[2023] Wild Discussion Showing 2,851-2,900 of 4,060

[Thomas]

Tracy- I was talking about parent child but I like sub genres to

[Tracy]

Joy D wrote: "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 ..."

Yes, I think you are right @Joy D about the tendencies to not want to do a lot of research, even if it is just a list of sub-genres. I suppose you could see an unfamiliar sub-genre and then have to do research about what that actually entails. In general I don't mind a *little* research, but I guess if it's not something you're even interested in it becomes a huge chore.

I suppose the sub-genre idea could be used as a BIO option — just fill an existing prompt using a sub-genre you don't normally read.

I don't want to give up on it because a few people here are less than enthusiastic, but because you have reminded me of the trend happening with this sort of suggestion it seems like it might be more useful to go a different direction.

[Tracy]

Ellie wrote: "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."

I appreciate your openness to consider this with minor rewording!

[Tracy]

Nadine in NY wrote: "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 b..."

And I very much appreciate your suggestion — thanks!

[dalex]

Tracy wrote: "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!"

A friend's mother reads a ton of Amish romance. He refers to his mother's books as "buggy porn." Hahaha!

[dalex]

Tracy wrote: "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 :)"

It probably was me. I link to that site a lot. It has a ton of great info about genre fiction.

[Shannon SA]

"Amish romance (aka bonnet rippers)"

LOL! Love it, Tracy!

[Joy D]

Tracy wrote: "I don't want to give up on it because a few people here are less than enthusiastic, but because you have reminded me of the trend happening with this sort of suggestion it seems like it might be more useful to go a different direction.."

Oh, I'm not saying to give up on it. Just trying to help with getting to an idea that may be more likely to get through. I seem to always be able to find something for pretty much any prompt even though my initial reaction might not be positive. I say go for it!

[Tracy]

Thanks Joy - I’ll work on ways to make it easier for more people to like.

[Tracy]

@dalex - “buggy porn” OMG, funny!

[Jillian]

I have trouble with sub-genre prompts that have a qualifier of not read. Does it mean ever, the past year, 10 years? I'm pretty open reader but there are something I'm just don't read because I have and don't care for it.

I'd rather be picking books because I do want to read them.

[Tracy]

To help solve the "unread sub-genre" issue I was going to suggest Cross-Genres or Genre-Mashups, but I see that this was a prompt last year...

I only joined ATY52 this year. How did the cross-genre prompt end up going last year for those that did the challenge in 2021? Did you end up enjoying it?

[Jill]

Some time ago we talked about religion. How do you feel about a book connected to a religion that is not your own. If you are an atheist that would leave the whole field open to you

[Michelle]

I'm never present for the suggestions threads, but maybe a prompt for an unreliable narrator could be good.

[Thomas]

Jill- May I suggest a word that would cover atheist to, so a believer could chose a non believer as well as a different religion.

[Michelle]

I'd downvote any religion prompt. And to be clear it's not being anti any particular religion. I'm Jewish and would find it boring to read about Judaism, and it would be even less enjoyment to read a book about any other religion. What kind of books would that even allow? basically nonfiction about a religion?

[Thomas]

Michelle- when I saw it my mind went:
The author is this
The main characters are
A religious building is a key setting
After all we had Jewish author this year and Muslim author last year so

[Tracy]

Pearl wrote: "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 surp..."

Sorry I'm proposing a lot of ideas this morning, my mind seems to be working on overdrive for some reason.

Re: the idea of Recent Events, but not being ready to read about the pandemic or T****, how about...

"A book inspired by a news article from the 1950s"

Even though this is not recent news, may be before a lot of us were born, or a least not old enough to read a newspaper, the news of the 1950s would still be familiar to us. This has the Korean War, spies, McCarthyism, rise of Castro, Death of King George VI / rise of Queen Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe, JFK (pre-presidency), historic North Pole landing, Joe DiMaggio, school desegregation in the US, etc., etc.

