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[2020] Voting for 5th Mini Poll
dalex wrote: "Ellie wrote: "I don't really get the 20/20 one. I mean I know it means perfect vision but I wouldn't read a book about blindness for that?"a character who is blind
a character who is psychic (abl..."
Sharyn McCrumb writes novels based around the North Carolina/Tennessee border (where I live) and has a character with second sight. Lisa Kleypas also has a series involving a psychic. That was the direction I planned to take if this prompt wins.
I stand corrected on my toddler book comment! I was thinking of a toddler as up to age 5 but it’s actually defined as 1-3 years old. Books for young children is a better phrasing.
A lot of authors do have illustrations in their stuff. I know Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books often have illustrations in between chapters of characters or items mentioned, or places. Winds of Fate is one of them that I know of, along with the Storm Warning series. If photos count, the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series was based off strange old-time photos the author found and wrote characters based around. those photos are within the story. I know several of Neil Gaiman's books have some illustrated versions as well. Coraline for sure has some. It might be harder to specifically google for, but I know there's plenty out there that I've come across incidentally.
After following all the voting and general discussions up to this point, it's becoming clear that different people want very different and even opposing things from this reading challenge, and it's starting to make voting decisions frustrating. For example, I hate to down vote the celebrity reading lists, because in a sense it's just a good list that has a good range of books on it, and it can be hard to find a list that has something for everyone. But personally, I'm just so sick of all celebrity related prompts after the last couple years of Popsugar that I'm really tempted to down vote it.
Also, I love the setting prompts that some are getting tired of, though I don't actually feel bad about still up voting those. (4 out of 11 doesn't seem at all excessive to me, and wouldn't mind having a few more than 4 out of 52, though I admit if we kept that same ratio through the whole list, 18 out of 52 might be a bit much.)
I currently have mixed feelings about the fanfiction prompt, but I *might* end up really liking it. Will have to think on that one and look up some options. If you google 'published fanfiction' you can even find some books that started as fanfiction, for those who are put off by reading non-goodreads stories.
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So that's likely why 4 seems excessive. But I do have to agree with Raquel in that 4/52 really isn't that many, especially if you consider that we usually have a fair number of prompts that fit in the same category (i.e. title/cover, author, awards/lists).
@Raquel - yes, I agree! It’s becoming clear that what I value most in a reading challenge has diverged from what the group as a whole values most. It’s frustrating. I’ve tried not to be a big whineypants about it but it’s a struggle and I don’t know if I’ve succeeded! I keep telling myself to just enjoy the voting process.
I'm having trouble finding the Texas Lariat lists from any earlier than 2016. I'm interested in the prompt anyway, but I'd love a bigger range of options.
I think one thing to keep in mind too is that the number of people who participate in the discussions about the list making process is much smaller than the number of people who vote on the list, so it's easy to look at a number of comments on a thread like this & think, man, I'm so different from the rest of the group. That's how I've been feeling about the list prompts. People keep saying they hate lists, and I keep thinking, how will we ever get a list prompt when everyone hates them, haha. But there is a silent majority & it's always a little bit of a surprise to see what they think.
I like 7 of the prompts: Earth Day, illustrated, magical realism, story with a curse, marine animal, and set in space or about space. I will probably downvote the Winfrey/Witherspoon prompt or fan fiction. With the W/W lists, I feel like those books already have a lot of promo. I'd rather find something not as well known (i.e. a hidden gem).
Ouch. I really, really don't want some of these! The 5/35 list hasn't got a single person I want to read on it.
After all the discussion, the "celebrity" pick got narrowed down even further instead of being expanded to include the non-fans like me, so that I am being forced to read Oprah or Witherspoon. Wish I could vote twice against that one--once for each of the celebrities.
I could almost use all 8 votes as downs...but there are a few really good topics, so I will no doubt go 4/4 as I always seem to do.
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Thanks for clarifying, Emily. I'm sure you are right--just felt a little frustrating after the discussion. Maybe it will not win and someone will suggest something a bit more inclusive.
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On the flip side, I only do the ATY challenge so it’s disappointing when prompts I like get discredited for being on a separate challenge! There’s a finite number of prompts to be suggested, and I know I’m excited for a celeb prompt! Also I’m that person who likes to read books first and then fill them into a slot. Whenever a prompt gets suggested where it’s not easy to “research,” it gets a lot of backlash. I could see the illustration prompt as hard to research, but it would cater well to my style of completing the challenge!
So, yes, there are people in the group with different goals and preferences, but I certainly don’t see that as a bad thing :)
Thanks everyone for answering my question about an illustrated book. So, if I understand correctly it would be any fiction book - childrens, young adult, or adult - that has hand drawn illustrations or a map. Toddler picture books and graphic novels don't count. Or it could be a non-fiction book but not those with photographs, like a coffee table book or a cookbook or a true crime book with a photographic insert at the center.
I am voting for the illustration prompt, but will include non-fiction books with photographs and maps in them! The only specific no-no to me are graphic novels and children’s picture books, as specified by the prompt.
