Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2023] Wild Discussion
Meg wrote: "My suggestion for a multiweek prompt:3 books set in 3 different centuries
I never get to nominate because of my time zone, but if someone likes it feel free to suggest it for me!"
I like this one because we had three continents this year.
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3 books set in 3 different centuries
I never get to nominate because of my time zone, but if someone likes it feel free to suggest it for me!"
This sounds good to me. We had 3 continents in the past and this is a different twist.
3 centuries can also be easy or hard. Between Victorian era and regency, I'm not sure there's been a year when I haven't read at least one book from the 19th, 20th, and 21st century.If people wanted a challenge, do 3 centuries, none of which are the 20th or 21st.
For the match 2 prompt idea - in 2020 we had a multiweek prompt "Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites." and that might be a way to word it. I know it would be a exact duplicate that way, but I for one really loved the prompt and would definitely upvote it despite the overlap.On the subject of repeats - it depends on what I thought about the prompt the first time. If I loved the prompt, I will support it again and again (I would be perfectly happy if every prompt that was on the pre-poll was on the list every year). If I didn't like the prompt or struggled to find something for it, I'm going to downvote and argue against it being included. But most prompts I don't feel strongly either way, so I tend to just stay neutral on them.
I love the centuries idea too. If I’m around for suggestions, I can do it for you. I’m also sure there are books set in 2100 and beyond. That could also be an option
Rachel, what are some of your top dark academia recommendations? I’ve been looking to read more there.
ooh, what about ' A dark-genre book' as a prompt ? I know I have seen 'dark academia' 'dark romance' 'dark thrillers' 'dark fantasy' and 'dark sci fi' out there, there must be others
I wouldn't vote for twin siblingsI would vote for the twin/sister cities for a 2-book multiweek prompt
I would vote for 3 books set in 3 different centuries
I'm also in the camp that if I love a prompt, I'm happy to do it over and over again (yes to dark academia). But there of plenty of prompts I never want to see again (palindromic title anyone?).I'm been pretty lazy with the PS twin cities prompt this year, I couldn't find two books for any interesting pairings (that I wanted to read, of course I'm sure they exist) so I'm just doing New York and London or Tokyo. So with that in recent memory I'm unlikely to vote for it again. If I'd had a great time finding lots of pairings, I wouldn't hesitate to vote for it.
Ugh to the palindromic title, that one is on my list of top 5 worst ever.Twin cities required a bit more research than I typically like to do but I wouldn't mind doing it again, now that I know some options. I did London and Moscow.
I like set in 3 centuries.
I would love different centuries ( I appreciate it may sound similar to the past, present, future last year but it doesn’t have to be)
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If people wan..."
Shoot, you're right. I loved the idea but I do read books in all centuries anyways. Is there another level we can take it to another tougher level? Character with the same name or profession in 3 centuries? Take place in the same location? Three non-sequential centuries? There must be a way to do it without it being a total free prompt (although the 3 continents this year kinda was. I made it tougher and read books that took place on at least 3 continents because it was too easy)
Pamela wrote: "Dubhease wrote: "3 centuries can also be easy or hard. Between Victorian era and regency, I'm not sure there's been a year when I haven't read at least one book from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centur..."I actually think the multiweek pormpts tend to be relatively easy, I did the two with same word several times without even knowing it. I think the challenge is stringing them together so I really think extra requiremnts should be left to the BIO thread
Juliet Brown wrote: "I do several challenges every year, including Popsugar and Book Riot and a lot of repeat prompts I dont mind and would not downvote, but there are some like 'banned book' that I would be happy to n..."I do those other challenges as well. Are there any other challenges you do?
Ellie wrote: "I'm also in the camp that if I love a prompt, I'm happy to do it over and over again (yes to dark academia). But there of plenty of prompts I never want to see again (palindromic title anyone?).I..."
Pallendrome title would be a donvote for me without question.
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Edie wrote: "Juliet Brown wrote: "I do several challenges every year, including Popsugar and Book Riot and a lot of repeat prompts I dont mind and would not downvote, but there are some like 'banned book' that ..."I usually also do one from the Linz the Bookworm blog and Flourish and Blotts Harry Potter themed one. Depending on how I feel about my progress in April I often pick up the Reddit Fantasy book bingo as well. If you are looking for new challenges Storygraph has excellent listings of them as well as being really good at tracking your progress
I wouldn't vote for a stricter version of 3 centuries either. I hit 2 centuries easily but adding a third makes it challenging enough without being too hard.
