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Mystery is a staple genre for many people, so it’s bound to be popular, but we just had historical mystery last month. We would never vote for adult fiction in a normal year, but it’s going to be hard to resist broad tags this year.
Anita, when you originally proposed the game, it was with the full tag name. This scared us because we thought it would be hard to match 8-20 letters. Many of us thought we had to spell the words repeatedly (using all the letters equally). But the way it turned out, every group could have easily spelled 30 letter tags and still had a lot of extra bonus books.
Given this, could we discuss the possibility of using the whole tag going forward, especially when the first word is so short? 5 or 6 letters makes it too easy to do the group task, but less interesting when looking for bonus books.
Three easy good tags and normally I would be all over 'mystery', especially with reading for the Edgars and Agathas - it is my favorite genre. But even I am tiring of my steady diet of mysteries after January and this month when I am reading mostly mysteries by Authors of Color.Showing my age - I always think it odd to tag a book 'adult' anything - because in my youth that was reserved for porn! I still think NYC has a couple of dingy 'Adult Books' storefronts off Times Square. As do many other towns and cities.
I assume people tag books Adult Fiction to distinguish from YA and Childrens?
NancyJ wrote: "Given this, could we discuss the possibility of using the whole tag going forward, especially when the first word is so short? 5 or 6 letters makes it too easy to do the group task, but less interesting when looking for bonus books.e..."In general I'd vote no to this .... except ... if the first word is 4 or fewer letters (e.g. "true-crime" "big-books")
There's no requirement that a member read a boat load of bonus books, either matching the tag or not. I'm certainly not restricting my reading to just books that work for BWF.
We did just have a mystery tag and finding 2 books with Y would be a pain.
Huh, interesting selection. All are very broad and would be easy to find options.Personally mystery is not my go-to and I burned myself out a bit on them in January.
Kind of interesting that the other two are broad opposites: adult vs becoming an adult, though I'm sure there is still a bit of overlap.
Not sure what to pick. Also @Theresa, I had the same understanding of the label adult. :)
Didn't even catch the opposites of CoA and Adult-weird! LoL
An event I attended in January was called The Grown-up Book Fair. Local bookstores had booths and there were activities, snacks, etc. The friend who went with me didn't remember the exact name and called it The Adult Book Fair, then said "that sounds like a very different event!"
Jen K wrote: "Huh, interesting selection. All are very broad and would be easy to find options.Personally mystery is not my go-to and I burned myself out a bit on them in January.
Kind of interesting that th..."
I think some people mark Adult just to show it's not a children's book. It might still be about childhood, for instance To Kill a Mockingbird is tagged both Adult and Coming of Age by over 1000 people each (as well as Childhood by 640 people and Young Adult by over 1000.)
A few comments on your comments:I'm reluctant to change the rules of the challenge midstream so sticking with the first word.
Adult fiction - - I also thought porn, but when I looked at it, it looked legit. Very broad!!
Total coincidence on Coming of Age and Adult Fiction - - one was nominated by a member and the other was selected by the randomizer.
I couldn't really decide how to handle mystery. It seemed like a distinct tag from historical mystery, and I don't like to fool with the integrity of the selections, so I kept it in there figuring the vote would sort it out.
Robin P wrote: "Jen K wrote: "Huh, interesting selection. All are very broad and would be easy to find options.Personally mystery is not my go-to and I burned myself out a bit on them in January.
Kind of inter..."
Good points, I think we’ll see more overlap on the coming of age or YA books that many adults want to read (without embarrassment). As an extreme example, Anne of Green Gables is clearly written for young readers. It has thousands of YA and children’s tags, 800+ coming of age, but it still has 38 adult fiction tags.
Anita, another thing to consider: If there are only five letters, that forces the sixth person in every group out of the group task, and I think that affects their points. For adult fiction, the tag is broad enough to balance the restriction of only 5 letters. And these are good letters. But future 5 letter tags are unlikely to be this broad.
———-
I’m glad even Theresa needs a break from mystery!
It’s funny that many of us are reading a lot of mystery, and YA or coming of age books for authors of color. I think my next Africa book even has Middle grade tags.
