[2022] Wild Discussion Showing 2,251-2,300 of 2,340

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

I'm impressed by all you statisticians. Tracking the books is enough work for me! Some people keep a running total of their page count too. I just wait for the end of the year when GR tells it to me.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I have a nifty spreadsheet that I use to calculate everything! It's my pride and joy lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[Liz]

Emily, I haven’t been active in the group in a while, & I forgot how much I love your charts!! I feel like you need to make an IGTV or YouTube video walkthrough on how you created it. It’s amazing! 😍 I’ll even pay you for a tutorial. 😂

[RachelG.]

As far as I can tell I upvoted 15 of the prompts that made the final list and had 5 downvotes make the final list. I didn't start keeping track until poll 3.

[Kathy Jo]

Emily- oh you are the one I stole my spreadsheet from! I tweaked it a bit to fit my needs. 😂😂

[Juliet]

You all know Storygraph will keep track of your page counts/ genres/ book length stats actively FOR you? And you can just upload your Goodreads history with a database file (there are easy instructions to follow)

[Reed]

How do i do that with my books i'm reading ? I want to know

[Jillian]

Of the 50 voted on prompts that made it, I up voted 19, down voted 15 and was neutral on 16.
I have around 38 reject prompts. I tried to count repeats only once but some are similar so I might have counted each of them (mainly person who loves book and set in library/bookstore).

[Bec]

Juliet Brown wrote: "You all know Storygraph will keep track of your page counts/ genres/ book length stats actively FOR you? And you can just upload your Goodreads history with a database file (there are easy instruct..."

Thanks. I had not heard of this - I'm checking it out!

[Shannon SA]

Emily wrote: "I have a nifty spreadsheet that I use to calculate everything! It's my pride and joy lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."

Wow! That is the Spreadsheet of Spreadsheets! Most Impressed :)

[NancyJ]

Emily wrote: "I have a nifty spreadsheet that I use to calculate everything! It's my pride and joy lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."

Wow, this looks great. Do you use this same spreadsheet when doing your early planning, or do you start with the prompts listed in column A (like in the planning grid you set up for 2022)?

I notice that you listed only one prompt per book in column M, and I'm wondering at what point you reach that kind of clarity!

I didn't use a spreadsheet this year at all, and I spent way too much time retyping or moving books/prompts around, and my planning thread for 2021 is still a mess. I usually have some prompts with many potential books, and some must-read books that fit several potential prompts.

[Duygu]

Emily, I love this!!! I think I will use yours for my challenge too!

*drooling*

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Thanks everyone!

I have a blank copy here, if y'all want to make a copy for yourself without having to delete all my info: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

NancyJ, if you look on my 2021 Challenges tab, you see I have a ton of options for each prompt. Once I read a book, I stick it in one prompt that it will count for, and then I generally don't move it around. If I do have to change up what book goes with what prompt, I'll use the Community Spreadsheet to sort it all out (the format is easier for me to figure out what changes I can make), then I'll update the prompt numbers on my personal spreadsheet.

[Steve]

Shannon wrote: "Emily wrote: "I have a nifty spreadsheet that I use to calculate everything! It's my pride and joy lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/......"

Stealing Borrowing from Emily and some others (I think dalex is one) is the only reason my spreadsheet has any pizzazz! If it weren't for their formats, mine would be so utilitarian, haha. That's just my style, though: function over form! The tabs I use that are solely my creation are just default font and size, and the occasional turning things to green for completed with conditional formatting!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Oh yea, dalex's spreadsheet also inspired mine with all of the data and conversion into charts!

PS... the final list order is posted! :)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Nancy]

I have a similar spreadsheet but it's nowhere as detailed as Emily's, I don't track start date, only end, and I don't track things like page count or genre. I do like the visual stats tab though!

[dalex]

I love spreadsheets!

I confess that my reading spreadsheets have become quite simplified over the last year or so because life has been busy and weird.

[Deborah]

Thanks for sharing your talents Emily! I admit I am also guilty of copying your spreadsheet and modifying it for my own use. It has been so much fun to see my stats for this year!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

No need for guilt! I'm happy to share!

[Kathy Jo]

I started my 2022 spreadsheet- I entered the prompts on the third tab if anyone wants to copy it! I also have a tab to keep track of the series I am reading, but figured ya'll would not want that!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[LindaLH]

Emily wrote: "I have a nifty spreadsheet that I use to calculate everything! It's my pride and joy lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."

Emily, this is awesome! Thank you! I tweaked your formula so that my eBooks are included in the average page count stats. It was simple (after it took me forever to figure out).

in =AVERAGE(FILTER('2021'!H:H,'2021'!G:G="Print Book"))
I simply changed ="Print Book" to <>"Audio"

What I don't see is columns L, O, and S - and I don't see a way to unhide them. What's going on with the "LOS(T)" columns?

[Kathy Jo]

L,O, and S are there- they are colored dividers!

