Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2023] Wild Discussion
I’d be interested in both “A book about/involving language, linguistics, or the spoken word” and "A book involving at least one of the 5 senses"
Katie wrote: "I imagine this will be unpopular for people who already do multiple challenges, but thinking of the "awards, challenges, lists" grouping, what about something like:A prompt from a different(/non-..."
As someone who does multiple challenges, I have no problem with this prompts. My personal approach to multiple challenges is to allow a book to count for multiple challenges, but not for more than one prompt within a challenge. I likely would use this to make space to read a long book and have it count on several challenges.
I am not doing outside challenges so am not familiar with these lists (other than PopSugar, which I discontinued). I am sure I could find something but not sure why we would want to look for list similar to what we are creating.
I was just trying to think of something that was similar to but different than the rejects/“favorite from a past ATY list” prompts that seem to make the challenge often enough and expand it to different challenges. I am doing Popsugar alongside ATY this year and do think that some more interesting prompts make it into other challenges since they aren’t crowd-sourced, but I also hated how narrow some Popsugar prompts were this year (palindrome? Yikes) so this allows for a blend of both. A happy medium, if you will.
But if it’s not popular, it’s not popular. 🤷♀️
Ah, I see. Thanks. I am not sure I'd vote for it but I'm not against it either.
Katie wrote: "I imagine this will be unpopular for people who already do multiple challenges, but thinking of the "awards, challenges, lists" grouping, what about something like:A prompt from a different(/non-..."
This would be a down vote for me. There are literally THOUSANDS of prompts across all those challenges. Even if I had every intention of picking a prompt and finding a book for it, I know in the end it would be a freebie that I would throw any book into that didn't fit elsewhere on the AtY challenge. But that's just me, maybe everyone else is more strict about their challenges than I am.
I have been thinking of suggesting A book celebrating the entertainment industry. I was hoping that would open up everything from theater, film, fine art, dance, opera, music, literary publishing, television, and radio. Any thoughts?
Mod
I like that, it's very flexible. People could narrow it down if they want to.
RachelG. wrote: "I have been thinking of suggesting A book celebrating the entertainment industry. I was hoping that would open up everything from theater, film, fine art, dance, opera, music, literary publishing, ..."There was some discussion of "theatre" which seemed to have some support (including me). This wider idea of "the entertainment industry" works for me as well as the narrower "theatre."
Tracy wrote: "Meg wrote: "How about this phrasing for the Woman behind the man concept... a book about a woman who was overlooked by history or literature"@Meg, last night when I couldn't sleep I came across t..."
Thanks for the list! It definitely shows that there are plenty of books for this prompt.
And re fiction / non-fiction, there seems to be a trend for fiction books on this topic too, e.g. about women from Greek myths ( Circe The Silence of the Girls ) and retellings of other literature ( The Wife Upstairs Gulliver's Wife)
I rarely make it to suggestion threads so I'd love for someone else to suggest it if they like it.
The prompt suggestion of reading an Australian Award Winner got me interesting in reading more to do with Australia. I'm guessing the prompt didn't make it because a) list prompts can be a problem, and b) personally I was having trouble finding those titles at my local library, which is where I get most of my books.Maybe if we opened it up and either chose "A book by an author from Australia or New Zealand", or "A book set in Australia or New Zealand".
Any interest in those?
Tracy wrote: "The prompt suggestion of reading an Australian Award Winner got me interesting in reading more to do with Australia. I'm guessing the prompt didn't make it because a) list prompts can be a problem,..."I do think that Australia could be covered already with our prompt a book set in a location that starts with A, T or Y. Perhaps, expanding it to either “ A book set in Oceania” or “ A book from an author from Oceania” or “A book set in or by an author from Oceania.” I have no clue which would work best, or if it is something the group would want.
Good idea Jillian. I had forgotten about Setting Starting with ATY, but Oceana would be a good way to cover the whole region.
I would vote for Australian author or author from Oceania (though I would almost certainly read an Australian or New Zealand author after the trouble I had finding Pacific Islander books this year). I probably wouldn't vote for it as a setting prompt.
Okay, so I don't know if we can work this into a prompt, but I read The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading i while back, where the author
"decided to read like an explorer. She "wanted to sample, more democratically, the actual ground of literature." Casting herself into the untracked wilderness of the New York Society Library's stacks, she chose a shelf of fiction almost at random and read her way through it. "
could it be a prompt to select eg. three books at random from your own, the libraries or a friends bookshelf - and read one of them?
You would of course be able to select WHICH shelf (poetry, graphic novels, new science books, romance section, crime anthologies etc)
Pamela wrote: "Tracy wrote: "@Meg, last night when I couldn't sleep I came across this Listopia with essentially your wording: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1....."That's a great list- although the anti-n..."
I have "Women's History" as this month's tag, and there are many fiction books loosely based on real women.
