Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
[2021] The Wild Discussion
Mod
Mod
I'd worry about interactions being taken away from this gr..."
I feel the same way. I do have a Facebook account but don't use it regularly. And there is so much junk there. Also it might limit access to this group. I know Facebook is all over the world but I'm not sure how common it is in other places.
Now that we have enjoyed the voting so much, I'm sure we can keep up the energy by posting on the various prompt threads and on the monthly threads. This is my first year in the group and between being retired and everything else being canceled, I have been checking this group multiple times a day. I am always happy when there is activity.
Mod
And Nancy, I’m not even part of the group, but I HATE when people try to tell me the audiobooks don..."
Good point, Laura. Both my husband and my daughter are very visual learners. My husband assumed he just wasn't smart enough in college because it was hard for him to retain information in an era when professors just lectured with no visuals. They both can enjoy audiobooks in small doses and when doing something relatively mindless, like driving on a straight highway. But it takes concentration for them. For me, it actually helps me focus. Without the audiobook, my brain would still not be present but it would go in even more scattered directions, and usually not helpful ones!
Before I tried audiobooks, I didn't think I would like them, because I rarely liked being read to. That's because most people don't do it very well. I got an audiobook for my kids on a trip back in 1994 and although they liked it ok, I really enjoyed it and was hooked.
Alicia and anyone else interested, please do check out the Audiobooks GR group.
Mod
I'm not sure what kind of discussion you are looking for. We have a thread each month which is general, such as Oct 2020. But if you have ideas for other categories, I'm sure the Mods would be open to hearing from you.
Mod
BUT. If you are a person who enjoys book clubs / reading groups on facebook, what about it do you like? Maybe there's stuff we can incorporate here! Or if its a specific feature, like image sharing or live chat, maybe we can find other ways to incorporate that stuff that doesn't involve a facebook account.
Also, please know that you don't have to be a mod to start a discussion thread! If you don't see a thread for something you want to chat about, start one and trust me people will chat.
i don't have a facebook account and like a lot of people said, i'd hate to feel like i'm missing out on discussions if the group split!
people who say audiobooks aren't 'real' reading are the worst kinds of people. it's an accessible format for a lot of people who couldn't or wouldn't read otherwise and when you get a good narrator, they can completely change your reading experience! in the pandemic, i used the free scribd trial to listen to a lot of audiobooks as i read along to the book/ebook and it made the experience so much better! and that's as someone who processes visual material much better than audio
people who say audiobooks aren't 'real' reading are the worst kinds of people. it's an accessible format for a lot of people who couldn't or wouldn't read otherwise and when you get a good narrator, they can completely change your reading experience! in the pandemic, i used the free scribd trial to listen to a lot of audiobooks as i read along to the book/ebook and it made the experience so much better! and that's as someone who processes visual material much better than audio
I didn’t mean to imply that the ATY group should have a facebook group. I was just saying that facebook is one of the reasons I like doing the Popsugar challenge. I like being able to quickly scroll through the posts, see images of what people have read, and respond with a quick reaction icon. The format of this group can seem cumbersome (and even old fashioned) - having to visit each individual thread, which is text intensive with little visual interest, and compose a message to respond to their post. The whole process just seems to be hinder the group cohesiveness.
Man if we just had a Like button it would make these threads so much better.
Mod
Thanks for clarifying what you like about Facebook. Personally, I don't particularly want a lot of images and I think it would slow down loading the web pages. (I mentioned above that I am more of an audio learner anyway.) If you don't have individual threads, it seems like it would just be a mishmash of everything. This way if I am having trouble thinking of something for a prompt, I can go right to that thread. Or I can just check them regularly simply because I am interested.
I wonder if this is generational. I am over 60 and I never use emojis, "likes" or other reactions, and I would rather have someone type a response than just stick in a reaction.
But I think the more communication we have the better. Would people want a thread for "daily chat?" or something like that?
I'm trying to figure where to post this question, I hope here is okay. Is everyone getting the message about Twitter log-in?Action needed: Goodreads will no longer support login with or share to Twitter in early 2021.
To maintain access to your account, please update your login settings.
I'm pretty sure my log-in isn't tied to Twitter, but I do have a Twitter account. I'd be more reassured if I knew people who didn't have Twitter were also seeing it.
Kim wrote: "I'm trying to figure where to post this question, I hope here is okay. Is everyone getting the message about Twitter log-in?Action needed: Goodreads will no longer support login with or share to T..."
Kim, I don't have a Twitter account and have not seen that message. I will let you know if I see it. Sometimes GR roles out messages inconsistently.
Jillian wrote: "Kim wrote: "I'm trying to figure where to post this question, I hope here is okay. Is everyone getting the message about Twitter log-in?Action needed: Goodreads will no longer support login with o..."
Thanks. I have taken whatever action they recommend and I still see the message.
