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[2018] 4th Mini-Poll Results
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Two of the top were in my top 4 and the 3rd one I have some good options for so I'm happy with the results. I had a hard time with the bottom because there were about 7 I didn't really care for. I'm not sure which ones I finally decided on but these 4 were all part of the 7 so I'm good with that. One of my top ended up as polarizing but I'm not surprised. Although I didn't vote for the rest of them either way I did like two of the other options. The flow chart one I didn't care for just because it didn't give me many options I was interested in that I hadn't already read. Saturday?! Am I the only one who is impatient in this process? (Nothing against the mods you all do a great job!) Just me anxiously awaiting the next phase.
Hm, strange week. One of my top 4 was a winner (Text Only Cover), and one of my bottom 4 was polarizing. None of my other choices, top or bottom made this list in any way, which seems odd. When I was reviewing my spreadsheet to compare my choices to this list, I actually thought I was looking at the wrong week! As for the results, I don't really read Gothic novels so that will probably be my wild card for next year. However, I don't see any of the Bailey's fiction winners that I am interested in reading either so that's a problem. Hopefully I can find a nominee in there somewhere that isn't horrible. I find that is a problem with a lot of the award winner/nominee categories, I just do not enjoy them and often wonder how they possibly could have won an award for anything. I think they just try to pick the most obscure, over everyone's head books to nominate. Do they even read what they nominate? Maybe I need two wild cards. :(
My list was all over the board. One of my top four picks made it in the top three, one of them made it in the bottom four, and one of them was on the polarizing list. Of my bottom four picks, two of them made the bottom four and the other two are on the polarizing list. Interesting...Even when I'm not thrilled with the results (last week & this week), I'm loving this process, and I like being able to kind of start making my suggestion list as we go for books I might want to read for the prompts next year.
Charity said: "Saturday?! Am I the only one who is impatient in this process? (Nothing against the mods you all do a great job!) Just me anxiously awaiting the next phase." I'm so with you on this, Charity! I know the mods need a break in between polls and suggestions and everything, but I'm so excited and anxious to see what the next suggestions are that I want to start right now! :)
Mod
I am not at all looking forward to the Bailey's Prize for Women. I looked at their website and I've never heard of any of these authors. These just don't look like my kind of book. That one's going to be a chore for sure.
I think most of the bottom would have been fine but I'm glad audiobook is out. Popsugar had that one this year and the one I chose was awful. I'm not in a hurry to try them again.
The Bailey's Women award winners didn't look appealing to me either. Thankfully, there were a few nominees that I would like to read.
I'm so glad that a gothic novel made it in. It was the only one I felt really strongly about and was really hoping would get in so I'm happy that made it in. Neither of the other winners were in my top 4 but they weren't in my bottom picks either so that's ok. I'm not very surprised by which ones were in the bottom. I guessed that an audiobook would be in the bottom as it's a format that people probably either already use and therefore it's not a challenge or that they don't want to use and find it hard to get and therefore voted against it. The 'A book set in or written by someone from a country or overseas territory with a population of less than one million' topic I'm also not surprised was in the bottom. It was almost too specific and I think we already have a couple of geographical type prompts. The book set in a prison and the one with a 'made-up' work in the title I am more surprised were voted in the bottom but maybe people considered those a bit too specific as well.
I could've guessed that those ones would be the polarising topics, as well. The flowchart was already quite clearly a bit divided on who did or didn't want to do it. I think the group is almost pretty firmly split between people that like to read series' (or long series') and those that don't. A book during the 19th century and the high school literature class book I expected to either be the polarising ones or one of the bottom ones.
I can't remember what the heck I voted for, but I like these results, especially the Bailey prize!! I usually avoid "gothic" novels, but I see a few I could read.
On the other hand, I really hope someone can share a list of "text only covers" because that will be impossible to search for otherwise.
