2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

The 2016 Reading Challenge will continue the concept of this year's challenge, with 52 weekly topics. Users then choose a book fitting each topic in order to complete the challenge.

How polls will work:
The topics for the 2016 RC list will be determined through 13 mini-polls. Each user will vote for their favorite 4 topics in each mini-poll, which will then add up to the 52 topics (13 polls x 4 topics/poll=52 weekly topics).

This poll is devoted to "short" themes, allowing you to spend one week catching up if you fall behind.

Voting ends August 3 at 8:00am EST

Rules:
- Each person can take the survey one time.
- A new question has been added to the start of this mini-poll, allowing you to express your preference on the continuation of mini-polls for the short themes.

See the first post in the Announcements for the running list of chosen themes

The Suggestions topic contains more elaborate descriptions of some of the suggestions, including definitions and examples of Quick Reads, novella, and "Between the Numbers" books

Survey Link

Here is the new question, just in case anyone wants to think about it before entering the survey:

What is your preference for the continuation of "short" suggestions for the 2016 Reading Challenge?
- Do 2 more short polls (12 total short themes for the year)
- Do 1 other short poll (8 short themes for the year) and add another reader's choice (2 total reader's choice themes)
- Stop doing short polls (4 total short themes for the year)
- Stop doing short polls and add another reader's choice

I also rearranged the suggestions, just so that similar themes were grouped together. I thought that may help some people in ranking/picking top 4.

It's sometimes difficult to find short books worth reading. I would prefer us to scrap choosing any more of them and opt instead for more readers' choice books. That way, anyone wanting to choose short books could do so and anyone wanting something with more substance could do that.

People who want to read short books can do so fairly easily within the scope of other categories; length is hardly ever a limiting factor.

I would prefer to stop doing short polls. I think 4 total short themes for the year is more than enough. I like how this year's list has only 2 categories dependent on length (the ">500 pages" and "can read in a day" categories).

On the other hand, I don't like how open-ended reader's choice themes are. I think it will be even harder to find people reading the same book if there is absolutely no criteria for choosing one.

I agree with the above. I don't think length is really something we need to be concerned about. If someone wants to read a shorter book to catch up, it's easily done within the parameters of the other themes or topics chosen. I would much rather go back to regular topic suggestions and allow people to choose a shorter book on their own if that's what they prefer.

That said, if someone has a topic suggestion that is specific to a short (or long) book, I think it should definitely be shared, included in the poll and voted on. I am not a fan of the forced short topics only though.

As for reader's choice, I don't think more than one week should be devoted to that topic.

It seems to be difficult to find themes specifically for the short sections, but it seems easy to find short/quick reads in just about any topic.

Personally for me I really dislike the readers choice option, just because it takes away from the idea of "challenge" I have. My default for that is always going to be my sci-fi fall back. The reason I love the challenge is because there are a lot of topics that push me out of my comfort zone. I also agree that having such a wide topic will create a smaller likelihood of multiple people reading the same book. I think there can be a good discussion when only one person is reading a book, but I haven't seen it happen as much as when there are several people reading the same thing.

I agree with the above. I think it's easy enough to find short books within the normal categories for people who prefer to read shorter books. But I like having the choice of what length books I read. I think this should be the only short book poll we do. I also think 1 Reader's choice topic is enough.

I agree with this poll being enough for short topics, as everybody can easily choose a short book for whichever task they want. One reader's choice is enough for me as well.

I'm someone that is still very far behind on this challenge and will probably remain far behind but I do also think that this one poll for the short topics is enough. I think having four weeks out of the year with shorter books/topics will be enough to help everyone get caught up and let faster readers, read more side-reads, while not limiting the whole challenge too much. Shorter books can fit into the other topics too, if necessary.

I do also agree that I think 1 reader's choice is enough. It gives us a week where we have free range which will be great and refreshing but if we have too many it would take away some of the challenge.