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[2022] Wild Discussion
Thomas you have complained about books you don't like before, is there a reason you don't just stop reading and find another book?
The year I tried reading in order was 2020, so I managed about three months of that. I like the idea of using it to help me pick what to read next, but I am more of a mood reader. This year's order didn't really work with all the new releases I wanted to read, so I guess I'll wait to see the final order to decide what to do for 2022.
Nancy wrote: "Thomas you have complained about books you don't like before, is there a reason you don't just stop reading and find another book?"I often do but sometimes I don't feel I can do better with a particular prompt. So I think do I throw away the time I have already spent reading this one and read another book I proably won't enjoy more or jsut get it done. If however I think I have a better idea I will indeed fidn another one.
I read in order by dividing the weeks into the months where they fall and then reading one month at a time. So I might have 4 prompts in January, 4 in February and then 5 in March. I finish all the books for a month in whichever order I want before starting the next month.I look at the upcoming month and make a list of a few books for each prompt that I had already planned on getting to soon and choose one of those. I'm always reading 2-3 books at a time so reading strictly in order is not convenient for me. This way I get some flexibility to finish whichever book I like first.
Thanks for all the feedback. I think setting some personal limitations might be a good option for me. I was thinking of using books recommended by the Jewish Book Council as one focus. I might also take several prompts that I was sad didn't make it to the final list and try to fill them.I like how you are reading by month, Joanne and that might be a good option for me. I mostly get books from the library and am very lucky because the local library is just blocks from my house. If I focus on a group per month I can vary what I read and get requests into the library ahead of time so books are available when I want to read them.
Mod
I love the serendipity of finding out a book fits a prompt I didn't expect. I am also fine with moving books around. (Although for another challenge group on GR that I joined this year, things are more strict and you have to officially undo and resubmit the book, so I just decided up front I will never change anything there.)
I was able to do the ATY challenge twice in 2020, and I've read plenty of books this year for 2021, but on my 2nd time through, I am resisting several prompts (Egyptian museum!)
I don't think reading in order or by month would work for me, I would resent it. But I see it can be a useful structure, especially if you don't have a huge TBR tower to go through.
RachelG. wrote: "This is probably off topic, but I have been trying to think of the best way to approach the challenge next year. For most of the prompts I have several options and this year I read in order and when I had multiple books for the prompt I just read them all before moving on to the next. ..."That's a lot of reading! I would feel like I was never going to finish if I did that! I come up with many ideas for each category, but once I've read one, I check off that category and move on. I do not read in order.
As someone who usually finishes books that I don’t like, if I finish them I can forget the book and move on but if I don’t finish the book it is stuck in my mind as an unfinished book and it is using up working memory (if that makes sense).
This year is my sixth ATY and I've never been able to read in order. I would like to try it but it would take some discipline for me since I usually have 2-3 books on the go at any given time. Sometimes those 'currently reading' books sit there for a few weeks (or even months!) before I finish them.In earlier years I used to pick out books in advance and stick to them. Nowadays I prefer to make a list of possible books for each prompt and then slot in the books I'm reading as I go. Like Robin said I also love finding a book I'm reading will fit perfectly for a prompt I hadn't intended to use it for.
52 books in a year is challenge enough for me so I often end up reshuffling some books to make them all fit.
Wow! It’s so great to read everybody’s different approaches to tackling the ATY challenge. Thank you all for sharing!
Thomas, what kind of books do you usually enjoy? Could it be you’re trying to be too literal with the prompts? That’s perfectly ok, but women in stem can be so many other things than girls coding.
I also love the idea of doing a themed challenge, like all romance books, all non-fiction books, all BIPOC authors or something similar but I haven't taken that leap yet.
Mod
Could it be you’re trying to be too literal with the prompts? That’s perfectly ok, but women in stem can be so many other things than girls coding."
Yes! A woman aviator, doctor, architect, astronaut, etc. would all count. Thomas, I don't remember if you prefer nonfiction, but there is plenty of sci-fi where women are running spaceships.
