[2020] Voting for 6th Mini Poll

[Johanne]

I mean the travel memoir that I have not read (I already like his shows)

[Rachel]

Just wondering what everyone else was thinking in terms of the "any mystery or thriller" line in the Washington Post list? I love mysteries and thrillers and having the ability to pick one of my choice is an incentive not to downvote the list, but it also seems to be breaking the intent of the prompt a bit.

Sorry that I've asked this a few times now, just curious what people are thinking in terms of how to handle that.

[°~Amy~°]

Rachel wrote: "Just wondering what everyone else was thinking in terms of the "any mystery or thriller" line in the Washington Post list? I love mysteries and thrillers and having the ability to pick one of my ch..."

I think that it is open to any mystery or thriller. That is a nice "out" for people who don't like (or have already read) everything else on the list. Because of that loophole, I'm not going to up or down vote it.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Rachel, in my planning, I would probably limit it to the options listed in the description to keep it from being too wide open.

Although, in practice, I would feel zero guilt if I got to that prompt on the list and just needed a break and picked up an easy contemporary thriller to fill the prompt.

[°~Amy~°]

Katie wrote: "Just a note. The survey will likely be a bit late in being posted, as we have to work out an issue with our survey accounts. Stay tuned!"

No worries Katie! It seems like most of us are still debating with ourselves how to vote anyway. :-)

[Johanne]

I'm a bit confused: On which list do you see that 'any mystery or thriller'?

[Brooke]

Johanne wrote: "I really enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's writing/storytelling style in Kitchen Confidential, so I would probably enjoy that as well, Brooke."

Exactly! Between his shows and liking Kitchen Confidential, I feel like I can't go wrong with that one. At the very least it will be more exciting than a book about someone finding him/herself while hiking. :-)

[Chinook]

°~Amy~° wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Just wondering what everyone else was thinking in terms of the "any mystery or thriller" line in the Washington Post list? I love mysteries and thrillers and having the ability to pi..."

I’m the same as Amy. That is the option that I’d take and it definitely stops me from downvoting. I may even upvote because I like a few of my potential options a lot.

[Chinook]

Johanne wrote: "I'm a bit confused: On which list do you see that 'any mystery or thriller'?"

The Washington Post list by age. Year 83 is just all mysteries and trillers. The description mentions a few specific detectives, but it’s wide open in those genres.

[Johanne]

Oh, I looked at the GR and it lists a specific mystery. No wonder I was confused... https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&s...

[Chinook]

So it does! Masie Dobbs is one of the mentioned characters. I guess there’s no other way to represent that but to pick a book.

[Sophie]

Sorry for the delay, voting is now open! The survey will close on Monday 22nd at 4am EDT.

https://www.surveymoz.com/s/KRBGQ/

[Gośka]

Hi Sophie,

Perhaps it would be good to update the main post.

Thanks, Goska

Sophie wrote: "Sorry for the delay, voting is now open! The survey will close on Monday 22nd at 4am EDT.

https://www.surveymoz.com/s/KRBGQ/"

[Nadine in NY]

Goska wrote: "Hi Sophie,

Perhaps it would be good to update the main post.

Thanks, Goska

Sophie wrote: "Sorry for the delay, voting is now open! The survey will close on Monday 22nd at 4am EDT. ...."



Probably only Katie can do that. It's annoying that GR doesn't have some sort of "admin" function that lets any group admin edit any other admin's posts.

[Sophie]

Goska, the situation is exactly as Nadine describes. It's unfortunate that we don't have any editing rights on any posts so we just have to wait for our fellow mods to come around 😉

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I have 8 I want to vote for and 1 to down vote, so I'll have to narrow down my favorites somehow. :-)

In case it helps anyone with the prime number year, you can look up books by year published here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula...

Since it's based on 'popular' books and what's getting shelved, it doesn't really work on any of the prime years before 1931 though.

Though I'm not generally a list fan, most of those lists have at least one book I'd enjoy reading, so that's enough for me not to downvote them. All of the 'most anticipated' lists I looked at for this year though had books that were NOT the few I was looking forward to this year, and most were full of books I didn't care about at all, so I will probably vote against that one, as I assume it would be similar next year. And if it wins I'll just have to fall back on Modern Mrs. Darcy's list as it at least a couple interesting books this year.

[Avery]

I'm was going to vote 5 up and 3 down, but then I realized this year, we don't have "a book published in 2020" as one of our standard prompts, so I ended up adding a 6th up-vote for one of the most-anticipated books of 2020 prompt.

