Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2018] Voting for 1st Mini-Poll
I find it a bit odd that no one's really commenting this time around about the suggestions! I had a harder time than I expected picking my top 4. There were 2 or 3 that I really clearly wanted, and then several others that I was considering so it was hard to narrow down. My bottom 4 was much more clear.
I was just waiting not to be the first one to comment :P The only thing I don't like about the voting is to wait so long to know the results! I want to know :D
Mod
There were a lot of good choices so it was difficult to narrow down my top four. I'd be fine with any of the topics so I didn't choose a bottom four.
My main basis for my bottom 4 were topics where I thought options were too limited, or topics that I've done a few times already.
Rachel wrote: "My main basis for my bottom 4 were topics where I thought options were too limited, or topics that I've done a few times already."That's what I based my bottom 4 on as well.
I had a top 7! Narrowing it down to 4 was kind of difficult, but at least since I liked so many, I figure I have a good chance of getting topics I like. I also based my bottom 4 on topics ive done before in various challenges.
I tried to choose a top 4 that would be outside of the norm for me, but still easy enough that I'd have easy access to books for them (either ones I own or easily attainable from the library).
We had "year you were born" two years ago in the Popsugar challenge. My year sucks big time so you will know what I don't want...
Brianna wrote: "I tried to choose a top 4 that would be outside of the norm for me, but still easy enough that I'd have easy access to books for them (either ones I own or easily attainable from the library)."Ditto!
Marta wrote: "We had "year you were born" two years ago in the Popsugar challenge. My year sucks big time so you will know what I don't want..."That's one I don't want. If it gets through I might have to lie ( after all that is supposed to be a lady's prerogative) : )
I liked a lot of the suggestions too, and hope some of them come up again. The one I put at the bottom is "a book published in a year you haven't read from yet" because I think it is practically impossible to fulfill. Not all of the books that I have read are on my list in Goodreads (and they are numerous), and I don't feel like checking them out one by one. :)
I agree with Ann and Marta those two choices were in my bottom 4. They are just too hard to full for me.
I agree with Anna and Marta as well. Those two were in my bottom. The choices for the year I was born sucked and I read the one book I was interested in for the Popsugar a couple years ago. For the book published in a year you haven't read yet I tried sorting my list by publication year but I've read to many newer editions of books that throw it off. I really don't want to try and figure out what year every book was originally published so I voted it in the bottom.
I had loads of fun (I'm weird, but I'm happy with my weirdness!) finding the gaps in my reading years and figuring out if they were definitely gaps or if I'd just forgotten about reading something. I ended up not voting for that category as the books for my gap years weren't as appealing to me as for some of the other categories, but I won't mind if it wins.My voting strategy was to decide what I might read for each prompt, so my top four were the ones that I really want to read and the bottom four I couldn't fill from my TBR. I'm hoping to restrict my book buying addiction by sticking to stuff I already own as much as possible - we'll see how long that lasts!
I also put a book from a year I haven't read from yet in my bottom 4. I love the idea of it, but it seemed like a huge project to try to figure out which years I'd already read from. For me, I would assume the easiest option would be an older classic, but I didn't think I'd be interested in trying to figure out the year for each book I'd already read. I also voted against a book from the year you were born because I've done it once or twice already, and none of the other options from that year appeal to me.
I also wasn't too interested in the book picked off my list by a friend or family member. It's definitely much easier than other tasks that required recommendations in the past, but in general I'd rather pick for myself than have someone pick for me.
In terms of my top 4, I was actually very interested by some of the prompts that involved words in the title. It seemed like the perfect amount of "scavenger hunt" style searching, but with enough options to make it easy to fulfill.
Rachel I agree on the picked for you topics. No offense to those who suggest them but I always vote them in the bottom. I'm a mood reader and I don't have a lot of readers in my life to make suggestions so I tend to avoid those topics.
