[2023] Wild Discussion Showing 2,801-2,850 of 4,060

[Jillian]

I’m personally down voting all prompts that have to due with a specific time period, since, we already have three prompts set in three different time periods.

[Dubhease]

Jillian wrote: "I’m personally down voting all prompts that have to due with a specific time period, since, we already have three prompts set in three different time periods."

Maybe that's why I'm not a fan of the jazz age prompt or the proposed one from 1950-2000. I loved the three time period prompt. But we all get to pick the time periods that interest us.

[Nancy]

Agreed, we have enough time period prompts now, I am unlikely to vote for another (though I did vote for Jazz Age because I do love that time period).

[Alicia]

I'm not dead set against other time periods, but I think the reign of Queen Elizabeth is just too broad. Especially since it would cover so many modern books. I'd probably downvote that because it would just be "read a book" to me.

[Michelle]

I can't remember, has a banned books suggestion been made yet?

[Thomas]

I don’t think so. It would be a downvote for me though. Okay I will drop my latest suggestion. Will try to think of something else

[Siobhan]

A book by an author with the name of a monarch, perhaps? (e.g Elizabeth, Charles, Louis...) Though we do also have a few author prompts, as I recall!

[dalex]

Siobhan wrote: "A book by an author with the name of a monarch, perhaps? (e.g Elizabeth, Charles, Louis...) Though we do also have a few author prompts, as I recall!"

I think there would be a good bit of overlap between this and the "names popular in 1923" prompt. John, William, James, Charles, George, Edward, Richard.

[Nadine in NY]

Siobhan wrote: "A book by an author with the name of a monarch, perhaps? (e.g Elizabeth, Charles, Louis...) Though we do also have a few author prompts, as I recall!"


I wouldn't downvote it, but I would not upvote either, because I'm already planning to read Elizabeth Peters for the "popular name in 1923" category. (I know it's her pen name but I've decided it counts!) I mean, I could easily read TWO Elizabeth Peters books, I still have several in the Amelia Peabody series to read.

[Thomas]

To backtrack slightly someone mentioned doing Popsugar next year, do we know if there is one? I heard it was in doubt

[Nancy]

Yes, they confirmed there will be one next year.

[Siobhan]

dalex wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "A book by an author with the name of a monarch, perhaps? (e.g Elizabeth, Charles, Louis...) Though we do also have a few author prompts, as I recall!"

I think there would be a good..."

A fair point! Two very differently phrased prompts, that would nonetheless be basically the same prompt.

[Thomas]

Thanks for the clarification on Popsugar. I don’t do it myself but am always curious

[°~Amy~°]

Nancy wrote: "Yes, they confirmed there will be one next year."

I was just reading that. I am curious how it will be under new "management" if you will. They mentioned announcing a THEME for 2023, that makes me nervous!

[Tracy]

@Emily (mod) - I just got caught up adding several books to months January - July 2022 for ATY Best Books posts. Would it be helpful if I added those books to the ATY Best Books of 2022 Listopia, or would you rather maintain control of that?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

That would be very helpful, Tracy! I can only vote for 100 books per listopia, so if you add them, I can save my votes for other books. Thanks!

[Pearl]

Idea - A book involving artificial intelligence, robots, augmented humans, etc.

I'm reading All Systems Red, (murderbot) for the non-human character prompt and I like it. Do we have a 2023 prompt that would fit the Murderbot series, Klara and the Sun, or other books with a human-like character with a personality? I'm new to sci-fi and I don't know how many other books are like this.

[Rachel]

Nancy wrote: "Yes, they confirmed there will be one next year."

That's great! I was literally trying to find this yesterday, but couldn't figure out how to search for it. Everything kept just bringing me back to the current year's challenge

[Pearl]

Thomas wrote: "I was thinking “a book written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II” obviously I won’t submit if honoured by the Queen gets in as two wouldn’t be fair"

That would include the last 20 years, so people might not look at earlier periods of her reign. I would prefer a focused time period that is distinctive, like the roaring twenties or jazz age. It has a real personality.

Do you think the other Queen related prompt won't get voted in?

[Thomas]

Pearl- I’m preparing an alternative, if the current Queen gets in I won’t suggest any others. Whether the current gets in, I never like to guess how the vote will go, I’m often surprised come results day

[Pearl]

Thomas wrote: "Pearl- I’m preparing an alternative, if the current Queen gets in I won’t suggest any others. Whether the current gets in, I never like to guess how the vote will go, I’m
often surprised come resul..."

Just checking, I missed a lot.

With 4 new prompts this week we must be almost done. Compared to past years, we don't have prompts on historical fiction, a love story, fantasy-sci-fi, nature or the environment. I would also vote for prompts on friendship, family, the arts, immigration, or society. I would like a recent events prompt, but not limited to 2022 (some of us are barely ready to read about the pandemic or Trump).