My other 5 up-votes were:
- Recommended by a public figure
- Published in a prime number year (because we don't often have prompts that have to do with a publishing year, and this one was broad enough for most people!)
- An author whose last name is one syllable
- Neurodiverse character
- Gap in 2019 reading patterns (a good slot for a book that may not fit somewhere else, and also options for diverse reading)

[Jette]

I had 6 up-votes and 2 down-votes. Xenofiction was one of those down-votes. I looked at the lists in the discussion thread and just couldn't find anything that really called to me.

[Chinook]

I read Raptor Red for a similar prompt for Book Riot this year and it was surprisingly interesting. Took me a minute to get into - it felt a bit dated - but I got really invested in the main dinosaur.

[°~Amy~°]

I just heard about this one from booksandlala: And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness. It's told from the perspective of the WHALES. Very original. I am VERY excited to get my hands on this so xenofiction was an upvote for me :-)

[Sophie]

Ripple is told from a dolphin perspective and is a beautiful book by a Maori author, if you want a bit of diversity 😉

[Steve]

FYI: if nautical themed wins, you're mandated to wear a nautical themed pashmina afghan while reading the book.

[Rachel]

I did 4 and 4 this time, but I have to say it was one of my most difficult times voting because not much strongly stood out to me either way. I had three immediate upvotes, and many that I strongly considered downvoting. At first I thought I'd end up downvoting most of the lists, but when I actually wrote out a list of options for each, I ended up only downvoting the Women's Prize list. There was only a small handful of options that interested me and the one I was most excited about would have been a reread.

I ended up leaving the Washington Post list alone because of the mystery/thriller loophole, and the BBC list had enough that I could work with. Travel memoir was an immediate no for me because I'm not a fan of memoirs or of travel stories. As much as I liked the roman a clef idea, I ended up downvoting that one too because I couldn't find anything that interested me much.

The most anticipated for 2020 was an immediate yes for me because I thought it was a fresh twist on the usual "book published in the current year" idea and partially should satisfy the group's apparent need for a list prompt. I also voted for betrayal since I loved that idea last time and was glad to see it get a second chance. Neurodiverse character was also an immediate yes since that is a particular interest of mine. After much consideration, I also voted for the one syllable author name since that seemed like a fun scavenger hunt.

[Nicole]

7 upvotes 1 downvote

Upvotes went to:

- four horsemen
- anticipated book
- Women's Prize
- 100 books of the ages
- xenofiction
- written in a different language
- Goodreads news

Down was the olympic team. I don't want to find a red, white, and blue book lol.

[Kelly]

As a Colts fan, I'm glad to see Andrew Luck's book club getting so much love in this thread!

[Samantha]

I had such an adverse reaction to the book for my age (fifty shades) on 100 books of the ages I down voted it. I probably should have waited to to be more rational as it overall doesn't seem to be that bad of a list.

For celebrities another option to consider is that some booktubers are small time celebrities in the youtube world so another source to look too if that prompt wins.

[Marie]

You could probably count authors as public figures, and some are definitely celebrities. There are lots of books that have quotes from other authors on the cover "You have to read this book, it's awesome" - Stephen King, that kind of thing, which would fit the prompt.

[Jill]

Marie wrote: "You could probably count authors as public figures, and some are definitely celebrities. There are lots of books that have quotes from other authors on the cover "You have to read this book, it's a..."

Good point I will keep that in mind if this gets voted in

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Jimmy Fallon announced his options for the Tonight Show summer read, if you're looking for another option for the celeb/public figure prompt!

https://youtu.be/-rfA_3WvCtg

[dalex]

Emily wrote: "Jimmy Fallon announced his options for the Tonight Show summer read."

"Are you ok? You seem a little murdery." LOL

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I finally narrowed it down and voted! I probably threw away my vote for the pirates/nautical theme, since that doesn't seem very popular, but oh well. I'm a big believer in voting for what you want, not what you think will win. :-)

One thing I like about the 'fill a hole in your reading' prompt is that it's totally up to you what counts as a 'hole'. I really don't care what ratio of male to female authors I read, so I won't even be tracking that. But it would a great reason to seek out a genre I've been neglecting lately, or knock a new country off my long term 'read around the world' challenge.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I didn't vote for it, but if the "hole in your reading" prompt wins, I'll probably either slot in a classic or a doorstop. I'm lacking on both this year, in comparison.

