[2020] 4th Mini Poll Results

[Katie]

The results of our fourth mini-poll are in!

Top 3:
- A book inspired by a leading news story
- A book set in the southern hemisphere
- A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win

Bottom:
- A book by an author whose previous book you disliked
- A collection of essays

Close Call:
- A book with a title of 5 or more words

Polarizing:
- A book from an American Library Association’s Notable Books List
- A winner of a foreign literary prize

Results are calculated by subtracting the number of voters who put a prompt in their bottom 4 from those who put a prompt in their top 4 (top 4 - bottom 4). The totals are then compared to find the top result(s).

The next round of suggestions will open tomorrow, Sunday, July 7 at 8:00pm EDT.

[Jill]

I voted for all three of the top vote getters! I think that is the first time that has happened in three years.

[Jill]

I'm fine with those and pleased about the bottom two

[Ellie]

I'm happy with these though I am surprised another setting prompt got in. I think I'd like a list prompt but something like this year's NPR one which had a lot of variety.

[Rachel]

I'm very happy leading news story got in. That was my top choice. Southern hemisphere is fine, but I didn't vote for it either way since I've done that or a similar prompt repeatedly in the past few years. At least it is anywhere in the southern hemisphere, and not just South America. And the prompt that didn't make it is also fine, but wasn't a top choice for me. I'm likely doing a "Top Picks" challenge anyway for the prompts that I voted for that didn't make the list, so it doesn't really make a difference to me to have a spot for one of those prompts here.

I'm a little surprised that neither the foreign literary prize or ALA made the list. To be honest, they were both bottom votes for me, but they seemed very popular so I was sure we'd end up with at least one of them.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Spreadsheet is updated!

I am ambivalent about the winners... I'm really excited about the leading news story, but I think southern hemisphere is a bit easy (I read a lot of Australian authors, apparently), and the list of suggestions that didn't win will basically be a free choice... it's easy to choose one prompt to fit any book I want to read. The close call/polarizing prompt was a bit more restrictive this year.

I am glad to see more variety though! 3 winners, 2 bottom, and our first polarizing prompts of the process. A bit bummed about the essays, but I think there are quite a few people who saw it as nonfiction only, and we don't get a lot of nonfiction readers here.

I'm with Ellie... I'm itching for a list prompt. Hopefully one will get suggested next round.

[Anastasia]

I am happy with the top votes. The news story is going to be fun to research. I hope that the game one gets resubmitted as well as the unusual subject prompt.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

A couple recent releases for the news story prompt are Whisper Network (about the #MeToo movement) and The Gifted School (about the parents who bribed their kids way into college).

I planned on reading both this month, but I may hold off on The Gifted School until next year.... or just go historical fiction for the prompt.

[°~Amy~°]

I am very happy with the News Story prompt, and fine with Southern Hemisphere. I am trying to read authors from each of the Australian territories so those will fit here nicely.

I have to agree that the prompt that didn't win is a freebie. By the time the list is complete we have so many left over prompts that I can pick up any book and fit it somewhere in the rejects list. I also do a rejects challenge at the end of the year, so that takes some excitement out of it too.

Anyway, they are all prompts that I can work with so on we go!

[°~Amy~°]

Also, the KIS/BIO list is updated and waiting for suggestions!

[dalex]

°~Amy~° wrote: "I have to agree that the prompt that didn't win is a freebie. By the time the list is complete we have so many left over prompts that I can pick up any book and fit it somewhere in the rejects list. I also do a rejects challenge at the end of the year, so that takes some excitement out of it too."

This.

I am, however, very happy that "A book inspired by a leading news story" made the list. There are so many ways to do that prompt. It will be fun to research and interesting to see what others do with it.

[Marie]

I'm probably being dense, or just wasn't paying attention, but for the news story prompt is it the author who was inspired to write the book by the news story? Or am I just looking for something I can connect to a news story?

