Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Voting is now open! 

The entire Around the Year challenge list is generated by the group members. We enjoyed the process so much in the past two years that we are creating another list for 2018. 

The Process:
The topics for the 2018 RC list will be determined through around 13 mini-polls. Each user will vote for their favorite 4 topics in each mini-poll). Suggestions for each poll will be opened until 15-20 suggestions are received+seconded. Then a poll will be opened for voting for four days so you can select your 4 favorite suggestions. The process has been unpredictable this year but we are striving for a completed list in November.

The Rules:
- Voting ends September 29
- One vote per poll per member

Poll Entries:
- A book that you're reading as part of a reading group, buddy read, or Book of the Month (either in the AtY group or outside of it)
- A book with an orphan character
- A book about or based on a religion (fiction or nonfiction)
- A book with a dinosaur
- A book with a main character who is over 50 years old
- A book set over the span of a single day
- A book about or involving the arts (visual arts [painting, sculpture, illustration, etc], performing arts [music, dance, theater, etc], literature, architecture, etc.)
- A book that takes place in a school setting
- A book with an iconic/well-known character
- A book read/referenced by a fictional character
- A book published in the last three years (2016, 2017, 2018) by an author you have not read before
- A book with a plot centered around a secret (e.g., forbidden love, spies, resistance fighters, secret societies, conspiracy theories)
- A book that teaches you something (fiction or nonfiction; biography, memoir, history, religious, another culture, etc.)
- A genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery, western) published before 1990
- A book that has something to do with Halloween
- A book set on an island
- A book with less than 2,018 ratings 
- A book with someone in profile on the cover
- A book with a theme of Good versus Evil
- A book about a female explorer

Survey Link:
http://www.surveymoz.com/s/WXFEP/

Ok 2 that I really don't want, actually make that 3. 3 that I really want. The rest I will give or take.

there's some good stuff here for me, but there's a lot of HELL, NO! too. It was tough to pick just four bottoms.

This is another vote where I had more bottoms than tops. There were 8 I didn't like, 4 I did, and the rest I didn't have strong feelings for either way. I'm not sure whether I want to see the results of this one or not.

My bottom 4 were pretty easy, there were two that I waffled between but in the end I definitely would prefer one to the other so fairly clear bottom:

Buddy Read - That one sounds great but for people that do the topics in order, they would have to find a buddy read, book of the month or reading group that is reading a book they like THAT week. I think that would narrow the choices of books to read down a LOT.

A book about or based on a religion was in my bottom. I do not enjoy books with religious aspects to them so this topic is a bottom for me.

A book that teaches you something - I feel like I learn something from every book I read, even if it's just that a certain author is horrid and I need to avoid them forever.

Book read/referenced by a fictional character - This just brought back the Rory Gilmore challenge for me. I don't hate it, it's just been done so I passed on it.

My top 4 were harder to choose. There were a lot that I was ok with, but not many that really stood out. So I went with:

Book with an Orphan Character - I don't think we have many, if any character based prompts and this particular type of character is found in every genre so very versatile.

Book that takes place in a single day - I saw a couple different options on the lists that I would be interested in.

Genre fiction published before 1990 - I just bought Dune and I know I am going to need a good excuse to pick up that behemoth.

A Book published in the last three years by an author you haven't read before. - It's always good to discover new-to-you authors so top 4 for me.

°~Amy~° wrote: "A book about or based on a religion was in my bottom. I do not enjoy books with religious aspects to them so this topic is a bottom for me. ..."

I don't like religious-themed books, either, but a book "about religion" could also be a book about rejecting religion, such as god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything or Infidel.

I picked only 3 suggestions for my top, I'm not enough interested by a 4th to vote for it (but I'd be ok with most of the list). The bottoms were a little easier, with a strong dislike for the religious one, as the topic always decreases my pleasure while reading.

Nadine wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "A book about or based on a religion was in my bottom. I do not enjoy books with religious aspects to them so this topic is a bottom for me. ..."

I don't like religious-themed books..."

Oh I completely understand that, I just prefer to avoid all sides of the subject in my recreational reading, it upsets me THAT much. :-)

I think I must have different opinions this time around, because I actually had 11 choices for the top, and only four for the bottom.

