Play Book Tag discussion

Hi all,
It's time to vote on the March Madness books. Many of you are participating and I'm hoping that some of you might be willing to help out by voting on the books that our participants have nominated.

One randomly selected person will win a $15 amazon card as a thank you for completing the survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5MHYCHK

The survey is all books published in the last 2 years and it will probably take 10-15 mins to complete depending on how familiar you are with the books. If you are familiar with most, it should take 5mins.

Oh and warning - it will substantially increase your TBR. Thank you!

Done! I do not participate in March Madness but I love helping out and following along!

And, it did add some books to the TBR, and also reminded my of many that I already had there that are just languishing! lol

Nicole R wrote: "Done! I do not participate in March Madness but I love helping out and following along!

And, it did add some books to the TBR, and also reminded my of many that I already had there that are just ..."

Thanks! This book is terrible for my TBR

I mean "challenge" not book

I voted but have never participated in March Madness (yet). A really interesting selection of books though, and the summaries were very helpful. Some are on my tbr and I will be adding a few more. :-)

Lisa A. ✿ wrote: "I voted but have never participated in March Madness (yet). A really interesting selection of books though, and the summaries were very helpful. Some are on my tbr and I will be adding a few more. :-)"

Thanks for voting!

I voted, but I won't be participating since I'm doing the Popsugar challenge this year and that's enough for me, along with the PBT challenges.

Ladyslott wrote: "I voted, but I won't be participating since I'm doing the Popsugar challenge this year and that's enough for me, along with the PBT challenges."

Thanks for voting.

Thanks to those of you who have voted so far. It's a tough crowd voting this year. I'd say maybe it was the books but almost all the books on the list have been nominated for some prize or another. We have one clear leader at the moment and most other books are hovering around the 6/10 mark.

Voting is open until the 10th. I'll post a link to the completed brackets for those who want to see how the books ranked. I will award the $15 thank you card on the 11th to a randomly selected person who completed the survey.

Done

I voted earlier this afternoon. Lots of these books are on my TBR, and I now have a much bigger wish list.

Nicole R wrote: "Done! I do not participate in March Madness but I love helping out and following along!

And, it did add some books to the TBR, and also reminded my of many that I already had there that are just ..."

Ditto for not participating, but enjoying helping out! I haven't "officially" added any that weren't already on the tbr, but there are certainly ones I'll be keeping an eye on...

that's a lot of graphic novels

Nicole wrote: "that's a lot of graphic novels"
Yes, I was surprised by how many were nominated. I've actually read and loved two of them (and I don't usually like graphic novels) and they don't take long to read so it was probably a smart move to nominate a graphic novel for a time limited challenge.

There were a surprising number I hadn't heard of. I rated a couple super low, I think 2 1s maybe. One I just didn't like at all, definitely won't be re-reading that even if it's the #1 pick.

Jennifer P. wrote: "There were a surprising number I hadn't heard of. I rated a couple super low, I think 2 1s maybe. One I just didn't like at all, definitely won't be re-reading that even if it's the #1 pick."

Which one did you dislike the most? No rereading necessary. If someone has read the book they can pick a different book by that author (which may not be much better for you if you hated the first book) and if that author has no other books then you can substitute it for a different book in the same general genre/topic area. Of course you can simply not pick that book in your bracket and avoid having to read it at all

I can't play this year, but I will vote!! Just got back from vacation, and I feel so behind, lol.

Most of the books I have not heard of. I admit I gave the graphic novels a little higher rating since I figure they will be easy and quick to read!

annapi wrote: "Most of the books I have not heard of. I admit I gave the graphic novels a little higher rating since I figure they will be easy and quick to read!"

I think that's a smart strategy since the time to read is too short to read lots of books. We made it shorter to make people be more strategic about what they read since it would be impossible to read every book you pick.

I voted ... made the mistake of NOT make a note of those I wanted to add to my tbr ... and, of course, now I can't get back into the survey!

Jen, perhaps after the voting is finished, you can post a list of all the nominees.

Book Concierge wrote: "I voted ... made the mistake of NOT make a note of those I wanted to add to my tbr ... and, of course, now I can't get back into the survey!

Jen, perhaps after the voting is finished, you can post..."

The brackets will be posted on the blog after I rank them so you'll be able to see how each book does and it will have the full list of books

I did not like Hot Milk at all, I can't remember if that's the one I rated a 1 though. I did not like Dark Matter either, but I didn't hate it, so I rated that a little higher.

Oh and The Girls. Didn't like at all.

