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[2023] Poll 3 Voting
Mod
1. A book related to Hollywood
This prompt should be broad enough to read non-fiction, either about an aspect of movie making, or a particular movie. Or a biography or autobiography of someone in Hollywood.
Examples of fiction set in Hollywood:
Hollywood Wives - Jackie Collins
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy
L.A. Confidential - James Ellroy
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - Henry Farrell
Postcards From the Edge - Carrie Fisher
The Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
Mary, Mary - James Patterson
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
All the Stars in Heaven - Adriana Trigiani
The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
2. A book related to pride
Pride and Prejudice Retellings: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
LGBT+ Pride: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Deadly Sin: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Lions: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
Rainbows: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
3. A book with a full name in the title
There are tons of options for this but a couple of examples:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Get a Life, Chloe Brown
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
Eva Luna
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
5. A book involving power or politics
Fiction or non-fiction about government politics, organization politics, politicians, political issues, leadership, or stories involving the use (or abuse) of power.
The book might involve a political issue, such a gun control, criminal justice, wealth-gap, abortion, black lives matter, feminism, the environment, immigration, mass shootings, or the Jan 6 attack on the US capital. The book could be set in a fantasy world, outer-space, a religious organization, corporation, school, royal court, or any government. Stories about how power is gained or wielded to control people, events or to get ahead (Machiavellianism, influence tactics, coalitions, types of power, use of force, scandals.)
Links/lists for Power/Politics:
Politics: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/poli...
Power: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Political biography: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Political thriller: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Political fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Issues:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/femi...
More political fiction and romance:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
6. A book with a character who has a career or hobby that interests you
Some Listopias with suggestions (I'm sure there must be more out there also):
Fiction focused on Occupations or Hobbies: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
Day in the Life Memoirs: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5...
Jobs/Careers/Vocations: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Romance with Heroes/Heroines that focus on their interests: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Crafty Cozy Mysteries: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
7. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover
This would include the words being in the title, since it'd still be on the cover!
Listopias:
Moon/Stars on Cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Moon on Cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Sun/Sunset on Cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Sun in the name: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Celestial Bodies in Title: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Moon, Sun, and Stars in Title: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
8. A book with at least 500,000 ratings on Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
9. A book by a Nobel Prize winner for literature
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lis...
10. A book with a female or nonbinary main character who is an explorer/traveller
Miss Benson's Beetle,
These Broken Stars,
Fireborn,
Viper's Daughter,
The Left Hand of Darkness (although pronouns are he, the premise is basically a planet of non binary people)
Coasting: Running Around the Coast of Britain – Life, Love and (Very) Loose Plans,
Meet Me in Another Life,
The Girl of Ink and Stars,
The Botanist's Daughter,
The Voyage of Freydis,
A Winter's Promise,
Mortal Engines,
The Psychology of Time Travel
11. A book with a 2 and a 3 in the page count
123, 132, 213, 372, 932...
12. A book with a child protagonist
This could be a kids or YA book or it could be book for adults written from a child's perspective like To Kill a Mockingbird
13. A book to which you didn't have instant access
Due to waiting on a release date, wanting to read it on vacation, a library hold, etc.
Mod
Without this thread I had a long debate with myself about travellers, so I've saved you all the trouble of answering for me.I'm hoping that prompt will be perfect for S.A. Chakraborty's next book The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. That looks like a full name in the title and I think it might be inspired by Sinbad but now I can't find where I read that.
Mod
Some lists for #14https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...
https://www.businessinsider.com/guide...
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/cl...
https://thequietpond.com/2020/12/04/b...
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/th...
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/b...
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...
I’m going to wait to vote to see if anyone’s ideas inspires me to up vote any of the prompts. I currently have 8 down votes. This has been a bad week for me so I’m not sure if that is partially why I’m not interested in any of the prompts.
Mod
Mod
Power and politics - I like that I can go in a lot of different directions with this one. I'm not big on political nonfiction (I get enough of that through my news feeds), but I can lean that way if I'm feeling it, or I can go with something more dystopian if I need an escape
Pride - I'd probably use this as an LGBT prompt, but I also appreciate the flexibility of this prompt and the ability to use it if something better pops up (like a character who is prideful)
Explorer/Traveller - someone mentioned The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and if I could just find another book as good as that series, I'd love it forever lol. But also, again, I appreciate the flexibility of this prompt
Inspired by or pays homage - Wow I really have a theme on flexibility here. I'd say any book that mentions a love of another book would work, as well as retellings and things of that sort, so it's tempting.