One source of news stories: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1950-1959/

This is an archive of short descriptions of news of the day. It seems to be US based, but has a lot of international news too. You could certainly pull from another archive, just a different source, or one from your own country.

[Jillian]

I probably won’t vote either way on an open religion prompt but religion is often important in fantasy novels.

[Tracy]

Michelle wrote: "I'm never present for the suggestions threads, but maybe a prompt for an unreliable narrator could be good."

I hear this term a lot, but have to say I don't really know how a narrator is unreliable. I know I could look it up, but I find sometimes with this sort of thing that an "official definition" misses some nuances.

[Michelle]

Basically an unreliable narrator is a narrator you can't actually trust is telling the reader the truth.

Some classic unreliable narrators: The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window, The Silent Patient, Fight Club

I will say I guess these are typically seen in mysteries

[Tracy]

Jill wrote: "Some time ago we talked about religion. How do you feel about a book connected to a religion that is not your own. If you are an atheist that would leave the whole field open to you"

I am not a religious person, but sometimes find it interesting to learn about other's beliefs.

I wouldn't want to read a whole non-fiction book about a single religion though — that might be TMI. But a novel with a character/setting that involves the religion (like Thomas mentioned) would be interesting, or a book like this one that I own and have never thoroughly read (The World's Religions by Huston Smith) might be a nice way to get bite-sized info about several religions.

All toward being a more empathetic person. Not that learning about others' religions is the only way to become empathetic...

[Tracy]

Michelle wrote: "Basically an unreliable narrator is a narrator you can't actually trust is telling the reader the truth.

Some classic unreliable narrators: The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window, The Sile..."

Thanks Michelle. So it sounds like something you wouldn't know ahead of time by reading a summary, but would have to rely on recommendations by past readers?

I'm fine with that since I already scan Listopias — either for books that fit a prompt and that are already on my TBR, or just to find new titles.

[Jillian]

The problem I have with an unreliable narrator prompt is that it can be a spoiler if you go into the book knowing that it is an unreliable narrator. It is not something I typically read so I have to use lists when this comes up in challenges and it has ruined books for me.

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Michelle wrote: "I'm never present for the suggestions threads, but maybe a prompt for an unreliable narrator could be good."

I'd love to have an unreliable narrator prompt. Sometimes it's hard to find those without being a bit spoiled on the story, but there are some well knowns that are definitely on my TBR.

Edit to add: and Listopias for sure. Jinx, everyone!

[Nancy]

Jillian wrote: "The problem I have with an unreliable narrator prompt is that it can be a spoiler if you go into the book knowing that it is an unreliable narrator. It is not something I typically read so I have t..."

Yes, same. I do like reading books with unreliable narrators but knowing that ahead of time is usually a spoiler.

[Nancy]

I saw there's a giveaway for The Mystery of Mrs. Christie going on right now, and that's based on a true story, which made me think.

How about "a book based on a true story?" It could be fiction, like the Christie one, or it could be non-fiction like The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.

I'm sure there are listopias out there that cover this (full disclosure, I haven't looked).

[Thomas]

That was my worry about unreliable although the Wikipedia page does offer alternative forms of unreliable narrator such as naive which may be less likely to spoil

[dalex]

Nancy wrote: "How about "a book based on a true story?"

We've had that in some version or another a couple of times already. I don't know if it's every been bottomed or not so it might be eligible to submit again.

[Thomas]

Will check

[Thomas]

Yeah there’s nothing listed as BOTTOM related to based on a true story. So it’s eligible

[Tracy]

dalex wrote: "Nancy wrote: "How about "a book based on a true story?"

We've had that in some version or another a couple of times already. I don't know if it's every been bottomed or not so it might be eligible..."

I like this. It is an expanded version of my "A book inspired by a news article from the 1950s" above that got lost in the flurry of the posts about a religion prompt.

[NancyJ]

Tracy wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Basically an unreliable narrator is a narrator you can't actually trust is telling the reader the truth.

Some classic unreliable narrators: The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the..."