"Overlooked women" is a little tougher, but it might include groups of women in certain situations. E.g. the pregnant or abandoned women imprisoned in the Magdalene Laundries. Many people looked the other way. There are both fiction and non-fiction stories based on them.
This is a recent one: Small Things Like These
This is also one of the books I had in mind for a book about a religious character or topic.
Louise wrote: "Okay, so I don't know if we can work this into a prompt, but I read The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading i while back, where the author
"decided to read like ..."
That book looks brilliant, I have downloaded it to my Kindle :)
A prompt could be to pick-a-shelf (that's the name of a group on GR) and read a book from it. If that's too broad, could use the initial of your first or last name (or both) and pick an author with that same first or last name initial. Or post say 3 or 5 books from your TBR and ask one of our ATY members (you can specify who) to choose which of those books you must read..... I think the idea is to read a random book from a selection, not fit a book to a prompt as we are used to doing ... not sure how to work that into a prompt.
I really liked the book - and found some new authors I have never heard of before - excited to hear what you think of it :-)I kind of figured is as a suprise promtp🥳 - but where you can narrow it down enough to find something you are likely to enjoy.
NancyJ wrote: "Read a book that involves an element of religion or atheism. I would also like a book that had an element of religion, or religious characters. Historical fiction is full of religious characters as a part of society, political conflicts, or wars. I read interesting contemporary books this year involving a nun in a halfway house, a priest/monk going into space,, and an Irish Catholic Priest grappling with the sex scandals in the church."I really like this idea. I am not a religious person AT ALL, but I read two books this year that were amazing and would definitely fit this prompt: Agatha of Little Neon and Matrix. I think it would be really easy, but incredibly interesting to find books that fit this prompt.
Siobhan wrote: "I'm definitely thinking of submitting the translation prompt last time. What do we think would be the best wording for it? I'm leaning towards A translated book or A book that has been translated f..."I was also thinking of suggesting this one. The wording I had come up with is: A book that has been translated from another language.
RachelG. wrote: "I have been thinking of suggesting A book celebrating the entertainment industry. I was hoping that would open up everything from theater, film, fine art, dance, opera, music, literary publishing, ..."I really like these topics. We had a similar suggestion early this summer, but this seems to be broader. "Celebrating" suggests to me that the books should show a positive side of that field. (Not that there are many books about the "death of music".)
I would interpret the phrasing to mean that the books should be "about" one of those fields. E.g. It wouldn't be enough to have a character who is an actor, unless it was relevant to the plot.
Would it be stretching it too far to read a script of a play? Or a book that was adapted into a play or film? It would definitely stretch it to far to read a literary book because it's a part of the publishing industry.
Shannon wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "I'm definitely thinking of submitting the translation prompt last time. What do we think would be the best wording for it? I'm leaning towards A translated book or A book that has b..."I would upvote this.
What about something along the lines of A book about healing. This could be physical, mental, emotional. There could be a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction books. Or is this too broad?
I've been thinking of possible theme prompts. Another I thought of - A book about power and corruption. What is the quote about power? Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I thought this would be an interesting topic to explore. Again, this could easily be fiction or non-fiction.
Also, "power" can refer to a number of things - political power, wealth, physical prowess, relationship dynamics, career structures, age differences, etc.
Another theme prompt: A book about the ties that bind us. This would be a book that focuses on an important relationship. It could be parent/child, brother/sister, husband/wife, or even coworkers who play an important part in one another's lives. It could be used for a book about the military like Band of Brothers. Or a family drama. It could also encompass non-fiction books that focus on important relationships in history or the science of relationships.
Sorry about the flurry of posts - I finally have a minute to sit down and think. :)
NancyJ wrote: "RachelG. wrote: "I have been thinking of suggesting A book celebrating the entertainment industry. I was hoping that would open up everything from theater, film, fine art, dance, opera, music, lite..."I agree that I was thinking the book would be about the industry and will word my example that way. Thanks for helping me clarify.
I think it would be okay to read a script for a play/movie or a book turned into a film but unless a literary book is about a book trying to be published I would think reading one just because it is a part of the publishing industry wouldn't work. Of course everyone is free to interpret how they wish.
Katie wrote: "I imagine this will be unpopular for people who already do multiple challenges, but thinking of the "awards, challenges, lists" grouping, what about something like:A prompt from a different(/non-..."
I like it. We do need at least one list challenge and that one would be different. I was thinking somewhat the same thing. Something like a book that has been on at least two lists.
Shannon wrote: "Also, "power" can refer to a number of things - political power, wealth, physical prowess, relationship dynamics, career structures, age differences, etc."Power. Stations, electricity, electricians, generators, wires to name but a few
Mod
As an art museum person who just left a job with a symphony, I would not hear "entertainment industry" and think visual arts, opera, theater... I know technically they are entertainment, but the word "industry" turns it into more Hollywood or other more for-profit focused endeavors.
