SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
Group Business
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Poll: Should We Allow YA Books as BOTM?
And you're protecting the group from having to read five mod curated books about capybaras, emus, foxes, kittens and old ladies who garden.
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Kittens and old ladies who garden, yes! (YAASS!) but no capybaras in space yet :(
Hmm if only we knew any authors lurking around here ;)
One possibility of making some poll choices more mainstream: we could reduce the "not read same author again" time limit to one year, so that very popular authors can show up more often, and series also have a better chance of getting progressed and finished.But I'm also good with how it is now. :-)
We've deliberately stopped doing sequels, because participation for those is very low.
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"And the converse. There's a lot of shallow trash masquerading as 'adult' SFF, too. And we've read some of it in the group."@Cheryl this piqued my curiosity as to which ones you were referring to, any examples?
There are some popular authors that we've never read though like Steven Brust, Sabaa Tahir, and Michelle SagaraAnd older classics like:
Virginia Woolf (Orlando - this would fit the gender bender category
Jessica Amanda Salmonson - Tomoe Gozen set in Japan
Tanith Lee winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror and her The Silver Metal Lover would work (robot human interactions in a post apocalyptic world)
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(Also Tanith has been an author I've tried so hard to get into polls but the amount of sexual violence always makes me hesitate.)
Krystal Hello, You're feeling a bit distance between yourself and the group because you're not seeing familiar titles between your reading and the group's.My hope is you will begin to see the opportunity. Folks talking about something I've read and enjoyed is gold but folks talking about something I'm about to enjoy in future is Diamonds. Cannot overstate how interesting it can be to find someone interesting then go nosey their bookshelves. GoodOnYa Krystal.
Krystal, don't even get Allison started on Brandon Sanderson...she might be his number one fan but without the sledgehammer (Misery reference).
I haven't been keeping track but I do think that there have been many nominations with "no authors already on the shelf" limit. While the group re-reads make it possible to re-read a book on the shelf, it doesn't allow people to read other books by the authors. It's not like the "best" book by an author always makes it onto the shelf.
Most people can only read a certain number of books in a year and it's a shame to limit exposure to other work by authors on the shelf. Especially if the people who participate lean towards reading group books (new or re-reads) over those that are not.
To be honest, I haven't read that many "new to me" author books that have been nominated and loved them. Enjoyed a few but I don't have any stand out as a "great" book to me.
I've had more luck finding great reads in the random chats that happen during a Buddy Read or the Currently reading thread. A lot of the recent group read books have not been one that I'm excited to read. Happy to try them out if I have easy access to the books but not ones I would have sought out on my own.
On the other hand, I had fun with some of the discussions that have happened.
I would re-read most books by Steven Brust & Michelle Sagara if their books won the poll. I already do that on my own and it would be fun to do with the group.
It would be cool to read Woolf's Orlando, Salmonson's Tome Gozen and Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover. I haven't read any of those and only read Tanith Lee out of three. Only read Woolf's poetry and maybe a short story.
Series:
I say we vote for a series to read as a group. Maybe split the year between a Fantasy & SF series? Or switch every other month to give people plenty of time to read and discuss?
I read more series than not. I haven't noticed that people are into more standalone novels here than not.
The problem with reading any series as a group is thata) people read at VERY different paces
I read a book or two a day, and always read a series back to back. Others read one book per month and want to alternate genres and authors and might take several years per series.
b) they will always eventually fizzle out
Just look at any of the series BRs, how many have been completed on schedule or at all?
However, I suggested at one point, and would still like to see this happen, that when we read a series starter, those who want to continue the series can do so in a BR thread. That way the series will still only take one BOTM slot, but those who want to marathon the series can do so at their own pace.
Anna wrote: "The problem with reading any series as a group is thata) people read at VERY different paces
I read a book or two a day, and always read a series back to back. Others read one book per month and..."
Anna, I really like the idea of transferring series into buddy reads after the first book is a book of the month.
Bobby, maybe we'll try it the next time we have a series! Jemisin doesn't count, because only the first book is out, but of course a BR for the sequel is still welcome when it comes out.