Nadine wrote: "I can't remember what the heck I voted for, but I like these results, especially the Bailey prize!! I usually avoid "gothic" novels, but I see a few I could read.
On the other hand, I really hop..."
Not all of these are text only but I think most of them probably fit and it gives a basic idea:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
I voted for the other winners but I will have to watch the discussion threads for this one because I did not see a book on this list I was interested in: A Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee.
I've several Bailey's on my TBR so I'm fine with this winner (I voted for it before checking the list). I also voted for the 2 other winners, so it's a nice batch for me. My text only cover hunt wasn't really satisfying, so I'll probably fit it at the last moment or I'll see if I'm strict with the prompt or not.
I think this is the first time none of my votes ended up in the top or bottom, but I wasn't as excited about this list as others. The text only should be fine, and I can prolly find something gothic, but didn't see anything in the Bailey's list that interested me.
I'm good with the winners. Only one of them I voted for but I have books on my tbr lists that fit all of the prompts. It's funny a lot of these books I've added after joining this group. This group is awesome as it has expanded my reading horizons. After looking at the lists I realized that gothic novels must be one of my favorites. A bunch on there were either marked as to read or I have already read. I've already started a place on my bookshelf for possible 2018 reads. It's funny what gets a reader excited. I'm looking forward to the multiple prompts.
I am also happy that the Gothic book got voted in, as there were quite a few books on the list that appealed to me. Im good with the text only cover but i am with you ladies that mentioned that the Bailey's book is difficult as I did not see too many that appealed to me. I did like the book set in a prison as well as the one set or written by an author from a country with less than 1 million populatuon as it may be too limiting. Overall, happy with the results and looking forward to the next round.
I am very excited for the Bailey's prize and the Gothic novel! This was a great set of suggestions.In case you are looking for books for the Bailey's prize prompt, it was called the Orange prize prior to 2013. So you could look at both these lists for options.
https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Tia, thanks for adding those lists-much better!
The name will change again in 2018 (Orange/Bailey are sponsors) so I put them into brackets and will update with the new one.
I'm cheered up, may be I'm not so out of touch with the group. 2 of my top picks were winners and the other 2 were polarizing. 2 of my bottom picks were in the Bottom
Tia- thanks for pistung the lusy. I think I feel better about the Bailey/Orange lists. I see a couple that I am interested in.
The Bailey's Prize was my suggestion so naturally I'm glad it made the list :) For those who are not so happy with this prompt, please take a look at books that come under the Orange Prize too (as others have mentioned above) ..hopefully this will broaden the scope as there are lots more books listed under the old titleI'm happy with the other winners/bottoms too for this week.. I think it has been the poll most in line with my votes so far!
I'm excited about all the winners this week. I only voted for one of them, but the other two were also in contention for me when choosing my top 4. I didn't think gothic would stand a chance, so I didn't vote for it, but I'm so glad it won. I'll definitely be reading a southern gothic, since that's one of my favorite subgenres.
I am not normally one for award lists as they often seem to have books that I have already read or have no interest in. I would have probably been worried about The Bailey's Prize winning if I had not been following someone on booktube who was reading and reviewing the shortlist this year. Perhaps hearing the thoughts of someone else might help others find something enjoyable so I will share a link here in case anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3vjp...
and from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list....
Samantha wrote: "I am not normally one for award lists as they often seem to have books that I have already read or have no interest in. I would have probably been worried about The Bailey's Prize winning if I had ..."Thanks, Samantha! I had already found 2 or 3 on the list that I was interested in, but I enjoyed watching/listening to this discussion about the books that were on the shortlist for this year. It makes me more interested in a couple that I had added to my TBR list, and makes me think about adding a couple more. :)
here, found it:
Bailey's Short List 2017 :
Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀
The Power Naomi Alderman
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
First Love by Gwendoline Riley
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
I'm planning to read The Power this year - if I don't get to it by the end of this year, that'll be my choice for next year's Challenge.
