[2023] Poll 4 Results - MULTIWEEK

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

It's time for the multiweek results!

Top:
3 Weeks: Three books, each of which is set in a different century
2 Weeks: A book that is dark, and a book that is light

Close Call:
2 Weeks: Two books from two different genres, that are connected in some way

Listopias:
A book that is dark
A book that is light
Set during Mythological Times (Ancient BCE)
Set Pre-19th Century (BCE through the 1700s)
Set in the 19th Century (1800s)
Set in the 20th Century (1900s)
Set in the 21st Century (2000s)
Set Post-21st Century (2100 and Beyond)

[Steve]

Don’t love that 5 weeks got sucked into 2 prompts, but of the suggestions, these were probably the ones I was most interested in.

[dalex]

Super disappointed that more creative and challenging prompts didn’t get voted in. O well.

[Shannon SA]

Disappointed that one of the 4 week chains didn't get in, but happy with the two that did

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha

[Tracy]

@Emily: maybe something like this? It’s a little like trawling, but one link captures a lot of Xth century settings:

https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...

[Shannon SA]

dalex wrote: "Super disappointed that more creative and challenging prompts didn’t get voted in. O well."

Hoping more creative/challenging prompts will get in as the weeks go by

[Kelly Sj]

Definitely linking the centuries one with a theme - maybe by location (three centuries in one country or city), or something medical (historical fiction involving surgeons, midwives, etc.), or empires might be interesting...

[Shannon SA]

Kelly Sj wrote: "Definitely linking the centuries one with a theme - maybe by location (three centuries in one country or city), or something medical (historical fiction involving surgeons, midwives, etc.), or empi..."

Yes, need to make this one a little more challenging...

[dalex]

Emily wrote: "If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha"

Maybe by time periods? For example:
ancient history (pre-5th)
medieval (5th to 15th)
renaissance (15th to 17th)
age of enlightenment (18th century)
Victorian period (19th century)
progressive era (first half of 20th century)
new era (second half of 20th century)
modern (21st century)

You could probably combine some of them that are a little less common for historical fiction books, like medieval, renaissance, and enlightenment.

There should probably be a list for books the span centuries or have dual timelines, also.

[Beth]

I was really hoping for one of the scavenger prompts would make it but I also voted for the two winners so can't complain.

I'm wondering how I will end up interpreting the light/dark prompt when it comes to planning. I like that there are lots of ways to go about it.

[Edie]

Emily wrote: "If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha"

What if there was a listopia for the 2000s, one for the 1900s and one for everything before 1900.

[Pam]

I like the 3 weeks prompt but want to connect the 3 books in some manner (theme, country, or maybe all non-fiction). I haven’t given it much thought yet. Light and dark is ok. I might go with genre like humorous or up-lit vs dystopia or a dark subject matter. I’m disappointed that one of the chains didn’t get in but may just do one on my own.

[Jillian]

I’m happy with the results the top two and the close call were my three top votes.

For those who wanted a chain, perhaps you could make one with the 3 different centuries prompt. 1st book’s century is the same as the last book read, then next century takes place in same country, third book could connect to title/author/cover.
I’m sure there are some other examples members can come up with for BIO.

[Nadine in NY]

I really like the three different centuries, and I am happy to see it win.

[Jill]

I'm thinking one cosy and one noir

[Thomas]

I’m really surprised my three centuries got in. Thank you everyone

[Alicia]

I upvoted both and excited about both.

If you want to make them harder, I like to pair my multi-week prompts with prompts I love but didn’t make it. So one year my multi-weeks had to meet that category plus BIPOC retelling. Or this year’s continents I paired with a Disney song from that continent.

I’ll probably do that again with both the centuries and dark/light

[Siobhan]

Excited about the centuries prompt! And the dark and light one should also be quite interesting.

[Nancy]

I'm very happy with the two that got in. I know I'm in the minority but I didn't love the scavenger hunt prompts so I'm glad those didn't make it.

[Ellie]

Happy with dark and light, I'll probably turn them into genre prompts for dark academia and a rom-com.

[Chrissy]

If someone wants linked books for the centuries, Ken Follet’s series about the cathedral in Kingsbridge would be great. There are actually 4 of them now.

[Lindsay]

I have loads of books I could read for the dark prompt...but I had to look through a lot of my TBR list to find a light read!