I wish GR had a way to respond to individual posts. That went directly under the post they went with. Sometimes it feels like a response gets lost in the whole discussion because we often have several different conversations going on at once. I wish there was something like a like button. Sometimes someone posts information that is helpful, and it would be nice to have a way to acknowledge it without having a discussion. We don't need 20 posts just saying thanks for the information, great idea etc. but just saying nothing also feels off too.
Kim wrote: "I'm trying to figure where to post this question, I hope here is okay. Is everyone getting the message about Twitter log-in?Action needed: Goodreads will no longer support login with or share to T..."
I have not gotten that message, BUT I did see people on reddit talking about it. So you're not the only one. It's something about Twitter no longer supporting v1 end points and will only have v2 end points and Goodreads isn't planning to implement v2 and I have no idea what that means.
Note that some people on reddit are also complaining that the pop up won't go away even though they never connected GR to twitter, so you're not the only one dealing with THAT either. (Unfortunately, no one posted a solution.)
Yes, I agree Jillian. I'd love to be able to Like your post without adding another comment that doesn't really say anything.I don't really mind there not being images on here, actually a lot of images really bugs me. I dislike when people post a screen shot instead of typing out a title and author. But I do wish we could have threaded conversations and some of the other conveniences that other social media platforms have.
Sometimes I would just like the capitalization for my shelf names to stick. Basic requests. But then I remember that goodreads is the best app (people) but also the worse app (technology).
Kim wrote: "I'm trying to figure where to post this question, I hope here is okay. Is everyone getting the message about Twitter log-in?Action needed: Goodreads will no longer support login with or share to T..."
This message is frustrating me. I do have my Twitter linked but I don't log in with it I've checked I have email/password set up like they say, but will the message go away? No.
So I think they have just not designed it to go away when no further action is needed.
Personally, I’m not interested in a FB group. I just weaned myself off of FB this past 3 months and plan to use it sparingly. I like the way GR is structured and the fact there are different groups with people with different reading interests. This group is very diverse, which I like, but I also participate in other groups with more specific interests like classics. I like our new monthly reading discussion. Another idea is to have an Authors section and have threads for specific authors of interest.
I went and had another poke at my settings and think I've got rid of the message. If you go into your account, then apps, find where your twitter is connected, and click disconnect, that might fix it...
Mod
EDIT: THANK YOU ELLIE! I apparently had a very old Twitter account still connected. Now the box is gone! Hooray!
Last year i planned to have gender parity in my POPSUGAR challenge. I ended up with a list heavily female. Planning for this one next year the same thing is happening.
Mod
Back in the 1980's I belonged to a book group that only read women authors based on the fact that most of us had read overwhelmingly male authors in school and we were just trying to catch up. It may be the opposite now for some readers. Women are the overwhelming majority of most GR groups I am in and that might affect what books and authors are recommended. I don't know what the prompts are for that challenge but there often is an emphasis on historically underrepresented groups as far as gender, sexual identity, nationality, etc.
We only have one that requires a woman this year. Far more for racial diversity
I mean it's nothing new that women are overrepresented within bookclubs! The issue has always really been how 'seriously' female authors are taken within publishing. Whether it's actually true in the minds of readers or what, you don't get men en masse publishing under female pen names.
Ali wrote: "I mean it's nothing new that women are overrepresented within bookclubs! The issue has always really been how 'seriously' female authors are taken within publishing. Whether it's actually true in t..."Yes but are there many women doing that nowadays? If I am wrong please correct me but the only modern woman I can think of using a male name (as opposed to gender neutral) is J.K. Rowling calling herself Robert, soemthing
I agree with Robin and Ali. Even if not many new female writers publish under pen names now (E.L. James and J.D. Robb being more current examples), the fact that it was done and sometimes required pushed women back in being taken seriously in literature. This year was my first year really tracking gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc and I thought I needed to set a goal to read more female authors. Turns out, 79% of the authors I read this year are women.
However, out of that 79% only 38% were BIPOC (counting all races outside of white) and an abysmal 10% identify as LGBTQ+. This really highlighted that my issue isn't reading too many male authors, but possibly reading too many straight white female authors. And I think a lot of that is because the books that get pushed hard, are popular, or well rated, happen to be a lot of heterosexual white authors.
That's why next year, my bigger goal will be to get BIPOC above 50%, which shouldn't be hard seeing as over half the world population (Asian) would fall into this category, and greatly increasing my LGBTQ+ stories/perspectives.
Thomas wrote: "Ali wrote: "I mean it's nothing new that women are overrepresented within bookclubs! The issue has always really been how 'seriously' female authors are taken within publishing. Whether it's actual..."Even before she used the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the whole reason she was J.K. Rowling at all (rather than Joanne Rowling) was because publishers thought boys wouldn't buy her books if they knew they were written by a woman...
