Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
[2021] The Wild Discussion
Irene - Here is a description I just read in another discussion topic: Bottom = Least amount of votes; eliminated from being able to be suggested
Close Call = Didn't make it due to not quite enough upvotes or too many downvotes to offset the upvotes
Polarizing = A high number of both upvotes and downvotes
No Designation = Did not warrant enough votes to fall into any other categories
Mod
This could be because they had a high number of upvotes but had just a few too many downvotes to allow it to make it in, or it could be because it was short just a few upvotes, making the net score too low. (By few here, I mean anywhere from 5 to 15 lol it depends on the spread of the voting).
Polarizing will have a high number of both upvotes and downvotes, with it's net score (up-down) being around 0. The number here also varies poll to poll, depending on how many up votes the winners got and how many downvotes the bottom prompts got. If a prompt only had 5 upvotes and 5 downvotes, that wouldn't qualify as polarizing because it just means that no one cared about it one way or another. Polarizing is going to have lots of votes, but split between up and down.
Emily wrote: "The mods watch the voting throughout the voting process, so close calls would be prompts that may have been in and out of the top throughout the process, but didn't quite make it in.This could be..."
Great explanation, thank you for clarifying!! That's so interesting that the votes could change a lot over the period of time the polls are open!
(and thanks Linda! Just found that too, I guess my brain misinterpreted "high number of both upvotes/downvotes" as "equal number of upvotes/downvotes". Darn my glitchy brain.)
I prefer the first two. The third is wordy and generic and the 4th would be tricky if members don't make their rejects lists early in the year (or if only a handful post their rejects challenge here on the boards)
I would downvote any prompt that required you to have participated in the voting process, eg. prompt you voted for that didn't make it, as not everyone votes and it would make it less welcoming to newcomers. Also I barely remember what I voted for this week, let alone remembering into next year!
I think I'd downvote any prompt having to do with a prompt that didn't make it in the normal voting process.... The rejected prompts just don't appeal to me because it just seems like a free wildcard again. You could pick any book because I'm sure it fits for at least one prompt that has been suggested.
Mod
That's a good point, I started here in Jan of this year. I guess I would have just looked at the list of rejects and picked something, but it could see off-putting to someone new, like there is a clique that knows about this and you don't. I agree that a prompt for ideas that didn't make it or ideas from the previous year is a freebie, but I think it's fine to have a couple of freebies, just not too many.
As I was reading a cozy mystery today, the idea for a prompt - written by an author who uses a nom de plume occurred to me, and I don't remember seeing it before. A quick check on Wikipedia provided a long list from the 1800s-today, with many genres and countries represented.
Kim wrote: "As I was reading a cozy mystery today, the idea for a prompt - written by an author who uses a nom de plume occurred to me, and I don't remember seeing it before. A quick check on Wikipedia provide..."I like this idea! I just research briefly and it led me to the incredibly interesting fact that Anne Rice's real name is....
Howard Allen Frances O'Brien
Would have never guessed that. Also her parents may have been expecting her to be a boy?
Kim wrote: "As I was reading a cozy mystery today, the idea for a prompt - written by an author who uses a nom de plume occurred to me, and I don't remember seeing it before. A quick check on Wikipedia provide..."I also like that idea!
I would probably end up reading an Anne Rice book like Alicia mentioned since I'm trying to reread as many of her Vampire Chronicles series as I can next year.
But I think there are a ton of interesting options out there. I don't think it's especially uncommon for authors to write under multiple names either, so in the research people might find interesting new (to them) books by old favorites!
Robin P wrote: "Ellie wrote: "I would downvote any prompt that required you to have participated in the voting process, eg. prompt you voted for that didn't make it, as not everyone votes and it would make it less..."I agree, Robin! I don't like tons of freebies because then what's the point of doing a reading challenge, but having a few sounds fine! Especially because it's not a true freebie, you'd still have to look at the list of prompts that didn't make it and choose your favorite, which doesn't mean it'll be the easiest. I highly prefer this to prompts that are limited to a short list of books
Random prompt idea that occurred to me last night when I was thinking about how Agatha Christie used male narrators so much more than female:A book with a male protagonist or narrator written by a woman, or vice versa
This could include fiction, obviously, but also, for example, a biography about somebody written by a member of the opposite sex.