I love both mystery and coming of age and found I had an X-rated mind about adult fiction, but was delighted to find that I have dozens of books which fit that tag.I'll be quite happy with any of these.
I have a book which I most want to read which fits one of these, but may not wait until March to read.
Truthfully being in the middle of reading for the Edgars, I will be reading a mystery regardless of the vote.
@Anita - 'mystery' is a much broader more general tag than 'historical mystery' and includes every subgenre - from Nancy Drew (YA and Middle Grade) to the latest nominees for Edgars and Agathas. I just checked and both 'Crime', which is broader as it would include NF and True Crime, and "Mystery' have 100,000 tagged books - which is clearly the top limit set by GR. Interesting how broad each of the 3 options are: Coming of Age has 62,000 tagged and Adult Fiction is also at 100,000. Narrowest is therefore Coming of Age.
@ NancyJ - yes it can happen. I can tire of mysteries but not quite yet. And usually a short 'nap' of one or two other genres has me back to mysteries again.
@RobinP - good point about To Kill a Mockingbird - and I realize that I never consider it a childrens or YA book. I read it as a young teen too. But I was also reading The Godfather, Agatha Christie, Alistair MacLean, etc. since there was no such thing as YA.
Theresa wrote: "@Anita - 'mystery' is a much broader more general tag than 'historical mystery' and includes every subgenre - from Nancy Drew (YA and Middle Grade) to the latest nominees for Edgars and Agathas. I ..."I wonder if there are any mysteries that start with the letter D. 🤔
NancyJ wrote: "Theresa wrote: "@Anita - 'mystery' is a much broader more general tag than 'historical mystery' and includes every subgenre - from Nancy Drew (YA and Middle Grade) to the latest nominees for Edgars..."🤣
Or for that matter, the letter "M'.
NancyJ wrote: "Anita, another thing to consider: If there are only five letters, that forces the sixth person in every group out of the group task, and I think that affects their points. "FYI not every team has 6 members. Proud member of the 5 person Page Slayers team here.
I can find something for any of the three tags as they are all pretty broad. It will be interesting to see which one wins.
Rachel N. wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Anita, another thing to consider: If there are only five letters, that forces the sixth person in every group out of the group task, and I think that affects their points. "FYI not..."
Several groups have six members though, and no one wants to feel that their contribution doesn’t matter. There is only one group task, and we want everyone in there. (Our group is sensitive to this.) It’s not fair to make one person in a group lose their points for that month, especially since they start with zero ( or 2?) the following month.
It would be easy enough to just make sure that all spelling tags have at least 6 letters, whether it takes one, two or three words in a tag. Just my opinion.
Nancy, the other person doesn’t lose points. They can spell for extras - that is still participation. Anita said this in answer to a question early on. So it doesn’t matter how many letters a tag has.
NancyJ wrote: "Mystery is a staple genre for many people, so it’s bound to be popular, but we just had historical mystery last month. We would never vote for adult fiction in a normal year, but it’s going to be..."
Anita has done so much finagling with this game already that I think we should leave it as is. It's easy to forget how much she has going on IRL :)
Robin P wrote: "An event I attended in January was called The Grown-up Book Fair. Local bookstores had booths and there were activities, snacks, etc. The friend who went with me didn't remember the exact name and called it The Adult Book Fair, then said "that sounds like a very different event!"LOL! That made me laugh!
And that is probably exactly why they called it the "Grown-Up" book fair. :-)
Anita wrote: "A few comments on your comments:I'm reluctant to change the rules of the challenge midstream so sticking with the first word.
Adult fiction - - I also thought porn, but when I looked at it, it ..."
I agree with you in all cases here, Anita!