Of course, my "top" starts out as prompts I would like to read, and can be quickly narrowed down to prompts I would actually be excited about, so that brought it down from 11 to around six, I think. I finally pulled the last two out because I couldn't find as many on my TBR that could fulfill those prompts as the other four.

As for the bottoms, there were on three that I felt strongly about, but the fourth one was one I just wasn't really interested in. Of the other 16, though, I can't say I would be truly disappointed if any of them made it to the top, so I think (hope) the results will be good from me whether my top four make it or not.

I wonder if this is going to end up being the final poll used to create the challenge list, or if we'll end up needing another round to finish up? In some ways, I don't want it to end yet. I like creating the list, and I like getting to suggest or second or just watch, and I definitely enjoy the voting. On the other hand, it would be kind of nice to just be finished and get the list in it's final order so I can tentatively start making a plan for next year.

I found 4 I liked enough to vote to the top, but a lot of bottoms for me this go-round, hard to choose just four.

Top: single day, book published last 3 years with author new to you, book centered around a secret, and book referenced by a fictional character (to make different from the Rory Gilmore thing as mentioned, I'd go full meta and say book referenced by a fictional character in a book).

Bottoms: Halloween (too limiting IMO), religion, genre pre 1990, and main character 50 plus.

I have a feeling there will be another poll after this...lots of differing opinions. Very interested in seeing how this turns out...

I think I'd be happy with the majority of the options this time. I have two books that I'm dying to read with characters who are over 50, so that was an easy one, then I went with centered around a secret, set on an island and Good v Evil as they give me plenty of options, but not so many it becomes a free read.

The easiest option for my bottom four was the book from the last three years. We already have one from 2017 (the GR Choice Awards) and one from 2018 on the list, so this seemed a little repetitive.

I couldn't find any books on my TBR that have a dinosaur or take place over a day, so they made the bottom as well.

The group read could work, but I wouldn't be able to plan for it in advance so that was my final choice. It was a close call between that and based on religion, but I decided I'm always happy for a reason to re-read some Terry Pratchett, so if religion wins Small Gods makes my list for next year.

°~Amy~° wrote: "I feel like I learn something from every book I read, even if it's just that a certain author is horrid and I need to avoid them forever. "

Bahaha. That is excellent.

So many I really don't want, so was hard to get it down to just 4. I really don't want to read a bad book on purpose, it's bad enough when I do because I hadn't realised it was not good. So that one went . Also we had, had another one of these in a previous challenge, as we have with fictional character. The 3rd and 4th ones I voted bottom were the arts one and the dinosaur.
My tops votes went to ones I have easily got books to match.

Jill wrote: "So many I really don't want, so was hard to get it down to just 4. I really don't want to read a bad book on purpose, it's bad enough when I do because I hadn't realised it was not good. So that on..."

Sorry, I am confused Jill. Which one was reading a bad book on purpose?

°~Amy~° wrote: "Jill wrote: "So many I really don't want, so was hard to get it down to just 4. I really don't want to read a bad book on purpose, it's bad enough when I do because I hadn't realised it was not goo..."

I assumed the low ratings meant that few people thought the books were a good read, but if you say this is not the case , then I am wrong

Pretty good choices overall this time. I had my bottom 4 picked out pretty much right away, and there were a few strong contenders for my top 4.

The reading group/buddy read/BOTM one was an obvious bottom 4 for me. I don't really like tying what I'm reading to what other people are reading, and can't guarantee that I'd get the right book at the right time. The book read/referenced by a fictional character was also an easy bottom 4 for me because I feel like it's been done before.

The two I was most torn between were a book set in a school setting and a book with someone in profile on the cover. I ended up going for the school setting, but I'd be very happy with either of those. I also really liked the orphan character prompt, plot centred on a secret, and the book published in the last 3 years.

Jill wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "Jill wrote: "So many I really don't want, so was hard to get it down to just 4. I really don't want to read a bad book on purpose, it's bad enough when I do because I hadn't realise..."

Not a lot of ratings can also mean a book that wasn't published long ago, a first release from this author, a translated book, a self-published, just somebody who needs a little push to get well known!

Not all books that receive a lot of advertisement or hype are good, and if a book hasn't got a lot of ratings definitely does not mean it's bad!

