Book of the Month Introduction

[Rachel]

I like that it's every other month also, and I think connecting books that relate to the challenge prompts is a great idea. I don't read in order so the timing is less relevant for me, but I still think it would be helpful. I'm a lot more like to participate when the book is already something I planned on reading, or that I can easily fit in and shuffle things around to accommodate.

I have to say I found it a little confusing this year that we had some months where we had 2 or even 3 BOTM, and others where we enforced a tie-breaker during the votes. It's entirely possible that I missed a decision along the way about how to handle ties in the votes, since I know for sure I had a harder time staying up to date with posts this year.

Personally, I prefer just one book chosen at a time. There are advantages to having multiple, but I found it really split the discussions and none of the threads were very active. I'm just wondering if there's another way to handle ties instead of the mods choosing which book (which feels kind of arbitrary). Maybe in the event of a tie, we open up a poll with only the options that were tied, and everyone can vote for which of the two they prefer. It worked for the multi-prompt poll.

[Jody]

I agree with Rachel about the voting when it comes to a tie - that seems the fairest way.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Rachel wrote: "I like that it's every other month also, and I think connecting books that relate to the challenge prompts is a great idea. I don't read in order so the timing is less relevant for me, but I still ..."

I'll admit that the decision was often based on whether the mods could accommodate reading more than one book. If not, then we chose one we wanted to read. If people think they would be interested in running the questions for a BOTM then we could potentially handle ties differently.

[°~Amy~°]

I wonder if doing the polls as ranked choice votes would eliminate ties. Basically we still have our 5 or 6 choices but in voting we mark each from favorite to least favorite. Two books might still tie for first but the mods could then look at which book had the most second place votes, or third if second was also a tie.

Obviously Goodreads polls don't allow ranking but there are several options online to use if we decided to go that route.

[°~Amy~°]

Another way to do this would be for the mods or whomever is making the questions to pick the 6-8 books to be voted on. Those books would fit into the 4 (or 5) challenge topics for that month. The reason for this is that the books chosen would be books that the person generating the questions had already read or that they can quickly and easily get a copy of. Currently some of the books chosen are just difficult for some people to get and I assume this is an issue for the mods as well.

If it were done this way I would gladly help with questions. I read a lot of books from many different genres so finding books that I have read or want to read , that fit the topics and would appeal to a variety of other readers would not be difficult. I would recommend a mix of fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, historical.... However broad I can make the selections based on the given topics.

[Rachel]

I was going to suggest something similar to Amy's post. I honestly don't mind if the mods want to just choose the BOTM books themselves. It makes sense if they are the ones who need to read it quickly, come up with questions, etc. If anything, what probably makes the most sense is for the mods to come up with the list of suggestions based on what's acceptable to them, and everyone else votes for their favourite.

Amy's ranking idea is also interesting. At least that way there is a semi-natural tiebreaker built into the process.

I still find it a bit weird though that it is set up as a vote, but the mods have the ability to choose a book at their own discretion when there is a tie. What about when mods don't like or don't want to read the book that is chosen, but there isn't a tie? I don't know if that has ever happened before, but based on what Laura said above about the mods choosing what they wanted to read, it does make me wonder what happens if a single book was chosen, but it was one that none of the mods could/would accommodate. It seems there are enough mods that it shouldn't be an issue.

I don't want to make more work for anyone, and I'm hesitant to volunteer myself because I know I'm not likely to have the time to commit to it. I just find it a bit strange to set it up as a vote, and then have a way to overturn the results of the vote.

[Zaz]

It happened, I did 3 BotM that weren't on my TBR (and that I didn't enjoy). We did 2 winners when there were 2 mods interested in reading the 2 books.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Luckily, we had Zaz as a mod and she reads so ravenously that she could take over :P

I really hesitate for the mods to entirely choose the entries just because I enjoy the process of members having the opportunity to make suggestions. We can always have the suggestions be devoted to the challenge entries for January and see how it goes. Maybe that will be enough to encourage participation.

[Rachel]

Zaz wrote: "It happened, I did 3 BotM that weren't on my TBR (and that I didn't enjoy). We did 2 winners when there were 2 mods interested in reading the 2 books."

So hypothetically, what would happen if none of the mods were interested in reading any of the available options? I guess with 5-6 nominations, there's bound to be at least one mod who's okay with at least one of the books, and hopefully that one wins.