Marie the only way I cured my addiction to buying books was by avoiding bookstores. I refused to walk into a bookstore for years. I now only by books at yard sales or borrow from the library.
It was a very hard habit to break.
Rachel wrote: "I also wasn't too interested in the book picked off my list by a friend or family member. It's definitely much easier than other tasks that required recommendations in the past, but in general I'd rather pick for myself than have someone pick for me.."I actually nominated the one where someone picks a book off your tbr for you. My thoughts were if you were in the mood for a fantasy, you can show that person 2-10 choices (or more) of fantasy novels you would be in the mood for and have them pick the one they thought you might like the best, or they thought was pretty or whatever their criteria might be. No way would I set my husband free on my ENTIRE tbr. That would guarantee that I would get something seriously crazy that I am not in the mood for. lol
And someone mentioned not having readers in their life. That actually was the point of this topic choice, to have someone who doesn't necessarily know books pick one out based on the covers and the blurbs on the back. :)
My bottom four did include both the options that had year restrictions on them. I have done a challenge to read a book for every year since I was born, so the last 43 years are covered already. And, the year I was born was NOT a good book year, at all so that would be a guaranteed off week for me. It wouldn't be impossible to find a book from a year that I haven't read from before if I go back to the 20's or 30's maybe, I'd have to really research it. It'll be interesting to see if it makes the final cut.
My top picks ended up being: A book about mental illness
A book written in second person (I am dying for an excuse to read Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure
A book picked off your TBR by a family member or a friend
A book set in Africa or South America (at least I am PRETTY sure that was my fourth choice!)
I can't wait to see what we end up with :-)
I started challenging myself to read a book from every year early in 2016, and it's a lot of fun. I have a spreadsheet that I built to track it. Filling in the years wasn't that hard, really. Start with a series that covers a lot of years -> for me Discworld filled in most of the last 3 decades out of the gate.I found that I had very few missed years after about 1940 and things were very sparse before that. The trick is finding an author who wrote in an older era that you dig. Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse are helping me out quite a bit with early 20th Century.
I liked the idea of the 'A book picked off your TBR by a family member or a friend' topic, though it still didn't make my cut for Top 4. I was planning on making a list of 10-20 books that I wanted to read and then let my 5 year old pick from them. I'd be quite interested to hear her reasoning for the pick and I might still do this anyway. Sounds fun.
If the book from a year you haven't read from gets picked you can always pick a 2018 book.I didn't pick the topic but it wasn't in my bottom 4 either.
I went through my TBR and through the 5 star books of a few moderators before I picked my topics :)
Still trying to lower my TBR next year.
Lieke wrote: "If the book from a year you haven't read from gets picked you can always pick a 2018 book.I didn't pick the topic but it wasn't in my bottom 4 either.
I went through my TBR and through the 5 star..."
Actually, I have an arc here to review that is a 2018 release so that won't work for me. For most people it certainly could though (if it were a topic very early in the year).
Reading in order and arc's do make it a bit harder :)
Amy wrote: "My bottom four did include both the options that had year restrictions on them. I have done a challenge to read a book for every year since I was born, so the last 43 years are covered already. And..."I actually voted for the book from a year you haven't read yet just because it's a random way of narrowing down choices. Once I looked at my "Read" books however, I had to go back to 1927 for a year I hadn't read. lol! Lucky I like classics, but it doesn't look like this one will win anyway.
I didn't vote either way for the year I haven't read yet, but after all this discussion, I actually think that would be a very fun thing to track. I really like the book rated 5 stars by a mod category, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a mod! I for one don't rate that many books 5 stars, so wouldn't have much to choose from, but we mods do have varied taste in books, and it's just such a different topic than has been in our challenge before that it could be fun if it gets picked.
I'm also really interested in the topic about a book work its title in the text of the book. It might be hard to plan for. I haven't looked to see if there's a list somewhere of these books. But at the same time, Cinder or Madame Bovary or Hunger Games would be an easy fit for the category.
