Hugo & Nebula Awards: Spreadsheets and more!

[Ed]

Bryan wrote: "Ed wrote: "At more than 11,000 pages, there is NO WAY I'm going to read that!"

You say that now...but if you start the first book, you'll be hooked! ..."

Thanks for the warning! I guess I won't start the first book.

(Some long series turn out to be great, but they do scare me off.)

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

I also have little intention of reading the entire list, but there's one thing I can say for sure is that I'm ever grateful for Bryan starting this group and for everyone who joined it.

Some of the nominated books I would never have even bought if it wasn't for the group. Also some of things said during discussions opened my eyes to a perspective I never even considered. Keep reading and if you think it's worth five minutes of your time, share your thoughts. If there's anyone like me (a stubborn ignorant bastard), be sure we will appreciate your point of view even we don't appear to.

[Allan]

My general rule for my reading list is "classic sci-fi", of which Hugo & Nebulas are a large part. I'll never get through the whole nominee list but I WILL get through the winners! And I'm learning about a lot of other books from this group. Not to mention nerding out on lists and conversations.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I stopped the Wheel of Time series at the 4th book. One of my problems is, I often don't remember books. I had read the first three (not sure of the time between) but when I started the 4th--when it first came out--I realized I had no idea what was going on. Not wanting to wade through the first three again, I found other things to read and gave my books to a friend who loved the series.

I may never read them now because high/epic fantasy is not my favorite genre. Except for Lord of the Rings . . . but even that--I have skipped parts of The Two Towers every time I have reread it.

As to reaching 100%, well, I would like to TRY to read them all, but if I am not having fun, I will quit. That's all. Life it too short blah blah

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

To get through the list or not wasn't my goal when making this group. I started it mostly because I wanted to find other people reading the same books I was reading. Nothing frustrated me more than finishing an amazing book and have no one around me to talk about it. And by time you convince someone to read it, for them to finish it, and then try to talk about it....that excitement has faded.

So, if you are here just to talk about good books (on the list or not) or if your goal is to complete the list (like me) I'm just glad you are here and we can all share our excitement with the books we are reading!

And I agree with Art, that he is a stubborn bastard...I disagree on the ignorant part. lol

[Allan]

I'm very fortunate to have really good long term memory. Short term, terrible - the balancing factor. I can't remember breakfast but I can remember exact details of how Napoleon won the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, from reading about it (in 1988). Most of what I read goes into long term, so I can have half a dozen books going at once, without losing track. I can let a book sit for a couple weeks, come back to it and pick right up where I left off. And I remember what I read; my wife, also a heavy reader, can't remember much of what she's read, because it doesn't hit long term. I also have to really focus on a book to finish it, or I'll be reading six books forever, piecemeal. Nevertheless, if you look at my stats, it seems that I finish books in groups. Does anyone else do this? Or am I just the weird one? (Wouldn't be the first time)

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I, on the other hand, don't remember books or TV much. This might be good. It means I can discover a great book all over again.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Allan wrote: "I also have to really focus on a book to finish it, or I'll be reading six books forever, piecemeal. Nevertheless, if you look at my stats, it seems that I finish books in groups. Does anyone else do this? "

I usually have more than one book started, right now I'm in the 10%+ of 5 books, 2 of them non-fiction. For quite a long time I used to read fiction and listen to non-fiction (I had access to a great collection).

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Allan wrote: "Does anyone else do this? Or am I just the weird one? (Wouldn't be the first time)
"

I'm a one book, one show, and one game at a time kind of guy. I get lost in whatever I'm doing and I have a difficult time even wanting to start something else. This annoys my wife, a lot. It also annoys me. I get home and I have an hour to kill before bed and I struggle with playing a video game I'm into or reading a book. Sometimes I can do both at the same time...

I think you and I are the weird ones, but on opposite ends of the spectrum!

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Allan wrote: "Does anyone else do this? Or am I just the weird one? (Wouldn't be the first time) "

For years I boasted memory bordering on freakish, the books I read or movies I saw would stay within my memory for years, just as vivid as if I had just seen them.

Lately it's not been the case, to what it can be attributed to I know not, my best guess would be that my mind wanders now and then when I read. Or maybe it's just that I read many more books these days and those that don't captivate me I just purge from my memory. That being said I still have five or six reads going on at the same time, couple of which are non-fiction, couple of group reads and a novel or two that do not belong to our group's list.

Picking up reads I haven't touched for months has never been a problem, on the contrary there have been cases where I wanted to re-read a novel from the beginning (in cases where I know I haven't been paying the due attention to the story) and find myself remembering everything word for word everything I've read even six months after putting down the book.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Haven't updated the read books on my spreadsheet in quite some time, can't wait to have my completion rate reach the double digits.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

A great idea! I should update mine too

[Allan]

I incorporated the list into my own reading list file, and I update it regularly, pretty much weekly. I've now read 93 books, or 16.7%. I also track how many of the unread books I've got on my shelf, another 104 or 18.7%.

[Nick]

I'm on 15.21% - woot!