Karen wrote: "Wow! It’s so great to read everybody’s different approaches to tackling the ATY challenge. Thank you all for sharing!"I agree! This group is so much more supportive than some of the others I have been in and I really appreciate it.
This year I mostly read in order. Since we have listopias set up, i add at least five books to each list, as they are created. Then when I get to a category I look at what is on the listopia that is also on my personal list, and is also available from the library. I very occasionally read out of order if a book becomes available sooner than I expected or that I own personally.This system has worked pretty well for me, but I’m sure it would frustrate many who want to make a specific list. For me, the listopias are keeping my plan, instead of me.
I'm reading in order this year for the first time, but I am not going by dates. So I am ahead and I'm currently reading the book for week 50. I expect to finish by mid October.Other years I just slotted whatever I was reading into the prompts, which was not too difficult since I read about 150 books a year. So even if I was left with harder prompts at the end, it would be like June and I had loads of time to complete them.
I've enjoyed doing it in order - it's been more of a challenge, especially as I have to fit the books into other challenges that I do. I might do the same again next year, or even make it harder by restricting myself to read the books in the right week. But that makes me feel a little panicky that I might not be able to do it every week :)
I love Joanne's idea of taking it month by month. That would be a way to fill the year with books and not complete the challenge too soon, without getting stressed about fitting each book into the exact week.
Robin P wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Thomas, what kind of books do you usually enjoy? Could it be you’re trying to be too literal with the prompts? That’s perfectly ok, but women in stem can be so many other things th..."
Thanks guys. Girl Code was when Popsugar did it in 2020. I have found better dieas thsi time.
Thomas wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Thomas you have complained about books you don't like before, is there a reason you don't just stop reading and find another book?"I often do but sometimes I don't feel I can do bett..."
Thomas, I do the exact thing when it's a prompt I dislike or have a hard time with. I'm just like Jillian where not finishing a book will bother me more than just finishing it. So if I've already put some time and effort into a book, I'll generally just finish it so I don't have a start a new one that I might dislike just as much.
I'm really enjoying this discussion. This is my third year doing the challenge (2nd year participating in the group) and I've never considered doing the prompts in order since, like Ellie, I'm a bit of a mood reader. But now I'm considering just laying out several options for each prompt and attempting it in order so I could still choose between 5-6 books.
I didn't even attempt to read in order this year, because I was trying to coordinate my ATY reading with several other reading goals. At the beginning of the year, every book fit an ATY prompt as well as another goal. I'm in a group with a monthly tag theme. May's theme was short-story collection, and instead of choosing books at random, I found collections that matched the Warwick award, authors with long careers, ice, etc. I overdid several prompts this year just because once I started looking for them - e.g. authors with long careers - I liked them and kept finding more. Like Pam, sometimes the right book just comes to you. If you have key prompts in the back of your head, you're more likely to notice when the perfect one comes around.
Now that I'm done with the list, I was planning to work on a second round or the 2021 leftover list. It turns out though that some of the 2022 rejected prompts are fitting in nicely with my other reading plans for October. I didn't participate in the 2021 planning process, so those prompts aren't top-of-mind.
I still have other goals to focus on this year, including one more book on a revolution, and monthly Fall Flurries challenges. Women in history books fit my October feminist tag theme, and the books selected by my local book clubs for September and October. I also have Obama's list on my 2021 goal list, and I need something for science fiction.
This is my first ATY (I also did Popsugar this year and planned it the same way).I decided to only count books I hadn't read before, so I took the prompts and went through all the listopias and my tbr and picked a book for each prompt. Then I just looked at that list and read whichever book on it that I felt like reading at the time.
I started with "In the beginning" and plan to end with "the end", but otherwise didn't try to read in order. I have changed my mind and switched out a planned book a few times.