OIK - Here is what I have learned. One of the unique challenges of considering three broad tags, is that its easy to find something to read for the tag. In fact for all three of these challenges, I had 25 pages where I have already read an extreme amount of all three categories. But the challenge in the research is not having trouble finding something to read. Its the fact that in order to research for the Books With Friends Challenge Requirements, that with a broad tag, one gets cut off by 25 pages, long before there may be plenty to find. For instance 25 pages of adult fiction cuts off at around 80 tags, coming of age, 35, and mystery at 595. Which means that whatever the tag is, we will just have to do it the other way around. Search through our TBR's, and side lists (should they exist) and then look them up for the tag if we think there might be a match 5+. I suspect for these three tags, each of our choices might be endless.But in the 25 page search, I did find for myself, a T and an L for Adult Fiction, (No doubt there would be countless more), For coming of Age, a C and a G (same likelihood) and for mystery, (these Y's don't scare me in the least, Four M's that are between 786 and 595 tags, three Y's, and three S's. also in that range.
I like all three tags for themselves. I have no idea how I might vote, because there is just so much to pick from, but I will say this about mystery. I am of completely opposite opinion of the few that have remarked so far. I have so so so many murder mystery thrillers on my TBR and I RARELY get to them, in usual favor of other things. Given a month to focus solely on these, I think whether its now or later, I would LOVE such a month to start knocking these off. I don't think these are the same for me as historical mystery. These bestseller mysteries, well I would be thrilled to knock off a ton of them. I wouldn't mind the other topics either, I am truly fine.
But I will say, if mystery does win, as long as the other Trailblazers don't mind, I am more than happy to share my three Y's. (And that's only so far.). As I have said these Y's don't scare me in the least. The three Y tags I have are 770, 84, and 15 - and as I've said, that's just to start without a second layer of research.
You’re right about the cut-off points for popular tags, Amy. It doesn’t matter for ordinary monthly tag reading because if you think it fits, it fits. It doesn’t matter whether anyone else has already tagged it that way. But it does matter for our formal challenges where we need at least 5 tags before we can count it. The display cut-offs mean we might miss out on seeing some really great book options that only a few people have tagged. Whichever tag wins, we always get asked to share ideas here on what to read. Maybe those of us who are playing Books With Friends (which of course isn’t everyone!) could focus on suggesting great books we’ve read that are lower down the tag list, so everyone can benefit?
Totally agreed. Because I was saying you have to do a whole different kind of research to make sure you can find things that are between 5+ tax and everything else leading up to what is beyond page 25. And with such broad categories, there’s bound to be so many. Like how many books on our TV match mystery and adult fiction and of age. So so many. It occurs to me that regardless of what the tag is we’re all gonna help each other figure out something for a G or Y or a U or a D or something odd. With three broad tags like this, it really doesn’t matter what the tag actually is. Anybody can find something to read for the tag, and for those of us playing the game, we can help each other figure it out, and there will be so many things to choose from regardless of the letter or the idea. This one’s really a free-for-all.
Sorry, I'm late to the question of rules change, but I agree that nothing should be changed. 5 books for 6 people is a good thing, in a given month someone might be traveling, having surgery, etc. and not want the pressure. Over 12 months, everyone will get plenty of chances. And a shorter tag like Food or USA could come up!
Theresa wrote: "Three easy good tags and normally I would be all over 'mystery', especially with reading for the Edgars and Agathas - it is my favorite genre. But even I am tiring of my steady diet of mysteries af..."I agree on the adult fiction tag.....always makes me cringe. I certainly wouldn't go around telling people how many adult fiction books I have read, or tagging books that or it would scare my brother in law (he's on GR too).
I think you might be for mystery the way I am for adventure atm.
3 good options for me. Don't mind which wins at all. I am behind on February reading still because life kicked me in the forehead again but I did get the lawns mowed today so I may find some time to read this weekend.
Is there anyone here who likes to use listopias, and would be willing to help populate one or more? I find them very helpful in ATY, and I sometimes help populate them during the planning process. (My old ADD and new ADRD brain loves these tools).If you don’t like extra lists (Theresa), please just ignore this completely. There is nothing you will need to do. This is an unofficial tool for those who want to use it.
I just created a listopia for adult fiction books that spell ADULT.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
If anyone else likes these and wants to help, Thank you! If you’d rather start one for a different tag, that’s great.
There are several ways to help populate a list.
1) simply vote on the books you like that are already on the list. I can then delete my votes and add more books. We can each vote on up to 100.