I thought it meant that they were lying, but the examples above have two different reasons to explain why we can’t trust what they are thinking. I wouldn’t be able to make a list of such books . I would not have thought of these two. One is a classic example of something else.

Some books have small examples that show us how people delude themselves, for humor, e.g. an old person claims to have a great memory, yet we see evidence in her actions that she doesn’t have a good memory at all. It’s not really part of the plot and it wouldn’t be a spoiler. People have all sorts of blind spots about themselves, or delusions, or faulty learning. Many writers reveal these subtly, to help us recognize bits of ourselves. It’s not part of the plot though. So I wouldn’t be able to make a list of books I read that use the technique.

[Michelle]

There's actually dozens of unreliable narrator book lists. In fact, it was me stumbling on one of those lists that made me think it could work as a prompt!

[Nancy]

I did forget we had "A work of fiction based on a real person or real event" but it was not bottom, it was no designation.

Other similar prompts, both of which were also no designation, were "A work of biographical fiction" and "A book that is inspired by or pays homage to another story."

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Every book by Kazuo Ishiguro has a narrator who is self-deceiving, or deliberately misleading, or just isn't able to know all the information. They are all unreliable in that sense.

But I agree that knowing this about a book can be a big spoiler, and if you don't choose a book from a listopia, you probably won't know till far along in the book that it fits. Generally the whole point of the author is to make the reader think you are getting the real story, until you suddenly realize you aren't.

As far as religion, lots of fiction and mystery books have characters who are associated with a church, temple, etc. And fantasy, such as Dune could also work. So nobody needs to read a nonfiction treatise on religion unless they want to.

Just thought of an author where all the books are about religion and just about all the narrators are unreliable - Susan Howatch's Starbridge series features characters associated with the Church of England and there is always a point where it becomes clear that the narrator is withholding or changing the story.

[Thomas]

if this is any help to anyone regarding possible meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrelia....

[Dubhease]

Jillian wrote: "The problem I have with an unreliable narrator prompt is that it can be a spoiler if you go into the book knowing that it is an unreliable narrator. It is not something I typically read so I have t..."

Yes! That is my problem with the prompt. An unreliable narrator is often a surprise at the end. I would never want to read a listopia of unreliable narrator books.

[Tracy]

Emily wrote: "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!"

Ok Emily, all my Best Book of 2022 are update on the Listopia through August now. Happy to help :)

[Thomas]

I noticed a lot of people voted for In My Dreams I Hold A Knife for the “ word in a recipe” prompt. I’m assuming that’s because of knife?

[Michelle]

Yeah I think people are basically treating it as more of a "kitchen-related" prompt. I personally think all the water ones are a stretch

[Thomas]

Thanks. I’m wondering cos that’s ones high on my list so when I saw it fitted for that prompt it seemed a good fit

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I think water is the KIS choice; it does show up in almost every recipe. Some recipes do explain how to do a particular action, and I suppose a knife could get in that way. I'm just so pleased I failed to read Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories last year because it will definitely be my book for that prompt.

[Nancy]

I would be ok with water more than knife since water is often an ingredient, or listed in instructions ("fill a pot with water and boil." I do agree that people are stretching it to kitchen words and not just recipe words though.

[Rae]

What do you think of a "read a book that is a re-read" prompt? There's lots of books that I would like to re-visit, but I never get around to.

[Jill]

I don’t do rereads. Life is too short and there are so many undiscovered gems out there.

[Thomas]

Rae wrote: "What do you think of a "read a book that is a re-read" prompt? There's lots of books that I would like to re-visit, but I never get around to."

proably be one I wouldn't downvote but an upvote would depend on the cirucmstances

[Nancy]

Jill wrote: "I don’t do rereads. Life is too short and there are so many undiscovered gems out there."

Same. So many books, so little time is my motto.

[Tracy]

Same here with so many books, so little time. Maybe use one of the other prompts to do your own personal re-read? A BIO for you ?

[dalex]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The recipe prompt is badly worded. As written, words like all, again, place, finish, before, etc. all fit the prompt. It does not say a food word or a cooking term (but it should).