[Joanne]

I joined after the voting was done last year so this is my first year voting and I'm finding it hard to see prompts I was really excited about not get through. Definitely going to have to do a Rejects challenge next year with all the prompts I voted for that didn't make it. I think I will make the prompt "- A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win" more tough by restricting it to a category I didn't vote for.

Very sad to see that the debut author of colour and book of essays prompts didn't make it through.

[Angie]

Finally... one that I voted for won (prompt that didn't win). I'm glad it won, because I find so many of the prompts that didn't win to be inspiring. It'll be fun picking one.

I'm fine with news story. I might finally read 11/22/63 for that one.

I downvoted "southern hemisphere," because we already have a lot of geographical prompts, and it's early in the voting process.

I voted for both the polarizing prompts, so that's a bummer.

I downvoted book by an author I previously disliked, so I'm glad I don't have to do that one.

I hope we get some genre or list/awards prompts soon. I'm not as inspired by the prompts thus far as I usually am. So many of them are just so easy.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Marie wrote: "I'm probably being dense, or just wasn't paying attention, but for the news story prompt is it the author who was inspired to write the book by the news story? Or am I just looking for something I ..."

Marie, it just has to be a book that is inspired by a news event. It can be a fiction book that portrays an event from history (like an historical fiction book about the Titanic), a fiction book that talks about a movement or newsworthy thing going on now (something like The Hate U Give and police brutality), or it can be a nonfiction book about a specific event. It's really up to your interpretation.

[°~Amy~°]

Marie, It could be either one actually. Someone up above mentioned some books written specifically about current events, like the #MeToo movement. I think most people will probably be picking books that just relates to a news story somehow. For instance, there are pretty severe earthquakes happening in California right now so you might pick up Earthquake in the Early Morning. It doesn't even have to be a current news story, it could be historical piece (a book related to the Titanic or the Moon Landing). It's a very broad and fun prompt to play around with, in my opinion.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Joanne, this is my fourth year in the list creating process (I participated in the 2017, 2018, 2019, and now 2020 lists), and I feel like we have had a wider variety and more challenging prompts in the list by now. I'm guessing this has to do with the change in voting rules... people are upvoting a lot more than they used to, so their votes are spread a bit wider, so prompts that are a bit more challenging are having to battle against the more generic prompts in a way that they wouldn't have had to battle before.

For example, people are saying "I upvoted 5 and downvoted 2 and I'll just throw this generic prompt in my upvotes since I have one extra vote." rather than before when we were forced to vote 4 up and 4 down. If they had to narrow those 6 upvotes down to 4, they may have chosen the more specific, challenging prompts for their top 4 and not upvoted the ones they were more ambivalent about. Combine this across all of the voters and, while they feel strongly one way or another about the challenging ones, they are in general agreement about the generic ones, so those are the ones that get in.

I don't know if I'm rambling a bit, but that's what I think is happening. Not saying it is necessarily a bad thing... after all, people are voting for them, so they want them in. It just may mean we have an easier list this year than we have in the past. It could also mean that, down the road, the mods may have specific polls (like no title or setting polls, or polls specifically dedicated to awards/lists/genres).

[Sue]

I actually like the easier topics because I am trying to get through my very large TBR pile of books I already own, so I sort of resent it if I have to go and find another book to fit a difficult prompt. Also, I am not American, so I don't really like the ones with American lists. I do read very widely in terms of authors from other continents and read lots of genres, but admit I have difficulty with a couple of genres. I am happy with all the prompts voted in so far.

[Jillian]

I'm happy with the results. Prior to this poll, only one of my top votes made it. So, I'm glad that the prompt from list of suggestions that didn't win made it. I plan on reading a prompt that was a bottom vote to make it different from this year's prompt. I also really like the news story. I'm hoping we have filled the setting prompts.

I don't care for list or award winning prompts so I'm glad those did not make it.

[Angie]

I like the idea of The Gifted School for news story and have added it to my TBR list. I'd prefer to do a current event, so that would work. Another idea for a current event is I Know Your Kind: Poems, about the opioid crisis current sweeping across the US.

