Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
ATY 2026
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[2026] Introduction, Rules, FAQs, and Schedule
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As always, our first rule is the Golden Rule. We expect all group members to treat each other with respect and dignity. Let’s remember that we’re all doing the challenge differently and for different reasons, so avoid judging others’ choices or suggestions.
Voting Rules
- Each person may only suggest or second one topic per poll.
- Each person may only vote once in each poll. The survey site allows us to identify people who vote multiple times and duplicate votes will be excluded. Surveys that we receive without links to Goodreads profiles will also be excluded.
- Prompts that are in the bottom of any poll cannot be resubmitted in later polls unless substantially reworked.
- Prompts that are submitted in 3 polls and do not make it to the final list cannot be resubmitted in later polls unless substantially reworked.
Multi-Week Polls
- We will have one dedicated poll for multi-week prompts.
- Multi-week prompts are NOT allowed to be submitted in any other poll.
- We will cap the amount of weeks used by multi-week prompts at 6 weeks total. This could be filled by a combination of three 2-week prompts, a 4-week prompt and a 2-week prompt, or two 3-week prompts.
This is not a requirement to meet, however. If the winning prompts are a 2-week and a 3-week, putting us at a total of 5, we will allow that to stand. We will just restrict the total weeks used to 6 maximum.
Pre-Poll
- We will have one pre-poll that begins the week before our first suggestions thread opens.
- This pre-poll will consist of the prompts chosen during our June Mini-thon.
- Voting rules for this poll will posted on the Voting thread when the pre-poll opens.
When Voting
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.
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LIST PROGRESS: 31/52 Prompts Selected
TITLE
A book with a Z in the title and/or author name
A book that has a punctuation mark in the title
A book with a location in the title
A book with something edible in the title
COVER
A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover
A book with cover text that is NOT black or white
A book with a symbol of death on the cover
CHARACTER
A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters
SETTING
A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia
A book set in an isolated location
THEME/GENRE/PLOT
A book with a road trip or long journey
A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y
A book involving survival
A nonfiction book
AUTHOR/PUBLISHING/PAGE LENGTH
A book published in 2026
A book by a new-to-you author
A book that's part of a series
An author's second/sophomore book
A novella of 100-250 pages
The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist
A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author
RECOMMENDATIONS (GR, FRIENDS, CHALLENGES, LISTS, AWARDS)
A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list
A second book for your favorite prompt
A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list
OTHER
A book related to blood, sweat, or tears
A book related to yesterday
A book related to today
A book related to tomorrow
A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer
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For a digital version of this schedule, see here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGoCCH5...
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Q: What's a multi-week poll?
A: Multi-week prompts are a set of prompts (usually 2-4) that are connected somehow. We vote on these prompts in a separate poll because members found it difficult to vote for them when they were up against single-week prompts. This poll will usually be in the first half of the polling.
Q: How long do polls stay open?
A: The polls will stay open from the date on the schedule (when the voting thread opens) through the date that the results are announced. We suggest getting your vote in the day before results are announced to make sure your vote is counted!
Q: What time will the threads be posted?
A: The mods are mostly in the US, but we try to vary when things go live. We will usually post on the threads when the next one will go live (so we will post on the results thread for poll 1 when the suggestions will open for poll 2, etc.)
Q: Do we have themes for the polls?
A: Aside from the multi-week poll (and, sometimes, a Close Calls poll), we try not to limit the polls to certain types of prompts. Occasionally, as we get to the end of the process, we may mention prompt types that we are low on, like genre prompts or character-based prompts. However, we typically don't restrict polls to a certain type of prompt unless we feel it necessary.
Q: Is there a word limit for prompts?
A: No. But we have noticed that shorter, more concise prompts are more likely to make it into the final list, so we encourage you to workshop your suggestion in the Wild Discussion before submitting if you think it is too long or wordy.
Q: What's a Wild Card?
