[2024] Poll 2 Results

[Karin]

Ellie wrote: "Karin, we just like making lists! There's no requirement to use the listopias if you don't want. I sometimes find them helpful to remind myself what books I had in mind if I get stuck in a year's t..."

That's what I thought :). I just like voting for books people don't think of or have fewer votes for people who check them out for ideas.

Usually I do that when I'm procrastinating IRL :) It's really hot today and I have to go outside...

[Book Concierge]

Just my opinion, but a subtitle should actually appear on the cover of the book
e.g.: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race or
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II

None of the edition covers in the GR list for The Man with the Electrified Brain shows a subtitle.

[Bea]

I use the Listopia lists to verify whether I have any books on my TBRs. If I do, then those books are considered for the prompt along with any others that spark my interest. This year, I am doing my planning per month...and pre-planned half the year with 3 books for each week, thinking that when that week came up that I would have choice! It didn't always work out like I thought it would. Hahaha.

[Nancy]

Bea wrote: "I use the Listopia lists to verify whether I have any books on my TBRs. If I do, then those books are considered for the prompt along with any others that spark my interest. This year, I am doing m..."

This is what I do as well. I scan for any Want To Read books and those get top priority. If I don't have any on a Listopia then I look at the ones with the most votes and work my way down until I find something. If still no joy I read the thread for the prompt because often books are mentioned in there that are not on the Listopia, especially later in the year when more people have read a book for a prompt.

[Tracy]

Karin wrote: "The Man with the Electrified Brain has a different subtitle and I'm off to fix the entries since people have made mistakes in adding it. Grrr...

ETA
By the time you read this it mi..."

Thank you Karin! There were some other things that were odd with this listing, so I'm not surprised about the subtitle mix up.

Another odd thing I saw for this title on Amazon, was that the listing for one edition said that there was a 2nd author, "Ayoub Publishing" and gave the following bio:

"Ayoub Publishing (1989-2020) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America in 1960 For thirty years he taught in New York City high schools. His first book, " the little book that makes you rich "won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the L.A. Times Book Award. In 2011."

This bio seems to have nothing to do with Simon Winchester (author of The Man with the Electrified Brain"). The book mentioned in this bio is written by a different author, and the Ayoub "bio" has nothing to do with him either. And said "Pulitzer Prize" is not true either. I wonder if someone has hacked Amazon, but to what purpose?

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

There are often fake books on Amazon that sound like real books, for instance, something like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrecy (though probably JK Rowling has people who look out for that). This one sounds like something a bot created. The bio sounds like Frank McCourt, whose life was not from 1989-2020!
ANGELA'S ASHES probably did win all those prizes.

Could be a fun game - give the author's bio and see who can guess it!

[Tracy]

@Robin - Glad you (probably) recognized the author. I hope it was just an innocent mistake with a misplaced code number or something like that.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Tracy wrote: "@Robin - Glad you (probably) recognized the author. I hope it was just an innocent mistake with a misplaced code number or something like that."

That's possible too, just a glitch, not a deliberate fraud.

[Rachel]

Two of the winners were prompts I voted for so I'm happy with those, especially seven dwarfs! I didn't vote for the title ending with A, T, or Y but I really liked it and strongly considered voting for it, so I'm fine with that too.

Author lost in 2023 was one of my bottom votes, but I wasn't expecting it to actually end up in the bottom. I also wasn't a fan of the 247 pages prompt because it was too much of a freebie to me.

It's so weird for me to be so closely aligned with what the group wants, for once.

[Rachel]

Nadine in NY wrote: "It would be helpful on the Seven Dwarfs list if people mention why the book fits. Books with "Happy" or "Grumpy" or whatever in the title are obvious. But, for example, why is [book:How the Penguin..."

I was going to comment the same thing! I've just looked at the list to add a few books that came to mind. Most of the books seem clear enough to me, but there are quite a few where I couldn't tell how they fit. It would be very helpful if people included why they chose it.

[Bec]

Great list of winners - I upvoted 6 and these 3 were in that lot.