But like the other readers here, there's no way I'm getting to 100% if that means reading The Wheel of Time.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

19.32%

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Wow, you guys are kicking some ass. I'm at 13.60%! October is my horror themed month...I tend to read a lot of not sci-fi books. I think next year I'm going to figure out which books on our list that could be considered scary or horror-esk.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

My percentage is 29.18% Hope to break 30% soon. I found some that I had read that were not marked (for example, Asimov's "The End of Eternity").

I have to say that I have chosen to include books that I tried and quit on. I may very well try again when we choose them, in which case I will not count them twice. :-)

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I put this somewhere else, not sure where

29.18%. Hope to break 30% soon

[Allan]

I am too OCD to DNF books, even if I have to skip months on them!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Allan, I never used to DNF books. I mean, if I read the first few pages, I would maybe not read further, but in that case, they usually didn't even get bought or come home from the library,

But now, SMB, SLT. (So many books, so little time.) I have become the DNF queen, alas.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Updated original post with Oleksandr's spreadsheets for novellettes and novellas

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Art wrote: "Updated original post with Oleksandr's spreadsheets for novellettes and novellas"

Thanks! Planned to do that but was distracted :)

[Allan]

A couple of spreadsheet notes - these may be redundant with previous posts, but I noticed that in 1976, Bester's The Computer Connection is duplicated. Also, in August, the 1943 ('42?) Retro Hugos were awarded, 6 books that need to be added.

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

ahh...the work of a spreadsheet creator is never done.

I'll get it updated and will let you guys know when it's been fixed.

Thanks for helping me make the spreadsheet the best it can be!

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Ok. I got the Spreadsheet updated. Let me know if you guys see any other mistakes.

[Allan]

I've modified your spreadsheet beyond recognition so I'm not re-downloading it. But I show 564 books, is that your total?

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Yep, I show 564 books...at the moment.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I only have 562. --sigh-- Always just a little short in life :-)

[Allan]

You're probably missing Sean Stewart's Mockingbird and the Tiptree book?

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Um, I will check. I do remember something about Tiptree removing her book from consideration. What is the reason for the Mockingbird one, though?

[Allan]

I don't remember the deal with Stewart's Mockingbird, just that it was left off. Perhaps just confusion with the Walter Tevis book of the same name.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Bumped my read list to 8% today and that is only from following group reads! I considered for some time knocking off a few extra award-winning titles in my free time, but I have way too many unrelated books I am dying to read.

In any case, we still have a few weeks to go!

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Bryan wrote: "Yep, I show 564 books...at the moment."

For some reason group bookshelf is showing 563 titles (569 - 6 related reads). Aargh..

EDIT: found it, was Tiptree misbehaving once again.

[Allan]

I just finished Boneshaker and The Pride of Chanur today (one audio, one paper), which puts me up over 18% on the list, close to 40 books this year. They also bring my books read count to 95, so it looks like I'll hit my 100 goal with a handful more these last couple weeks of the year.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Can't find 2010: Odyssey Two anywhere on the spreadsheet, is it me or is it missing?
So is Rendezvous with Rama?

Never mind!

[Allan]

I noticed a while back that the award counts on the spreadsheet don't match up to what is shown on the Worlds Without End lists. The Hugo's were easy to reconcile: WWE doesn't show the Retro Hugos. On the Nebulas, the spreadsheet had 8 fewer nominees. I reconciled the two and found that the spreadsheet has all of them listed but not noted as Nebula nominees.

They are:
The Mote in God's Eye, 1976
The Urth of the New Sun, 1989
A Fire Upon the Deep, 1993
Mother of Storms, 1996
Beggars and Choosers, 1996
The Diamond Age, 1997
Memory, 1998
A Civil Campaign, 2001

Minor corrections & an easy mistake to make because of the timing differences in the awards.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Thanks for the info, Allen

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Thank you, Allan. I've updated the spreadsheet and the link. I really do appreciate it!

[Nick]

This spreadsheet is brilliant! Thank you for taking the time to build and maintain it.

Cheers!

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Nick wrote: "This spreadsheet is brilliant! Thank you for taking the time to build and maintain it.

Cheers!"

On Bryan's behalf, thanks and welcome to the group!

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Thank you Nick! It honestly started out as something for myself, but after I finished it I just had to share it!

Art, thanks for having my back, brother!

[Bryan, Village Idiot]

Hello Everyone, I've updated the spreadsheet to include the 2019 Nebula nominations. Please look it over and let me know if I messed anything up.

[Cynthia]

Could you please post a link to the spreadsheet. I never can find it when I look for it ... and I despise wasting time searching for the right file. I promise I will bookmark it when you post the link.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

It is located Here, it was on the first page, in the first post of this thread.

[Cynthia]

Thank you. Now can you remind me how to mark the books I've read? Will they be saved to the spreadsheet copy on my computer? Please be patient with the older members of the group.

[Cynthia]

Thanks, I figured it out.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Cynthia wrote: "Thanks, I figured it out."

Sorry, just noticed the post. I am terrible at spreadsheets myself, hehe.

[Nackles]

Thank you for sharing this spreadsheet! It is very useful.

[Atlanta]

I'm at 1.25%, lol, I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Atlanta wrote: "I'm at 1.25%, lol, I have a lot of catching up to do."

When we started this group I was at 2-3% and in less than a year got it up to 7-7.5% just following monthly reads and challenges. Fingers crossed for reaching 15% this year!