[Ellie]

Pearl wrote: "Idea - A book involving artificial intelligence, robots, augmented humans, etc.

I'm new to sci-fi and I don't know how many other books are like this..."

There are plenty. Plus loads of non fiction on both robotics and AI, including social impact.

There was a similar prompt for Popsugar a few years back if their list is of use:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Thomas]

I think historical fiction is covered by the centuries prompt. But yes the others we don’t have so far. The closest is related to science

[Nadine in NY]

Pearl wrote: "With 4 new prompts this week we must be almost done. Compared to past years, we don't have prompts on historical fiction, a love story, fantasy-sci-fi, nature or the environment. I would also vote for prompts on friendship, family, the arts, immigration, or society. I would like a recent events prompt, but not limited to 2022 (some of us are barely ready to read about the pandemic or Trump).
..."



We've got a book about science, which can cover nature/environment. And the three centuries prompts COULD be historical fiction if one chooses.

We do not have much in the way of genre prompts. There is the book with a murder, which could be a mystery, but that's it.

[dalex]

Pearl wrote: "Idea - A book involving artificial intelligence, robots, augmented humans, etc."

This is considered a sub-genre of sci-fi and there are loads of great books! (One of my favorites is The Mad Scientist's Daughter.)

All of the sci-fi haters in the group (of which there seem to be many) would downvote this prompt idea in a second. If they don't like sci-fi to begin with they aren't going to be on board for a prompt that limits them to one subgenre.

[Thomas]

It’s really weird, I’ve had so many ideas I thought up carefully that didn’t get anywhere then I basically came up with murder on the fly ( when suggestions were already open) and it got in

[dalex]

It is difficult to get genre prompts voted in. If people do not like romance or horror or science fiction, they don't want a prompt to force them to read that genre.

However, if a prompt is about a story element that is often associated with one genre but could be interpreted differently, then that is more likely to get voted in. For example, "a book with a murder" could be psychological thriller, cozy mystery, science fiction, non-fiction, literary fiction, satire, even poetry!

[Tracy]

I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for the past week - would this help with the “hated genre” idea?

“A book in a different sub genre than you’ve read, within a favorite genre.”

The wording is a bit clunky, so happy for suggestions about that.

The idea is to maybe read a cozy mystery if you normally read hard boiled detective mysteries, or utopian sci-fi if you tend to read cyberpunk sci-fi. Maybe alternate history if you often read high fantasy. Gothic romance instead of contemporary romance.

Would this be enough to stretch what you read without being distasteful?

[Thomas]

I like this sub genre idea.

[Dubhease]

I don't dislike the different subgenre idea. I think it would need a few examples.

[Ellie]

Tracy wrote: "A book in a different sub genre than you’ve read, within a favorite genre..."

I don't think I read that narrowly in my favoured genres though, so this feels a bit like me having to read something I specifically avoid eg. Grimdark.

[dalex]

Tracy wrote: "A book in a different sub genre than you’ve read, within a favorite genre."

I love this idea. However, it seems like many people don't understand subgenres (or even genres, sometimes). Proposing the idea would most likely require putting out a lot of information and lists and things, which would not even be read by some of the voters.

As an example of what I mean when I say people don't understand genres - in a book related facebook group I follow, a frequent question is "Can anyone recommend a good science fiction book?" And I'm like "Space opera? Alien invasion? Post-apocalyptic? Artificial intelligence? Alternate history? Near future? Steampunk?" I mean, you've got to break it down a little before I can give you recommendations. Haha.

And then there's all the esoteric subgenres that have popped up recently. Hopepunk. Grimdark. Up lit. Grip lit. Dark academia. Cli-fi. Gaslamp. Etc. There's a lot of confusion there.

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Ellie wrote: "I don't think I read that narrowly in my favoured genres though, so this feels a bit like me having to read something I specifically avoid eg. Grimdark."

I second that notion. People who really love genre reading tend to devour everything they love about the genre, and if there's a subgenre they aren't reading, it isn't because they haven't tried it. It's because they've tried it and hated it. I read very broadly in fantasy. I love urban fantasy and grimdark fantasy and hopepunk fantasy and postapocalyptic fantasy. I adore magical realism and dark fantasy and science fantasy. I read all of those things as a normal matter of course. I do not read paranormal romantic fantasy or epic fantasy or steampunk. Because I don't like them. And I would resent having a prompt that made me read them.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

Tracy wrote: "I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for the past week - would this help with the “hated genre” idea?

“A book in a different sub genre than you’ve read, within a favorite genre.”

The wor..."

I like it! I hate genre prompts that say "read x genre"- I like this flexibility to pick a genre I don't hate.