Jennifer P. wrote: "I did not like Hot Milk at all, I can't remember if that's the one I rated a 1 though. I did not like Dark Matter either, but I didn't hate it, so I rated that a little higher."

Hot milk wasn't one of the books. dark Matter was on there and The Girls. I agree with you on both of those although I found Dark Matter entertaining (not great quality but kind of fun). Loved Hot Milk though

I voted a while ago. I just forgot to post it here. I can't participate, but I did enjoy voting.

Jenni Elyse wrote: "I voted a while ago. I just forgot to post it here. I can't participate, but I did enjoy voting."

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for voting so far. Today is the last day to vote. I will post the link to the bracket where you'll be able to see how each book did and the title of all our books.

Must have been The Girls.

Thought Hot Milk might get me kicked off the island, everyone loved it.

I voted, Jen, the other day. I'll be curious to see how my thoughts lined up with others.

I love Jen, how you picked up my "kicked off the island" thread. I certainly thought if hating Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteredge, and Life After Life, didn't throw me off, 100 years of solitude, my distaste for that would have surely earned me nothing close to a blindside. My mother didn't like hot milk. And crazy enough, much of my book club didn't go for the Nix. I got lots of reassurances but I'm on the island to stay, and I'm passing it on that so are you.

Amy wrote: "I love Jen, how you picked up my "kicked off the island" thread. I certainly thought if hating Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteredge, and Life After Life, didn't throw me off, 100 years of solitude, my dis..."

Everyone gets to stay on the PBT island even if you hate our favorites beyond all measure!

And believe me, I think each of us has PBT favorites that fall into our "seriously?" category. Ahem, The Golem and the Jinni, cough, cough.

However, if you hate The Housekeeper and the Professor, you are dead to me.

Just kidding!!!! Love you all . . .

Staying quiet. Lest I now incur disfavor with two of the four moderators. LOL. Actually, I read housekeeper I thousand years ago, but now that I've seen such stellar reviews, it made me think to perhaps someday give it a second shot. Who knows what kind of a mood I was in when I read it. I actually liked the golem and the Jinni quite a lot. But thankfully, I think you and I a lot on enough other things that I still feel you guys will feed me some of the rice. And not to cheer when I fall out of the immunity competition.

Amy wrote: "Staying quiet. Lest I now incur disfavor with two of the four moderators. LOL. Actually, I read housekeeper I thousand years ago, but now that I've seen such stellar reviews, it made me think to pe..."

Honestly, I gave Housekeeper to my sister, and I think she is wondering what's wrong with me and why I liked it so much.

Lol, these differences are what is SO interesting about interacting with other readers.

EVERYONE MUST LOVE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE! And Nora Roberts ;)

I would have a very lonely book club of one if those were both requirements for us to read together! lol

Hey, I like a little Nora in my life! I'm faithful that Nicole is saving a little rice for me still.

Done.
I forced myself to not have Goodreads open at the same time as doing the survey- so I wouldn't add anything to my TBR.

Hopefully I'll have time to play. Do we have to sign up or anything or just make a bracket when that time comes.

I'm a little confused on gameplay also- do I make my own bracket by teams or by book? Or by assigning books to teams? Or do you assign the books to teams. Then I make a bracket basked on the teams that are already assigned to books?

Joi wrote: "Done.
I forced myself to not have Goodreads open at the same time as doing the survey- so I wouldn't add anything to my TBR.

Hopefully I'll have time to play. Do we have to sign up or anything or..."

Send me an email with your preferred email address to [email protected]. I will then add you to the CBS pool where we will be keeping scores. I will be posting step by step instructions on the blog and will add the link here for the PBT players since there are quite a few of you.

I will be creating a book bracket that mimics the NCAA bracket so that each book will be matched with a basketball team. Books will get matched to teams based on all your votes. Say for example, Moonglow is ranked number one (based on the survey), then it will get matched to a basketball team ranked #1 in their division.

Then participants will fill out their brackets on the CBS pool - which allows us to track scoring. I will walk people through how to do this. Basically you can pick based on books you want to read, pick based on basketball teams you think will advance, or do a combination of things. March Madness is often quite tricky to predict so basketball knowledge is not necessary a must have. Last year our top winners were not major basketball people.

Then once the games start, points will be determined by how the team(and their matched book) does in the NCAA tournament and which books you end up reading.

It all sounds a bit complicated but it will become clear once we start. And after the setup, the only thing you will need to do is sit back and read the books you want to read.

Hm, maybe I won't read Housekeeper....

Don't forget that I am an aberration....

Nicole R wrote: "EVERYONE MUST LOVE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE! And Nora Roberts ;)"

LOL!