2) go to “add votes” above the list, and enter books that you want to add to the list from your own lists. Make sure they fit the requirements.
3) pick a new page from the adult fiction tag list and identify books that fit. I’ve been tagging them as a-adult, d-adult etc to speed the process. Let me know in the notes which pages you’re working on. I think I completed the first 5 pages so far. I’ll note it in the comments.
4) scan for books that might have been entered in error and note them in the comments. Duplicates can be automatically deleted later.
5) invite friends to help.
It’s a little confusing if you don’t already use them. If you’re not interested, no problem.
If you have any questions, put them in the comments below the list.
Thanks!
Just a word of caution here when considering what to vote for. For those of us who aren't playing the challenges, I hope that PBT members might think about what they prefer to read topic-wise that isn't necessarily linked to a challenge. Please don't take this askance - I don't mean it to be.
Holly R W wrote: "Just a word of caution here when considering what to vote for. For those of us who aren't playing the challenges, I hope that PBT members might think about what they prefer to read topic-wise that ..."Good point, I've been wondering what effect the game will have on the monthly tag. So far people on my team have generally felt we would have voted for the same tags without the game. For instance, I would always have gone all in for Historical Mystery as it is one of my very favorite genres.
The game definitely affects how many books are read for the tag. There might have to be an asterisk next to this year's totals because they may throw off all our records.
It’s a fair comment Holly, and it was brought up back in December when we voted on the annual challenges. I think most people always vote for the topic they most want, but it might also depend on how much they plan to read. (And your team’s preferences might also matter.) If I read one book a month for the tag, I’d vote for Environmental, but I couldn’t read 10. With a team challenge, I’m going to want most of my reading to help the team, so I’ll prefer a tag that has at least 10+ books I really want to read. So far that means broader tags. The letters don't matter as much as the topic. Steeplechase also favors tags with a lot of variety. The letters don't matter at all there.
I think maybe it will all settle down as the competition gets more relaxed. So maybe in a few months we’ll see narrower tags get suggested, and we’ll focus on the team task, not 100 extras.
Robin P wrote: "Holly R W wrote: "Just a word of caution here when considering what to vote for. For those of us who aren't playing the challenges, I hope that PBT members might think about what they prefer to rea..."Holly - I actually don't think you need be worried that the year will be nothing but challenge driven tag selections. It's still early in the year but my sense is - and my voting is following - my usual manner of voting for tag - how much I just like the tag and have books in my TBR to fit. I will admit I am paying more attention to whether those books actually are tagged 5 times.
I am not too sure how much either challenge will affect voting.
Steeplechase has everyone on their own track based on spinning so required tag matching is random. BWF does not require tag matching, not even to spell, though of course it is encouraged. Everyone's reading level and needs are different - demanding jobs, family and health situations, travel, prioritizing book club reading, and on, all of which have a strong influence on vote.
Holly also though is making a really good point that we should just make sure that our sensitivity is towards the fact that many many people enjoy PBT even if they’re outside of the challenges. But I agree. I did think that the voting for the tag would be much more talked about in these teams or strategized and so far I haven’t seen any of that. I don’t think people are voting based on these letters. I think they are voting on how they want to read and then they will figure out the letters to match. Most of us were actually doing the books with friends challenge are strong enough readers that we have tons of things for everything anyway. It’s not a problem. I haven’t even voted yet. The more I think about it, the more I think adult fiction is a weird category. Is it just everything that’s not YA? It feels to me like the category just kind of means everything else. Kind of like best seller lists. Like maybe other genres fit into it, but kind of an encompassing thing. Coming of age is somehow more specific. maybe about a certain slice of life. But I imagine because you don’t really know what a book is about until you are actually reading it, that maybe I just have to takeoff 400 bucks on my TVR and sort of see if any of them happen to be coming of age unless I look at it and I’m pretty sure it’s not. How would one otherwise even know? But I like all three categories anyway.
NancyJ wrote: "Is there anyone here who likes to use listopias, and would be willing to help populate one or more? I find them very helpful in ATY, and I sometimes help populate them during the planning process. ..."In general, I will often help to populate Listopias. I also find them useful.