I have just realized that I have forgotten which suggestion I chose as my least favorites ....
Actually, using a book from 2018 is a good idea for a book from a year you haven't read from (yet?). I don't read ARCs, so it would work for me as long as that is the first book from 2018 that I read in the year. The book with its title in the text wasn't in my bottom 4, but I considered that because I thought it would be hard to find. I think in theory, any book where the title is a character's name should work since that character will presumably be named somewhere in the book.
Actually, one of my top picks that I wasn't really expecting to vote for was the author whose first and last name started with the same letter. I wasn't sure about it at first, but as I was going through my TBR, I noticed many, many options that would fit and that I would love to read. I also voted for second person perspective because it seemed unusual enough to be a challenge, but there are definitely several accessible options.
Silvia wrote: "I have just realized that I have forgotten which suggestion I chose as my least favorites ...."Hence the reason I keep my spreadsheet for voting :-)
Rachel wrote: "Actually, using a book from 2018 is a good idea for a book from a year you haven't read from (yet?). I don't read ARCs, so it would work for me as long as that is the first book from 2018 that I re..."I was thinking the title in the text was a really hard one to fill, but you have now shown me how. Thank you
Anna wrote: "I liked a lot of the suggestions too, and hope some of them come up again. The one I put at the bottom is "a book published in a year you haven't read from yet" because I think it is practically im..."You can show the original publish date in your list and sort by that. There are two publish dates - do NOT pick the edition publish date.
So yes, I totally reviewed my book list by publication date, and I go back to 1971 before finding a year I haven't read. Luckily I've kept a list of all the books I've ever read since I was 10. That helped. I have 20 years since 1900 that I haven't read. I think I see a new challenge for 2018 shaping up: lifetime read the 20th century and beyond.
Another way around it that I discovered -- go for ancient epics or something like Shakespeare. I'm sure some of us haven't read too much from the 1500s.
Amy wrote: "Silvia wrote: "I have just realized that I have forgotten which suggestion I chose as my least favorites ...."Hence the reason I keep my spreadsheet for voting :-)"
I know! I thought a spreadsheet was a great idea and started mine, and then I came to the realization of how forgetful I am ... anyway, now it is ready for the second round :)
Mod
If we do end up using the prompt then I will likely pick something from 1990 so that it can overlap with my "Read Your Age" challenge.
Amy wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I also wasn't too interested in the book picked off my list by a friend or family member. It's definitely much easier than other tasks that required recommendations in the past, but ..."I like your idea where someone picks a book off your tbr for you. I will let my 6 year old son pick one of my books and explain his choice to me, even if this prompt doesn't make the final cut. I think it can lead to a fun conversation!
Is it really only Monday? I feel like I voted on the 1st mini-poll a really long time ago and that we should get the results any minute! I am glad we have a week to vote so that as many people as possible can get their votes in, but once you have voted, it feels like an eternity to wait!I also voted and then couldn't remember for sure the top four & bottom four I voted for, so I started a spreadsheet to keep track. I just listed the ones I was pretty sure I voted for on the first round, but will try to be more on top of things in the future rounds. I also started a list of all the prompts I liked that were suggested in the first round, whether they were seconded or not, so I can remember ideas I might want to suggest later, or just give myself a personal challenge next year if they don't make it to the final group challenge.
Helene wrote: "I like your idea where someone picks a book off your tbr for you. I will let my 6 year old son pick one of my books and explain his choice to me, even if this prompt doesn't make the final cut. I think it can lead to a fun conversation! ..."Oh good, I'm glad you like it. When you do attempt it, I'd love to know what he picked and why too! Please come back and tell us about it!
J wrote: "YES! Go, Katie, Go."Love this encouragement. I realized I don't even need to wait until 2018. I officially created the spreadsheet this morning & am kicking off my Read the 20th Century challenge. Hopefully I'll be able to fit some books from the early 1900s into the rest of my ATY challenge.