Rachel wrote: "As someone who has participated in the voting process for many years now and who also does multiple challenges yearly, there are definitely a few prompts that seem to come up year after year, and o..."Rachel wrote: "As someone who has participated in the voting process for many years now and who also does multiple challenges yearly, there are definitely a few prompts that seem to come up year after year, and o..."
Thanks for the helpful 'common prompt' list Rachel!
I would add:- you see someone else reading in person/on TV
- recommended by a family member/book seller/librarian/stranger on a bus
I would also say prompts related to your favorite X are generally not popular.
Ellie wrote: "I'm also in the camp that if I love a prompt, I'm happy to do it over and over again (yes to dark academia). But there of plenty of prompts I never want to see again (palindromic title anyone?).I..."
I apologize for being US-centric in regard to the "Twin Cities" example. It looks like several people are taking this to mean "sister cities". I was referring to a pair of neighboring cities in the State of Minnesota in the US. The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are frequently referred to as "The Twin Cities", so my thought was you could read a book that takes place in that area.
If I do end up suggestion that idea I'll make sure to make that clear.
In an attempt to reword the basics of this idea, would "a book involving a duo or trio of some sort" work better for most people?
For a different challenge this year I had to do a palindrome title & onomatopoeia title. The palindrome was easier for me. I gave up on the onomatopoeia title & used wow, no thank you. It was the closest I could get.
like three different centuries. it would be fun. or three different eras of history.
I like three centuries. I would not put too many restrictions on it but leave it up to the individual to make it "harder" if they so choose.
How about a backlist book - a book by an author who is still publishing but not the most recent book? I haven’t seen that prompt before and I have tons of backlist sitting on my shelves and TBR!
I like it! I feel like I've seen something similar but I would totally vote for it.
Since we have multi-prompt polls coming up next, here are my 2 ideas:a) 1 book with 'Lost' in the title, 1 book with 'Found' in the title.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
b) 1 book involving a 'beginning' (birth, coming of age, new business, new home/city, new friendship) and 1 book involving an 'ending' (death, divorce, transition of power, retirement, apocalypse).
For this one I couldn't find a concise Listopia, so you'd have to look for the specific beginning or ending topic you were interested in to find a book.
We had beginning and ending last year, they weren't multi-week prompts but I don't know that people would vote for it again.I like Lost and Found though!
I'll be on vacation next week and only will have my phone and since the app is terrible probably won't participate much. I'll be back in time to vote though, and look forward to the poll! Maybe I'll stay off the discussion and suggestions threads and come in blind...
Tracy wrote: "Since we have multi-prompt polls coming up next, here are my 2 ideas:a) 1 book with 'Lost' in the title, 1 book with 'Found' in the title.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"
Tracy, if you look up prompts 1 and 52 from the 2021 ATY challenge you will find our groups listopia for beginning/end prompts.
Tracy, I like lost and found. Would you be open to making it a bit broader by dropping “in the title”. Then the stories could relate to being/something lost/found
@Nancy, @Jillian, @Alicia: Darn! I have looked at the previous years lists several times in the past couple of days, but didn't specifically for these multi-week prompts because they didn't sound familiar. Thanks for letting me know.And re: taking out the "in the title" part for Lost & Found, I'm totally fine with that. I only included the title part because it seemed easier to find. Maybe open it up to both title and theme?
How about "A book related to something being Lost, by theme or title" and "A book related to something being Found, by theme or title" ?
Mod
Why not a book related to Lost .... and to Found
And let people interpret as they want?
Pamela wrote: "Tracy wrote: "@Nancy, @Jillian, @Alicia: Darn! I have looked at the previous years lists several times in the past couple of days, but didn't specifically for these multi-week prompts because they ..."I guess I was leaning toward leaving in the title part since there is a great Listopia for that. But your suggestion is WAY more concise.
Tracy wrote: "Since we have multi-prompt polls coming up next, here are my 2 ideas:a) 1 book with 'Lost' in the title, 1 book with 'Found' in the title.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"
I like Lost & Found a lot. I'm always fond of "words in titles" types of categories, but I know others are not, so like some other comments say ,if you leave that part out it might get even more traction. (Although, personally, I'd be looking for books with those words in the titles - I just checked, and I have nice options for both.)