I am not sure I have much to add to "adult fiction" since I don't tag my books that way. I would have contributions for "coming of age," though.
Joy D wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Is there anyone here who likes to use listopias, and would be willing to help populate one or more? I find them very helpful in ATY, and I sometimes help populate them during the pla..."If you want to start a listopia for coming of age, I’ll help you populate it!
I don’t use the adult fiction tag, but almost everything I thought would fit, did fit - except for some new or obscure books with few tags in general. So far, the list has mostly the books from the beginning of the tag list. You read a lot of serious fiction, and the list needs more of that.
Dim lightbulb moment! I'm finally getting that it is adult fiction as opposed to young adult fiction.
Booknblues wrote: "Dim lightbulb moment! I'm finally getting that it is adult fiction as opposed to young adult fiction."💡💡💡💡💡💡YES
I’m finding that most general fiction and popular genres are tagged either Adult fiction OR Young Adult, OR both adult and YA, Or lower (middle grades, juveniles picture books etc.)
The adult books that are less likely to have 5 + tags are brand new, obscure or international books that just don’t a lot of tags yet. I’m not sure about self published.
If you can add some of your favorites to the listopias, I think it would help a lot of us see the potential in the lists.
NancyJ wrote: "Is there anyone here who likes to use listopias, and would be willing to help populate one or more? I find them very helpful in ATY, and I sometimes help populate them during the planning process. ..."I do appreciate the head's up, Nancy.
Holly R W wrote: "Just a word of caution here when considering what to vote for. For those of us who aren't playing the challenges, I hope that PBT members might think about what they prefer to read topic-wise that ..."I also vote based on what I'm most interested in reading. For me, literary fiction is my go-to, but I read widely thanks to PBT. And of course, I also have to take into account what my six (yes, 6) F2F book clubs have on the schedule for the next month.
While I enjoy participating in the various challenges, that's not the focus of my reading agenda.
Theresa wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Is there anyone here who likes to use listopias, and would be willing to help populate one or more? I find them very helpful in ATY, and I sometimes help populate them during the pla..."If mystery is suggested later in the year (or wins this month), I’ll set one up for it. It’s too soon for me personally, but it’s a clear easy category, so it feels inevitable.
Book Concierge wrote: "Holly R W wrote: "Just a word of caution here when considering what to vote for. For those of us who aren't playing the challenges, I hope that PBT members might think about what they prefer to rea..."Six? Well why not? Do they meet all year? Some groups skip the summer, but that’s the best time for one of my groups. (We meet in a screened in gazebo and have wine.) Last month we had to use zoom because of a threatened driving ban.
NancyJ wrote: "Six? Well why not? Do they meet all year? Some groups skip the summer, but that’s the best time for one of my groups. (We meet in a screened in gazebo and have wine.) Last month we had to use zoom because of a threatened driving ban..."Four of them meet 12 months a year.
One meets six times a year (every other month)
One meets only three times a year.
*Two meet in a coffee shop / cafe that has a private meeting room we can use.
* Two meet in restaurants for dinner (One in the same place always. The other where we move about depending on hostess arrangements)
* One meets at the university library
* One meets at the public library
I always look to see what my upcoming book group commitments are when voting. If I can, I will vote for a tag that matches one of them. I am on a BWF team, and so far have found that I have something on my bookshelf that helps spell any of the tags. So, BWF has not influenced my voting yet.
Book Concierge wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Six? Well why not? Do they meet all year? Some groups skip the summer, but that’s the best time for one of my groups. (We meet in a screened in gazebo and have wine.) Last month we h..."I'd have to start keeping a daily calendar again to keep up, but it would be worth it. I always come home from these meetings with more energy than I left with.
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
https://forms.gle/R4nhy3GVAqDVYHUs8
Here are the lists of books for each tag:
adult fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
coming of age: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
mystery https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Remember, you may cast up to a total of 10 participation points for your choice. Every PBT member gets one vote for free so please vote even if you don't have any participation points!
You can see how many participation points you currently have in the spreadsheet below.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Happy voting! Please cast your votes by Noon EST on 2/22.