Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2017] Voting for 4th Mini-Poll [Closed]
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A book with an unreliable narrator
A best book of the 21st century (so far)
A book with the theme of human vs nature
Read a book about an immigrant or refugee (to any country or planet)
A book you’re expecting to hate
A Chick-lit
A story within a story
A book set in a fictional location
A book about sport
A book based on a fairytale
A book about royalty
A book written by a person of color (i.e. someone who is not white)
A book from the BBC The Big Read list
A mystery nominated for the Agatha Awards
A really long book (750 pages or more)
A fan fiction or book that started as web-based content
A book about a difficult topic (i.e. mental health, school shooting, terrorism, eating disorder, etc.)
A book with a title that doesn't contain the letter 'E'
A book set in a country with a population less than 1 million
I'll take my time to decide on this one. There are very few I dislike and 6 I'm very interested in. The others are fine, I could easily find something to read for them.
I agree great list! There were some topics I was very excited about!
It was tough to decide because there are so many great choices! I would like to say though that if I think I will hate a book, I am definitely not going to read it. I have too many books on my list that I would love to read and don't have the time!
I just think it's hard to know you're going to hate it ahead of time. But maybe, if it's one you're sure you're going to hate and then are surprised...
I tend to think I'll dislike a book when it's a controversial one (aka the love or hate book) or a very popular YA novel. I'd some good surprises on the 2nd possibility, but the love/hate are usually hate on my side.
I can't tell about controversy. I love a lot of the YA. Books I think I'd hate:
- something by a RWNJ like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter
- that Shades of Grey thing.
- preachy books
It was very easy for me to pick my bottom 4, but I had trouble narrowing down my top 4. There were 6 or 7 that I wanted.
Top 4 were tough to pick here. There were 7 I really wanted, and most of the others would still be good options. Bottom 4 were really easy though.
I'm with everyone else. The bottom 4 were really easy. I had a really tough time deciding the top 4 though. There were about 7 topics that really interested me. As long as the 4 bottom don't make it I will be happy with the outcome.
I also had 6 that I really liked and a few that I would be ok with. I had 6 that I really disliked so that was also hard to narrow down. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.
This was so hard! There's only one I'm really iffy about: the 750+ page one, but only because I'm a super slow reader. But I'd still be happy with any of them! Actually, the 750+ would give me an excuse to tackle some books I have been meaning to read, but haven't just because their size intimidates me. Ahhh too many good choices!
Nicole, I felt the same way about the 750+ page book. I am intimidated by the long books on my TBR so I never get around to reading them. I picked this long book prompt because I thought it would really stretch me, but it would be a challenge that would actually help me read something I've been wanting to read for a long time (say The Pillars of the Earth).As for books I expect to hate, sometimes I get to read things I think I'll hate in my book club since other people are picking the books. So far this year I've had 2 books I expected to hate: one I did hate, but one I loved (Warbreaker).
I also felt the same about the 750 page book. I have a few in mind that I'd like to read, but at the same time, I'm having a hard time motivating myself to start a 600 page book for this year (The Goldfinch).
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Haha I think I'm just sad that June is over since it's one whole month of summer gone. Fixed ;)
Well, I read already five 750+ books this year, so I was not so keen on big books right now. This is not normal, btw, my longest last year was barely over 500... I would be fine with it, though, I could finally tackle Anna Karenina or War and Peace. Not to mention if George R. R. Martin finally gets that book out. Or Patrick Rothfuss. Eh
I've got my fingers crossed for the next book by Rothfuss and Martin too! Hopefully we will see at least one of them in 2017.If the 750+ makes it into the list, one way I've found to get around some of the daunting long bookd on my list is to get the audiobook version from the library and listen to them on my commutes to and from work. It takes ages to get through them, but I've found it has helped me get through a couple large books lately.
Peter wrote: "I've got my fingers crossed for the next book by Rothfuss and Martin too! Hopefully we will see at least one of them in 2017.If the 750+ makes it into the list, one way I've found to get around s..."
That's an idea I was thinking of too, but for me personally it feels like a bit of a cheat. I'm not a big fan of audiobooks in general since I have a tendency to tune out. I can't just sit and listen, I have to be doing something else at the same time so it's easy for me to get distracted, but if I don't do other things, I get bored and tune out...so it's kind of lose-lose. I'm also not a driver and even if I were, my work is 5 minutes from my house...
I would love to tackle a longer book like Anna Karenina or The Three Musketeers, but they just seem like such roadblocks when I have to many others I want to read. I think part of my issue motivating myself to start The Goldfinch is because it's not a book I'm super invested in trying. I chose it because it seemed decent and it fit the prompt, but I'm not 100% convinced I actually want to read it so I keep putting it off and hoping to find something else to replace it with.
Rachel wrote: "I also felt the same about the 750 page book. I have a few in mind that I'd like to read, but at the same time, I'm having a hard time motivating myself to start a 600 page book for this year ([boo..."I finally finished a 1,006 page book this year -- [book:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|14201]
Rachel wrote: "Peter wrote: "I've got my fingers crossed for the next book by Rothfuss and Martin too! Hopefully we will see at least one of them in 2017.If the 750+ makes it into the list, one way I've found t..."
