[2021] The Wild Discussion Showing 1,651-1,700 of 2,279

[Alicia]

[Johanne]

:D

[Kristina]

Alicia wrote: "I just learned what choose-your-own-adventure books are and I was thinking of a choose-your-own-prompt version.

Something like “a book related to the 21st_____”. Then people can plug in their own..."

I like this idea!

[Nadine in NY]

Emily wrote: "WE HAVE NOTIFICATIONS AGAINNNNNN"


it's celebration worthy!!!!!!!!!!!! I just had two notifications come in on my phone, and at first I quite confused because it had been so long ...

[Meghan]

I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family.

[Thomas]

Meghan wrote: "I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family."

Sounds great

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

I'm not sure about that, some people have very small families and you can't always know the names of characters before reading a book. But the main thing is that it could be a problem for people from anywhere other than US or Britain. Most people on here are reading a lot of English books, even if that's not their native language. If their family mostly has names that are African, Asian, even a lot of European languages, they are unlikely to find them, and a Listopia can't really help.

Ironically, I am currently listening to Troubled Blood, where one of the two main characters has my name. This is a long book with many minor characters and just off the top of my head, there have been the names of my uncle, my sister-in-law, my husband's aunt, my father-in-law, and 2 cousins. So that's almost too easy.

[Nicole]

Meghan wrote: "I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family."

It seems like we’ve had that prompt idea (or something similar) come up in past years and it generally doesn’t do very well. I like it, and I would probably find it to be a good prompt for myself (based on my family’s names, it wouldn’t be a freebie, but it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult), but it is probably not very likely to get voted in. As Robin said, there are many people in our group who have names that are extremely uncommon in literature (and their family members do, too), so it would be difficult or nearly impossible foe them to find a book to read.
There are also many people who really try to stay away from personal prompts, which this would definitely be. I love trying to personalize my reading experience with those types of prompts, but in the past that has been a sticking point for a faction in our group.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Posted this in the Poll 17 Results thread but wanted to make sure everyone saw it!

A few notes:
- We only have 5 prompts remaining for our 2021 list! Poll 18 could be our final poll, or we may go to Poll 19.
- You can go here to see a list of prompts we already have on our list sorted by type of prompt.
- The final order of the prompts will be released a few days after the final poll, and planning threads will open then as well. Weekly threads will be posted over the next few weeks following the final list order being released.

[Johanne]

Meghan wrote: "I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family."

We once had (or maybe that was popsugar) one where it had to be your own name, and that was a bit hard, but possible. This should definitely be doable for most people. I read in English and Danish and finding a Danish book with a character or author's name shared by someone in my family is not a hardship.
I don't know about people who don't have families, if you could maybe reflect that in the prompt to incorporate chosen families, or you could take that as a given.

[Kathy Jo]

This year I seem to be in tune with the group- of the prompts so far, I voted for 27 of them and only 3 of my doe votes made it in- the cover prompts (apparently I don't like cover prompts) and the Goodreads choice awards (already done and usually not too many books I want to read).

[Conny]

Off the top of my head, the only character named Cornelia I can remember is Cornelia Robson in Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile", and the only Conny was actually a male character and the nickname derived from Conrad. But finding a name relating to close friends or family members should be possible for anyone, and even people without many friends or a family of their own have ancestors, so I'm guessing that should not be a problem. Similarly, a prompt relating to one's own name is not language-centric. Someone in this group who is not a native speaker will, I assume, probably read both in English and their mother tongue (I know I do), and may be more likely to find a name that fits in books hailing from their own cultural/geographical/linguistic background. So the only criticism I can think of would be that Listopias aren't helping much with it, but there should be enough choice for anyone.

[Ellie]

My immediate family all have quite common names but that makes the prompt a bit boring for me. (Sorry family!)

[Nadine in NY]

I usually hate the "same name" prompt, because Nadine can be tough (except for Nadine Gordimer of course), but including family members makes this a YES for me. My daughter is Lily and I've been wanting to read the new book from Lily King.

[Kim]

Ooh, if you like Nadine Gordimer, she came to the university I worked at twice - in 1972 and in 1986, to speak about her writing.
We have both interviews online - and the second one I transcribed, so you can read it instead of watch it, if you like.
https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/...
https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/...

[Kristina]

I know earlier in the voting there was a prompt linked to the Year of the Ox that didn't make it and I know that there was some confusion about the wording/intent.