I didn't love the downvotes but didn't downvote them (that was for prompts I just thought I wouldn't be able to fill). I didn't want to do the author we lost but figured we could make it work - but I'm a little glad it made the bottom.
Funnily enough on the spreadhseet I track my votes I also write down suggestions for books - the 3 that got in have no suggestions - but I think that's because I have plenty of options for all of them I didn't need to call them out in my sheet.

[Kendra]

My prompt made it in. Yay!😁

I'm also excited about the Seven Dwarfs prompt. I was neutral on the 2 bottoms, so I'm fine with them not making it.

I was kind of hoping for the mask prompt, but oh well.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

The mask prompt could be resubmitted. Maybe it could be expanded a little like "mask or disguise"?

[Pearl]

We have 7 prompts already! At this rate we’ll be done by Labor Day.

I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a question for the people who really dislike it, if you’re willing to share. Do you avoid most fantasy and magic, or do you like real fantasy with a fantasy world that is well thought out?

Thank you for indulging my curiosity.

[Ellie]

Pearl wrote: "I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a question for the people who really dislike it, if you’re willing to share. Do you avoid most fantasy and magic, or do you like real fantasy with a fantasy world that is well thought out?..."

My feelings towards magical realism can mostly be described as disappointment. I read fantasy, and I do read some contemporary fiction if it covers a topic I'm interested in. I've tried several of the authors people suggest for magical realism and their books are fine but fail to deliver on the magic to a point where they might as well be non-magical...and then I only want to read them if the non-magical content is interesting to me and most the time it's not? If that makes sense.

I was neutral on the prompt but ended up downvoting it because I was a bit annoyed by people going "magical realism isn't what you think it is, read any old urban/portal fantasy for it". I'd rather we had a prompt something along the lines of a book set in the real world with magical elements if people want to cover more than magical realism with it.

[Kat]

I've read some magical realism that I enjoyed and others that I didn't. I love this challenge because it's so open to interpretation and generally don't like it when a genre prompt makes it in because it limits your options. A book is either magical realism or it's not you can't bend it to fit your own tastes.

[Bea]

Pearl wrote: "We have 7 prompts already! At this rate we’ll be done by Labor Day.

I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a question for the p..."

Pearl, I am not really a fan of magical realism...but when I look at a list of such books, I see that usually the ones I do not like very well are South American writers.

And, I love fantasy and magic stories! Odd, no?

[Jill]

Pearl Magical realism was at first one of my upvotes, thinking I would read a Christopher Fowler or a Ben Aaronovitch book. But after the discussions here, I realised that I just didn't know what it was, so I down voted it.

[Aimee]

Pearl wrote: "We have 7 prompts already! At this rate we’ll be done by Labor Day.

I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a question for the p..."

I'm a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi and I don't mind some magical realism books (I really enjoyed Exit West for example) but others have really annoyed me. I think sometimes it's applied to works that are really "literary fiction light fantasy", playing into perceptions that full-on genre fiction is cringe but it's considered highbrow if it's literary but with a sprinkle of magic or otherworldliness.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

We actually have 9 prompts already, because of the pre-poll. Almost 20% done with the voting!

[Dubhease]

Pearl wrote: "We have 7 prompts already! At this rate we’ll be done by Labor Day.

I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a question for the p..."

I like fantasy. I named my daughter after a character from Lord of the Rings.

My main complaint about magical realism is that the people who love it tend to be insufferable snobs. We had a western prompt this year, and some people don't like westerns so they were going to read Science Fiction westerns. And no one cared. I've seen romance prompts where people don't read romance so they read spy or mystery novels that have a romance in it. Again, no one says anything.

But magical realism? Even the listopia provided to us had a ton of comments in the listopia by people arguing which books were and were not to be on the list and what should be deleted.

It above all other genres, it seems to lead to arguments and people wanting to police what other people want to read. I'm always happy when it gets bottomed or goes away and our ATY community is marked safe from magical realism fighting for another year.

[Joanne]

My first time voting-2 of my up went through 🌞

[Pearl]

@ Ellie, Jill, Aimee, Dubhease, Kat,

Thank you. In that case, I want to propose a fantasy or sci-fi fantasy prompt today. Thoughts?