(6% of my reading so far this year has been "classics" and 4% have been books longer than 550 pages)

[Johanne]

For 'reading hole' I think I'll either go with nonfiction, a not much read genre, or from areas of the world I don't often read from.

[Tammy]

Emily wrote: "I didn't vote for it, but if the "hole in your reading" prompt wins, I'll probably either slot in a classic or a doorstop. I'm lacking on both this year, in comparison.

(6% of my reading so far th..."

Emily, way to go on upping your classics and doorstops. Are you enjoying them? I'm finding that reading the classics makes the newer best sellers seem pretty half baked. I do have a hard time psyching myself out for a long book, though. I've been forcing myself to read some biggies, but boy oh boy, I sure have to prepare myself for them. I start to lose patience around 750 pages.

Raquel wrote: "I finally narrowed it down and voted! I probably threw away my vote for the pirates/nautical theme, since that doesn't seem very popular, but oh well. I'm a big believer in voting for what you want..."

I was actually telling my friends last week what a sucker I am for books set at sea. I told them, "I don't care about zombies or robots or aliens, but I do love a good pirate story." I only realized this because of all of our sea based themes.

[Ann]

I'm feeling a little out of it. In the two and a half years I have been participating and been reading here, as yet, I have not had one prompt I voted for make it in. Not one. What is wrong with my reading choices? Am I just too old and crotchety? I always find a good book to fill the prompts tho. At least I don't have to vote if I don't want to. This one will be interesting.

[Sarah]

@Raquel, you're not alone. I voted for pirate/nautical too. I love a good pirate book!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Tammy, I'm the opposite, actually. I find the classics a bit pompous in their language and I prefer the straightforward storytelling of the more contemporary books... I feel like I connect to the story and the characters more authentically. (All this coming from an English teacher haha!)

I love seeing how other people interpret things like this though.

[Chinook]

I feel like I haven’t read very many doorstops this year. Only four over 500 - though one was just over 1000 pgs.

[Chinook]

Although, looking back, that’s actually pretty good for me. Huh.

[Jen]

Hmm it seems I missed a round of voting while I was off galivanting round UK. Oops. Good job you guys voted well.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Jen, the voting for this poll doesn't close for another two days, if you want to get your votes in!

[Jen]

Emily wrote: "Jen, the voting for this poll doesn't close for another two days, if you want to get your votes in!"

Thanks Emily I did! Missed the 5th poll though.....think I was doing aerial yoga and accidentally attending the Brazilica Carnival Parade walking back from Penny Lane when it was due. A good accident!

[Pam]

I'm really hoping that "A book by an author whose last name is one syllable" wins since I want to read another book by Nevil Shute.

[Sara]

Ann wrote: "I'm feeling a little out of it. In the two and a half years I have been participating and been reading here, as yet, I have not had one prompt I voted for make it in. Not one. What is wrong with my..."

Don't feel too bad, Ann. My choices are seldom the ones the group opts for--and I cannot tell you how many times the ones I vote down make the list. Like you, I always find something to fit the prompt and maybe not getting our choices is one of the things that makes this a "challenge" for us.

[Edie]

Pam wrote: "I'm really hoping that "A book by an author whose last name is one syllable" wins since I want to read another book by Nevil Shute."

I voted for that prompt. Even if it doesn't win, you could read Shute's A Town Like Alice for the book set in the southern hemisphere (much of it is in Australia). I really liked this book. It also could be read if we end up with a prompt that features a strong woman.

[Jill]

Pam wrote: "I'm really hoping that "A book by an author whose last name is one syllable" wins since I want to read another book by Nevil Shute."

Me too

[Ann]

Edie wrote: "Pam wrote: "I'm really hoping that "A book by an author whose last name is one syllable" wins since I want to read another book by Nevil Shute."

I voted for that prompt. Even if it ..." I agree A Town Like Alice was a super book. A bit sad, but so well written. There are a lot of Southern hemisphere books that are so good. For fun I liked Death on the Patagonian Express. My problem was having to use a map because what I thought was in the south was not. The equator was much further than I realized.

[Mio]

Excuse my ignorance but how does voting work?

[Sophie]

Everything's explained in the first post of this topic. The voting for the 6th mini-poll is now closed, but a new round of suggestions will open tomorrow. Don't hesitate if you have more questions!

[Nadine in NY]

Ann wrote: "... My problem was having to use a map because what I thought was in the south was not. The equator was much further than I realized. "


LOL that happened to me, too!! I was thinking maybe I could read Island of a Thousand Mirrors, and ... NOPE that is not southern hemisphere!!