If that is too binary, it could also be phrased something like "A book with a protagonist or narrator of a different sex than the author's" to make it more inclusive.
Mod
Conny wrote: "Random prompt idea that occurred to me last night when I was thinking about how Agatha Christie used male narrators so much more than female:A book with a male protagonist or narr..."
I like the second option better although I believe it should be "gender" rather than "sex"? I'm not an expert on the subject at all but that is how I understand it to be inclusive.
Amy, yes, of course it should be gender! That was the whole point of rephrasing it in the first place :D Thanks for pointing it out.
Mod
Wording suggestion: a book with a narrator or protagonist whose gender is not the same as the author of the book.
Mod
Lots of books show 1, 2, or none but there are still plenty that have 3 or more
Robin P wrote: "I had an idea for : a book whose cover shows more than 2 peopleLots of books show 1, 2, or none but there are still plenty that have 3 or more"
I had the same idea (well, I was thinking 2 or more, but similar), so I like it!
Robin P wrote: "I had an idea for : a book whose cover shows more than 2 peopleLots of books show 1, 2, or none but there are still plenty that have 3 or more"
Wow You are so right. I had never noticed that before. Well spotted.
Mod
I am thinking of suggesting a book whose title and author both contain the letter u - u being the 21st letter of the alphabet. At first I thought this might be quite difficult, but a review of my physical tbr of 223 books revealed quite a few that would fit the prompt.
Sue wrote: "I am thinking of suggesting a book whose title and author both contain the letter u - u being the 21st letter of the alphabet. At first I thought this might be quite difficult, but a review of my p..."I like that :) I also generally like the idea of putting in some prompts with a specific reference to (20)21. I really liked what PopSugar did this year (the whole set of "Advanced" prompts somehow referenced the number 20), so I've also been trying to think of prompts that reference the year in another way than "published in ...".
dalex wrote: "Wording suggestion: a book with a narrator or protagonist whose gender is not the same as the author of the book."Isn't there a genitive missing somewhere? Or is that just non-native speaker confusion coming through in my case? But the gender cannot be the same as a person, only as a person's, right?
Other than that, yes, that's the gist of it ;)
It's Multi-Week Results Day! This one makes me impatient!
Mod
"
Your waiting is over, haha! The results are in: goodreads.com/topic/show/21604670-202...
Pretty basic idea, but it doesn't seem like it's been done here before: a book with a color in the title. One advantage is that a lot of nonfiction books about race relations have black/white in the title, so it could be an easy way to fit another of those in for people who are interested.
Sue wrote: "I am thinking of suggesting a book whose title and author both contain the letter u - u being the 21st letter of the alphabet. At first I thought this might be quite difficult, but a review of my p..."I like it. I love these kinds of scavenger hunt-type prompts.
I love the letter U prompt. Opinions on a setting prompt,
A book set in one of the five current communist countries (China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea)
Mod
Opinions on a setting prompt,
A book set in one of the five current communist countries (China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea)"
Are there really only five communist countries?
Jackie wrote: "Chelsey wrote: "I love the letter U prompt. Opinions on a setting prompt,
A book set in one of the five current communist countries (China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea)"
Are there really ..."
Yep, crazy but thought it was an interesting fact that could help us all read some lesser known settings
Hmmm I wouldn’t consider N Korea a communist country. Maybe it used to be, but now it isn’t.
If you wouldn't consider it communist what would you classify it as?
I hope someone will nominate the ATY best books of the month for 2020 in the suggestions tomorrow. I don't think I'll be able to go online to nominate it.
Sara wrote: "If you wouldn't consider it communist what would you classify it as?"A monarchy cult. But if I had to be more political speaking, I would say socialism. N. Korea is all about the purity of N. Koreans and how they should be against others, which is different from the standard Marxist ideology of all races uniting.
But my opinions aside, N. Korea rejected the idea of communism awhile ago and identifies itself as "juche" which is more similar to socialism and has a big emphasis on how amazing the original Kim Il was.
Also, this is certainly not a scholarly citation, but Wikipedia limits communist countries to 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi....
