[2022] Wild Discussion Showing 301-350 of 2,340

[NancyJ]

T. wrote: "How about: A book you rediscovered while reorganizing your book collection.

This could be something from your elibrary, your Goodreads TBR or your physical book collection that you literally forgo..."

It might not be applicable to everyone, but I like it. For me this would include my huge kindle library which includes books I received for free, from an author, from giveaways, amazon's world day, $.99 specials, etc. And many that I have absolutely no memory of.

Would it be too narrow to say:

A book you received for free (as a giveaway, gift, prize, or library loan) or
A book you paid less than a dollar for?

[Ellie]

I personally like the free book option as a place to stick a review book that I have gone and requested despite telling myself no more 🤣 but I know a lot of members are big library users so they might see that as too much of a freebie?

[Thomas]

I’m the opposite. I have no idea which books I have are free. Unfortunately I don’t use libraries and I could try requesting a book but I have no guarantee I would get it

[Thomas]

NancyJ wrote: "Yikes. I've only read the first couple pages of ideas so far, but here are my reactions so far.

Year of the Tiger - I love it. It's specific to a year, and can be interpreted in many ways, includ..."

Classics seem to be very marmite. Ideas for a compromise would be great.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

Prompts that hint at classics, but have room for other options:

A book written by an anonymous author

A book published in a different century from most of your reading (those who normally read new releases can still pick a backlist book from the 1990s if they don't want to read a classic)

A book from some specific list that is mostly but not entirely classics (examples: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4... and https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...)

A book by an author who is a household name (I would actually love to make this a multi-week prompt and pair it with 'an author no one has heard of')

Edited to add: Or maybe, book with a vintage cover, since that implies older but includes books that are only a few decades old, as well as anything published with an older style cover.

[Thomas]

Not keen on the unfinished books list but the others seem great

[Hannah]

What about something like “a book set at least 100 years in the past”? A lot of classics are set in the time period they were written, but you could also use historical fiction, historical nonfiction, time travel sci fi, etc.

[Thomas]

Just to throw another one out there. Is anyone interested in a non fiction prompt this year?

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Thomas wrote: "Just to throw another one out there. Is anyone interested in a non fiction prompt this year?"

We should have at least one, not sure if there is an interesting way to word it.

[Aimee]

Robin P wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Just to throw another one out there. Is anyone interested in a non fiction prompt this year?"

We should have at least one, not sure if there is an interesting way to word it."

Since this year's was a non-fict that isn't memoir or biography, maybe we could flip it for 2022 and go for a book that *is* a biography or memoir?

[Kat]

Any thoughts for lists or awards? There is usually one or two on the list.

I was thinking a book nominated for a local award but not sure if that would work for everyone.

[Thomas]

Kat wrote: "Any thoughts for lists or awards? There is usually one or two on the list.

I was thinking a book nominated for a local award but not sure if that would work for everyone."
Yeah local award might be hard for some people, although it depends how local.
As a separate suggestion. A book nominated for an award that is NOT limited to Americans. Not saying American writers can't be eligible but not a prize like the Pulitzer which specifically excludes non Americans.

[Ellie]

Kat wrote: "Any thoughts for lists or awards? There is usually one or two on the list.

I was thinking a book nominated for a local award but not sure if that would work for everyone."

I jotted down the Indie Next lists as a list idea. I haven't looked that closely at them yet but their lists go back to 2008 and when I've seen them shared they appear to have a mix of genres.
https://www.indiebound.org/indie-next...

I also like the books lists at Mr B's Emporium of Delights but I don't know if they will suit non-UK readers:
https://mrbsemporium.com/book-lists/

[Beth]

I like the Indie lists, it looks like there is a good variety.

As for non-fiction I thought of a NF book that doesn't have a subtitle. When I was looking through my options for this year's 'a book with 6+ words in the title' I realized how many non-fic titles are really long because of their subtitles (and very formulaic, i.e. 1-4 word main title with a colon followed by a longer subtitle). It could be a nice scavenger-style prompt to find one without and it also doesn't restrict form or content.

[Beth]

I will always vote for a memoir prompt as I really enjoy them but I feel like they do come up quite often.

Maybe we could try adding an extra layer to it like 'a memoir written by____' - examples could be POC, LGBTQ+, somebody from a different culture, somebody you find inspiring, etc.

[Kendra]

I love the idea of a nonfic book without a subtitle!

[Hannah]

Nonfiction without a subtitle is a real challenge - I like it! Based on a cursory search, it seems too that a lot of the options I found were memoirs/essay collections, rather than narrative nonfiction/historical nonfiction/science nonfiction, so it would be a nice balance to this year's prompt.