I only have a 15-20 minute drive, so it still takes me ages to get through a long book this way, but it chips away at them. The biggest way it helps me out is that I don't feel like the book is a roadblock preventing me from reading something else, so I can read other shorter books on paper throughout the time I'm listening to the longer one on cd. I'm doing renos at my house right now, so I've been listening to them while working in my basement recently too.
I am all about audiobooks. I used to not be able to concentrate while listening to them. I don't know what changed, but I'm glad it did. They help make cleaning the house bearable.
Interesting list. Next year should be fun.
I think you get used to audiobooks. At the beginning I had a little difficulty staying concentrated, but then I listened to Harry Potter and it changed! Now I can't imagine doing something boring with my hands (like driving, cleaning or doing the laundry) without listening to a book! And as Peter says, it also allows you to read something else.Tough choice for this poll, I was also interested in 7 categories! But I'm sure we'll suggest them again in the next polls...
I love audiobooks! Especially some In Death, Royal Blood, Dresden Files are all better in audiobook. Also, I suffer from migraines and sinus headaches frequently and listening to audiobooks is how I get through them.
The topic about titles without Es had me curious so I looked at the books I've read so far this year, and only 9 out of 111 books don't have Es in their titles. That is crazy.
Only about 8 out of my 62 books don't have an E in the title. If this topic it picked, it will be pretty tough to find a book.
Katie wrote: "The topic about titles without Es had me curious so I looked at the books I've read so far this year, and only 9 out of 111 books don't have Es in their titles. That is crazy."I did a challenge maybe 3 years ago that required you to read 5 books without an E in the title and I just couldn't believe how few books I had on my TBR shelf that would fit. It's tougher than it originally seems but I had fun hunting some good books down.
Some super interesting challenges here. No matter what gets chosen, my reject challenge is going to be interesting!
750+ pages? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA please, stop!
My only issue with a 750 page book is just how much that would slow a lot of the members down. If a person is a slow reader, or the book is a bit dull and hard to get through quickly, that person could easily fall very VERY far behind everyone else in the weekly challenges. Myself, I am a fast reader but 750 pages would take me a couple weeks at least, especially if it is during the school year. I can make that up on other weekly topics, but not everyone could. I can easily see a book that large taking other people a month or two to finish. That deficit would be almost impossible for a lot of people to recover from. Just my thoughts on the matter as I dig out the 600+ page book I need for the Popsugar 2016 challenge.
I really think too many people get intimidated - too intimidated - by size. I do have sympathy. Many people have told me they can't read more than one at a time. However, if you just look at it as a series... It's mind over matter. Also, depending on the book you might read it faster. I recently finished a 500+ pages book in 3 sittings. Faster than I've read some 200 page books!
If you have a 750+ in your plan and are not a fast reader, you totally need to balance with 3-4 books under 200 pages (or short YA or children books). Otherwise, there's always the wildcard :)The 500+ at the beginning of the 2015 Popsugar challenge was a killer for many members (I used a book I'd already started as I was sure I wouldn't succeed to read 52 books in a year... lol).
I've two books around 1000p planned for next year (the slow paced kind...), I don't think I'll read more doorstops because each will probably take me 4 months.
For me, it's not really the length itself that I find intimidating. It's more that I tend to find books of that size tend to drag out too long and lose my interest partway through. I'm not the type who can read several books at once, and I don't often stop reading a book once I've started. I don't mind reading a longer book if I really enjoy the story, but aside from Harry Potter, I haven't found too many books of that length that I've really loved. 500 pages or so is usually okay, but once it gets much longer than that, I find it tends to drag.This year, for example, I need to read a book over 600 pages for PopSugar. I picked The Goldfinch, but I keep putting it off because it really doesn't appeal to me that much. At the time when I chose it, it sounded pretty good and I think that I would like to read it at some point, but not right now. My problem is I'm having a hard time finding something else that meets the criteria and actually motivates me to try it.
The 700+ page book appeals to me as this year I finished the Assassin's Apprentice series which were all long books (Robin Hobb). I want to get into the next series and I looked up the page count...yep 800 +.
I ended up with those five without thinking about how big they were. The Wise Man's Fear was added on a whim as a sequel, also Winter - I actually did not know it was over 800 pages, it went fast and it was on the Kindle! Same with Wolf Hall and 11/22/33. I think the length puts me off when I anticipate it to be hard as well as long. If I think it will be fun I just put everything else off instead!
I used to think audiobooks were "cheating". Then I listened to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks while also reading it for bookclub. I liked it so I tried A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail and Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir. Now I'm hooked. It is especially great for airplanes and long drives. I tend to listen to biography/autobiography (read by the author only), comedy (Bossypants is a big favorite of mine), and self help while I still like to read fiction in regular book form. Though Jane Austin read in a British voice is fun too.