I agree that it's rarer now to find a female author using an obviously male pseudonym, but using initials is still very popular - V.E. Schwab, P.D. James, S.E. Hinton
Aimee wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Ali wrote: "I mean it's nothing new that women are overrepresented within bookclubs! The issue has always really been how 'seriously' female authors are taken within publishing. Whet..."Very true. I just find it strange that for the second year in a role my reading list has males as the underrepresented group. My goal of gender parity was to make sure I read women authors but I seem to have the opposite problem.
Mod
I also read only Black authors in February and mostly LGBTQIA+ authors in June, in honor of their months. It's amazing how easy it is to find books once you start intentionally looking for them.
Currently, I have 32% non-white authors and 20% LGBTQIA+ authors for the year.
That’s a great idea! I started to notice it early on and made more of an effort. And once I did it actually was easy to find great underrepresented LGBTQ books. Another thing I realized was that almost all my BIPOC books were from black and Hispanic authors. Which is great, but I found I very rarely read Asian (ashamedly, dreaded reading a book set in Japan for PS) and indigenous authors. Then I read pachinko and had all the feels. So I’ll add that as a monthly to do as well!
So excited to see the GR choice awards up! Can someone verify I’m understanding this correctly: Opening around it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the only things that matters is writing in votes? It seems like they gave us 15 starting books, and next round we will have the same 15 books plus 5 write ins.
I’m not sure where to put this. The Goodreads Choice Awards 2020 voting is now available.
avery, it honestly doesn't really matter what you write in because none of those books can get enough votes to win anyway but you're right, next round will be these fifteen books + five write ins. the final round is between the top ten from the top 20.
annie wrote: "avery, it honestly doesn't really matter what you write in because none of those books can get enough votes to win anyway but you're right, next round will be these fifteen books + five write ins. ..."Please don't put people off writing in, there have been write in books that get quite far because once they are in round two people see them and vote for them. Especially in the less read categories.
Mod
I usually spend this round writing in since, according to the rules, the top 15 already chosen will make it in to the next round regardless. The top 5 write in votes make it to the next round as well.
Mod
I was about to post the weekly thread for the GR prompt, but I guess I'll hold off until they get that sorted lol.
Ah I didn't read that very confusing bit of the rules. I don't see the point on having a vote on the auto selected titles if the votes don't make any difference. I'm sure they used to drop books by the second round.
Emily wrote: "WHOOPS Something happened and now the 2020 voting is referring back to the 2019 list of winners. I wonder if someone let the cat out of the bag too early (since it wasn't supposed to go live until ..."It's back already. I thought I was going mad as I'd voted on some already!
Mod
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Emily wrote: "I usually spend this round writing in since, according to the rules, the top 15 already chosen will make it in to the next round regardless. The top 5 write in votes make it to the next round as well."I had no idea this is how it works! I was shocked reading through the nominees, I read so many good books published this year I was sure I'd have a hard time choosing but most categories only had one book I've read.
I'm going to go through the books I read this year and start writing some in.
I also wish they'd change the dates for eligibility. I get there are ARCs but to have books that aren't published yet doesn't seem fair. If the voting starts Oct. 27, the book should be published by then. So it should run 10/27/2019 to 10/27/2020 as publish dates. Then the books published the last 2 months of this year would be eligible for next year.
But I know these awards are just a popularity contest so I try not to get too worked up about it.
Nancy wrote: "... If the voting starts Oct. 27, the book should be published by then. So it should run 10/27/2019 to 10/27/2020 as publish dates. Then the books published the last 2 months of this year would be eligible for next year. ..."I thought eligibility was November-to-November? So books published in Nov & Dec 2019 are eligible. (It does kind of leave out books published at the end of October, but ... what can you do.)
Eligibility:Books published in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases, between November 16, 2019, and November 17, 2020, are eligible for the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards.
It is annoying the time frame. One of my favorite authors tends to publish books in November. So, I voted for the next book in the series even though it has not been released.
Mod
I've only read a few 2020 releases and I lot of them have very few ratings. There's a bunch on my tbr, but I'm unlikely to get to them before the end of voting.
I also don't think the eligibility cut-offs are terribly fair. Like I remember Michelle Obama's book came out during the week of the second round and it was included in the voting. I think they need to either cut off the eligible books with the start of the voting process or push back the awards if they really want to include the Nov books.
I wasn't aware those were the eligibility dates, so that's good. But I still don't like that books published in November are included. But I guess if everything in the first round makes it through to the second that makes a little more sense. I still think eligibility should end when the first round starts.
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...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
I'm a member of a couple of book groups on Facebook, but I find that they get very repetitive (same people posting about the same books rather than contributing to the previous conversation) and a lot of "is it worth continuing reading?" posts. Not saying it doesn't have a place, but I like that this group is only on Goodreads and I can put away Facebook when I need to without having to worry I'll miss out on this group.