This is my second time doing ATY, but the first time I will (fingers crossed) finished it!I like to mostly plan my reads, usually selecting one book or a few options for each prompt. There are a few I'll be more serendipitous with (a book published in 2022, an ATY best book of the month and I use one from the current year) but I like to have a plan going in and at least a good brainstorm and overview of what I might like to read. This year I set a soft target of reading at least 10 long owned books I hadn't read yet, and I am at 5/10 so far and think I will accomplish that and probably set for 10 next year since I don't have a huge backlog left!
That said once the year gets started, I read exactly what I feel like reading so other than Related to the Beginning and the End, I read entirely out of order. And I also don't move books around once I've read them and logged the prompt, but I definitely make random calls and substitute things in or discover something completely different.
I hope to for 2022 do a bit more BIO: I was so inspired by everyone's ideas for the Past, Present, Future linked books to make it thematic and ended up loving two books I've for the climate change theme I went with (Migrations and The Overstory). I'm going to see what I might be able to come up with solo or with other members to make the challenge even more challenging/fun for next year! And maybe I will branch out and add in Popsugar or BookRiot too, but I am conscious that I'm starting a new job at the end of October and my reading time may get more crunched next year, so perhaps 52 is sufficient.
Love to see how everyone plans and reads! Very cool and some other great ideas I'd like to incorporate at some point.
Mod
Robin, I did the Read Harder challenge once. I’m not even sure if I finished it. The next year it was even more restrictive and felt like the challenge should have been read these 12 books. I honestly don’t understand stand the need to have to have a prompt push you to read something. It could just be that if I feel pushed to do something; I’m definitely not doing it.
I'm a mood reader too, so reading in order is a no go for me. I mostly read and then figure out which prompt to use it for after, but I do always go through the challenge and find the prompts that I'm unlikely to find something on my own and then I try to find a book for them and then I try to get read them early on so if I don't like them I can DNF and find another. But I also try to spread them out so I'm not reading a bunch of books I'm not excited about in a row. But if I find something better, I will move books around, and I try to use the books I loved the most over books I was just sort of meh on.
Sam wrote: "This is my second time doing ATY, but the first time I will (fingers crossed) finished it!I like to mostly plan my reads, usually selecting one book or a few options for each prompt. There are a ..."
Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I would love a prompt devoted to environmental/nature/ecology books next year.
I hope you love the new job. I didn't keep track of my reading when I was working full-time, but I'd be surprised if ever read more than 52 books per year. I had to read so much for work my eyes couldn't handle more, plus I had a business on the side. Audiobooks in the car and reading on vacation gave me some balance and made me happy.
Mod
I like to mostly plan my reads, usually selecting one book or a few options for each prompt. ..."
The Overstory would of course work for "flora".
I started in the group in Oct of 2015. I believe that was the year that we switched from a popsugar group to our own group? Talk about challenge burnout, my memory is shot at this point! Anyway, in 2015, I just slotted in the books that I had already read for just over half of the prompts and then rushed to fill in the rest with library books and free e-books. The first couple of years after that, I preplanned a couple books for each prompt, but I didn't read in order and I moved things around a bit if I no longer felt like reading what I had planned. Then, I went completely off the rails. I would plan books, but what I actually read didn't match "the plan" at all. The last couple of years I haven't even planned, I just read and slot the book in somewhere that it fits. I plan to do the same next year.I finish ATY in July usually. I used to do Popsugar and another side challenge or two after ATY. That also went out the window two years ago. I mostly just do free reading from July to December now. That's why I really like the readathons. It gives me a little more focus and drive to read. I honestly wish we did them every two months instead of every three!
I always make a rough plan with books on my TBR or upcoming releases I know are coming but then often change things up throughout the year. I almost entirely read library books so if I see something that takes my fancy I read that instead. I have been making a list of all the books I actually own and want to try and use those up next year so I might try and be a bit stricter with myself.I've been doing Popsugar, Read Harder and Reading Women as well. I'm not always as strict with Read Harder as the prompts can be ridiculously specific. I'm on my second run through of ATY this year as I finished in June. Working from home definitely allowed me to read more.