I am, randomly, about to start my 4th book in a row that involves a painting, so as long as there are more out there, I'm totally cool on an arts or similar prompt
A book from a different challenge I like although if I remember rightly it used to be in the pre poll and was dropped because it never got in. Or is my mind playing tricks?
Pamela wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "RachelG. wrote: "I have been thinking of suggesting A book celebrating the entertainment industry. I was hoping that would open up everything from theater, film, fine art, dance, ope..."I agree, Pamela. Entertainment Industry sounds like movies.
Mod
The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading i while back, where the author
"decided to read like ..."
It would have to be one book cause we've already done the multiweek prompt. And remember some people don't have local libraries or friends. Last year or the year before we had a random number generator prompt which I liked, although I cheated till I got something I actually wanted to read now off my TBR shelf, but I like the idea of somehow picking a random book.
We had "A book you choose randomly" way back in 2017. It was interesting to see all the different ways people came up with to choose for that one.
Just had a strange thought and figured, what the heck...This week I've been enjoying the remake of the game show "Password" on TV. Basically there is a "password" or word you want your partner to guess. You can only give a one word clue for them to guess the word. If your partner doesn't guess the "password," then the other team gets a turn, until someone gets it.
It is interesting to see the different clues people think of to try and get someone to say a random "password," such as, "glitter" or "vouge." Maybe we could have a "password" and people could read whatever they felt was related to the password. Or maybe the password could be "password" - read a book related to the word password.
Ok, sounds weird, but it was bouncing around in my head just now, so I set it free.
Mod
Michelle wrote: "Just had a strange thought and figured, what the heck...This week I've been enjoying the remake of the game show "Password" on TV. Basically there is a "password" or word you want your partner to..."
This sounds kind of like word association, which I'm into. It reminds me a bit of the "random word generator" prompt, which I liked in theory but hated in practice because I could never decide which iteration of random word to use. I ended up using the group word ("hand") which solved the issue. I could see doing something like that again as long as there was a group pick for it.
Ann - I like the Book that has been on at least two lists. I don't know what would count as a list (guess it can be up for interpretation) but I like the idea since people can do what they want with it.
Also didn't we have a prompt suggestion about A book related to power or politics already? I don't remember where that ended up in the poll results, but I'm pretty sure we voted on it.
Katie wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Just had a strange thought and figured, what the heck...This week I've been enjoying the remake of the game show "Password" on TV. Basically there is a "password" or word you wan..."
There was a group prompt for the random prompt generator? Wish I'd known that at the time. LOL
What do you think of city mouse/country mouse as a prompt? This could a book set in both rural and urban locations or a book with protagonists from very different worlds.
Mod
This is a good concept but often we can't tell before reading the book that this theme will be in the book.
Mod
What could we do to fill these in? What's a good Goodreads prompt?
And when will poll 8 suggestions open? (looks at clock and yawns ;-D )
I think if you call it something other than "Tookie" it might have a better chance. A lot of people have no idea who that is.
Louise wrote: "And when will poll 8 suggestions open? (looks at clock and yawns ;-D )"As per the Reading List thread:
The next round of suggestions will open around 7 pm CST on Friday, August 12
Pamela wrote: "Louise wrote: "Okay, so I don't know if we can work this into a prompt, but I read The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading i while back, where the author
"decide..."
I like the idea of a random word generator related prompt!
Pamela wrote: "So looking at the prompts, we have no list prompts (come on Tookie!) and also no Goodreads & RecommendationsWhat could we do to fill these in? What's a good Goodreads prompt?"
Hmm a book from one of last years ATY lists?
Shannon wrote: "Another theme prompt: A book about the ties that bind us. This would be a book that focuses on an important relationship. It could be parent/child, brother/sister, husband/wife, or even coworkers w..."I like this idea Shannon. I was trying to think of more character related prompts, and I came up with "A book where parenthood is important to the story.". I like that your version encompasses more relationships. I can see that some people might not want to read about parenthood, but certainly everyone (I think?) would be ok reading about SOME sort of relationship.
Joy D wrote: "I think if you call it something other than "Tookie" it might have a better chance. A lot of people have no idea who that is."I only knew the relationship because of following the Wild Discussion. I haven't read The Sentence yet, but am familiar with it, and have read and enjoyed several of Louise Erdrich's books.
So maybe resubmitting it as something like "A book from the reading list found in Louise Erdrich's book The Sentence." might be more helpful, especially if a link to the list was included (I know I saw one in the Wild Discussion somewhere).
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“A book about/involving language, linguistics, or the spoken word.”
Prompts abo..."
I think this could include oral tradition, spells, etc. I did find a few listopias in this vein. What do folks think?
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...