Avery wrote: "On the flip side, I only do the ATY challenge so it’s disappointing when prompts I like get discredited for being on a separate challenge! There’s a finite number of prompts to be suggested, and I ..."To be clear, I don't mind repeat prompts if I liked them the first time. I just have never had any interest in the celebrity related prompts, and after repeated exposure I've gone from disliking to hating them.
Exactly, Raquel. I liked the list we came up with for this year, but I'm already thinking one wild card isn't going to be enough for me on this list. The illustration prompt is interesting and different. Now that I have given it some thought, I think I might add that to my up-votes and take away "less than 2000 reviews".
One thing I rediscover every year is that there is not a perfect correlation between how much I like or dislike a particular prompt and how much I like or dislike the book I end up reading for that prompt. Both Popsugar and ATY had two linked prompts (two books with the same title, and 2 related to the same topic, genre or theme). I was really excited by these prompts and ended up only really liking one of the 4 books. I may try those prompts again. I’ve also loved books when I wasn’t that keen on the prompt. So far I’m liking some prompts and finding others a bit too bland but I’ve already got some good books pencilled in for them.
Nadine wrote: "I really like the prompts for Earth Day and Texas Lariat list, but I’m out of votes already between other up and down votes, so if they don’t win this time, I hope they show up again."
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I'm not sure how I'll mange my votes this time, but I'll top illustrated, 20th book and space. I've to check the lists to see if there's something interesting for me in them.I read many children novels and lots of them have illustrations (at the beginning of chapters or as full pages). There are also some YA series with pictures (Illuminae, Harry Potter illustrated, etc). On the adult side, I've few on my read list I think so it needs more search if you want fiction (I remember that Brom draws for his horror books).
I'm kind of over the celebrity prompts as well, but when I looked at Reese's & Oprah's lists, they have a ton of books I'm interested in or books that I've read & loved, so I'm kind of torn about voting for it, because I already have like 5 to top & 5 to bottom & I don't know how to narrow it down.
The 20/20 one is more of a problem with the wording of the prompt for me, rather than not being able to find books about vision impairment. If I see it as "a book related to 20/20" I personally wouldn't interpret that as a book about the loss of sight. I assume the examples are not part of the final prompt wording. I don't know if I'm making sense. I would vote for a book related to sight, I just don't really like the wording out of context.
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Regarding the celebrity prompts I would dislike this particular one even if I hadn't been doing other challenges. Those two people (or the people picking the titles to fit their brands) just don't have the same tastes as me, sorry. I'd be less likely to downvote a much more general book club rec one.
On books with illustrations: picture books and graphic novels are specific genres/ formats defined by the way pictures (and sometimes text) narrate the story. This is a lengthy discussion with differing opinions, but in any case they are just some of the ways books can have illustrations. I would count photos as illustrations, but that's also up to debate, are the photos there to document or to add to the story, are they processed? Miss Peregrine has photos for example, but they are used in the story in a way I would say they were illustrations. A couple more ideas of illustrated books that are not picture books or graphic novels:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Wonderstruck and other works by Brian Selznick
A Monster Calls
And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
And loads of children's books, illustrated classics, and diaries like Wimpy Kid
Ellie wrote: "The 20/20 one is more of a problem with the wording of the prompt for me, rather than not being able to find books about vision impairment. If I see it as "a book related to 20/20" I personally wouldn't interpret that as a book about the loss of sight. I assume the examples are not part of the final prompt wording. I don't know if I'm making sense. I would vote for a book related to sight, I just don't really like the wording out of context. "This! 20:20 vision is pretty much perfect vision, right? Blindness is definitely not that.
I'd be very happy to read a book about blindness or vision impairment. But not by calling it a book about 20:20 vision!
To give an example that doesn't have the emotional impact of treating disabilities like they don't exist: logically, it's like saying that a prompt of "Europe" means "read a book NOT set in Europe".
Ughhhhh. That was so hard to vote. I really needed an extra up vote & an extra down vote.
dalex wrote: "Thanks everyone for answering my question about an illustrated book. So, if I understand correctly it would be any fiction book - childrens, young adult, or adult - that has hand drawn illustrati..."
I interpret the illustrated prompt which says illustrations or pictures to include books with photographs. Photos are pictures as far as I'm concerned.
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I'm trying to stick close to 4 up 4 down, but I'm having trouble this round.
Emily wrote: "My gut instinct was negative on the <2000 ratings prompt, but after looking at my TBR, I'm surprised by how many options I'd have! I'm trying to stick close to 4 up 4 down, but I'm having trouble..."
I'm actually a huge fan of that prompt--I have over 150 books on my already owned TBR with less than 2000 ratings! A few of those were probably published to recently to count, but the majority are just really obscure.
I ended up having mostly up-votes on this round, actually. There are quite a few I don't love, but I could find something to read for almost any of the prompts.
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As far as the illustrated prompt, the coffee table book comment made me realize that I could include Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave. I got it for Christmas but never seem to actually sit down and look at it.