NancyJ wrote: "Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I would love a prompt devoted to environmental/nature/ecology books next year. ..."I know we just had a climate category this year, so it might not get traction, but ... in the US, Earth Day is on Apr 22 each year. So if anyone is looking for another "22" prompt, perhaps this would generate interest?
I would vote for Earth Day, Nadine :)
Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I would love a prompt devoted to e..."Sorry what rpmpt are you actually sugegsting?
Thomas wrote: "Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I would love a prom..."I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in a prompt that is in some way related to Earth Day. It's just a thought, after reading Nancy J's comment about environment-related books - not a concrete suggestion.
Nadine wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I wo..."I like the idea
Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Migrations was my first book of 2021 and it set a different tone for my year. I loved it. I might go with The Overstory for the first book of 2022. I would love a prompt devoted to e..."I love the Earth Day idea Nadine, especially with the double 22 connection! But what climate prompt did we have this year? I used climate change for my Past, Present, Future prompts and I rechecked the list and didn't see anything explicitly climate this year. Unless you're talking about inclement weather for 2022? In which case maybe we'd just need to draw a helpful distinction besides the 22 connection?
Sam wrote: "... I love the Earth Day idea Nadine, especially with the double 22 connection! But what climate prompt did we have this year? I used climate change for my Past, Present, Future prompts and I rechecked the list and didn't see anything explicitly climate this year. ..."I was so sure we had had a category for "about the environment" or "climate change" last year, but I just searched the last few years and I don't see it. It must have been a suggestion one year that I really liked and it got stuck in my head. The closest I found was back in 2017 Popsugar had "a sub-genre you've never heard of" and I read a cli-fi book.
Well now I'm even more interested in suggesting a book for Earth Day.
Pop Sugar had a climate fiction prompt in their Advanced section in 2019.
Nancy wrote: "Pop Sugar had a climate fiction prompt in their Advanced section in 2019."ahhh that must be what I was remembering, thanks!
so now for the semantics: would people prefer:* a book for Earth Day (4/22/22)
* a book related to Earth Day (4/22/22)
* a book about the environment or climate change in honor of Earth Day (4/22/22)
Related to Earth Day would be my favourite
Mod
That seem most in line with other prompts we've had
I think Earth Day could be very similar to "inclement weather" so I'd suggest wording it in a way that doesn't emphasize the similarity, so "related to...." instead of "about the environment or climate change."
The 2021 challenge for the 52 Book Club has a "featuring the environment" prompt. Those of you puzzling about where you'd heard that prompt before might have seen that list somewhere.
I like any iteration of the prompt, but would probably prefer “Earth Day” to be in the wording since it’ll distinguish it from previous prompts just related to the environment or climate. Plus it emphasizes the nice “22” connection of it being on 4/22/22.EDIT: Whoops, disregard this comment! I was on the mobile app earlier and it didn't show "Earth Day" in the third one, which is why I preferred the first two. I actually really like the simplicity of #1, and it also avoids "related to" since some people have said in the past that they dislike that wording in prompts.
Nadine, I love the Earth Day idea, and short wording! 4/22/22 is such a pleasing date too. It could include books on environmental and ecology issues, but not force someone to read about climate change if they don't want to. (There is actually a whole book that discusses why people don't want to think about climate change.) It might also include other "earth" topics such as natural wonders, earthquakes, or maybe even quirky Earthlings. I was going to try to force climate change books into inclement weather, flora or fauna, but they didn't really fit (especially those that focused on fires or people).
There was some discussion of putting Flora and Fauna in April, but I think Flora is also great for May or June, and Animals can fit anywhere. I think I would read Overstory for Flora, and a book with animals or bees for Fauna.
I like the wording of #3: a book about the environment or climate change in honor of Earth Day (4/22/22).
Either "for Earth Day" or "related to Earth Day" - would prefer not to limit it to environment or climate.
I really like 'related to Earth Day' wording. And I also absolutely love the prompt.
Mod
Yes, I think simpler is better. You can give examples and lists underneath.
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i admit i always end up reading books just to fit prompts Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done beign a aprticuarly bitter example for me