I read a lot of historical fiction so I think the 3 different centuries will be an easy prompt to fill. I'm not going to plan these 3 books as I can probably fit most of the books I read into these prompts!

[Dubhease]

I loved both of these prompts, so I'm happy.

I like Dalex's grouping of centuries, except that 19th should just be 19th. It includes Victorian, but also Regency, and Civil War,

[Nadine in NY]

Emily wrote: "If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha"



Maybe Listopias for: 21st, 20th, 19th, 16th through 18th, medieval period (5th through 15th), ancient civ, and pre-history?


(ETA: I see dalex already suggested this!!)

goodreads has helpfully put together shelves of literature tagged for each century: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/lite...

That's what I'm using right now to look for ideas.

[Nadine in NY]

Jill wrote: "I'm thinking one cosy and one noir"


I'm thinking the same thing! I read a lot of noir mysteries but I rarely read cozies so this is branching out for me.

[Harini]

I am ok or maybe even happy with the results, though my favorite was the one that ended up being a close call. I am thinking of ways I can combine light and dark with same theme different genres. May be I can do books with same theme but a dark take in one and a more hopeful take in another. Not sure yet.

[Rachel]

I'm a bit disappointed with the results, but to be fair, I probably would have felt the same no matter what got in (except the movie prompt, which I really wanted!) since I just don't see mulitweeks as a "need" for the list. I'm rarely excited for them, and generally don't like that so many weeks get taken up by one concept when we could have more unique individual prompts instead.

Light and dark is okay, and it was actually one that I considered voting for. I might pair a dark thriller with a lighter cozy mystery, if I want to link the books at all. 3 centuries should theoretically be appealing to me because I want to get back into historical fiction, but right now it's not exciting me at all.

[RachelG.]

With the discussion in the wild card thread about fantasy subgenres I figure that hopepunk could be an option for light and grimdark for dark.

[Joy D]

I am excited about the 3 centuries. I plan to read books actually written and published in earlier centuries rather than some modern book that references them.

[Steve]

Rachel wrote: "I'm a bit disappointed with the results, but to be fair, I probably would have felt the same no matter what got in (except the movie prompt, which I really wanted!) since I just don't see mulitweek..."

Yup, thanks for articulating better what I was saying in my post earlier in the thread about multi weeks in general!

[Stacey]

I really wanted the 4-week scavenger hunt for this one. Light and dark is okay, but the centuries are too much of a gimme, since two of them will likely be the 19th c. and 20th c. and can be just about anything.

[Conny]

dalex wrote: "Super disappointed that more creative and challenging prompts didn’t get voted in. O well."

Absolutely! I didn't vote for either of the winning prompts :( :(
Well, rejects challenge it is, then.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

dalex wrote: "Super disappointed that more creative and challenging prompts didn’t get voted in. O well."

Ditto- the centuries feels like a gimme esp being "set" instead of "written"

[Rachel]

Steve wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I'm a bit disappointed with the results, but to be fair, I probably would have felt the same no matter what got in (except the movie prompt, which I really wanted!) since I just don'..."

Glad to know I'm not alone in this. I'm not opposed to the idea of multiweeks in general, but I don't feel like I *have* to have one on the list at all, if that makes sense. I guess I just don't love the fact that a mulitweek only poll essentially guarantees that there will be at least one, since it's so rare for any poll to have no winners.

At least the results we got this time were workable options, and shouldn't be too hard to find something that interest me. I definitely agree with the comments about the centuries being mostly a freebie if you include 20th and 21st centuries, but I also don't think I'd want to exclude those either.

[Anastasia]

:( Hopefully we have more challenging or inspired prompts next.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

If you google "Books set in 18th century" or whatever, you will get lists, including GR. Of course for 20th & 21st there are so many, you shouldn't need that. A challenge could be to choose only before 1900 or whatever. Of course, a future century could work too.

[Michelle]

I know I am probably in the minority that I don’t care for the multi week prompts at all. I like the light/dark result but not interested in looking for different centuries. Hopefully I will discover something interesting along the way.

[NancyJ]

Emily wrote: "If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha"

For our own ATY listopias, I would be satisfied with:
1. Book set before the 20th century (before the 1900's)* or (before 1901)
2. Books set in the 20th century (1901-2000)
3. Books set in the 21st century (2001*-2100)
4. Books set after the 21st century (after 2100)

Alternatively,
1. Books set before the 19th century (before 1801)
2. Books set in the 19th century (1801-1900)
3. Books set in the 20th century (or 1901-2000)
4. Books set in the 21st century. (2001-2100)
5. Books set after the 21st century (after 2100).

