Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2023] Wild Discussion
I often wonder what would happen if either were available to be voted on. I worry they’d be the kind of prompts that get voted in because they sound like fun in concept ( I could almost see people going “ oh I love a scavenger hunt”). I have myself voted for prompts that I later regretted when I realised how hard they were to fill
Thomas wrote: "I often wonder what would happen if either were available to be voted on. I worry they’d be the kind of prompts that get voted in because they sound like fun in concept ( I could almost see people ..."Every year there is at least one prompt that I regret up voting.
What are some types of books that you like to read - genres, themes, topics, regions - that might be hard to fit into the prompts we have so far?New to me authors
BIPOC centered stories, indigenous peoples
Friends, family, extended families
Environment, ecology, climate change, speculative
Nature, the natural world
Sci-fi fantasy, time travel, urban fantasy, gothic, horror…
Futuristic books, set in the future, or predicting the future,
Love stories- I don’t read many books in the romance genre, but I like love stories mixed with other topic.
Literary fiction, contemporary
Classics, old or modern
Culture, culture clash , immigration stories
Inspiring books - heroism, bravery, or spiritually inspiring
Social sciences - psychology, sociology, groups, culture
Social justice, political science, global issues
Historical fiction, history
Children, coming of age
Some of these might be well covered already, I’m not sure.
What topics, genres, sub genres would you like to see?
Joy D wrote: "Pamela wrote: "I like the party idea!! It's enough of a restriction without being overly so and appeals to a bunch of different genres.. And if people want to be grumps about it, they can always re..."I'm one of those "grumps" too I guess! I don't like fluff books at all and quite enjoy learning more about things like the Donner Party :)
Rachel wrote: "I use a Word document to keep track of my votes every week, and I colour code them. If a prompt makes the list, it's green. If it didn't, it's red. If it's polarizing, it's blue. I don't mark close..."My computer is down, so I can’t check. I use mostly upvotes, and there is only one prompt on the list that I’m sure I downvoted.
°~Amy~° wrote: "I'm one of those "grumps" too I guess! I don't like fluff books at all and quite enjoy learning more about things like the Donner Party :)..."Nice to have company :-)
Traci wrote: "Palindrome was difficult because there were so few options, I ended up reading Aya. Onomatopoeia was difficult on a whole different level for me. I kept questioning if it really wor..."
I loved MaddAddam but it’s the third book in a trilogy.
Joy D wrote: "I wonder how many of the ATY members also do Popsugar? For me, since I don't do Popsugar, I have no issues with a similar prompt."I sort of do both. This is my first year doing the full ATY challenge. I can't find a PS prompt for all my books, but I'm surprised I'm squeezing in as many as I can.
Mod
I'm calling people who always have negative responses to prompts grumps, not because of their reading tastes! Having made a joke about the Donner Party, I actually quite like the idea and might go with it!
Until now I've been in both groups and just done Popsugar, but I saw the list of this year's prompts on here recently and just liked them way better than Popsugar's, so I started voting on the prompts and I'm going to do ATY starting next year!
I do both this and Popsugar (and some others), and have done both for a number of years now, but I don't have a problem with having prompt overlap unless I found the prompt particularly difficult the first time (such as, yes, that dratted palindrome prompt, lol), in which case it's the difficulty, not the repetition. I do enough other readathons and reading challenges throughout the year that there's always a fair amount of prompt repetition there anyway, so it really doesn't bother me, personally.
For a sporadic visitor to these threads, I find it interesting that people here complain about the silent majority. There are many reasons why I don’t spend my mental energy here… but one of them is when I visit a thread and see name calling. All in good fun, right? Calling people grumps isn’t very kind. It certainly doesn’t encourage more participation.
There’s a lot of people here, with different tastes and reading ability. And various amounts of time to spend here.
Every book its reader, every reader its book.
Carry on.