[Thomas]

on a separate note can any mods tell us if the wild card rule will still be in effect next year?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, wild cards will still be available, as always.

[Thomas]

Emily wrote: "Yes, wild cards will still be available, as always."

great. means I can start mine on July 1st.

[Deborah]

Beth wrote: "I will always vote for a memoir prompt as I really enjoy them but I feel like they do come up quite often.

Maybe we could try adding an extra layer to it like 'a memoir written by____' - examples ..."

I like the idea of Memoir written by someone you find inspiring. I think that is general enough that most people would be able to find something.

[Deborah]

Emily wrote: "Yes, wild cards will still be available, as always."

I am new to ATY this year could someone explain the rules of the wild cards to me?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Wild Cards exist so that if there is a prompt you don’t connect with or can’t find a book for, you can use a Wild Card for that prompt. We generally say you have one Wild Card per challenge.

That being said, no one is policing your reading, and we encourage you to tackle the challenge in a way that best fits your lifestyle and reading habits, so you can use Wild Cards however you’d like.

[Ellie]

I've struggled with "inspiring" prompts in the past because I don't look at authors or famous people and think "you inspire me". What are they inspiring me to do? I just want to read non-fiction and think that was interesting or entertaining, maybe retain a few nuggets of new information.

I'd prefer a memoir prompt to be very general so I can at least find a topic that interests me.

[Jill]

The wild card can be used if one of the prompts in the challenge is too difficult for you to find a book for, for whatever reason. However the mods do not police the challenge, and a lot of people never complete it anyway by reading 52 books.

[Kat]

I'm not generally a fan of memoirs so not sure making it more complicated would appeal to me. Non-fiction without a subtitle could be fun and work for those who like memoir and those who don't.

[Beth]

Yeah I totally get people not wanting anything specific in a memoir prompt! I was just trying to think of a way to make it a little different from the standard one but understand that might not work for everyone :)

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

It's really hard to find nonfiction these days that doesn't have a subtitle. It seems publishers deliberately do that to indicate the book is nonfiction. We don't necessarily notice them, for instance, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz is usually just referred to by the main title.

[Jill]

I found that most of the books listed on this year's lystopia for non biography, were marked as biographies on goodreads. I realise that goodreads only use what people have listed them on their own shelves, but it does make it confusing.

[Thomas]

Jill wrote: "I found that most of the books listed on this year's lystopia for non biography, were marked as biographies on goodreads. I realise that goodreads only use what people have listed them on their own..."

Yes it can get very strange. I'm so glad polling open next week.

[Traci]

I personally try to read at least 20% nonfiction over the year, but enough people don't like non-fiction in the group that it can be hard to get these in. In past years it's usually taken a few rounds with different nonfiction prompts.

I like the no subtitle prompt (but didn't look for books!) If subsetting nonfiction, it seems best to keep it pretty general, so while a memoir by an AOC might seem too restrictive for the group, a memoir (or memoir/autobiography/biography) and nonfiction by an AOC might both be a little more amenable. I almost nominated nonfiction by an AOC last year, but something about what was already on this list made me decide against it.

[Thomas]

I also thought maybe a book by a journalist. Would cover several nonfiction books but there are also numerous novels that would fit it

[Aimee]

Thomas wrote: "I also thought maybe a book by a journalist. Would cover several nonfiction books but there are also numerous novels that would fit it"

I think we had that prompt fairly recently, or am I thinking of Popsugar?

[Thomas]

Aimee wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I also thought maybe a book by a journalist. Would cover several nonfiction books but there are also numerous novels that would fit it"

I think we had that prompt fairly recently, o..."

POPSUGAR had a similar one in 2020. I don't know about here.

[Beth]

I feel like we've had it on ATY before but I couldn't find it in the past few years' lists so either I'm wrong on that or it just hasn't been a recent one. I like the prompt so would likely vote for it. I don't do the Popsugar challenge though so it doesn't feel repetitive to me.

[Marie]

A book by, or about, a current or former journalist was suggested for 2019, but didn't make it. I liked it enough to put it in my reject challenge.

[Thomas]

Marie wrote: "A book by, or about, a current or former journalist was suggested for 2019, but didn't make it. I liked it enough to put it in my reject challenge."

well I might as well suggest it again.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I think personally I’d prefer something like ‘a book by a scientist’ or some other nonfiction oriented profession instead of by a journalist.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I can’t link books because I’m in the app right now, but I found quite a few options for nonfiction without a subtitle just on my owned TBR. It’s a small subset, but by no means impossible to find, which makes it a great prompt in my opinion!