So Wikipedia is the only place I seen it not listed. I noticed that it wasn't but I checked ten other sites that all listed North Korea and honestly figured someone had removed it and it shouldn't have been.https://worldpopulationreview.com/cou...
Mod
This communism talk is so interesting. I'm an economics teacher, so I talk about the countries in terms of economic systems, on a spectrum of government control of resources, and N Korea is all the way at the end of the command spectrum, with them fully controlling and distributing resources. I know communism is about much more than just resources, but from an economics standpoint, there isn't a country that is more closely controlled.
I have an idea that I need to refine before submitting. Roughly I have: A book that was originally written in installments. I want something that can include collections of essays, poems, and short stories that might have been published separately but then published as a collection. I would like the option that maybe some parts were published previously and some parts could be new. There are many examples of these type of collections. I recently read Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar that is a collection from an advice column.
Another aspect could be something that started as blog posts. This might apply to a lot of nonfiction material that was collected and repackaged into a book (could include self development, financial, health, etc.)
Finally, there are many novels that were originally serialized from the time of Dickens but there are also more modern examples like the "Tales of the City" series by Armistead Maupin, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Martian and The Green Mile, just to name a few. I read Uncle Tom's Cabin this year which was also published a chapter a week. Interestingly, the response to the story changed what Harriet Beecher Stowe ended up writing.
Here are some sources for other books.
https://booksonthewall.com/blog/seria...
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/4...
Ideas of how to create this prompt?
Mod
I want something that can include collections of essays, poems, and sho..."
I love this idea! My first thought was serial novels, like Dickens or Dumas, but I love that it also includes collections of works that were previously published separately like essays or short stories. You could go with some really off the wall options too, like a collection of a historical figure's letters, or a collection of MLK's speeches.
Maybe substitute in "originally published" for "originally written"? Like many authors work on a book on and off for years before it's actually done, whereas I think your idea is more about the fact that it was previously put out into the world in separate pieces before being combined into a book.
I like the communism prompt, but I worry that people would downvote it, because it's too limiting. I think stretching it to past communist states could be a good idea.
I rather like leaving the installment prompt as "previously written" since that would, as you suggested, include collections of letters (which might well never have been previously published). I could work with it either way though, since I read a lot of Victorian novels, most of which would fit.
Would "a book related to dreams" work for anyone? It could be literal dreams, dreaming of a better future, a romantic dream of love, or Sigmund Freud taking our dreams apart. Seems there would be several directions to go. I think we are all dreaming of the days when our world shifts back to normal again.
I actually don’t think the communist prompt is too limiting, especially since it includes China. That opens it up to so many more books than if you just had say Laos and Cuba. Also, I have some excellent N Korea book recommendations that I’d be excited to add to the listopia.
Mod
I think that's a good one, open-ended similar to this year's prompt on a book related to time.
Suzanne wrote: "I have an idea that I need to refine before submitting. Roughly I have: A book that was originally written in installments. I want something that can include collections of essays, poems, and sho..."
You could try A book that was originally distributed in installments.
Mod
Suzanne wrote: "I have an idea that I need to refine before submitting. Roughly I have: A book that was originally written in installments. I want something that can include collections of essays, poems, and sho..."
Pop Sugar has an Anthology as a prompt, would that cover it? It's caused some confusion though as to what constitutes an anthology.
No, an anthology is a completely different thing--it is a collection, so the letters or poems or essays would work, but a work such as Dickens' novels that were released in installments would not.
And not all anthologies would work, since many are first time published works by different authors around a theme
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Mistletoe and Mr. Right (other topics)The Tourist Attraction (other topics)
Mistletoe and Mr. Right (other topics)
Hannibal (other topics)
The Beauty of Your Face (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
S.E. Hinton (other topics)P.D. James (other topics)
V.E. Schwab (other topics)
J.K. Rowling (other topics)
Bruce Alexander (other topics)
More...
I still don't quite understand the difference between the polarizing vs. close call prompts. I'm guessing polarizing would be like a half/half split (like 30 up vs 30 down), but what would an example of the close call be? At first I thought it was something like all upvotes, but just too small a number of them, but I guess that'd be a bottom since that's the least amount of votes. Are the ones that pass any prompt with a majority of upvotes?