I think the idea of reminding people they can go from the group read to enjoy the rest of the series in the same thread is a good idea. I feel like we do that already. Like I read all of Themis Files in a BR.
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We do start BRs when people agree to do so, but what I meant was that when there is a series with more books out, like The Calculating Stars for example, which is basically part 1 of a story told in two books (at the time it was BOTM), we'd automatically start a BR for the rest of the series, so people can jump in without needing to speak up and suggest a BR. I can imagine someone having one comment or question they'd add to an existing BR thread, but probably wouldn't start a BR just to post it.The Just City is one that definitely should've had a series thread, imho!
OOh, that looks good. Added Just City to my TBR. Will see if people wanna BR it when I get around to it. =D
Allison wrote: "(Also Tanith has been an author I've tried so hard to get into polls but the amount of sexual violence always makes me hesitate.)"I think the one I mentioned might be less violent
OK friends, the poll is closed, and Allison is working on processing the results, so I'll close this thread. Thank you everyone for you input both here and in the poll!
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for those who don't want to read it, here are the results: We're going to be very careful about book selections as mods, but YA books will still be accepted!
Thank you so much for putting this together! It's very informative - and funny how differently we shelved the various books. 😄
Thanks a lot for this informative and humorous presentation. I had a blast watching it. The one fact that took me by surprise was how few members regularly read and comment on the BotMs. From my impressions there I would have thought this number were a lot higher.
Gabi wrote: "Thanks a lot for this informative and humorous presentation. I had a blast watching it. The one fact that took me by surprise was how few members regularly read and comment on the BotMs. From my im..."Wait, I thought the 'comment' here applies to all threads, not just BOTM threads. Or maybe I misunderstood the question.
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Wow that was an amazing presentation! Really interesting to see the results!I am really grateful for the discussion; was great to be part of it and hear everyone's thoughts. Interesting to see how many people were indifferent.
Allison wrote: "Once again, thank you all for your thoughtful comments while we discussed this topic! I've put together a presentation on the results! You can click through the slides at your own pace or press pla..."I love reading Fantasy fiction as the is my most favorite genre has been for years. The Hobbit being my first. What gets me is when did they start calling it YA instead of Fantasy fiction?
Anna and Allison thanks so much for your work on the poll. Sorry I didn’t contribute as I only stumbled on this thread today, but luckily my opinions seemed well represented by other more together members of the group.The presentation is absolutely fascinating.
I’m always a little wary of voluntary surveys as unfortunately the data can only represent the type of people who respond to surveys, God bless them everyone 🙂.
That said, I’ve been a member of this group for over a decade now and I could not be more grateful that the group is in such safe hands.
Thank you Allison and Anna. 😍😍
John wrote: "Allison wrote: "Once again, thank you all for your thoughtful comments while we discussed this topic! I've put together a presentation on the results! You can click through the slides at your own p..."you need to read through this thread we have had an interesting discussion about what is YA. i agree with you , so many books are classified as ???? and are different to what you expect when you read it
i did not know the hobbit was YA, is it not adult because there is no sex involved in it.????
it was actually aimed at children from what I understand
You can aim your thanks for this one towards Allison! :)
I've thought about your question about what people meant with the request to read more "mainstream" books, and you referred to award winners we've read etc. I think what people meant were the current bestsellers, the "hot" books, the Goodreads awards winners/runners-up, such as this month's Recursion.
For example, when I look at past GR awards winners (which are a pretty good assessments of which books were the biggest bestsellers), then we've read almost none of them. E.g. there were Holly Black's The Folk of the Air trilogy, Ninth House, The Testaments, the Throne of Glass series, Children of Blood and Bone, Elevation by Stephen King, the Villains duology by V. E. Schwab, Circe, ACOTAR, The Martian, Red Rising, 11/22/63, ASOIAF, The Hunger Games, Artemis, Fantastic Beasts, Rebel of the Sands, Red Queen, Prince Lestat, Outlander, All Souls Trilogy, The Mortal Instruments, The Fall of Arthur, Dresden Files, MaddAdam, Divergent,...