Alicia wrote: "Rachel, what are some of your top dark academia recommendations? I’ve been looking to read more there."I actually haven't read a ton yet, but I have a lot on my TBR for this year. I think my favourite that I've read so far is Ninth House, but I also loved If We Were Villains, The Maidens and For Your Own Good
I would add Plain Bad Heroines, Vicious and Deadly Education to that list
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Sequel to Ninth House out January 10th!
Oh darn, I read ninth house and deadly education and weren’t fans. But I think it was the writing. But I’ll add the others to my TBR
Concerning the "lost and found in title prompt" -I have almost 2200 books catalogued (both read and want to read). Of all those books I only have one book with "found" in the title. One out of 2200! So that would be a strong no vote for me.
I prefer the previously suggested idea of two books with titles containing opposites (night/day, lock/key, daughter/son) and one could use the lost/found idea for that prompt if they wanted to.
Wow, that’s quite the statistic @dalex! I did find fewer Found books in the Listopia, but quite a few that had Lost and Found in the same title. I also like the mixed pair prompt, but I’m not sure if a clear way to word that was ever found (see what I did there 😉).
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I have almost 2200 books catalogued (both read and want to read). Of all those books I only have one book with "found" in the title. One out of 22..."
Well, I have over 4000 books between Read & Want to Read and only 3 have Found in the title, all of which I have read (Did you know the full title is Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There)? I have some others with the words "Founding", "Foundling", etc. But I agree that's too restrictive if it's strictly title. It could be a theme, or as was mentioned, just an example of a pair.
We discussed leaving out the ‘in the title’ part , and I THOUGHT I had put forth a new version saying just ‘related to’, but I don’t see it now, so maybe I just agreed with the suggestion? The Listopia for Lost and Found does have ‘foundling’ and ‘founding’. So if it was changed to “a booked related to Lost” and “a booked related to Found”, would that open things up for you both (and anyone else finding the title version too restrictive)?
My absolute favorite prompt was last years ...a book the made people say, "you read what". The variety and the creativity was great. But I can't think of a prompt to top that. I would love one that is more open, even one that you can't have a listopia for. A "be creative" prompt. Any ideas?
@Ann - oh, I love that idea. I randomly came across a title that would perfectly fit ‘You read what?’“Zoroastrians' Fight for Survival (The Viking's Kurdish Love #1)”
And what makes it even better is that it’s a SERIES!
I "found" 12 books on my list with "found" in the title, so its doable.
I didn't read the whole thread, but I got the jistI didn't find anything with "found" yet that I'd really like to read. I think it might do better as a concept - Lost (missing, hidden, disappeared) and found (find, looking, discovered, recovered, returned, discovery).
I actually like it better as a single prompt. Read a book related to "lost and found." It could be a mystery or drama about a missing object or person. A person who felt lost (or lost their mind) who finds a new purpose in life (or recovers), or a lonely person with a "found family." It could be a romance with someone who found a lost love or ex. Maybe a book with one of the words in the title, or a (detective's) magnifying glass on the cover. It could be about something left behind, or something someone else adopts for their own.
@Ann and @NancyAnn - glad you have so many Found books!
Nancy - I love all your interpretations!
I think the ‘theme’ of lost and found definitely opens it up to so many more ideas. Besides your many good ones, I was also thinking of books involving the Gold Rush, or early explorer books.
And re: making it a single prompt — I DID see a lot with titles using Lost AND Found. Maybe this is the way to go, “a book related to lost and/or found”?
I know this process is arduous, but I think it yields more interesting prompts than another group I tried where the moderator determines all 52 prompts — even though I did enjoy the year I spent with that group. Is this voting process only to be found here, or do other groups do it as well? Either way, I’m glad to have found myself here :)
Tracy wrote: "@Ann and @NancyAnn - glad you have so many Found books!
Nancy - I love all your interpretations!
I think the ‘theme’ of lost and found definitely opens it up to so many more ideas. Besides your..."
I'm not aware of a nother hcallenge done by voting. Posugar take suggestions but the mods still decide and IMO made some very poor chocies this year
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I would want to keep it to twins and not pairs-- cause that is about everything and makes it too wide. Twins gives lots of options-- twins by birth, twins as in lookalikes, twin cities, twin sets (for fashion books), and wow, googling listopias, I learned there's even a twin sex thing,. If desperate, you could broaden it to include the Twin Cities. There seem plenty of twin options
Here's just a list on twins:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...