[Marie]

Thanks Emily and Amy. I like that I have the flexibility to be inspired, rather than trying to find author interviews where they say "I read about this, so I wrote a book about it".

I thought last year's list was easier than previous years, and this year is going the same way. I was wondering if it's just because as I do more challenges my brain has gotten better at twisting the prompts to fit what I want to read, and my reading tastes have broadened, making the prompts easier to fill as a consequence.

[Katie]

I remember that in the beginning of the list making process last year, we were getting a lot of generic prompts as well, but then by the time we had our complete list, we had good balance. I think that will happen again this year.

I agree with Angie about wanting to see a few genre prompts. I've been trying to think of genres that we haven't seen on previous lists, but haven't been able to come up with anything yet. But then again, southern hemisphere & prompt that didn't win have both been on previous lists, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a genre we've had before.

[Marta]

I am ok with the news story and southern hemisphere, but I agree that the didn’t win prompt is a freebie.

For the news story, every installment of the Miss Kopp series by Amy Stewart, is based on a news story from the life of the real life Miss Kopp. I love this series. First one is Girl Waits with Gun - which I read for the “Clue weapon on cover prompt” in 2017(?). This was a book I probably would not have picked up if not for the ATY challenge, and I am so glad I did. I read all of them so far :)

[Sara]

I know any prompt is doable, so I try not to be too disappointed by whatever gets in. I have liked books that I chose for prompts that I hated. lol.

I was hoping the essay would get in. It would force me to read in a genre that I appreciate but don't seem to ever get to. I think the news item prompt could be very interesting if researched properly. I would think any biography of a famous person would satisfy it, so more difficult to narrow down than to find.

[Edie]

Joanne wrote: "I joined after the voting was done last year so this is my first year voting and I'm finding it hard to see prompts I was really excited about not get through. Definitely going to have to do a Reje..."

I'm with you. Sad to see some great prompts not make it through and disappointed that the "prompt that didn't win" is a promp since it is essentially a gimme. There is nothing challenging about it at all. I suppose on the plus side, I can use it to read a debut novel by a person of color.

[Joanne]

Edie wrote: "I suppose on the plus side, I can use it to read a debut novel by a person of color."

Very true!

[viemag]

I think I have asked this before..what is a polarizing prompt? How many votes does a prompt need to get to be a close call prompt? I agree that we seem to be getting location prompts...guess, our next suggestions will have to other kinds of prompts.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I may have already mentioned this in the discussion thread, but for those who don't *want* 'prompt that didn't win' to be a freebie, or think it's too easy, I recommend choosing a prompt you like the idea of and sticking with it until it's filled. If you want it to be a freebie, of course, you can always read first and then look for a prompt that fits, but you don't actually have to do it that way.

[dalex]

The problem with the “prompt that didn’t win” prompt is that by the by the time the list is completed there are 100+ rejected prompts to choose from. It’s almost impossible to make this prompt anything but easy.

[Angie]

For "prompt that didn't win," I might choose a prompt I downvoted to make things a bit more challenging.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

The list always seems to balance itself out in the end. It truly is too early in the process to start saying we have too many or too few of a certain type of prompt.

Of course, as was said, we will implement further rules if needed down the line.

Viemag > there's really no hard rule on a certain number. There was a bit a gap between the polarizing prompts and the top (more than in the past years) but it was close enough for us to feel comfortable in saying they were polarizing (equal number top/bottom votes).

Some may have argued for including the 5+ words in the list but having seen results for a number of years now, I got a feeling that it was more that people didn't care about the prompt one way or the other rather than a majority actually wanting it. I think that is one danger of having all 8 votes available to be split as people wish. People get excited and vote for ones they like or vice versa. I think it's definitely affecting our numbers but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I do think the 5+ words one, like any close call, would be good one re-submit down the road if people really do like it. Since we break the process up into smaller polls, a prompt may end up being a close call if it just happens to be in a poll with clear winners.

[Katie]

viemag wrote: "I think I have asked this before..what is a polarizing prompt? How many votes does a prompt need to get to be a close call prompt? I agree that we seem to be getting location prompts...guess, our n..."