Here’s some of what I found:

Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome
Joseph Dommers Vehling, Apicius

Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking
Masaharu Morimoto

A Technique for Producing Ideas
James Webb Young

Ten Days in a Mad-House
Nellie Bly

The Holiness of God
R.C. Sproul

Unashamed
Lecrae Moore


The ABC of Relativity
Peter Clark, Bertrand Russell

Miracles
C.S. Lewis

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Raquel wrote: "I can’t link books because I’m in the app right now, but I found quite a few options for nonfiction without a subtitle just on my owned TBR. It’s a small subset, but by no means impossible to find,..."

Those books, which are older, reinforce my theory that it is a recent development that all nonfiction has to have subtitles.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Greenlights would also work... I remember thinking how weird/nice it was that there was no subtitle.

Same for Untamed and Becoming.

[Thomas]

Oh! I can’t wait to start voting

[Beth]

I'm glad people are liking the no-subtitle suggestion!

I found that although they were definitely in the minority, there were still enough in my TBR that it wouldn't be too difficult a prompt.

Some popular ones I found on my shelves:
Lab Girl
Between the World and Me
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
We Should All Be Feminists
Educated
Columbine
When Breath Becomes Air

[Steve]

Beth wrote: "I'm glad people are liking the no-subtitle suggestion!

I found that although they were definitely in the minority, there were still enough in my TBR that it wouldn't be too difficult a prompt.

S..."

Ooooh, here's a challenge to find (note: I'm not suggesting this as a prompt idea...): books where the title is longer than the subtitle! Usually the title is 1, 2, 3 words, and the subtitle is a sentence. Now I want to find books where it's the opposite, and I can't think of any off the top of my head. Oh, and it can't be "A Memoir" or "Stories" as the subtitle. That doesn't count.

Semi-relevant WaPo article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

Here's one I can think of so far: Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit

[Thomas]

Steve wrote: "Beth wrote: "I'm glad people are liking the no-subtitle suggestion!

I found that although they were definitely in the minority, there were still enough in my TBR that it wouldn't be too difficult ..."

Yeah quite a challenge

[Sophie]

I see that the thread for the ATY2022 list is frozen. I understand that we are not to comment on that thread unless we are moderators. However, by freezing it, we can’t select the “notify me when someone comments “ option . This means that those of us who follow only select threads won’t be able to see any announcements. Is there a way to prevent everyone from commenting on it but without actually freezing the topic?

[Jillian]

If you have the app, you can turn on notifications on frozen threads one of the few things that works better with the app.

(In the past when I was a mod (different group), I’d temporarily unfreeze a thread for someone to turn on notifications. If you don’t have the app, perhaps the mods could do that for you.)

[Beth]

Steve wrote: "Beth wrote: "I'm glad people are liking the no-subtitle suggestion!

I found that although they were definitely in the minority, there were still enough in my TBR that it wouldn't be too difficult ..."

Ooh that is a tricky one for sure! After a lot of scrolling I managed to find a couple:
Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: An Introvert's Year of Living Dangerously
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (technically this fits but it still feels like the subtitle is longer!)

[Rachel]

I was loosely thinking of suggesting something like "A book related to a Disney song title" but I'm not sure if that's too broad. I purposely wanted to stay away from "popular" or "favourite" since I want people to be free to pick any Disney movie, and I know some are a bit resistant to "favourite" prompts in general.

Basically, what I'm trying to get at with the prompt is that the book in some way connects to the name of a song. For example:

- A Whole New World - could be about explorers, first contact, traveling somewhere new for the first time

- Be Prepared - prepping for a doomsday scenario/zombie apocalypse

- Poor Unfortunate Souls - Les Mis automatically springs to mind, but anything where people are undergoing some kind of severe hardship

- I Won't Say (I'm In Love) - hate-to-love romances

- On the Open Road (from A Goofy Movie) - anything involving a road trip

There are a ton of Disney songs and movies, so it's pretty open to tailoring it to your liking. Songs like Kiss the Girl or Can You Feel the Love Tonight are open to just about any romance, really, but people can choose for themselves how to limit it if they want.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I've unlocked the announcements thread for whoever wants to follow.

omg I loveeee the Disney song prompt! I would 100% vote for that one as is, but if you wanted to narrow it a bit, you could say "A book related to a song from an animated Disney movie", which would limit it a bit from the whole Disney universe (not using Marvel or Star Wars, original Disney channel movies and series, etc.)