I kind of find audiobooks "cheating" in a sense too, just because for me, listening to an audiobook doesn't "feel" like I've read the book. Even though I know the story and got the language of the book from the audio, for some reason I have a hard time thinking of listening to a book as reading.
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I'm about halfway through The Fireman, which is 752 pages, and it honestly feels like a book about half it's length and I'm taking about the same amount of time to read it. I really think it depends more on the type of book than it does on the page count. I've read books under 200 pages that felt like they were about 800.
I'm really going to have to sit down and look at the suggestions for this poll. It's a good list of possibilities!
Laura wrote: "I've only found found one audiobook that I felt like I listened to it well enough to truly feel like I had read the book. That was Defending Jacob. I've quit every other book I've t..."To be fair, Defending Jacob is an amazing book and definitely one that draws you in. I didn't listen to the audiobook, but I read it last year as part of my challenge and it was by far one of the most memorable books I've read.
A lot of good choices! I only had 2 that I really don't like, including the really long book because I don't have a lot of time for reading anymore. As far as my top 4, that was very difficult to pick because all of the other categories are either things I like reading or things that sound really good. I like how some of you put in suggestions for some of the topics. It may help me pick a book when I decide to start making my list.
This time around I tried to vote on topics that would really push me. I tried to pick topics that I could work books in that I own, but keep putting off because they're out of my comfort zone.
Great list of suggestions, I am looking forward to the winners for this list.
Really good list! It was hard to only choose 4 for the top choices, and to choose the bottom four. I would be fine with almost any of them (Please consider re-submitting the choices if they don't get picked!)I’ve only read one book by Stephen King I think, but have a lot of his books on my to-read list, so that prompt would make me finally read one of them I hope. I’m also very intrigued by the human vs nature category, a lot of travel books would fit that one (e.g. The Worst Journey in the World, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail) as well as fiction (e.g. Lonesome Dove). And maybe Walden? Also, unfortunately the authors I read are for some reason mostly white, and I have been thinking about doing an “author of color”- challenge for myself – great prompt! Some ideas here: http://www.bustle.com/articles/83643-...
The sports-category and the long book would also be challenging but fun I think. And the story within a story. And the unreliable narrator. As I said, lots!
Katie wrote: "I am all about audiobooks. I used to not be able to concentrate while listening to them. I don't know what changed, but I'm glad it did. They help make cleaning the house bearable."I almost always listen to audiobooks while I clean! I agree that it makes it bearable. For me, I think it is easiest to listen to non-fiction books on audio, Malcolm Gladwell's for example, as i find it easier to start and stop more frequently. The commute is also more fun when you can listen to books, especially if there is congestion on the way home...
I had a definite top 3 in this round of topics just because they were prompts that I really liked or were things that I would want in it. The 4th one I added was to really get myself out of my comfort zone and challenge myself with something I wouldn't usually read. I think all the topics are great, though, and would honestly be happy with any of the ones from this round.
I just had a look and out of the 28 books I read last year, only 3 didn't have an E in the title. I'm really surprised! That should definitely be an interesting prompt if it gets chosen!
In my small 2017 TBR, for the moment I've 5 books without E, so not a difficult prompt for me :)
Actually, there are quite a few more books without an E in the title than I thought. I browsed quickly through my TBR list (which, to be fair, has over 700 books in it) and I've found quite a few options...although looking for them gave me a very strange perception of spelling. There were a few titles where, I guess because the word didn't "sound" like it contained an E, I'd assume there was no E even though I know that it does. "True Colours" by Kristin Hannah, for example. Hopefully that made sense...
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Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Vinegar Girl (other topics)Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (other topics)
Lonesome Dove (other topics)
Walden or, Life in the Woods (other topics)
The Worst Journey in the World (other topics)
More...
The 2017 Reading Challenge will continue the concept of this year's challenge, with 52 weekly topics. Users then choose a book fitting each topic in order to complete the challenge.
The Process:
The topics for the 2017 RC list will be determined through around 13 mini-polls. Suggestions for each poll will be open until 20 suggestions are received and then opened up for voting for one week. Each user will vote for their top 4 and bottom 4 topics in each mini-poll, resulting in 4 challenge entries from each (13 polls x 4 topics/poll=52 weekly topics). This timeframe allows for a completed list in October-November.
The Rules:
- Voting ends July 10
- One vote per poll per user
Reminder of Current Challenge Themes:
- A book by an author you haven't read before
- A book in the middle of your TBR list
- A book from someone else's bookshelf
- A book with a strong female character
- A book from the Goodreads "Top 100 YA Books"
- A book from a category for another challenge
- A book that you've owned for a while but haven't gotten around to reading
- A book with an animal on the cover or in the title
- A book about a famous historical figure (fiction or non-fiction)
- A book based on a myth
- A Book from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2016
- A novel inspired by a work of classic literature
Helpful links:
- Books with an unreliable narrator: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
- Best books of the 21st Century: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- BBC The Big Read List: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- A mystery nominated for the Agatha Award: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Survey Link