How to Limit Nominations

[Betsy]

I'm having some trouble deciding whether certain books nominated should be allowed. People sometimes nominate a book which is a later book in a series, because they want to read it themselves. Usually that means they have read the previous books in the series, but they don't always consider that others in the group may not have. I don't think we can prohibit series books totally; a rather high percentage of space opera books are parts of series and we'd be limiting our choices too much. On the other hand, is it fair to permit a book of a series others have not read? And remember, members don't get to vote on reading selections; they're chosen randomly.

Please let me know what you think by voting in the following poll, which will be open for about a week:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

If you want to make comments, please do so in this thread, not at the poll, to be sure that other members will have a chance to see your comments.

[Donald]

If the aim is to get book discussions, nominating sequels feels like it limits it to only those who have already read the earlier book(s).

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Sequels that are fine as standalone books would not limit the number of members who could read them.

[Trike]

Teresa wrote: "Sequels that are fine as standalone books would not limit the number of members who could read them."

Yeah, I think it's probably helpful to distinguish between sequels and "books in a series", because some are standalones. The latter is fairly rare, but it does happen.

[E.J.]

I know the few times I've nominated a later book in a series, I try to pick one from a series the group has already read, or at least one that has gotten selected as a monthly pick sometime previously. Of course, that doesn't guarantee everyone has actually read it...

[Brandon]

Some series books are well-written enough that someone can pick up on the story through judicious reminders and context clues. For example, any of the books in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy can be read and understood on their own, so I am fine with The Last Command being nominated this month.

[Heather]

Definitely my viewpoint is only if the group has already read the first one. There's already not enough people doing group reads and this just diminishes it even more. Especially given there are several monthly reads.