I was thinking maybe we could revisit the idea but have the prompt be super straightforward: "A book related to the Year of the Ox"

This could be interpreted literally or symbolically. What do you think?

[Anastasia]

LOL, you would think my name would be easy to find as a character name. It sort of is if I want to read another book about the Romanov's, which I do not.
It would be a down vote for me.

[Nadine in NY]

Kim wrote: "Ooh, if you like Nadine Gordimer, she came to the university I worked at twice - in 1972 and in 1986, to speak about her writing.
We have both interviews online - and the second one I transcribed,..."



hahaha I've actually never read any of her books!!! My name is a bit unusual and I always think I should honor a fellow Nadine and read her book, but ... so many books, so little time ... I'll get around to it one of these days. Which book do you recommend I start with?

[Kim]

Nadine wrote: "Which book do you recommend I start with?"

Oh dear, that would imply I've read any of hers myself, which I haven't. I have been inspired to read some other great authors, though, including Ernest Gaines, Dan Chaon, and Marilynne Robinson, this year.

[Serendipity]

You’re doing slightly better than me Kathy, although I am pleasantly surprised by my figures - which I just posted in the poll 17 thread by mistake. I’ve upvoted 17 of the prompts so far (just under 40%) and only downvoted 2. Hoping the remaining polls continue or slightly improve on this.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Anastasia wrote: "LOL, you would think my name would be easy to find as a character name. It sort of is if I want to read another book about the Romanov's, which I do not.
It would be a down vote for me."

To be fair, the original idea was the name of someone in your family, not just you. And if I were you and wanted to use my name, I'd count Anna and even Stacy as versions of it. But I am one to bend the rules.

[dalex]

Meghan wrote: "I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family."

I have a spouse, one step daughter, one step grandson, two parents, four grandparents, five siblings, five sister/brother in-laws, twelve nieces and nephews, eight niece/nephew in-laws, and fourteen great nieces and nephews. That's pretty much too many options! Ha!

[Johanne]

I think that's where immediate family comes in :) But even if I only count siblings, parents, spouse and children, I have 6 siblings, 3 parents (I have had a stepmum since I was 10), 3 children and a spouse. If I start counting in-laws, nieces and nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles and deceased grandparents ... well it's a lot.
If it gets in I'll limit myself by looking at the people I live with: my spouse and kids.

[Avery]

I have some suggestions for the ordering of prompts!

In the Beginning - first prompt

Author’s Name ATY - beginning of the year to mark the start of a new ATY challenge

BIPOC - February for African American History Month

Siblings as Main Characters - siblings Day - April 10

Muslim Character - perhaps set during Ramadan (April 12 - May 11)

The Letter U - week 21 since it is related to the number 21

Race Relations - maybe around Juneteenth? Or another historic day.

Elements of Magic - October because spooky :)

Mystery/Thriller - also October because spooky :)

NATO - November because it’s one of the code words

Published in 2021 - later in the year so that people have plenty of options to choose from

The End - last prompt

[dalex]

The International Day of Peace is in September. I think that would be great for Race Relations.

Celebrate Diversity Day is in April....a good option for BIPOC.

Indigenous Peoples' Day is in October. That would also work for BIPOC.

(Excellent list of suggestions, Avery!)

[Avery]

Ooh I like your options for Race Relations and BIPOC!

[Thomas]

Waiting for the Poll 18 voting to start. All suggestions done!

[Ellie]

I'm sure the mods are just busy, they are US based so the discussion might not go up until late.

[Alicia]

I think the 100 black authors would be best for black history month, since BIPOC can mean many races outside of black.

[Bryony]

For anyone itching to discuss the latest suggestions, the voting thread for poll 18 is now open: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[dalex]

Alicia wrote: "I think the 100 black authors would be best for black history month, since BIPOC can mean many races outside of black."

That would be perfect!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Just got home after evacuating from the most-recent hurricane! Can't wait to dive into all these placement recommendations tonight.

[Irene]

dalex wrote: "Meghan wrote: "I was thinking of a prompt like:

Read a book where a character or author shares the name of someone in your (immediate?) family."

I have a spouse, one step daughter, one step grand..."

I think that's why "immediate" is in there, because including all of your extended relatives up to your nieces-in-law would probably make it far too broad and easy for a lot of people!

[Irene]

Emily wrote: "Just got home after evacuating from the most-recent hurricane! Can't wait to dive into all these placement recommendations tonight."