[Steve]

In case anyone is interested in spreadsheets, we also have a thread dedicated to that topic! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[NancyJ]

QUESTIONS about rejected prompt challenges:

Is there a folder or thread where people discuss and share their rejected prompts or other extra challenges? I'm wondering how people approach them.

a) I know you could just add them to your list, so if you wanted 28 rejected prompts you'd read 80 books.

b) Does anyone try to run them in parallel by reading books that have both a regular prompt + a rejected prompt? I think it would be more challenging to find them, but it would be more feasible if you have limited time.

For instance, I wanted to read a book by Will Storr for the Journalism topic (which didn't make it on the list). The author's name has two sets of double letters (which IS a prompt). I would like to try to find an extra match for all the prompts with title/cover/letter/number prompts. Does anyone else do this?

[Jillian]

NancyJ, I think people do the reject prompts different ways. Some add all of their up votes that don’t make the list so in your scenario they would do 80 prompts. Some might pick their top 10. I have never done the reject prompts side challenge so I have not paid that close attention to how everyone does it.

This is the first year that I’m planning doing the reject challenge. I’d like to pair them with the regular prompts. I have not decided how many to do. I’m also not 100% sure I’m going to do the whole regular challenge.

We can always start a reject challenge thread in Outside Challenges kinda like the whole NATO thread this year or previous years’ read in order thread.

[Ellie]

In the past my rejects challenge has been added on but I never get round to them, so I'm going to be flexible next year and overlap where possible. But if a book fits a reject and not a main prompt, I would still use it for my rejects.

I won't finalise my rejects until I've seen the Popsugar list though, especially as some of our rejects sneak on to their list.

[Marie]

NancyJ wrote: "QUESTIONS about rejected prompt challenges:

b) Does anyone try to run them in parallel by reading books that have both a regular prompt + a rejected prompt? I think it would be more challenging to find them, but it would be more feasible if you have limited time."

I've been doing this every year since 2019, and will do again in 2022. I don't read enough to do a rejects challenge, but I love matching up books to prompts so this is a good way to do that without taking on more books than I can manage.

[Nancy]

This year I'm doing a Close Calls challenge and am trying to not overlap with either ATY or Pop Sugar. It seems to be overly ambitious though as I haven't completed many of the prompts! I may go back and slot the ones I haven't finished into other challenge prompts.

Since I do both challenges, which is 102 books, and I also review books for a book blog (very very much on the side), a rejects challenge is more than I can handle!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

NancyJ, I'd recommend starting a thread in the Book Discussions folder about the rejects challenge! I think there's a lot of interest and people could use that to discuss how they are tackling it.

Most people track it on their regular ATY plans.

[Thomas]

Popsugar have announced they will avoid cover prompts because they are ableist. Any thoughts.

[Nadine in NY]

Thomas wrote: "Popsugar have announced they will avoid cover prompts because they are ableist. Any thoughts."



that's really interesting - where did they announce that? I haven't seen it.

[Thomas]

Someone posted in its fb group saying visual prompts are ableist and also hard for something whose very digital. One of the moderators responded in a comment saying cover prompts will be kept to a minimum and an alternative will be offered e.g red cover or red as a word in the title

[Nadine in NY]

Thomas wrote: "Someone posted in its fb group saying visual prompts are ableist and also hard for something whose very digital. One of the moderators responded in a comment saying cover prompts will be kept to a ..."


cool!! I saw that post but I never followed it so I did not see the moderator reply


I choose all of my books on line so I don't see the problem with being digital and picking based on cover, because I pick books based on cover all the time, but I am lucky enough to be able to see them.

[Alicia]

I’m not surprised. My vision isn’t that bad, but even with my glasses I find some of the more detailed cover prompts to be difficult. Source of light is one that I liked because it’s easier to identify, but when it’s things like a mineral on the cover I struggle.

I can’t imagine how hard it is for those with more limiting vision

[Hannah]

NancyJ wrote: "QUESTIONS about rejected prompt challenges:

Is there a folder or thread where people discuss and share their rejected prompts or other extra challenges? I'm wondering how people approach them.

a..."

Nancy, I don't do a reject challenge, but last year I did this with the 2020 challenge and the 2019 challenge - I read 52 books but each book had to match with one 2020 prompt and one 2019 prompt. It was super fun and a reject challenge would be such a great way to do the same thing! I found it to be not as challenging as I expected to find books that would fit two prompts at a time.

[Irene]

Thomas, I saw that! There was also a lot of protest in the comments that said eliminating cover prompts entirely would erase the important work of visual artists and what they do in cover design and art, which is often more important than people think. So I definitely support offering multiple options rather than intentionally leaving all cover prompts out - like the "Read a book with a red cover or 'red' in the title" example you mentioned. (Saying this as someone who has a degenerative eye disease myself). And I agree with Alicia that cover prompts in general shouldn't be super difficult.