A polarizing prompt is one that has a lot of top votes but also a lot of bottom votes.

There is no set number of votes to make a prompt a close call. When we analyze the votes, we look for clusters of prompts, so the three winners all had a similarly large number of positive votes. A close call is a prompt that has a lot of positive votes, but it's off that cluster of top votes, so it doesn't have enough top votes for us to consider it an overwhelming favorite.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

dalex wrote: "The problem with the “prompt that didn’t win” prompt is that by the by the time the list is completed there are 100+ rejected prompts to choose from. It’s almost impossible to make this prompt anyt..."

But, it's still exactly as hard as you want it to be, right? I mean, you could still choose a hard prompt if you wanted to.

I do get that it's anti-climactic for people who usually do reject challenges anyway, so in that sense I can see how it feels boring.

[°~Amy~°]

I think it's good to remember too that just because a prompt didn't make it through this time it can always be resubmitted to a later poll. I think a lot of the ones that haven't made it in yet will actually end up on the final list. We are only 4 polls in and we have many MANY more to go. Anything can happen. :)

[Serendipity]

I’m really pleased that the news story prompt won. Disappointed the ALA didn’t but I’m sure we’ll end up with a list or prize prompt at some stage. I didn’t vote for Southern Hemisphere and am surprised (so nice we’ve already got a few location prompts) but pleased (I’m from New Zealand and am planning to read more NZ and Pacific Island authors next year) that it won. I voted for the suggested but didn’t win prompt and don’t see it as a gimme - although I recognise that it can be. I see it as a chance to use a prompt that I really liked but that never made it through. Transgender author perhaps or the suffrage prompt. Or one of the many great ideas tied to 2020.I’m already compiling my list of possibilities.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

The biggest thing for me is that I tend to read a book and need somewhere to put it. So I find a previous suggestion that it will fit. That's a total gimme in that situation.

Next year I will just have to really push myself to choose a prompt first.

[Sara]

Since I tend to make up my list ahead of time, I will be more inclined to pick a prompt and stick with it. Then it just becomes like all the other prompts, only sure to be one I am interested in.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Laura, this year, when I was making my plan, I chose a prompt that I voted for and actually replaced the close call/polarizing prompt with that new one. It helped me remember that I had already committed to a prompt. I chose a pretty open one anyway (a book connected to a cultural appreciation month), but it did narrow it down a bit, rather than me just using a free choice and filling something in later.

I'll probably do the same next year. I'm still undecided if I'll be doing a reject challenge... I'll have to wait until I see the final list before I decide.

[Bryony]

If anyone wants the suggestion that wasn’t voted in prompt to be more challenging then maybe you could choose a prompt from the rejects list at random and then not allow yourself to change it?

[Ellie]

I didn't vote for the prompt that didn't win this time, but honestly I don't mind one or two freebie prompts in the whole list. Hopefully like others have said it'll balance out.

I'm definitely going to choose a prompt I where I was disappointed that it didn't get in.

[Nadine in NY]

I just have zero excitement about the winning categories this year. I went back and checked last year, and the first eleven (well, first fifteen, since four of them were the linked multi-prompt) were much more interesting to me than these are. All of the winners this year feel so broad and easy to fill.

I have to assume my problem is that my goals in a reading challenge do not synch with the majority this year.

[Sara]

I also do a "reject" challenge, which might be why that has less appeal for us, Seluxes.

[Kelly]

Dude, I'm bummed the "foreign literary prize" didn't make it through. Guess I'll have to use that for the "prompt that didn't win" ;)

[Mindy]

Kelly, I voted it up, too.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I would like to see specific awards, rather than it be open to any "foreign literary prize".

[Sara]

By making it a "foreign" prize it gives different options to those who live in different countries, without restricting it too severely. I think if you wanted to BIO you could limit yourself to a specific award before you chose the book to read.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

I'm very relieved that the collection of essays didn't win...that would have been *extremely* difficult for me personally to get through.