A fantasy novel
A book in the fantasy genre
A book shelved as fantasy
A sci-fi - fantasy book
A book with fantasy or magic
A fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist
A fantasy novel with a 2, 0 or 4 in the page number

[Tracy]

Off to a good start Joanne!

[Pearl]

Dubhease wrote: "Pearl wrote: "We have 7 prompts already! At this rate we’ll be done by Labor Day.

I have a question about magical realism. I’m a fan but I don’t like it when it’s haphazard or lazy. I have a ques..."

You’re right! I hope no one brings up speculative fiction. The arguments!

[Kat]

A book with fantasy or magic opens it out more for people that don't read fantasy. There are nonfiction books about magic, magic can crop up in other genres etc.

And thanks Dubhease for reminding me that space westerns are a thing. I've got the Western prompt coming up and have been dreading it but this gives me so much more scope.

[Dubhease]

Kat wrote: "A book with fantasy or magic opens it out more for people that don't read fantasy. There are nonfiction books about magic, magic can crop up in other genres etc.

And thanks Dubhease for reminding..."

I don't read westerns or watch them in movies. However, someone recently described the Tv show the Mandalorian (which I love) as a "space western" and now I'm re-thinking everything.

[Nancy]

The TV show Firefly is also considered a space western.

[Aimee]

Pearl wrote: "@ Ellie, Jill, Aimee, Dubhease, Kat,

Thank you. In that case, I want to propose a fantasy or sci-fi fantasy prompt today. Thoughts?

A fantasy novel
A book in the fantasy genre
A book shelved as..."

I would support a prompt along the lines of "a book with magic in" - that would cover magical realism, for those who love it, as well as more "traditional" fantasy and urban fantasy. Sounds like a good compromise :)

[Misty]

Emily wrote: "Another solid round of results -- we seem to be agreeing quite a bit..."

LOL - so another year another time I disagree with everyone apparently! :) Ah well.

[NancyJ]

Misty wrote: "Emily wrote: "Another solid round of results -- we seem to be agreeing quite a bit..."

LOL - so another year another time I disagree with everyone apparently! :) Ah well."

Sorry to hear that Misty. You and I are both reading a lot of indigenous books this year, and I’m getting lots of ideas from your 2023 plan. Indigenous and immigration are two of my focus areas this year (they were PBT tags). I also have Fourth Wing coming up soon. I love the reject challenge, though I’m way behind in my documentation.

I loved Heart Berries!

[Joanne]

I'm another one who likes fantasy and realistic fiction but dislikes magical realism. I just don't really feel like magical realism stories "make sense" in my brain. I am usually bored with the magical parts and wish it was left out.

[Pearl]

Joanne wrote: "I'm another one who likes fantasy and realistic fiction but dislikes magical realism. I just don't really feel like magical realism stories "make sense" in my brain. I am usually bored with the mag..."
That makes sense to me. I hope you vote for the Fantasy Sci Fi Prompt.

[Joanne]

I just put in my votes and that was one of them!

[Karin]

Book Concierge wrote: "Just my opinion, but a subtitle should actually appear on the cover of the book
e.g.: [book:Th..."

I have mixed feelings about that; cover designers don't always include them if they think it interferes with their design or they drop it on the covers of later editions. I go by the title page in a book, or, in this instance, what is clearly the majority of entries that makes sense. So many inept editors have caused problems on GR which is why they now make people pass a test to become editors.

[Ellie]

As a inept editor GR librarian I have noticed a lot of issues stemming from Amazon's own data feeds of late so I don't think it's all the fault of us. Really GR should add a separate field for subtitles like BookWyrm has.

[Karin]

Ellie wrote: "As a inept editor GR librarian I have noticed a lot of issues stemming from Amazon's own data feeds of late so I don't think it's all the fault of us. Really GR should add a separate field for subt..."

Yes! For example, there was quite a bug on Amazon last year where there were duplicate author pages made for each edition of a new book and they even had the same number of spaces between their first and last names. Someone more knowledgeable than me did the final fix because I didn't have the time to learn how to eliminate (or combine the two) one of the author pages.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Man the list of things I wish GR would fix just gets longer every day