Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2022] Wild Discussion
Ellie wrote: "Doesn't everyone have an accent?"I'd say yes! But some accents are mild & more universally understandable, and some accents are so heavy that only people from that region can understand them.
Yes, when I say accent I mean British or French, e.g., or a strong southern drawl. If they sound like me that's not an accent to me (understanding it could be to someone else) so I don't have to pay as close attention. Usually books set in the UK are read by a narrator from the UK and that can be harder for me to parse if it's fast.
°~Amy~° wrote: "Kat wrote: "I've never been able to concentrate on audio books (even though I love podcasts) but decided to give it another go. Libby has some books I want to read that they only have the audio for..."Amy, it never occurred to me that the slow speed might be what keeps me from focusing! I assumed that speeding up the audio would make me miss more, but now that I think about it, as a kid I used to get frustrated when my parents read out loud to me because reading silently to yourself is so much faster than reading out loud. I might give that a try.
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Nancy wrote: ".... Hidden Palace " I had the same issue with Hidden Palace. I had just read The Golem and the Jinni, and I still had it on my phone. They had the same narrator but the sound quality was not as good in Hidden Palace. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't check them side by side.
Jackie wrote: "Oh I hated audiobooks for years until I tried speeding up the audio. Someone once told me that everyone has a "listening speed" in the same way that we have a "reading speed" and I don't know if th..."I listened the Michelle Obama's book on CD and it was killing me that I couldn't speed it up. It might have unfairly affected the rating I gave the book.
Some narrators speak much faster than others. Now I usually start with 1.25 and adjust down if needed. Bedtime and slow brain days require slower speeds. Sometimes though the end of a sentence gets cut off if I'm going too fast.
Jackie wrote: "Oh I hated audiobooks for years until I tried speeding up the audio. Someone once told me that everyone has a "listening speed" in the same way that we have a "reading speed" and I don't know if th..."Exactly! We have a "listening speed" and a "reading speed" that's what I was told as well. Thank you for putting it better than I did!
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That's funny because Barack said that when Michelle listened to his memoir she had to speed it up!
Speaking of audios... Audible.com has Daily Flash sales now. Today's selection has 9 pages of books starting at $5. There is something relevant to most of our recent prompt suggestions, including comedic books (such as David Sedaris). If you can't live up to Marie Kondo's tidiness rules (books are clutter?!) you might like the parody by Messy Condo.
There are more professional development books than usual today. New (and old) leaders might like First Break All the Rules. If you follow Kelly McGonigal's book list, you might want to pick up her book Upside of Stress.
If you like really long books, Jonathan Strange and Mr Morell, will cost you only 21.5 cents per hour. 32.5 hours for $7.
Robin P wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Jackie wrote: "Oh I hated audiobooks for years until I tried speeding up the audio. Someone once told me that everyone has a "listening speed" in the same way that we have a "reading..."Aren't they a sweet pair? He's too nice to say if he sped up her book too.
I learned once that the average person can think 3? times faster than someone else can talk, which is why it's easy to get distracted when listening to someone.
I listened to Michelle’s but I could speed it up so I enjoyed it. I’m reading/listening to Barack’s now and I definitely had to! And even at 1.5x it feels a bit like a slog.
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Alicia wrote: "Not sure if it was me, as I regularly call things cheesy romance or cheesy mysteries. But I love the fact that they are cheesy. I’m a hallmark movie buff (from the love stories to the mystery serie..."It wasn't you!! I don't think cheesy has a bad connotation at all, I use it all the time as a positive. I just don't like it when people talk about "trashy" romances in a derogatory/dismissive way. I guess it's less about the word choice and more about the general feeling.
Robin P wrote: "I have his book on audio but keep putting it off. I think it is one where I could listen to a chapter in between other books rather than trying to do the whole thing at once."That is a good idea. I've been putting it off too. A few women in my local group are planning to read Splendid and the Vile bit by bit too. I might end up reading about Jimmy Carter before I get to Obama.
Rachel A.- Thanks for sharing info on the Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge! I really like the format and might try it next year.
Jackie wrote: "Someone once told me that everyone has a "listening speed" in the same way that we have a "reading speed" and I don't know if that's true in general but it's true for me."
That's such a great way of looking at it! I never liked audiobooks because they took so much longer to listen to than I could read physically at my own reading speed. Once I found out you could speed them up, it was a game-changer. I default at 2x speed now and either speed it up or slow it down depending on the audiobook & narrator. I think the slowest I can do at the moment is 1.75x but the highest is 3x now.
That's such a great way of looking at it! I never liked audiobooks because they took so much longer to listen to than I could read physically at my own reading speed. Once I found out you could speed them up, it was a game-changer. I default at 2x speed now and either speed it up or slow it down depending on the audiobook & narrator. I think the slowest I can do at the moment is 1.75x but the highest is 3x now.