And a few specific articles for #14One by One by Ruth Ware is an homage to Agatha Christie
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
The Silent Patient by Michael Michaelides was inspired by the play Alcestis
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
She Who Became the Sun is a reimagining of the life of the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. (Technically this would better fit a prompt like biographical fiction but I’m sure it could be argued that there are stories about this emperor and that this book is an homage to those stories.)
https://www.waterstones.com/blog/shel...
so I really like this group so I want to say ebfore in continue all downvotes are jsut my opinion so please no one feel disheartened by me: upvotes: politics,two words one the, half a million goodreads ratings and pride
Downvotes:
female explorer- jsut not my thing
page count_ jsut quite fiddly and on kindle some books don't say hard to do
Instant acess- jsut hard for me to do
associated with popular idiom- I don't feel it has a lot of options
but I may be wrong so all postive for those who suggested them
I am going to take my time before I vote this time because there a lot of prompts that don't evoke any strong feelings in me. For now, my favorites are just Pride (so many ways I could go with this prompt) and Politics or Power (inclusion of power is genius as it opens up many options as political books never interest me much). Rest all feel ok as of now.
Mod
You're a mod-- give us all more votes!
Seven downvotes for me. I really don't like the choices this week.Nobel Prize comes up as a prompt pretty much every year and there is not anything I'm interested in.
Related to a common phrase is another prompt that always seems to come up and based on past research I feel the options are very limited.
I do not generally read super popular books (and when I do I rarely like them as much as everyone else) so the ratings prompt does not appeal.
Page count prompts seem so pointless and are difficult to do.
Instant access is a freebie, imo. I don't really feel like I ever have to wait for a book so I'd just throw something in here to fill the slot.
I could find something to work for Hollywood but I don't love it as a prompt.
Child protag is so overdone in reading challenges and I'm just over it as a prompt.
Mod
Power and politics - I like that I can go in a lot of different directions with this one. I'm not big on political nonfiction (I get enough of that through my news feeds), but ..."
Are we ex-ing each other out? Cause I'm downvoting ones that are too flexible and can be anything! Although I'm also downvoting the idiom cause I've seen too few examples and none were inspiring. Maybe I should be sitting in the bad mood corner?
Was A book with a two word title, one of which is "The" on our list in the past year or two, or is it just a suggestion from the past? I do remember it, but can't remember if it was an actual prompt or not.
Steve wrote: "Was A book with a two word title, one of which is "The" on our list in the past year or two, or is it just a suggestion from the past? I do remember it, but can't remember if it was an actual promp..."Not this year or last year earlier than that i don't know
Steve wrote: "Was A book with a two word title, one of which is "The" on our list in the past year or two, or is it just a suggestion from the past? I do remember it, but can't remember if it was an actual promp..."Yep, in 2020.
Here's our listopia https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
I would love to see some more ideas for female or nonbinary main character who is an explorer/traveller. Would the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters work?
Not sure how I'm voting yet. (Other than for the one I suggested.)The explorer one is the only prompt that I can't think of a single book for. It seems the most limiting. The rest, I could manage.
I think explorer/traveller is only as limiting as you make it. I am probably considering a traveller as a nomadic person, but it could just be as simple as someone who travels on holiday.Examples from a dictionary:
1.
a person who is travelling or who often travels.
"thousands of air travellers were left stranded"
Similar:
passenger
tourist
tourer
journeyer
voyager
excursionist
sightseer
visitor
globetrotter
jet-setter
backpacker
pilgrim
gadabout
rover
wanderer
explorer
discoverer
scout
surveyor
reconnoitrer
prospector
commuter
fare payer
fare
holidaymaker
vacationer
vacationist
gallivanter
tripper
2.
BRITISH
a member of a community traditionally having an itinerant way of life, in particular an Irish Traveller.
Dubhease wrote: "Not sure how I'm voting yet. (Other than for the one I suggested.)The explorer one is the only prompt that I can't think of a single book for. It seems the most limiting. The rest, I could manage."
Which one did you suggest?
I'd probably go non-fiction for the traveller/explorer one, I love travel memoirs so it's an easy fit. Would definitely recommend Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, if there's anyone left who hasn't read it yet :) There must be a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy that would fit as well, going on a journey is such a common occurrence in those genres.