Laura wrote: "Well I couldn't risk checking my TBR given the current conversation and it looks like I actually have read from a number of a years since 1970. If we do end up using the prompt then I will likely..."
I couldn't resist, I checked my tbr and I found that I have gaps in these years: 1944, 1931, 1925, 1924, 1912, 1905, 1903. Prior to 1900 gets a bit spottier. It was interesting to see how far back I had to go to find an empty year.
Nobody has mentioned the topic about a book that intimidates/scares you. I like the way that this was worded because a book could be intimidating for so many reasons, or you could interpret the scares you part of it as a horror/scary story type book. This year I'm trying to incorporate books that are intimidating because of length, with War and Peace, and now I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo.But if this topic ends up winning, I'm going to read the book that I consider the ultimate in intimidation: Ulysses. I can't decide if I want the prompt to win or not, haha.
@Amy, you're is really close. I'm actually working on the goal of finishing a book for each year of the last 100 years first, and then I will push out to finish the 20th century..@Katie, just checked and my number is also 20 for the 20th Century. It was 37 when I first checked in January of 2016.
Katie wrote: "Nobody has mentioned the topic about a book that intimidates/scares you. I like the way that this was worded because a book could be intimidating for so many reasons, or you could interpret the sca..."I also really liked this prompt. It could give me the push I need to finally read something like Ivanhoe or The Three Musketeers. I also liked how it was open to interpretation so if I chicken out of a longer book, I could find something scary instead.
Katie wrote: "So yes, I totally reviewed my book list by publication date, and I go back to 1971 before finding a year I haven't read. Luckily I've kept a list of all the books I've ever read since I was 10. Tha..."Great idea! Decided to look back at my years and I got back to 1946 so I had a look at wiki for books published that year to see if there was anything on my TBR. There was a book I'd already read The Hollow - turned out Goodreads had the wrong publication date so I've had the Libraraians change it - my good deed for the day!
So now my first unread year is 1943 so I have extra motivation to tick off A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Marie, that would have been my pick for that prompt for the same reasons! If only I hadn't just started reading it. LOL
J wrote: "@Amy, you're is really close. I'm actually working on the goal of finishing a book for each year of the last 100 years first, and then I will push out to finish the 20th century..@Katie, just che..."
Yes, I am close. Now that I have seen HOW close I just may have to finish up the whole 100 year stretch. :-)
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Geek Love (other topics)The Hollow (other topics)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (other topics)
It (other topics)
Ulysses (other topics)
More...
The entire Around the Year challenge list is generated by the group members. We enjoyed the process so much in the past two years that we are creating another list for 2018.
The Process:
The topics for the 2018 RC list will be determined through around 13 mini-polls. Each user will vote for their favorite 4 topics in each mini-poll, which will then add up to the 52 topics (13 polls x 4 topics/poll=52 weekly topics). Suggestions for each poll will be opened until 15-20 suggestions are received+seconded. Then a poll will be opened for voting for one week so you can select your 4 favorite suggestions. This timeframe allows for a completed list in October-November.
The Rules:
- Voting ends June 16
- One vote per poll per user
The Entries
A book set in a circus
A book first published in the year you were born
A book about mental illness
A book with a body part in the title (heart, bones, teeth, skin, blood, etc)
A book by an author whose first name and surname start with the same letter
A book that at least one of the ATY mods has rated 5 stars
A game changer (a book that had an effect on society, people, a book genre, etc)
A book published in a year you haven't read from yet
A book written in second person (the point of view is a "you")
A book picked off your TBR by a family member or a friend
A book set in Africa or South America
A book published posthumously
A book with Arthurian legend
A book with a time of day in the title (time or morning, evening, etc)
A book that mentions its own title in the contents
A book with a pronoun in the title
A book that intimidates/ scares you
A book by an author who writes under at least two different names
A book that you read a long time ago
A derivative book (based on or derived from an existing book)
Survey Link