I was thinking of suggesting a prompt I suggested last year, that didn't make it inA book featuring a theme of women overcoming systemic obstacles
This could be a non-fiction about the Suffrage Movement and women succeeding in gaining the right to vote, most non-fiction about women in politics arounds the world or I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban that shouldn't have even been able to get an education, let alone write a book (especially relevant with Afghanistan today).
Most domestic thrillers like The Last Mrs. Parrish
A lot of YA alternate history/fantasy where the girls are expected to get married but instead defy "expectations" and save everyone.
Horror like The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires about how men disregarded women's opinions in the south in the 90s or Mexican Gothic (not a Wuthering Heights retelling) but deals with psychological abuse.
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That's su..."
Oh my gosh 3x speed? My audiobook player only goes up to 2x! What app do you use?
Alicia wrote: "I was thinking of suggesting a prompt I suggested last year, that didn't make it inA book featuring a theme of women overcoming systemic obstacles
This could be a non-fiction about the Suffrage ..."
I would vote for this!
Would there be any interest in creating a list of our all-time favorite books? I was thinking of a way of doing a list prompt that's really relevant and unique to us as a group. The best-books-of-month thread is the closest thing we have, but I find it a bit overwhelming to look through (plus the standard is a bit lower since your best book of the month might not even be in your top 100 books overall).I could create a really simple survey where every member who wants to participate could just submit their username (to prevent multiple votes), the title of just 1 book, and optionally, a reason for why they're recommending it. Since it would be a list of books curated by us as a group, I think the quality of the list would be absolutely amazing.
If there's interest (and if the Mods are okay with this!!), I guess I would suggest the prompt first and then if it gets voted through, post a survey link. Then I could make a Listopia and order it by most commonly voted-for books, and then do the rest in alphabetical or random order. (This is the kind of project I love!)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll have to work on the wording because it doesn't necessary have to be an all-time favorite, it could also just be a book you think everyone should read, or an underrated/hidden gem.
Maybe, Read a book from the ATY-curated List of Best Books? Or Great Books? Favorite Books?
I love that idea, Irene. I was hoping we could find a way to create another member-curated list. Hopefully others will agree it's not too similar to the best books of the month list we have already.
I think, you will have better luck getting it voted in if the list is created first.
Thanks Beth, I hope so too!!@Jillian, I considered that, but I don't know how else to know if people are going to agree to the creation of the list in the first place. (I don't want to make a list if not many people are interested in participating and I only get 10 responses). I think more people would participate if they knew it was for a prompt on the 2022 list, which is why I thought of doing this only if people liked and voted on the prompt idea itself.
Any ideas on how to make it work?? Would appreciate any feedback.
I’m not big on lists or group recommendations. You point out one of the difficulties, it is really hard to up vote the idea of a group recommended list if you have no idea how many people will actually participate in making it. If you really like the idea, you should suggest it. The worse that could happen is it gets in the bottom and then you could always try next year with the list already created.
Irene wrote: "Thanks Beth, I hope so too!!@Jillian, I considered that, but I don't know how else to know if people are going to agree to the creation of the list in the first place. (I don't want to make a lis..."
I agree that it would help to have the list started first so people can see the potential of it and get a general idea of the type of books that will be on the list. Even if the prompt doesn't get through, it's another group based activity that a lot of people will enjoy so it's a win/win honestly.
I like the idea, but I personally wouldn't vote for a list without having an idea of what will be on it first. I wouldn't want to vote it in and then realize after the fact that there's nothing I want to read on it. With a lot of list prompts in general, I tend to find that I've already read all the books that I would want to read.
Okay, thank you all so much for the feedback!! Then assuming the mods are okay with it (this isn't intended to be an official/permanent list to represent the entire group; it's more like a list I'd like to put together specifically for the 2022 challenge), I'll post the google form I made here, and I can post a Listopia after a week, and suggest it in whatever poll comes after that.(And if we want to keep the list around, then that'd be awesome too!)
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Here is the survey!! I'll make the Listopia (in order of # of votes) no matter how many responses I get, but if there are at least 100 responses then I'll go ahead and suggest it in the next poll :) https://forms.gle/qrbo4VLi28rRW1AH6
Jackie wrote: "I'm absolutely ok with it! Even if it doesn't become a prompt, it'll still be fun to see what books end up on the list. If this does become part of the 2022 challenge, I think it would be a good id..."Thanks Jackie!! :D I'll also post the list in regular Goodreads-post form as well so I can make the recommendations more clear and add more details (like genre, what prompts a book fits, etc)
That could be interesting to see. I don't know if I can pick just one favorite book that people don't already know about.
