Robin P’s Comments (group member since Feb 17, 2020)

Robin P’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

The Suggestions Thread for Poll 9 is open!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It's time for our next round of suggestions!

Just a reminder that you can find a full list of prompts already on the 2026 list in the third post. Here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

How it works:
- The topics for the 2026 reading challenge list will be determined by a series of mini-polls, the number of which depends on the number of prompts winning in each mini-polls
- Suggestions for each poll will be opened until 15 suggestions are received and “seconded”.
- The voting thread will open the day after suggestions go live. You can find the schedule here.
- The poll will be posted after the voting thread is opened for 24 hours, and will remain open for three full days.
- Each user has 8 votes to spread between their favourite (top) and least favourite (bottom) prompts
- The prompts with the more favourable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list (between 2 and 5 depending on how the votes are spread)

Rules:
- Each member can only suggest OR second one prompt
- Suggestions close after 15 total seconded prompts

When suggesting and seconding, feel free to provide examples and descriptions that may help other members understand the prompt better. These descriptions and examples will be copied over to the voting thread for further discussion.

As always, please express any and all feedback (respectfully, of course), either here or in The Wild Discussion (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

Seconded and moving on to voting:
1. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
2.A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters
3. A book with an immortal character
4. A nonfiction book
5.A book set in a desert environment
6. A book that has to do with a favorite animal
7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list
8. A book inspired by or related to the Charlie’s Angels franchise
9.A book related to one of the five basic tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami/savory)
10. A book that includes a science related topic
11. A book by a 2026 debut author
12. A book with an orphaned or adopted character
13. A book about wildlife or nature conservation.
14. A book tagged by Goodreads readers as Literary Fiction
15. A book with a character who has a trait related to one of Dorothy’s companions in the Wizard of Oz


To be seconded:

Katie wrote: "Pam wrote: "I had some thoughts on a sitcom character's name in the title. You can always reverse engineer it and pick the book and query for a sitcom with that character. I have a few I'm interest..."

The idea is you find a book you want to read that has a name in it, for example David Copperfield. Then you could search online and find that David is the name of a character in the recent TV show Schitts Creek, and also in the 1950's Ozzie and Harriet Show, etc. Or instead of searching, just ask the brilliant minds here once the thread for the prompt is set up!

That's right, in Britain, the game is called Cluedo rather than Clue.

Mie wrote: "I can’t see anything about this prompt:

5. A book with a setting that provokes the question, "Why did you go there?"

Does anyone know the thought behind it?
I’m not sure I quite get it…"

I think the idea was an unusual setting - kind of like the prompt we had a couple years back about a book that would cause people to say "you read what?!"

I'm confused about " a menial job in your country" - does that mean the book is set in my country or the job is considered menial in my country but the book could be set anywhere? (no problem for me in the US either way, but we have members from all over the world.)

I'll second "set in Africa, Asia, or Australia"

Trish wrote: "Dixie wrote: "Trish wrote: "Wow, this is going quick. Currently

Multi-genre and A character who appears in more than one book have been seconded too."

I didn't hit F5 at the right time!"

Don't worry, Trish, I have never been able to get through a whole suggestions thread without missing something!

I'll second A character who appears in more than one book

I love alternate Sherlock Holmes stories, for instance. The KIS would be a series, but I like the idea of a historical figure, or classic literary figure for this.

I like books with unreliable narrators a lot, but they only work if you don't know at first that the narrator is unreliable. As a prompt you would need a listopia, since it's also one you can't tell till you read it. But if you know it's on the list, that would give away an important part of the story.

Maybe there's a way to phrase this that would get around this problem.

On food, some cultures eat seaweed.

I loved 2 books about families and relationships
A Forty Year Kiss and
Mary Jane

I love snarky characters, though it can be hard to know ahead of time if a book has one.

Some excellent SFF books were self-published, by Andy Weir, Hugh Howey, and Michael J. Sullivan, then eventually picked up by publishers. But I think a lot of SFF self-published is online/ebook only and not everyone wants to read that way. And Nike has a good point about them generally being available in only one language.

Rachael wrote: "Robin P wrote: "My concern about Book written in the present tense is that there is no way to tell ahead of time except what is in a Listopia.

I like all the settings options, and I like prompts ..."

Actually, since I read more than 52 books in the year, I'm quite sure I'll run across one totally at random. Sometimes I don't even notice the tense of the book.

Thanks to NancyJ for all the links!

My concern about Book written in the present tense is that there is no way to tell ahead of time except what is in a Listopia.

I like all the settings options, and I like prompts from songs. Since I read sci-fi, the other planet would be fine for me, but I'll be very surprised if it is chosen.

I'm not thrilled about the 1001 books. As someone who has always read a lot of classics, I have already read the ones I wanted to read. But there are some short books on the list, and some children's books.

The GR Listopia has only about 65 books. There are multiple sites with the whole list. Here is one:

https://1001bookreviews.com/the-1001-...

The list slowly changes as new books are added, so if you look at an older copy or list, it might be slightly different.

Title: The End of Drum-Time
Author: Hanna Pylväinen
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Paperback
ATY Prompt: None
Why it's the best: A beautiful evocation of a place and culture I knew nothing about.

My local library book group often reads prize winners a year or two later, when they are more available.