Mod
MJ- unfortunately I can’t comment on “grumps” because my phone won’t let me got back for enough to see the context. Regarding the silent majority I think it’s just confusing because this thread is created so people can try out new ideas so it’s difficult if a prompt gets a warm reception here and lets voted down because a load of people who didn’t say anything here don’t like it for example I had no idea until after I submitted it the first time that the British monarchy upsets so many people
Mod
I participate in both ATY and Popsugar. I love that Popsugar has a very active facebook group. ATY is fun during the voting phase but honestly I get bored with it once the new year and the new challenge starts. There is very little interaction between members, I don't really like navigating all the discussion threads, and I prefer the visual elements of facebook (and instagram) to the text only format of goodreads.
Every year I say I'm done with ATY and goodreads overall but then I get sucked into the voting again and then I'm here for another year.
Ah, I feel exactly the opposite. I started of with PopSugar and then joined in with ATY, because there was more discussion and comment about books read.I try to avoid Facebook and similar as much as possible, so would hate to see ATY becoming a mainly visual based group.
It takes all sorts, as they say.
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Oh, I like that prompt. I would go less with length and more with something that has a title that is fun to say, or a title with a weighty feel and resonance, or a title with alliteration or other ..."I'm with Amy (Other Amy) on this one - we're needing a fun prompt :)
Tracy wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Eujean2 wrote: "A book with a title that is a "mouthful."..."I am opposed to this for the pettiest of reasons. "More than a mouthful" is a phrase I associate with the restau..."
I'd prefer "unusual or quirky" rather than "difficult" for a fun prompt
NancyJ wrote: "What are some types of books that you like to read - genres, themes, topics, regions - that might be hard to fit into the prompts we have so far?New to me authors
BIPOC centered stories, indigeno..."
WOW! Reading twin! Take away inspiring and coming of age, and add in mystery, thriller, and gritty noir ... and that's my list of favorites too!
Nadine in NY wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I wonder how many of the ATY members also do Popsugar? For me, since I don't do Popsugar, I have no issues with a similar prompt."My very unscientific survey of the ten most recen..."
Perhaps we shouldn't be too concerned with Popsugar's prompts - those who want to do both or either one, it's all good - we don't seem to be concerned about other groups' challenge prompts? But I don't do Popsugar so maybe I'm missing something here?
Jill wrote: "In 2019 we had A book with a weird or intriguing title. Which seems to me a lot like a mouthful. I don’t see why we can’t have that again"I like that too
I think Shannon it’s not uncommon to see people saying “ I don’t like this, Popsugar did it” and it’s perhaps unclear whether they ( I’m using they in the old fashioned sense) have done it once and are now saying from experience that it wasn’t very good or whether it’s “ ive just done that for one challenge and I want something new”
Popsugar is the other major annual reading challenge that a lot of people do. (Bookriot is in there, but I get the sense that Popsugar is more popular.) I don't know how many people doing ATY do Popsugar, but I'm sure it's probably a significant minority. I at least look at it every year. A pretty strong motivation for me to join ATY is that Popsugar increasingly seems to have uninspired prompts. On the other hand, if we have duplicate prompts in the same year, I personally would just fill it with the same book, just as I do when Popsugar and Bookriot overlap.Regarding lack of inspiration, I am wracking my brain right now trying to think of some really fun prompt ideas, but I'm coming up dry at the moment. I'm going to try to do some investigation into past reading challenges I've done and see if I can tease out the fun component of past prompts to do some reverse engineering. I am very much in the mood for fun!
On another I’m still unsure found family but if it were expanded to non traditional family I’d certainly support it
@Thomas - what is your understanding of non-traditional family? Maybe that is just another name for found family? Depends. Also, the prompt COULD include both maybe.
Thomas wrote: "I think Shannon it’s not uncommon to see people saying “ I don’t like this, Popsugar did it” and it’s perhaps unclear whether they ( I’m using they in the old fashioned sense) have done it once and..."I would say that most people who do both are like me, and only are against PS prompts if they didn't like it. Not because it's a repeat.
There are a few who've said "this prompt comes up in some form on challenges every year and I'm tired of it." Banned book and related to movies are two I can think of that fall into this realm.
Shannon SA wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I wonder how many of the ATY members also do Popsugar? For me, since I don't do Popsugar, I have no issues with a similar prompt."My very unscientific survey ..."
