have disappeared.

[Tabitha]

Hey all I am new to the group. I found an abbreviation today that I have no clue what it means. I am hoping someone here can help. I found it several times in reviews for a romance book. The abbreviation is R2R......Thanks for helping a girl out!

[Andy Phillips]

What was the context of 'R2R'? Could it be something like 'ready to rock', meaning ready for a bit of hanky panky?

[Tabitha]

Andy Phillips wrote: "What was the context of 'R2R'? Could it be something like 'ready to rock', meaning ready for a bit of hanky panky?"

It was mostly in tags but I did see it twice when people were mentioning reading the book....like a basic book description. Considering the amount of reading I do if it was common I think I would have seen it......Color me confused!

[Madiha]

I can agree with the R2R confusion.
After asking for some of my reader friends to input, I came up with-
1. Sometimes, a angry, tempered person is sometimes written as R2R, meaning Ready to Rage.
(Eg. this Hero is always R2R at his sister)
2. In my library, R2R usually means Ready to Read!
3. Funny, since this is the opposite of the above definition, it can also mean Refuse to Read!
And of course, I agree with Andy's suggestion.

[Madiha]

Just wanted to add,
In the above definition,probably random, but some kids books are written as R2R, meaning Ready to Read, as in Beginner Books.


And a suggestion-
I've seen OP mean Original Post in a couple posts, Do you think it's used enough to add it?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Unless an acronym is universally recognized, it's better to type all the words out. If an acronym is only known to one subset of readers, such as readers of one genre, then it's not universally known and should be typed out.

[Wentzel]

Anyone knows what B/F means? I am looking to buy a paperback copy of "Looking for Alaska" through an online website but the title of the book says the following: "Looking for Alaska [Film Tie-In] B/F".

[Melanie]

Best friend? Or boyfriend. But in this scenario I’m thinking best friend 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Andy Phillips]

Wentzel wrote: "Anyone knows what B/F means? I am looking to buy a paperback copy of "Looking for Alaska" through an online website but the title of the book says the following: "Looking for Alaska [Film Tie-In] B..."

I would think in this sense it's more likely to be 'bold face' than the usual 'boyfriend' but it's not exactly clear!

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Notes: added KU, SA (maybe more as I catch up)