I didn't nominate or second the 20/20 category so maybe I'm reading things in that I shouldn't, but we do say a person has 20/20 vision, or we say hindsight is always 20/20 (with vision being implied), so I would feel comfortable making the leap to think of the whole category as vision-related. And when considering the physical vision aspect, I was thinking of vision as a spectrum - at one end there is perfect vision, at the other end there is no vision, and then there's everything in between. So if this is part of our final challenge, I would consider anything about blindness would work, in my interpretation.But we're all different, and the leaps some people make won't sit well with other people - and vice versa!
If you are interested in classics, Dickens, Hardy and the other Victorians who were originally printed as serials had beautiful illustrations, and these versions are available online. Also most classic books like Little Women, Kidnapped, The Secret Garden, were originally released in illustrated versions.
Kathryn, I shared your interpretation of the 20/20 prompt. If you were doing a BIO you could limit it, but for KIS your (my) interpretation gives it plenty of depth for choices.
Joanne wrote: "My first pass through, I came up with 6 upvotes and 6 downvotes. Going to be hard to narrow down.Can anyone give me any idea what type of books could be used for this prompt?
"A book that has i..."
I've read some fiction books that has a few illustrations in them like this version of "Of Mice Men, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... and this version of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... There are some classics that have illustrations in them.
There are non fiction books like
and
that have pictures in them. I hope this makes sense. I probably should have worded it differently.
Only upvotes again!Earth day
Magical realism
Book with a lot of buzz in the last 3 years
Curse
5 under 35
Persecution/prejudice/discrimination
20th book
Space
I felt really strongly in a negative way about my downvotes but my upvotes not so much. I did 4 and 4.
I’m developing a specific overarching theme for my list next year, so I actually researched prompts instead of voting by my gut. Interestingly that’s given me my first 4 up 4 down votes of this year, whereas I think I’d only downvoted two at most in previous rounds.
The lists are interesting in there being so many in one round of voting. I liked the TED summer reading lists best, dislike the school summer lists because they are hard to search and don’t have much that excited me, and the Lariat and 5 under 35 both would have the same single book on them that I’d want to read. So I hope they don’t both get in!
I liked most of the promps this time, especially the TED, the 20/20 and the fanfiction, as they are so different than usual. I voted 7 up and 1 down. My only downvote was the Oprah/Reese prompt. With all due respect to Reese fans, her picks repesent the type of book I have zero interest in reading. Oprah is more varied, but I pretty much read all books she picked that I would ever want to read, because the rest are, see Reese’s.
I remember discussing this prompt in the Wild thread, and it had other versions that were way more appealing. A bookclub selection, for example, would open it to any book club, and would make it so that real life book club picks could be used for the challenge.
I would not limit 20/20 to vision - I am more thinking of hindsight. A book were hindsight is a major theme - i.e. someone re-interpreting past events, or having remorse, or a what-if scenario.
Marta wrote: "I liked most of the promps this time, especially the TED, the 20/20 and the fanfiction, as they are so different than usual. I voted 7 up and 1 down. My only downvote was the Oprah/Reese prompt. ..."
While I generally agree that the books on Reese's lists aren't "my" type of book, I absolutely loved Where the Crawdads Sing. I am not a re-reader of books, but that is one book, I will read again all the nature factoids around a plot that kept me guessing (won't have that on the re-read).
I haven't gone through the illustrated book lists but found some interesting ones on my shelves: No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, The Voyage of the Narwhal, The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Elric: The Stealer of Souls, Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx (each chapter has a picture of a different accordion), and a very strange book with great pictures! Alternate Histories of the World.Time to vote. This is a hard week for me because I'm torn between wanting to downvote a few but liking enough to just upvote.
Thanks Laura for the link to the rest of Lariat lists! I ended up narrowly excluding that one from my votes, but I'd be happy if it won anyway. I ended up with 5 upvotes and 3 down, although there were a couple of others I strongly considered for each list.
I upvoted 3 and downvoted 5.My upvotes were:
The 5 under 35 list. I'm excited to read the new books by Karen Russell and Téa Obreht, I plan to read Homegoing and Lost Children Archive next year, and there are several other books/authors from the list on my TBR.
The Texas library list. There are 5 on the list that are tentatively on my 2020 Reading List and another dozen that I'd like to read. Lots of great choices!
A book related to the arts because every year I always seem to read several books about artists, musicians, writers, etc.
Chinook wrote: "I’m developing a specific overarching theme for my list next year."What theme are you doing for your list? I'm so interested in how people choose to do their challenges.
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Karen Russell (other topics)Téa Obreht (other topics)
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I like the idea of reading a book with illustrations, I picture (haha!) a nonfiction book, maybe a history, geography, biography, food or gardening book. My concern is that it’s difficult to know in advance if a book has illustrations, since I choose books online, I don’t browse the physical shelves. For example, the book I chose for this year’s Popsugar “about a hobby” is Amy Stewart’s From the Ground Up, about her garden. I expected it to have illustrations. It does not! Similarly, I just read The Meadowlands by Jim Sullivan - I expected it to have illustrations, I was very disappointed.
Because it’s extremely difficult to know in advance, and I’m a planner, I will probably downvote this one.