Here are a few suggestions for female explorer and I would totally count Amelia Peabody too:
This could be a fun list and could cover a number of genres.
Thomas wrote: "Dubhease wrote: "Not sure how I'm voting yet. (Other than for the one I suggested.)The explorer one is the only prompt that I can't think of a single book for. It seems the most limiting. The res..."
The Hollywood one. I tried to word it to be open to fiction, non-fiction, mystery, biography.
This will be a difficult vote for me too! There are a few I like (full name in title, pride, politics/power, 500k ratings) but also a lot that I'm not such a fan of, mainly because they are too difficult to fill. I'm wondering whether sun/moon/stars on the cover is too similar to the source of light prompt we have this year? Not sure I'd downvote based on that alone but I didn't find this year's prompt as easy as I thought I would and that version is broader than the one suggested here.
There aren't that many in this group that are speaking to me...I might have to think about it awhile. I recently discovered that July is "Disability Pride Month" which could be a direction I go with pride if it goes through. I'm such a mood reader - I'd have to see what I felt like at the time.
A few suggestions for the traveler prompt- Becky Chambers Wayfarer series, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days by Nelly Bly, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Binti by Nnedi Orkorafor. Lots of sci-fi space travel would work. I’m probably going to vote for the more challenging prompts, even if I have no idea right now. Number of pages is always a no for me. It’s too random for me. For expression/idiom, would something like The Jungle work? “It’s a jungle out there.” Two other ideas - Night and Day by Virginia Woolf, R.U.R. which introduced the word Robot.
Great Circle and Migrations are both great books, and perfect fits for a female explorer/traveller! Hopefully I can find something like that again.
Initial thoughts are 6 up and 4 down, so obviously I need some narrowing down!Downvotes would be career/hobby that interests you (I despise prompts like these, and always end up doing something related to reading, which we already have), Nobel prize winner (too narrow and nothing interests me), page count (page counts are nebulous and I do a lot of audios and Kindle which make this harder to do), related to common phrase (not a fan when PopSugar did this).
I'm pretty sure I'll stick with those so I need to figure out which 4 I want to upvote.
Mod
On traveler - Emily, since you enjoyed the Gentleman's Guide series, you might like the Bloody Jack series about a girl who goes to sea as a cabin boy in the Napoleonic era. It's for an even younger audience but very entertaining for everyone and the audio is outstanding.
I don't care for number of pages, though I like that people are trying to tie in "23" in some way. Every edition seems different and with ebooks, it's so random. The 500,000 also isn't great for me. I've either read them or decided I never will. I am fine with the homage one because I read a lot of modern Sherlock Holmes stories. I think for the common saying/idiom, some examples would help.
For #3, I likely would read a biography or autobiography or memoire as long as, is often the case, the subject's name is in the title. There are lots of fascinating people whose life stories I want to read about.
Jen K wrote: "Here are a few suggestions for female explorer and I would totally count Amelia Peabody too: [bookcover..."I loved Miss Benson's Beetle
Mod
That's a good point. I was just thinking about the many fiction books these days called The Something Something of First Name Last Name.
For the explorer/traveller prompt, if you count someone travelling for a holiday/vacation, that opens it up a lot.
Others for explorer:
Mod
We also had the full name in the title in maybe 2019? I'm not voting for either because of that.
Emily wrote: "Steve wrote: "Was A book with a two word title, one of which is "The" on our list in the past year or two, or is it just a suggestion from the past? I do remember it, but can't remember if it was a..."It was just "a person's name" that year but essentially the same.
Another list I feel pretty happy with. Put me in the good mood corner :)
Will read through these comments before voting since I don't have many strong opinions this week:I'm likely going to downvote the two-word title because I think it's too recent to have an identical prompt on the list again. I did it in Dec. 2020 so only about 1.5 years ago. (Was the name prompt also on that year's list?)
Instant access is also probably a definite downvote: I prioritize books I already own and almost never read new releases, so I'd have to purposely look for a book on Libby that has a wait.
On the fence about power and politics (almost everything I read mentions a power imbalance, a political issue, monarchy, etc), Nobel Prize (not a lot of options that I'm interested in), and female/nonbinary traveler (I don't like adventure as a genre, but I could interpret as someone who travels for a vacation, I guess, though it would be going against the spirit of the prompt). Career/hobby also reminds me of the popsugar dream job prompt which I struggled with a lot, and hobbies are often not mentioned in book synopses.