The amount of difficulty involved in doing reading challenges as someone with vision impairment must be dramatically worse for someone who is completely blind. I know there are a few people in the group who have a lot of difficulty with diverse author prompts because unless someone states their ethnic background in their biography or is super well-known, it's often hard to know without looking at a photo - especially since nationality or last name alone can be misleading. I think someone was shocked to find out that Renée Ahdieh is Korean (her husband is Persian). And there has been confusion about S.A. Chakraborty, who a lot of people think is a person of color but has had to clarify online several times that she's a "white convert to Islam from Jersey" and not a POC. (I've been surprised in the past with a lot of lesser known/indie authors, such as historical romance author Stacy Reid, who does not identify as a POC anywhere I've read.)

[Nancy]

I stopped reading the comments on that post in PS because it got so long, so I didn't know a mod posted that cover prompts would be kept to a minimum. I agree that I have difficulty picking out items on covers, often I'd scroll through my TBR and not find anything and then someone would post a book that I missed. I do like that alternatives will be offered instead of eliminating cover prompts entirely.

There's been discussion on that group as well lately about the type of prompts people don't like, along the lines with POC as Irene mentioned. People have commented they don't like prompts that require digging about authors - related to their birthdays (PS has one where the author shares your zodiac sign), ethnicity, etc. While I do like diversity prompts they can be hard to figure out.

[Karen]

Hi everyone, I was hoping to do a side challenge of reading a book related to each one of the 22 Tarot Major Arcana cards. I don't really know if or how such a thing would be done in the group discussion threads. Is anybody else interested? Does anybody know how it works?

[Nancy]

I would be interested. There was a side challenge for the NATO prompt this year, the thread is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I assume someone would set up something similar for the Tarot challenge in that Outside Challenges folder.

[Kendra]

I'm planning to do the Tarot challenge too. Even if nobody starts up a challenge thread I was going to include it on my 2022 plan thread.

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I would also be interested in the Tarot Major Arcana. I've been thinking about doing something like that for a couple of years.

[Thomas]

I'd be interested but may need more idea about some of them.

[RachelG.]

I am still undecided on the Tarot challenge because I don't know how much time I will have for reading next year. I think I would need to end up using books that I am reading for the main ATY challenge to double up on the list rather than reading 21 additional books.

I would be curious to hear how others would approach the challenge. Would you read 22 books that are separate from the main challenge or count a book that you are reading for the challenge in a different prompt but that also may work as a tarot card?

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

For the Nato alphabet, I am overlapping with the regular challenge, and I think most people are doing that.

[Alicia]

Rachel, that's what I did this year. I try to do different books for both ATY and Popsugar, but realized that I won't even make it that far. So started doubling up for Tarot.

I did the Tarot card challenge this year. Here are the "definitions"/characteristics I used when deciding where to slot books. These are based on what the cards can mean for people, but then there are also the more obvious ones like Emperor and Empress for King/Queen and royalty



The Fool - vulnerable, naive, adventurous, open, purity, innocence, risk
The Magician - beginning, creation
The High Priestess - secret knowledge, immobility, trust, ability to see through deceit
The Empress - feminine power, fertility, abundance, nurter, love of home and family
The Emperor - patriarchy, material power, protection
The Hierophant - the Pope, authority, convention, strict lifestyle
The Lovers - love, strong relationship, crossroads
The Chariot - victoru, conquest and control
Justice - hardwork, sacrifices, balance, fairness, consequences
The Hermit - intelligence, education, quest for knowledge, enlightenment, self-reflection
Wheel of Fortune - luck, chance, change
Strength - courage, confidence, passion, good over evil
The Hanged Man - letting go of the past, sacrifice
Death - spiritual transformation, new beginnings, death
Temperance - time, patience, self-control
The Devil - temptation, indulgence in sensual pleasures
The Tower - unforeseen and traumatic events
The Star - creativity, hope, optimism, art, keep faith
The Moon - present, future, changes
The Sun - hope, energy, optimism, accomplishment
Judgment - trial, consequences, rebirth, self-reflection
The World - perfect, success, accomplishment

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Anyone can start that thread (I think dalex started the NATO one?), so if you are interested in doing this challenge and seeing what others are doing for it, feel free to get that going!

[RachelG.]

Thanks Robin and Alicia. The definitions also really help. I think I will give the tarot side challenge a shot. I figure that I also read plenty of books during the read-a-thons and seasonal challenges so I could be successful.

[Nancy]

Robin P wrote: "For the Nato alphabet, I am overlapping with the regular challenge, and I think most people are doing that."

Me, too. I'm doing separate books for ATY and Pop Sugar, but overlapping NATO with both of those.

[Irene]

I have a question: this is my first year using the community spreadsheet to plan out my challenge rather than just using a post that I update, and was wondering if the 2022 planning spreadsheet will still be there after the official sheet with completed books is made (or if it’ll be deleted/moved?). Will the 2022 challenge spreadsheet be added to the same file or be a new/separate one?

[Pam]

I'm going to add the Tarot Challenge to my 2022 ATY thread, just in case I decide to do it. I do like the idea and I find the Tarot to be really interesting! Mostly, I love the artwork. I'm also going to challenge myself to read additional (maybe 12, one per month) books on the Are You Well Read in World Literature? list (from the 2021 prompt). There are so many books on the list that are already on my TBR and lots that I've never heard of but sound intriguing.