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Sometimes books I loved were an amazing new idea at the time and by now they've been done to death. Or everyone knows about them already, like To Kill a Mockingbird which won the competition on PBS for favorite book.
I need to push myself to pick one favorite book each month for our monthly post. That would be a good practice.
I picked my favorite non-fiction book to recommenced.I don't think you can go wrong with picking a book. I think the idea is to have a variety though I do hope that the list has books that differ from the usually top 100 lists.
BTW we have picked 35 prompts and Emily said we need 14 more. Who picks the other 3
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Yeah, choosing 1 favorite book really is hard!! But I agree with Jillian that you can't really go wrong recommending any book you love or really enjoyed or think more people should be aware of. I'm probably going to recommend a hidden gem that I love even though it's not my all-time favorite.
I was torn by finally recommended a book I think needs more love. I also need to start posting my favorite book for each month. My reading has slowed down a bit this past couple of years.
When is the readathon? I haven't done one before.
Pearl, if you look in the announcements thread there is a link to the poll to choose which week the next read-a-thon starts. It will start sometime in September.
I don't even know where to start when it comes to picking my favourite/best book.
Irene wrote: "Here is the survey!! I'll make the Listopia (in order of # of votes) no matter how many responses I get, but if there are at least 100 responses then I'll go ahead and suggest it in the next poll :..."I didn't see a cut-off date for responding? I'd like to check my "Read" list and then respond with one of my favourites (there are a lot!) which I can only do later today.
I don't think I am capable of picking just one book. Would people be able to add to the list if the prompt gets in and they didn't see this form or didn't want to submit without seeing what was already on the list?
Shannon wrote: "Irene wrote: "Here is the survey!! I'll make the Listopia (in order of # of votes) no matter how many responses I get, but if there are at least 100 responses then I'll go ahead and suggest it in t..."Hi Shannon! If you click on the survey link (https://forms.gle/qrbo4VLi28rRW1AH6), I wrote to please respond by Sept 4th :) That way, I can make the Listopia and then suggest the prompt on Sept 5th. I would definitely keep adding to the list if the prompt gets voted!
@Ellie, for sure!! Although it'd help me out a bunch if most people could respond by the time the poll comes around because it won't be as helpful for voters if the list I present during poll suggestions only has 20 responses out of the ~150-200 who actively vote on prompts.
(I do want to have a firm deadline at some point to finalize the list. Maybe by the time voting is completely done, in late October?)
Ah, cool, thank you, will vote tonight!
Jackie wrote: "Oh my gosh 3x speed? My audiobook player only goes up to 2x! What app do you use?"
I use Libby for audiobooks, through my library,but I haven't tried any other apps to know what their highest speeds are!
I use Libby for audiobooks, through my library,but I haven't tried any other apps to know what their highest speeds are!
Robin P wrote: "One will go to someone drawn from those who completed the Summer Challenge. One will go to someone from the upcoming fall Readathon. The flora and fauna prompt is 2 books, so we have 35 prompts but..."Okay I will recount but I'm sure when I took acocunt of the multi week ( 3 for conttietns, 2 flora and fuana and 2 for same word) we still only have 35 books
I came up with a prompt I thought would be interesting, and I am thinking about proposing it, but wanted to see what people thought.A book about a woman who changed history.
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, I imagine this could be a fiction or non-fiction book about a real or fictitious woman, as long as the woman was a driving force for change.
Non-Fiction: This would be a great opportunity to read a biography or the memoir of a game-changing woman in history.
https://www.nbcnews.com/shopping/book...
https://explorethearchive.com/biograp...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/must-r...
https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/g...
Fiction: This could be a fictionalized story about a real woman/women OR a fictitious woman who changes the world she inhabits. This could encompass any genre, really. Immediately, The Hunger Games, Girl Waits with Gun, White Houses, and The Alice Network come to mind. Here are some other great options:
https://earlybirdbooks.com/historical...
https://electricliterature.com/12-nov...
https://offtheshelf.com/2017/10/12-hi...
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There's a difference between learning to read, which should be done in print, and reading for comprehension, which studies show is done by the same part of the brain whether done visually or on audio.
As for speeding up narration, it depends on the narrator and the content. E.g. I just read Julie Andrews' second memoir and I was having issues playing it at 1.5x at first, Libby kept giving me an error. It would only play at 1x and there was no way on this green earth I would have been able to listen at that speed. She speaks so slowly that at 1.5x it sounds normal.
On the other hand, 1.5x was too fast for The Hidden Palace as the narrator spoke much faster. And often if the narrator has an accent I have to slow it down (except Julie Andrews lol).