I think the wording of "A book related to a common phrase, saying, or idiom" is too broad, I'd prefer if it was just the idiom since common phrases encompass everything from "nice to meet you," to "more or less" to "that's right". Even with idioms, I'm struggling: "piece of cake," "fly on the wall," and the other common ones that popped up on google aren't very inspiring to me. Can anyone provide more examples for this one?
Edit: Forgot to add that upvotes right now are pride, sun/moon/stars, and homage to another story. I love retellings!
If the common phrase one got in I'd probably go with blood is thicker than water which is on my rejects list that I most likely won't get round to. I could read about vampires, blood born diseases, a bloody murder, family ties or a book that is literally about blood that has been on my TBR for years. I do feel the prompt is a bit wide if I don't pre-pick a phrase.
Ellie wrote: "If the common phrase one got in I'd probably go with blood is thicker than water which is on my rejects list that I most likely won't get round to. I could read about vampires, blood born diseases,..."That's a good one! If it gets in I'll do the same and pre-pick something to make planning for the challenge a little easier.
I thought I was having a great week, but I'm also in the downvote category. I just think there are too many that are similar to what we've done in the past. I'll be downvoting:
adventurer/traveler - I feel like we have an adventure/map/travel book almost every year. If anything, I'd want it to be more narrow such as a nomad/gypsy (apologies if that isn't a correct term anymore)/without a permanent home
sun/moon/stars - I also think it's too similar to our light source prompt and the PopSugar prompt this year for constellations
two word title - too recent and done a lot
page numbers - I've been reading almost exclusively Audiobooks this year. I know I can look it up on Goodreads, but I also don't like page prompts in general.
500,000 rating - I don't know if this is suggested a lot or makes it in a lot, but I'm a bit over it too. It also seems a bit easy
career/hobby - It does seem very similar to your job/dream job prompts that have been done before
I will be upvoting for homage, because I love retellings! Then one more vote where I could be swayed on the other prompts
I had more of a negative reaction to many of these then the first two rounds. Only 2 really stand out as ones I want to vote for; I think the pride and the traveler and explorer seem like they will be fun and many different options to choose from.
I have 6 I am currently thinking of down voting but hope that if I hold off on voting for a few days I can get a few more upvotes based on reading others thoughts.
Currently know I will downvote:
Nobel prize they had a bit of a sandal in 2018 that had me looking into the awards overall and left me wondering how much their internal elitism has effected the awards over the years.
I don't have single book on my TBR that has 500,000 rating and in looking at the list I figured out why I don't like most lists. I end up scrolling through a lot of well know books that I have either read or have no interest in reading and after looking about 100 of these I get bored. I kind of like the idea and might be interested if it was whittled down to 100k
The politics/power one initially was a good reaction and then the dawning that next year the US Presidential election will ramp up in its instantly for 2024, not sure I will have the apatite for anything more. Going back and forth on this one.
My other down votes are based on my immediate negative reaction so have the most potential of being swayed. Looking forward to what hearing what others are thinking.
I have 4 definite upvotes (2-pride, 5-power/politics, 10-female/non-binary explorer, 14-homage to another story), 2 definite downvotes (1-Hollywood, 15 - idiom).I'm struggling with the others. One I might choose only because it would enable me to read a book I'm interested in, but otherwise I see it as a freebie. Another that I'm struggling with (6-careers/hobbies) is ironic because I'm the one who suggested it. I have found a few books that cover careers/hobbies that I'm interested in, but I'm not sure how good the books actually are. I thought I had thoroughly investigated it before suggesting it, but maybe I was just in a more enthusiastic mood at the time than I am at the moment.
Most of the rest I'd be fine with, but are not speaking to me as favorites. I almost downvoted 9-Nobel Prize, but I actually found an author with a few books I'd be happy reading, so I'd be ok if that one was voted in. That author/book: Olga Tokarczuk is the author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, a literary murder mystery. Not normally a mystery/murder mystery reader, but the 'literary' part improves it, and the main character is described as 'eccentric', which is a draw to me. The opening line has the MC telling us "I am already at an age and additionally in a state where I must always wash my feet thoroughly before bed, in the event of having to be removed by an ambulance in the Night." How can you NOT want to see what happens to this character?