Popsugar gets mentioned so often because AtY started as a spin-off from Popsugar. People wanted the same style reading challenge but with a fun user-created list. So a lot of the original AtY members were also following Popsugar. As AtY has matured, it's become more of its own thing. And now there are quite a few reading challenges around, so you don't get that core group focused on just one other challenge, attention is spread around.
Shannon SA wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Eujean2 wrote: "A book with a title that is a "mouthful."..."I like "unusual or quirky title." Maybe add memorable too? Some that come to mind:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country
LeahS wrote: "I try to avoid Facebook and similar as much as possible, so would hate to see ATY becoming a mainly visual based group...."Me too. I intentionally got off Facebook. Too draining of time and emotional energy. I very much enjoy the discussions here and have no interest in Pop Sugar due to the very specific nature of some of the prompts.
The main issue with "fun" prompts is that we don't all have the same view of "fun." For example, I personally do not care for "light fluffy" or "sweet syrupy" reading material, and lots of others love them.
I do like the "unusual" title suggested above, but not sure how to word it so that it has a chance to get through the voting process.
I agree with that, Joy. I do not find light and love kind of prompts to be fun in the least, either. So my earlier comment was very much in the spirit of trying to figure out what I would find to be fun, to offer in the hopes that others might also find it the same.I am also worried about what wording will get almost anything through actual voting at this point.
I think when people mean "fun" prompts, they mean quirky. At least I do. I like prompts that I haven't seen before, prompts that are specific enough that you can't just read any book, but that leave a wide scope for reading. I think we have a sizable minority who have a TBR list dominated by one genre (non-fiction, science fiction, romance, and murder mystery). If they can't work their favourite genre into a prompt, it becomes a chore and not "fun".The prompt I thought was the most "fun" this year was the monopoly token on the cover.
Mahi wrote: "Shannon SA wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Eujean2 wrote: "A book with a title that is a "mouthful."..."I like "unusual or quirky title." Maybe add memorable too? Some that come to min..."
To add to this list:
2 mentioned before (by myself and NancyJ); My Sister, the Serial Killer and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Also: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts and The Monk of Mokha
As for the wording of the prompt, maybe:
"A book with a title that stands out in a crowd"
Nadine in NY wrote: "Popsugar gets mentioned so often because AtY started as a spin-off from Popsugar. People wanted the same style reading challenge but with a fun user-created list. So a lot of the original AtY members were also following Popsugar. As AtY has matured, it's become more of its own thing. And now there are quite ... "I never knew that. No wonder there is still some crossover.
The one thing I do like about the PS group is the weekly check in threads where everyone posts what they are reading and what's going on in their lives. Because of that thread, I can't give up on PS even though I thought their prompts in 2022 were pretty picky and sometimes had double restrictions.
Tracy wrote: "A book with a title that stands out in a crowd"
What about dropping "a book with" and just having "A title that stands out in a crowd"?
When I am browsing books it is fun to be stopped by a title that catches my attention. Which could be another way to phrase it. A title that catches your attention.
I have the same view as Dubhease. I want quirkier items that I can still fit in a book I like. A challenging prompt with options will also get my vote, by omnopaetia NEVER will. I usually do PopSugar, and will start filling some of those prompts soon as I’m finishing up ATY. Similar to Nancy I only bring it up if I didn’t like the prompt. We could have witches and translated every year and I’d be happy as a clam.
That said, the one prompt I always downvote is adventure/explore/map prompt. This year it was Here Be Dragons but ultimately adventure/explorer/map prompt with a hint of dragons. It’s because I overthink this and constantly wonder is this adventure enough? Or have to find a book with a map, even if I read it via audio so never saw the actually map.
Finally, I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt anyone’s feelings with my downvotes. That’s never my intention. I like reading the different opinions of the discussions because I don’t usually make up my mind till a couple days into voting. And both perspectives help me. But I’m understanding not everyone feels that way so I’ve stopped expressing it. I only expressed it this time because I wanted the suggester to know that any other year, I would have voted for the Elizabeth prompt and the tie to the queen, if we didn’t have a popular name prompt.