[Tracy]

Ok, so for the very-widely-read I’ve just kicked the can down the road to hated SUB genres…

Going back to Thomas’s Murder prompt, where a simple idea can fit into many genres — how about a book involving a parent and child relationship? Not just that a parent and child are in the book, but that their relationship is a focus of the book.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

Dubhease wrote: "I don't dislike the different subgenre idea. I think it would need a few examples."

so I ike historical fiction. Subgenres are, per wikipedia:

3.1 Documentary fiction
3.2 Fictional biographies
3.3 Gothic fiction
3.4 Historical mysteries
3.5 Historical romance and family sagas
3.6 Nautical and pirate fiction
3.7 Alternate history and historical fantasy
3.8 Historiographic metafiction
3.9 Children's historical fiction
3.10 Comics and graphic novels

Well argh me matey, I never read nautical or pirates!

[Tracy]

Good resource Pamela! I’ll have to find the similar list for our widely-read-sci-fi and fantasy readers to see if there ARE subs they haven’t read :)

[Thomas]

That’s got potential Tracy

[Nadine in NY]

Tracy wrote: "I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for the past week - would this help with the “hated genre” idea?

“A book in a different sub genre than you’ve read, within a favorite genre.”

The wor..."


Maybe "read a subgenre you have not read before"?

There still might be some pushback that it's "too broad" since it doesn't really specify anything. (And, okay, I might be guilty of thinking that.)

You could tighten it up a little bit and say "read a subgenre you haven't read before within one of your preferred genres" but then there are the people who say "I read too broadly so there aren't any I haven't read" and also the people who say "I can't pick one genre I prefer most."

[Tracy]

My original clunky wording DID include that the sub-genre be within a favorite genre. Bayou are correct Nadine that people sometime don’t want to pick something from a “favorite” because “what if we find out it’s really not?!” I think.

What if it is just a sub-genre within “one of the genres you enjoy”?

[Joy D]

I think people have different goals. One is to choose among books you already own. Another is to expand your horizons. It's more likely a prompt will get voted in if it accommodates both goals.

[dalex]

Tracy wrote: "Good resource Pamela! I’ll have to find the similar list for our widely-read-sci-fi and fantasy readers to see if there ARE subs they haven’t read :)"

https://worldswithoutend.com/resource...

[Tracy]

And sorry if I misunderstood your suggestion Nadine. If my last comment seemed like just a rewording of your idea it might be because I reading on the app where words always seem to be missing in our comments. This seems like a basic function that the app developers should be able to work out!

[Tracy]

Joy D wrote: "I think people have different goals. One is to choose among books you already own. Another is to expand your horizons. It's more likely a prompt will get voted in if it accommodates both goals."

Ideally yes, but how to know what people's bookshelves hold? I'm sure I must have a book in a subgenre of one of my favorite genres that I haven't read. But not everyone does, or REALIZES they do.

I guess there's not the perfect prompt...

[Tracy]

Thomas wrote: "That’s got potential Tracy"

@Thomas, did you mean the sub-genres or the parent/child relationship focus?

[Tracy]

dalex wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Good resource Pamela! I’ll have to find the similar list for our widely-read-sci-fi and fantasy readers to see if there ARE subs they haven’t read :)"

https://worldswithoutend.com/re..."

Thanks @dalex! That's a lot of sub-genres! I've seen this before when we were discussing some other idea (speculative fiction?) weeks ago. Was that you too? Very handy resource :)

[Nadine in NY]

Tracy wrote: "And sorry if I misunderstood your suggestion Nadine. If my last comment seemed like just a rewording of your idea it might be because I reading on the app where words always seem to be missing in o..."


I think we posted at the same time!

Yes, I like your idea! I was just suggested wording.

[Ellie]

If you drop off the favourite part, a subgenre you don't think you've read before is easier to do. Or a sub genre you don't usually read.

[Joy D]

Tracy wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I think people have different goals. One is to choose among books you already own. Another is to expand your horizons. It's more likely a prompt will get voted in if it accommodates b..."
Yes, you're right. I've noticed this tendency in the discussion of suggested prompts. I think parent-child has more of a chance than sub-genre because it is more open to many genres (and even non-fiction.) It is also more easily understood at a glance. It seems when people have to follow links or try to understand something they don't "get" at first glance, it has a lesser chance of getting through. This is not a criticism - just an observation.

I read widely and am trying to knock off a list, so something I "don't usually read" is not likely to appeal to me. I don't know how many others are doing this.

[Tracy]

Pamela wrote: "Dubhease wrote: "I don't dislike the different subgenre idea. I think it would need a few examples."

so I ike historical fiction. Subgenres are, per wikipedia:

3.1 Documentary fiction
3.2 Fiction..."


I don't tend to read Romance, but when scanning down the lists of sub-genres in Wikipedia I came across this:

Amish romance (aka bonnet rippers)

I can't even imagine... but might be fun to try!