Bookmarks Subscribers discussion
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I am new to Goodreads (been reading Bookmarks for years). I didn't know that this Q&A section existed until I got your email. I'm feeling kind of ignorant now.:) I would like to see discussions about books reviewed in the magazine but my problem is that I'm way behind on my reading. I would hate to admit how many books I have on my shelves waiting to be read. My husband thinks I have a problem. My point being, is that I'm usually a couple of years behind on interesting books being discussed.
Gail makes several good points! I am also behind on reading "current" titles because I am constantly catching up reading the older ones. One suggestion might be to have two categories i.e. a Current Bookmarks Selection and a Past Selection. Anyone else like this idea?
I'm in exactly the same boat! The past selection idea is a good one. I think we may have done a "from any issue" poll at one point. Maybe we need to narrow it down to a particular month or at least year so that we all can hone in on the same group of books. Bookmarks always finishes with a look back at the best sellers and award winners from another year. Maybe we should do something similar.
Yes, we did do a "current issue" and nominations "from any issue" to poll each month, but I think narrowing it down to a particular month or year is better.
I agree with all of the above, but it also would be nice if maybe we had only 1 or two books each months with more detailed discussions around the books and the reading of.
I agree with Gisela. Especially with a small group, once you have more than two books for discussion, discussion lags as no one is reading the same book at the same time. Maybe with our small group, only one book at a time might be good to promote discussion.
I too, like the idea of a current and past selections categories.
Keep the ideas coming!We moved from 3 books done to 2, but if we have a tie in the polls, then I add a 3rd book to avoid having a run-off.
I'm ok with looking at past selections but I would recommend that we somehow narrow down the choices by magazine issue or some other criteria. The reason why I changed our approach is because Lynn and I were the only ones nominating books for the alternate read.
Would members be interested in having a leader for each book discussion? It might engender more conversation. It could be a mix of mod and non-mod leaders so that more people could participate.
I admit to being a casual lurker who doesn't contribute. I'm just monitoring the abbreviated book reviews from Bookmarks and take an occasional look at discussions. I have no complaints.
That's ok, Clif. You just contributed! We hope to hear more from you.
Maybe we should go back through our past picks and revisit them. I see a lot on the list that I have on my TBR list, but haven't gotten to them. And several of them were selected, but have no comments on them. I wonder if others have picked them up over time.
I just enjoy the group & the suggestions, I don't feel pressured to read any of the books until I am able to….I have found that the other groups I belong to have been very quiet also, some bigger groups & sone smaller. What we found in one group was that many of the members check Goodreads on their phones or the mobile app & they get frustrated with it, you just don't get the full site, I tell people to log in on their browser & not use the mobile app…I am happy with anything you guys do here, I will be away for a but & will check in nest week….thanks for all you do!
I like that idea, too, Betsy - in particular, the older picks. Maybe we could nominate books from those lists?
Thanks, Becky! We are happy to have you here with us and we appreciate your participation.
I would like to see more book discussions. Do we agree/not agree with Bookmarks...why why not, etc.
What Gail, Bill, Gisella, Rita, Betsy, and Ellen said. ;)
Based upon your feedback, I've posted one book from the last issue that was the clear winner of our poll.Do we want to nominate past selections, pick the nominations from a particular issue, or do something else to set up the different poll for our second read?
I'll throw out a suggestion. I just scanned through our polls and compared number of votes to the volume of discussion.
got a large number of votes in a poll which had good "voter turnout". That indicates to me that there was healthy interest in it, yet there were no discussion entries. Is this one that lots of people wanted to read, but didn't get to that month? I know I still have it on my iPad to read. Should we add it back into the mix?
I have been intending to read that one, Betsy, so I vote "yes".
Anyone other thoughts on our taking this approach?
i am wondering something, and hoping maybe if i suggest it here we can work on this together:there are renowned problems with the GR app, and fixes are not seemingly high on the priority list.
one of the major problems is the use of cover images -- they can't be seen at all. here in this group, i see it's very common practice to use only cover images. so many people end up not knowing what's being talked about. so my request is to ask that there be some consistency so all members benefit and don't miss out on which books have been mentioned? if people feel they have to use an image, could the title in words also be linked? or, even, could we move to just using the word titles instead? i find, even on my laptop, that even the hover feature for a book's information is not always consistent, and it's not always an easily recognizable cover.
i think this came up in another thread, and i may have asked about this before - but i think i posted in the wrong thread? i know this issue has come up in the GR feedback group, as well as many other groups i have participated in, so i hope you don't mind me asking about it in this space, and that i'm not too late to offer feedback.
sorry if i am not expressing myself very well? it always seems to make sense in my head, then when i read it back... not so much. :)
so, for example, using this format: The Orchardist
(just using it because it was mention in the post above.)
instead of this:
Jennifer wrote: "i am wondering something, and hoping maybe if i suggest it here we can work on this together:there are renowned problems with the GR app, and fixes are not seemingly high on the priority list.
..."
I don't use the GR app at all, so I had no idea this was a problem. It is easy to use the title link instead of the image -- I just had no idea others couldn't see the image links. That's good to know and I will change to using the title links instead.
thank you so much, lynn! i rarely use the app, and only found out about it myself as group members brought it to my attention (in another group, which i moderate). i felt terrible about it, but once everyone knew about the issue, it was simple enough to change over.
I'll try to remember to do the same. I figured once Amazon bought it that all those pesky problems would get resolved. Guess not.
while it would be nice, betsy... heh, it just doesn't seem to be moving up the priority list, though people continue to complain and ask for help with many app issues.
When I have trouble viewing the cover photos on the GR app, I just hit the back button and then click on the link again and it works. Sure wish it would reflect without that additional step though.
Are you happy with the level of activity or would you like to see the group more active?
If you'd like more activity, what would you like to participate in? Some of the ideas I've thought of:
* More structured book discussions (with questions posted)
* Author visits (not sure if we can pull this off, but we can try)
* More tie-ins to Bookmarks magazine
* More book-related games (we did the linking titles a while back) and/or trivia
Feel free to throw out any additional ideas you have. If everyone's happy the way we are, we'll likely just leave things alone. But if we can shake things up and have more fun here, let's do it!