Using mostly upvotes has worked for me so far, and ***1. A book related to Hollywood - Up - I have a book about pre-code Hollywood (movies made before the censors took over), and many great books are made into movies.
2. A book related to pride - Undecided - I need to research.
*3. A book with a full name in the title - UP or neutral
4. A book with a two word title, one of which is "The" - Up or Neutral depending on what I find in my tbr.
***5. A book involving power or politics - Definite UPvote
*6. A book with a character who has a career or hobby that interests you - Up or neutral (depending one what I can find)
***7. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover - UP - It might be too easy, but I really like these images. (I don't usually upvote or downvote cover prompts)
?8. A book with at least 500,000 ratings on Goodreads - Undecided. I'll have to rank order my TBR by #ratings.
**9. A book by a Nobel Prize winner for literature -I want to read at least one new-to-me Nobel prize author every year.
*10. A book with a female or nonbinary main character who is an explorer/traveller - Up or neutral (I need to look at the list)
11. A book with a 2 and a 3 in the page count - Neutral or down (For the same reason that Robin gave)
**12. A book with a child protagonist - UP - I found several good ones this year.
*13. A book to which you didn't have instant access - Neutral - I do remember the ones I have to wait months for, but I rarely have instant access.
**14. A book that is inspired by or pays homage to another story - Up - my book club likes retellings of classic books.
15. A book related to a common phrase, saying, or idiom
I have mixed feelings about #13 right now, I read the discussion so I know what the intent was, but just reading it without applying that context it feels like a dig at people who primarily use ebooks
Mod
I don't read ebooks so maybe that's why I don't understand how it would be a dig? Most of my books feel instant access to me because I grab them from the library while browsing, or I buy them when they come out and then wait... months... to read them, so when I'm ready to read them, they are waiting for me. I'm not voting for this prompt, but I'd love to hear your point of view on it!
Even ebooks aren't always readily available, if you use the library.
Nancy wrote: "Even ebooks aren't always readily available, if you use the library."Absolutely right Nancy. I've had ebooks on hold from my library for 6 months sometimes.
Libraries are not allowed to lend out a single copy to several people at once. They have to be treated as physical copies in that way. And if fact, they are only licensed to them for a specific period of time, so they have to 're-buy' them eventually — if they see they are still wanted by patrons. I suppose physical copies wear out, so it's sort of like that, but I believe they tend to last longer than the licensing period for ebooks.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
A Closed and Common Orbit (other topics)The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (other topics)
The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming EnergyCrisis (other topics)
The Curse of Chalion (other topics)
Small Things Like These (other topics)
More...
Voting will open in the afternoon of Thursday, July 14 and results will be posted in the morning of Monday, July 18 (CST time).
How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the mini-poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 8 votes this poll to spread across your favorite and least favorite prompts (you can also use less than 8 votes)
- You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.
- The prompts with the more favorable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list
We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile. We’ve introduced this for two reasons:
1. On a few occasions in each poll, people have used more than the allotted number of votes, either because they aren’t familiar with the rules or just by mistake. When this happens our only option is to disregard the vote as we can’t identify the voter to ask them to resubmit. By asking for your profile address we’ll be able to message you and ask you to vote again if you’ve accidentally used more than the allotted number of votes.
2. Unfortunately a very small number of people have voted more than once per poll and so we are asking for this information to prevent duplicate votes.
As a reminder: You have a total of 8 votes to use among your top and bottom votes. The mods have access to each individual vote, so we can see if you use more than 8 votes. If you use more than 8 votes in the poll, your vote will have to be deleted, so please make sure to follow the directions so your voice can be heard.
Possible Prompts:
1. A book related to Hollywood
2. A book related to pride
3. A book with a full name in the title
4. A book with a two word title, one of which is "The"
5. A book involving power or politics
6. A book with a character who has a career or hobby that interests you
7. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover
8. A book with at least 500,000 ratings on Goodreads
9. A book by a Nobel Prize winner for literature
10. A book with a female or nonbinary main character who is an explorer/traveller
11. A book with a 2 and a 3 in the page count
12. A book with a child protagonist
13. A book to which you didn't have instant access
14. A book that is inspired by or pays homage to another story
15. A book related to a common phrase, saying, or idiom
Feel free to discuss the prompts below, but please remember to be respectful to the other group members.
VOTE HERE: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/LJLHB5/