A: Wild Cards exist so that if there is a prompt you don’t connect with or can’t find a book for, you can use a Wild Card for that prompt. We generally say you have one Wild Card per challenge. That being said, no one is policing your reading, and we encourage you to tackle the challenge in a way that best fits your lifestyle and reading habits, so you can use Wild Cards however you’d like.
Q: What does BIO and KIS mean?
A: BIO stands for Bring it on and KIS for Keep it simple. If the prompt seems very easy for you, the BIO options will make it narrower or more challenging in various ways. On the other hand, if the prompt seems hard, the KIS option will make it easier. You might find some of these in the various discussion threads for the prompts. Some people set up their whole year with a challenging aspect like having books by minority authors. Or they might make it easier by using children's books. It's totally up to you.
Mod
We recommend you turn on notifications for this thread to keep up to date with the posting schedule.
We will post here as soon as the suggestions thread opens.
We will open the voting thread as soon as the suggestions have closed.
We will post here when the voting link has gone live.
We will post here as soon as results are posted, giving the time when the next suggestions thread will open.
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Voting is open for our pre-poll! You can find the discussion and vote here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The first round of suggestions will open around 3 pm CST on July 1!
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 7 am CST on Sunday, July 13.
*Note: Our multi-week poll will be in Poll 4!
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 1 pm CST on Saturday, July 19, and this will be our multi-week poll!
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 9 am CST on Friday, July 25.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 1 pm CST on Thursday, July 30.
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We will announce the time for the next round of suggestions by end of the day today (CST).
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 2 pm GMT+1 (British Summer Time). That's around 9 am EST.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 11 am CST on Monday, August 18.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 7 am CST on Sunday, August 24.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 4 pm CST on Saturday, August 30.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The next round of suggestions will open around 2:30pm UK (9:30 EST).
The entire Around the Year challenge list is generated by the group members. We enjoyed the process so much in the past ten years that we are creating another list for 2026.
The process will start on July 1 and we aim to have a completed list by sometime in September or October. Everyone is very welcome to participate, whether this is your first or eleventh year.
How it will work:
The topics will be chosen through a series of mini-polls. For each mini-poll there will be a suggestion thread where you can propose a topic. A suggestion needs to be seconded by one other person before it’s included in the poll. Once the required number of suggestions have been seconded the thread will close for new suggestions. There will be a break of around 24 hours between the suggestions thread closing and the poll opening for voting. This is to allow people to discuss the options before voting opens.
The mods will create a poll for members to choose their favorite suggestions. Each member has eight votes, which you can use to vote for your “top” and/or “bottom” choices. (See below for an example.) Polls will stay open for three days, and the mods will announce the results shortly after. The number of winning suggestions from each poll may vary depending on the distribution of votes.
Then a new suggestion thread will open and we’ll repeat the process until we have chosen 50 topics for the 2026 list (two topics will be chosen by winners of two reading competitions within the group).
How to participate:
*If you want to suggest a topic you can do so whenever a new suggestion thread opens. You don’t have to suggest a topic in order to participate in the poll.
*When a new poll is posted follow the link to the survey site and vote for your favorite and/or least favorite prompts.
*Look out for the results and the opening of a new suggestion thread.
*The topics chosen for the 2025 list will be posted in this thread and the topics that were suggested but not chosen will be posted on a separate thread (to be linked here later).
Voting Process
You have eight votes in total which you can use to vote for your top and bottom choices. You can use less than eight votes if you wish.
For example:
Voter 1
Top: Suggestions 1, 4, 7, 9
Bottom: Suggestions 2, 10, 11, 12
Total: 8 votes
Voter 2
Top: Suggestions 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14
Bottom: None
Total: 8 votes
Voter 3
Top: Suggestions 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14
Bottom: Suggestions 3, 10
Total: 8 votes
Voter 4
Top: Suggestions 1, 6
Bottom: Suggestion 12
Total: 3 votes