RachelG. wrote: "Tracy wrote: "A book with a title that stands out in a crowd"
What about dropping "a book with" and just having "A title that stands out in a crowd"?
When I am browsing books it is fun to be st..."
I just began the prompt with "A book" because that seems to be the general pattern of our prompts.
°~Amy~° wrote: "Joy D wrote: "Pamela wrote: "I like the party idea!! It's enough of a restriction without being overly so and appeals to a bunch of different genres..."It's all about presentation. For the intriguing title, I would suggest Things Fall Apart because it was used by Stephen King in the mini-series version of The Stand. I've always loved that line. It's originally from a Yeat's poem, 'The Second Coming'.
I could also see that book used for colonialism, a party, family (even found family), centering around food/drink (seems like they were always chewing Kola nuts...had to look it up and see what those were, yams measured wealth). This is not a book with a happy tone, but choosing it would fulfill any of those 'lighter', 'fluffy' prompts without necessarily being grumpy about it.
It's all about perspective.
RachelG. wrote: ""A title that stands out in a crowd""I really like this. People will probably think it is too broad, but to me it is perfectly clear that it is a book that I threw on my stack precisely because I was intrigued by the title. (I have a shelf for that!)
"Popsugar gets mentioned so often because AtY started as a spin-off from Popsugar."Ah, thanks Nadine in NY, I didn't know that, the comments and comparisons make more sense now :)
It occurred to me this morning that Other Birds could be used for found family. I know a lot of people want to read that (and it was so good so everyone should).
Oh, and since we're discussing titles and PopSugar. This year they had "A book with a misleading title" and it's one I didn't love. You may not know the title is misleading until you read the book so it's hard for planners.I know that's not what's being discussed here but thought I'd throw that out there.
Sorry for delay regarding the question of what I mean by “ non traditional family” in essence anything that isn’t the traditional expectation so would include: Adopted children
Blended family
Same sex couple
I assume there could be others
Alicia wrote: "I like reading the different opinions of the discussions because I don’t usually make up my mind till a couple days into voting. And both perspectives help me. But I’m understanding not everyone feels that way so I’ve stopped expressing it. ..."I hope you will continue to express your opinions. I also like reading the differing viewpoints and it helps me decide on my votes. Sometimes initial downvotes will become upvotes due to the discussion when I see there are other ways to interpret a prompt than what I initially thought.
I like the “non traditional family” idea. I had not heard it called "found families" but I think the intent is the same.
I would vote for "A title that stands out in a crowd""
Joy D wrote: "Alicia wrote: "I like reading the different opinions of the discussions because I don’t usually make up my mind till a couple days into voting. And both perspectives help me. But I’m understanding ..."For me found family are the people that you look forward to seeing at Thanksgiving (or whatever traditional holiday) but aren't part of the traditional extended family structure. The cool retired uncle that turns out was someone's military buddy who just keeps coming back type thing.
Mod
We do have threads for people reading in order, for book discussions of the season, for best books of the month. I see there was one under Off Topic called "What's New? Tell Us About Your Day" but the last comment was literally one year ago. If people would like more discussion during the year, those threads could be used or others could be added.
Can I ask a question. Are you guys okay with “ does this fit” questions, I know it’s you say it fits it fits but I do sometimes like reassurance. I’m asking because there’s been some rather nasty comments in the Popsugar group about people who do that
Thomas wrote: "Can I ask a question. Are you guys okay with “ does this fit” questions, I know it’s you say it fits it fits but I do sometimes like reassurance. I’m asking because there’s been some rather nasty c..."We have a thread in this group for does it fit. I’m on my phone so it is hard to link to it.
I don't mind when people ask does this fit. I have asked that many times especially during read-a-thons because I also like reassurance that what I am seeing is close to what someone else perceives.
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Around the Year in 52 Books
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This is one title that I still enjoy typing or saying:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
I can’t think of others that stand out though
Edit - some of the titles on the journalism list were intriguing. I would probably use this for a nonfiction book, and the description would have to be intriguing too.
I wouldn’t downvote it, but I would rather see prompts that relate to themes, or to some of the genres that are not well represented.