I would assume if that happened, someone would just step in and read one of them anyway, which I guess could work out if it's on a rotation (so Zaz doesn't get stuck reading 3 books she doesn't like again).

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Usually it works out since the mods have a pretty diverse reading habit. But I suppose worst-case scenario we would open it up to the group.

I have also pulled questions from online discussions (other books clubs, blogs, etc.) when I've had trouble.

[Tracy]

There is a website I used to refer to a lot when I kept a reading journal (before i discovered GoodReads). Its called ReadingGroupGuides.com, and you can find discussion questions for a ton of books there if you're ever in a pinch ;-)

I'd also be willing to help out with a task like this.

[Sabrina]

i know this is kind of early but do the mods know when they'll announce the book of the month prompts for 2019? I know this year we did the prompts around the month from the actual list, so I wanted to incorporate that into my planning

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I think the mods had said we could make requests here. If they continue doing it like we did this year, they will pick a prompt that we will be reading, and we will pick the book when it gets closer to the month that we will be reading it it (if that makes sense?)

If we do the BOTM in February again, we are limited to either Shakespeare or dual timeline (just because the linked prompts wouldn't exactly work for a BOTM, right?)

I hope now that I'm reading in order, I'll be able to participate more in the discussions for this!

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

The mods haven't discussed how the BOTM will look in 2019. But I don't see a reason to stray too far from the way it was handled in 2018. So, as Emily said, our first BOTM will be devoted to either Shakespeare or dual timeline.

If someone has any feedback about the BOTM in general or about which prompt they would like the February pick to be, this is definitely the time to share.

[Sabrina]

would we still do a botm in june? all of june is devoted to the multi-week prompt

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

If we kept to the current format then yes.

I would say those linked prompts aren't as individual as the "two books" linked prompts. But if people don't want to have any linked prompts as BOTM then we could easily just slightly shift to either May or July.

[Sabrina]

Laura wrote: "If we kept to the current format then yes.

I would say those linked prompts aren't as individual as the "two books" linked prompts. But if people don't want to have any linked prompts as BOTM the..."

gotcha. I'm good either way I was just curious

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

The Something Borrowed prompt lends itself to a good BOTM prompt. It's not as broad as old, new, and blue.

As for February, I would say Dual Timeline, since some people really want to read a play by Shakespeare and some people realllllly don't.

[Sabrina]

Emily wrote: "The Something Borrowed prompt lends itself to a good BOTM prompt. It's not as broad as old, new, and blue.

As for February, I would say Dual Timeline, since some people really want to read a play ..."

was thinking the same thing for both of these actually! dual timeline will be much easier to find something we all can get behind. The borrowed prompt would be really fun to do together (hoping I can convince everyone to read circe with me haha)

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Sabrina wrote: "Emily wrote: "The Something Borrowed prompt lends itself to a good BOTM prompt. It's not as broad as old, new, and blue.

As for February, I would say Dual Timeline, since some people really want t..."

Haha I read Circe earlier this year, so I'm hoping to get everyone to read Home Fire with me!

[Rachelnyc]

Well I'm planning to read both Circe and Home Fire this year so I am on board with either/both!

[Errlee]

Are we going to be doing a BOM for April? I have been looking for a post with suggestions but not seeing one so far ...

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Yep, sorry about that.

Not sure about everyone else but January felt like it lasted a year and then I blinked and February was gone.

Posting one now!

[Errlee]

Laura wrote: "Yep, sorry about that.

Not sure about everyone else but January felt like it lasted a year and then I blinked and February was gone.

Posting one now!"
Thanks! Wasn't trying to be a nag or anything ...

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Oh no, I appreciate the reminders :)

[Bana AZ]

I'm loving the April BOTM banner. Kudos to the one who made it! :)

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Thank you :)

[Eva]

Are we reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union this month? I can't see a thread about it anywhere. Could someone help me find it please?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Eva wrote: "Are we reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union this month? I can't see a thread about it anywhere. Could someone help me find it please?"

I completely forgot to post the threads 🤦🏻‍♀️ I'm sorry! We will be moving away from doing Book of the Months in the future, but if you're looking for discussion, you can post it in the Buddy Reads thread and see if someone has read it this month as well.