*I request that you include both century and years to avoid confusion. (I know I'm not the only one who sometimes says 18th century when I mean 1800's, or vice versa. 2000 vs 2001 is a point of contention or confusion too for the first year of the century.)

There are many listopias already for earlier time periods with more breadth than we could generate ourselves this summer. - We could list some relevant lists in the discussion area of our earliest ATY listopia and the 22nd century one.

Some of us plan to focus on themes. I would love to see people make notes in the discussion area about themes they're considering. I'm going to try to resist adding books to the 20th and 21st century lists until I have some themes in mind.

For the early and future centuries, could you ask people to mention in the note which century the books fits, and if the book is only partially set in that century? Sea of Tranquility jumps around between several centuries, but I don't know which one is predominant. So maybe I shouldn't list it at all?

[NancyJ]

Joy D wrote: "I am excited about the 3 centuries. I plan to read books actually written and published in earlier centuries rather than some modern book that references them."

That's a good idea Joy. Do you think I'd like Tale of Genji?

[L Y N N]

These work! :)

[NancyJ]

Harini wrote: "I am ok or maybe even happy with the results, though my favorite was the one that ended up being a close call. I am thinking of ways I can combine light and dark with same theme different genres. M..."

The close call was my favorite too. I don't know if it would work as a single prompt. It would have to reference some other book. I often find two or more books to fit each prompt, so I might try to find books from two different genres for some of my prompts. (I read both fiction and non-fiction books this year for some of the prompts, and I can challenge myself in a different way too.)

I'm happy with light v dark too. I might focus on the book's theme or view of humanity. The light and dark books might easily come from different genres. True Crime and Dystopian books tend to be darker, than say cozy mystery and romance). But then again, many dystopian books turn out to be hopeful and optimistic about the future of humanity (which I see as light).

[dalex]

NancyJ wrote: "Alternatively,
1. Books set before the 19th century (before 1801)
2. Books set in the 19th century (1801-1900)
3. Books set in the 20th century (or 1901-2000)
4. Books set in the 21st century. (2001-2100)
5. Books set after the 21st century (after 2100).
"

That is way too broad, imo. Just for 1 and 2 I have hundreds of books I could recommend and hundreds more on my TBR List.

[Joy D]

NancyJ wrote: "That's a good idea Joy. Do you think I'd like Tale of Genji?..."
Not sure I'd recommend the full version, which is 1200 pages. It is written in installments, so there is a lot of repetition. There is an abridged version of around 360 pages, though, if you're interested.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

**Suggestions for Round 5 will open around 9-10 a.m. Central Time on Mon, Jul 25**

[Pearl]

Before we add more books to the listopias, can we get agreement to clarify this prompt: "A book that is dark and a book that is light." It was not presented as a title prompt. It was discussed in terms of tone, topics, ease of reading, and possibly a light cover.

Example: All the Light We Cannot See is a long, dark, depressing, and heavy book about war. It is not a light book. I added it to the Dark book listopia, someone else added it to the Light book listopia and noted "title."

[Alicia]

I did originally interpret it to include title, but rereading the prompt I could see how the phrasing “that is” could make it not included.

I thought of it originally as related to, connected to, etc which for me would include title.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Joy D wrote: "I am excited about the 3 centuries. I plan to read books actually written and published in earlier centuries rather than some modern book that references them."

Emily wrote: "If anyone has ideas on how to handle listopias for the century, prompt, I'd be open to suggestions. I don't really want to make an ATY listopia for every century haha"

I was thinking, for the listopias, rather than reinventing the wheel, maybe these pages might help as a starting point. Goodreads has done the Listopia work for you, broken books published into centuries back to the 4th: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3077

And decades from 1800: https://www.goodreads.com/list/best_o...

[Bec]

I've read 75 books this year and 61 were published in 2020-2022 (I do lots of ARCs) so the century one will challenge me. I know I can read books written more recently that are set in different centuries....so I guess it's historical fiction.

[dalex]

Pearl wrote: "Before we add more books to the listopias, can we get agreement to clarify this prompt: "A book that is dark and a book that is light." It was not presented as a title prompt."

The prompt is not "a book with a dark theme" or "a book about a dark topic." As written it is a very vague prompt that is open to interpretation, imo.