I find it kind of funny this year how many of us are surprised/unhappy with the results. The Bailey's Prize for example, made the top 4 but there were many comments above saying they weren't so into it. I wasn't that interested myself, since I only found 2 or 3 books that interested me (including the Orange Prize) list and I like to have a wider range of options to pick from. Obviously the comments here only reflect a few people in the group, but if I'm not mistaken, it seems to be a trend this year that the results are not what we expect. The other top 3 choices were both in my top 4 so I'm very happy with them. I'm a little surprised audiobook was in the bottom, not because I'm interested in it myself but because different formats always seem to be popular topics. I guess it's like mentioned above -- either you already listen to audiobooks so it's not a challenge, or you don't enjoy them in which case you wouldn't want that prompt anyway.
My other top choices were the alternate history, which I really thought would be more popular, and the book about a subject that made headlines. My bottom votes were for a book by or about indigenous people (which I kind of feel bad voting against, but I couldn't find any options that appealed to me at all), and a book from your TBR that someone randomly picks. My other bottom choices (the flowchart and the overseas population) were both in the bottom here too.
I did not vote against romptBailey's/Orange because I think the challenge needed a pt that fit in the awards/list etc. even though it was not a pick I personally wanted (the flow chart has been the only list I have like the books on). I liked: A book set in or written by someone from a country or overseas territory with a population of less than one million, but I think there are too many location specific prompts already so I was neutral on it.
I also like the alternate history and it was tied for my 4th pick (of about 4 picks) but I don't remember which one I picked. I thought gothic novel had a better chance of winning over alternate history so I voted for it.
The text only was my favorite prompt and I voted for it. I then based the rest of my votes on what I thought would be good for the challenge overall.
I did not want any of these. I can live with it but the poll had so many choices I loved that I am disappointed.
I only voted for the text only cover, but I have several options for the other 2 topics, so I am happy with the winners. I am going away on holidays tomorrow and I don't know if I'll be able to find good wifi to check your suggestions, so I'm counting on you to be creative! ;)
Nadine wrote: "On the other hand, I really hope someone can share a list of "text only covers" because that will be impossible to search for otherwise."
If you display your to read list with covers only, it should be quite easy to spot one of those books!
Sophie wrote: "If you display your to read list with covers only, it should be quite easy to spot one of those books! ..."
Yes I think that's what we will all have to do. I know how to do that on a computer, but I don't see the option on the app.
I paged through my TBR quickly and found several books with PROMINENT text, but not ONLY text. I don't think I will be really strict with this category. For example:
Nadine wrote: "Sophie wrote: "If you display your to read list with covers only, it should be quite easy to spot one of those books! ..."
Yes I think that's what we will all have to do. I know how to do that on..."
The very first book on my goodreads tbr is a text only cover:
I don't know why but I thought that was quite hilarious. I have several others that will work also. Like:
And I havent even started looking through my nook books yet
I was surprised that I couldn't find a single words-only book on my whole Kindle. With the number of books I have on my Kindle, I find that shocking. I did have quite a few on my GR TBR list, though. I wonder if we're more likely to find non-fiction books with text-only covers. I have probably 9 to 1 fiction over non-fiction on my TBR list, but almost half of this list is non-fiction. Interesting...
I found that I had very few text only covers on my kindle. Nearly every one of the ones I mentioned above were either hardcover books I already own or on my wishlist tbr (books I want to buy.) That discovery made me think about what draws me to ebooks vs what draws me to physical books. I think I may be more drawn to more elaborate covers when scanning online, but in the bookstore, I seem to appreciate more simple designs? I certainly didn't expect that, but it seems to be the case for me.
For those of you who reads classics the Word Cloud Classics editions have those kind of covers. I have four of those, so I think I may go for one of those.Here's a list on goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Ira wrote: "For those of you who reads classics the Word Cloud Classics editions have those kind of covers. I have four of those, so I think I may go for one of those.Here's a list on goodreads
https://www.go..."