Please note: I think that most of the very active members would probably dislike many of these, nor do I necessarily think the group should read more of them (I mean, they're already getting lots of publicity and people are going to read them regardless of group reads, plus there are plenty of other groups reading them). I like our group reads! Just wanted to give you my idea of what people might have meant with "mainstream".
Eva wrote: "I've thought about your question about what people meant with the request to read more "mainstream" books, and you referred to award winners we've read etc. I think what people meant were the cur..."
This is definitely more what I had in mind for mainstream. I don't follow awards or who wins what. I'm more interested in what everyone is talking about.
Gabi wrote: "Thanks a lot for this informative and humorous presentation. I had a blast watching it. The one fact that took me by surprise was how few members regularly read and comment on the BotMs. From my im..."This doesn't surprise me at all. I feel like I almost always see the same, like, 10 people, with random exceptions.
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Sorry, I'm not sure how to keep up, our shelves have a ton of bestsellers and a lot of the time the books we select for options come because we see a lot of buzz in our circles.
Nominate books you want to read! I only see what I look for and what people in my feed are reading :) I guess, you could also friend me if you haven't :D
The other thing to keep in mind is that we usually have a lag of about 6 months from first publication so that we can be fairly sure that there's global distribution...kind of hard to read the hot book when it's only out in 1 country! I think there are groups for "the current hot book" and I know there are several YA groups because the YA group is the only genre group on GR bigger than us!
Ironically, while I read a lot of YA books, I can't stand most of the YA-centered groups... :-/ETA: I feel like I should clarify it's mostly because they seem obsessed with the love triangle style books, which are the one YA thing I actively try to avoid...
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ETA: I feel like I should clarify it's mostly because they seem obsessed with the love triangle styl..."
I agree. This one's not bad:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
*I'm also biased cause I'm somehow the main mod, but the fan base is adults with a leaning towards fantasy.
Cool. I joined the group to check it out. Not that I've been very active anywhere since quarantine...
The presentation was quite funny. ;-)
Melanie wrote: "I agree. This one's not bad:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/..."I joined the YA group as well, and discovered that I read 18 YA books this year. This is more than I thought it would be.
Allison wrote: "The other thing to keep in mind is that we usually have a lag of about 6 months from first publication so that we can be fairly sure that there's global distribution...kind of hard to read the hot book when it's only out in 1 country! I think there are groups for "the current hot book" and I know there are several YA groups because the YA group is the only genre group on GR bigger than us!"I didn't even think of this! And I'm an Aussie so this totally affects me lol. Very considerate of you, thank you! I forget that what I'm seeing a lot is not necessarily what everyone else is seeing a lot.
I am in a YA group but the discussions are so ... young. haha
Krystal wrote: "Allison wrote: "The other thing to keep in mind is that we usually have a lag of about 6 months from first publication so that we can be fairly sure that there's global distribution...kind of hard ..."another Aussie. what i find frustrating is the "special deals" oh i would love some of those
I completely missed the survey--not the management's fault! and had a chance to see the overview during the zoom discussion. Not to get too buttery-uppery, thanks for the consideration that motivated the survey. :)I hadn't read much YA between when I was... maybe 16 or so... until I joined Goodreads. This being a marketing site, it isn't too surprising that my exposure to YA content reached a point that I decided to give it a try again. I can't live on a steady diet of it, for various reasons. I enjoy how fun and quick-moving they are.
I'm happy to see that the group as a whole is cool with YA. In general, I like the balance of books that are chosen for group reads, and YA is definitely part of that. The mod polls are great, too.
imo we should keep the 24-month author moratorium on poll picks; otherwise, popular and prolific authors like S--------n and S----i would find their way into the polls like clockwork and our bookshelf would skew more toward the anglo, light skinned, masculine. The current balance is great: old and new, relatively obscure and popular, adult and YA. There's never such a thing as too much diversity. Some of the non-kyriarchical (?) picks don't work for me, and some do, and that's just as it should be.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Calculating Stars (other topics)The Just City (other topics)
Orlando (other topics)
Tomoe Gozen (other topics)
The Silver Metal Lover (other topics)
More...
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haha! We thought about it and then didn't because I'm a big stinkin' chicken! I guess I could put on my big girl plumage and try harder to keep up on scifi.