Oh no Emily, hope you're doing okay!!! :O

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

All good! Just spending the day driving home then picking up sticks and branches in the back yard. We lost a part of our fence, but I'm ok since that's the worst of it.

[Irene]

Emily wrote: "All good! Just spending the day driving home then picking up sticks and branches in the back yard. We lost a part of our fence, but I'm ok since that's the worst of it."

Oh man, I hope the worst of it is over!! What a year, 2020....

[Anastasia]

Netflix has an adaptation of "Turn of the Screw". It is called "Haunting of Bly House". I remember reading the book and thinking it would make a good TV show, or movie.

[[deleted user]]

Emily wrote: "Just got home after evacuating from the most-recent hurricane! Can't wait to dive into all these placement recommendations tonight."

hope you're doing as well as you can, emily 💗

[Thomas]

Hi so next year would be my first year so excuse my ignorance. I have heard people mention something called a wild card in discussions. What is that please?

[Jillian]

If there is one prompt that you really do not like, cannot find a book for etc. you can use a “wildcard” for that prompt and read something different. Basically, you can make one prompt into a free spot.

[Thomas]

Jillian wrote: "If there is one prompt that you really do not like, cannot find a book for etc. you can use a “wildcard” for that prompt and read something different. Basically, you can make one prompt into a free..."

hello. Thank you. looking forward to doing it next year

[Irene]

Just wanted to post here for the people not following the discussion in Poll 18 Voting - we had this idea of throwing our weirdest, most creative, bizarre/fun prompts at the last poll (if we have one more!) since a lot of people were saying the prompts we have don’t seem as exciting as they could be. Plus there’s the recent voting fatigue of just voting for what’s easiest/most accessible to us.

So everyone, please think of your wackiest, most fun/exciting prompts!!!!

(My personal favorites so far have been the NATO phonetic alphabet, ice, monochromatic cover, My Favorite Things, and character from a deck prompts.)

[Kelly]

In the vein of "most creative, bizarre, or fun" ideas for our last poll, and considering we have very few genre prompts; would there be any interest in Weird Fiction? This could be open to your personal interpretation, of course, but here's a handy Listopia with some suggestions. The Listopia describes weird fiction as "a branch of genre fiction that combines fantastical elements with a twist of the unusual or weird. Darker than fantasy, less technological than science fiction, weird fiction has contributed to some of the most literary and awarded works in the last twenty years. Writers are often influenced by horror and speculative fiction. Popular weird fiction authors include China Miéville, Neil Gaiman and Jeff VanderMeer."

Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject: "Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other traditional antagonists of supernatural horror fiction... Weird fiction often attempts to inspire awe as well as fear in response to its fictional creations, causing commentators like Miéville to paraphrase Goethe in saying that weird fiction evokes a sense of the numinous... Although "weird fiction" has been chiefly used as a historical description for works through the 1930s, the term has also been increasingly used since the 1980s, sometimes to describe slipstream fiction that blends horror, fantasy, and science fiction."

Any interest?

[Steve]

Irene wrote: "Just wanted to post here for the people not following the discussion in Poll 18 Voting - we had this idea of throwing our weirdest, most creative, bizarre/fun prompts at the last poll (if we have o..."

I'm still not sure what makes something "fun/bizarre and creative." I think that a lot of ours are! A couple I nominated that became prompts in the last couple of years include related to an element on the periodic table and published in a prime year.

[Steven]

I definitely want to see the Scandium prompt again, I loved that one

[Hannah]

Kelly wrote: "In the vein of "most creative, bizarre, or fun" ideas for our last poll, and considering we have very few genre prompts; would there be any interest in Weird Fiction? This could be open to your per..."

I'd be in to that! And I definitely would like another genre prompt.

[Nadine in NY]

I love both Weird Fiction and Scandium

[Angie]

I'd be down for Weird Fiction.

[Avery]

In trying to come up with prompt ideas earlier this year, I kept coming back to Literary Nonsense or Nonsense Fiction. Does anyone know what this is or have thoughts on it? Seems to fall into this bizarre prompt idea!

From trusty Wikipedia:

“Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-known form of literary nonsense is nonsense verse, the genre is present in many forms of literature. The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it. Its humor is derived from its nonsensical nature, rather than wit or the "joke" of a punchline.”

[Chrissy]

I was bummed that the prompt about nuns didn’t get through, that was something different for sure! I also would vote for the scandium one again.