And I assume this range of Penguin books count too? https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
This might be a stupid question, but what does Goodreads even mean by sorting by cover? I've tried sorting my TBR that way, but I don't see any pattern to the order...
Rachel wrote: "This might be a stupid question, but what does Goodreads even mean by sorting by cover? I've tried sorting my TBR that way, but I don't see any pattern to the order..."I only see it on a computer, not on the app. When viewing your books, up in the right hand corner - to the right of "enable sorting" - are two little icons, one is like a clipboard with horizontal lines (for view text), one is like an array of boxes, click on that to see all bookcovers.
Nadine wrote: "Rachel wrote: "This might be a stupid question, but what does Goodreads even mean by sorting by cover? I've tried sorting my TBR that way, but I don't see any pattern to the order..."I only see i..."
Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. I know how to make Goodreads do it, I'm just wondering what the pattern is. I didn't see any sense of order to the covers when it was sorted that way.
Rachel, I don't see any pattern either.
Rachel wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Rachel wrote: "This might be a stupid question, but what does Goodreads even mean by sorting by cover? I've tried sorting my TBR that way, but I don't see any pattern to the order......"You have to do the sorting while in list view. Say you want them sorted alphabetically, you click on TITLE at the top, if you want them sorted by DATE READ, click that header. Then click the little icon to change to cover view and your books will be sorted. :)
**You can also sort by opening the settings tab and clicking the SORT drop down menu in there while in cover view. I don't know why but I find that more tedious then sorting in list view. Just my preference.
I think the issue around sorting by cover is what is the basis of sorting them by cover. The books can be sorted alphabetically, by date added, by page number, rating etc. But all of those have a numeric or alphabetic order of sorting them - what does sorting them by cover base the order on?
Peter wrote: "I think the issue around sorting by cover is what is the basis of sorting them by cover. The books can be sorted alphabetically, by date added, by page number, rating etc. But all of those have a n..."When someone adds a photo to use as the bookcover, the image is given a title, a description and tags. My best guess would be that the Cover sort is done by whatever title was used. I imagine that many people would use the image url as the title so I'm not sure how useful that sorting option is, but someone might use it I guess!
Peter wrote: "I think the issue around sorting by cover is what is the basis of sorting them by cover. The books can be sorted alphabetically, by date added, by page number, rating etc. But all of those have a n..."Exactly what I was trying to ask, lol! I just couldn't figure out how to word it properly.
That would make sense as to why there doesn't appear to be any pattern when sorting by cover - most urls are going to start the same, ("http..."). It would probably eventually be alphabetically, but not until after all the beginning part of the url and there is no guarantee that the title would follow directly after.
I voted for a book of the 19th century and there are so many of them on the list of Gothic novels so I am ok with that winner. I actually voted for one on the top: a cover with text only because I thought it was an interesting idea, besides I saw that most of the books of Patrick Ness are in that way, so that made me decide it.
But the Baileys women prize is a problem! I have not find yet anything that catches my interest :(
For anyone who is looking for a book to read for the Bailey's prize winner, I just saw that there is a Goodreads giveaway for The Power by Naomi Alderman. It won the 2017 award, so it's recent and it fits the challenge. Just thought I would share.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Power (other topics)Pride and Prejudice (other topics)
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (other topics)
A Book of American Martyrs (other topics)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (other topics)
More...
Winners:
- A gothic novel
- A Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee
- A book with a text only cover
Bottom:
- A book set in prison
- A book set in or written by someone from a country or overseas territory with a population of less than one million
- An audiobook
- A book with a 'made up' word in the title
Polarizing:
- A book written during the 19th century (1801-1900)
- A book that is part of a series of 5 or more books
- A book that's often assigned for a high school literature class
- Your book result from the Ultimate Flowchart For Finding Your Next Book
A new round of suggestions will open Saturday, July 22 at 12:00pm EST