Jill wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "Jill wrote: "So many I really don't want, so was hard to get it down to just 4. I really don't want to read a bad book on purpose, it's bad enough when I do because I hadn't realise..."

That makes sense why you would have thought that. As Sophie said a low number of ratings, less than 2018 ratings in this case, does not mean bad, just not read a lot yet. I have a lot of books on my TBR that have few ratings but the ratings that they do have are mostly 4 and 5 stars. Great books, just no one knows about them. It's always interesting to see how people interpret different prompts though. :-)

I was surprised how much of my TBR had under 2018 ratings - almost 20%. There lots of books I'm really eager to read in there, so many it didn't feel like a challenge, which is why I didn't vote for it.

Less than 2018 ratings means it's an indy or small press type book. I didn't vote for it because that seemed like a pain to search for, and then I run the risk of the library not having a copy so I'd have to go back and search for another.

Nadine wrote: "Less than 2018 ratings means it's an indy or small press type book. I didn't vote for it because that seemed like a pain to search for, and then I run the risk of the library not having a copy so I..."

I mean, I just sorted my tbr by number of ratings and l saw tons of options. And not many of them are what I would call "indie" books. Most of them were either really old (so not many people today are reading them) or very new (so not many people have read them yet).

Thanks for explaining the ratings. In that case, I can't see why the ratings are there, as it really seems they have little or no purpose . Maybe they would mean more if they only showed what a person's friends rated them as they are the people who would influence you more.

Jill wrote: "Thanks for explaining the ratings. In that case, I can't see why the ratings are there, as it really seems they have little or no purpose . Maybe they would mean more if they only showed what a per..."

I think it's just as helpful to have a few reviews as it is to have a million reviews. If 50 people gave it 4 or 5 stars I am going to be just as interested as if 5000 people gave it 4 or 5 stars. As for only seeing my friend's ratings, that wouldn't influence me at all as my friends and I all have very different reading tastes. Most of the books I read wouldn't show any reviews if only friend's reviews were shown actually.

That's true, and I suppose there are quite a few people who seem to collect friends even though they have no interest in the people, only the numbers of friends they have accumulated

I definitely had a number of OH NO! Definitely no interest in the religion subject, the Buddy Read or the rating restriction. I feel like we already have a bunch of get it off this list. (Edgar, Bailey, Amazon, Friend 5 star)

I like the orphan one, in one day and based on a secret. I was torn between the two setting options. I went for island over school just because I do read a lot of books in school so the island would be more out there for me while still being doable.

I've been working on lists for each subject so I'm more prepared than I was this year. This is my first year and I started late. This is all super exciting.

I can tell by the discussion my top 4 aren't going to be popular! I picked the buddy read and the low votes options. I read lots of indie authors so thought this would be a good way to get some of these books of my TBR and I enjoy the book of the month just find it hard to fit in, so I thought buddy read would make me do at least 1.

Bec wrote: "I can tell by the discussion my top 4 aren't going to be popular! I picked the buddy read and the low votes options. I read lots of indie authors so thought this would be a good way to get some of ..."

I almost voted for the low number of ratings option too, but ultimately decided against it because I had nearly 30 pages of choices on my TBR so it didn't seem like much of a challenge. I'd be happy if that was chosen though.

Bec wrote: "I can tell by the discussion my top 4 aren't going to be popular! I picked the buddy read and the low votes options. I read lots of indie authors so thought this would be a good way to get some of ..."

You never know. Sometimes those of us who discuss our choices aren't in line with the majority of people who vote, so you may be surprised. I am one of those who voted for the "under 2,018 ratings" one, also.

I am curious. How did you find out about all these books with less than 2018 reviews? I mean, I usually update my TBR with books that sound interesting and are mentioned by others, but I checked my TBR and just a couple of my books have less than 2018 reviews, and that is because they are unpublished books! How did you find out about those?

Silvia wrote: "I am curious. How did you find out about all these books with less than 2018 reviews? I mean, I usually update my TBR with books that sound interesting and are mentioned by others, but I checked my..."

I joined NetGalley, so I get a lot of e-mails from them with upcoming books that I request and add to my TBR list. Sometimes I get them, but sometimes I don't, so they stay on my TBR list until they do come out. Many of them aren't out yet, and some of them are, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Also, I see a lot of new releases/soon-to-be-released from my GR friends as to-read, and if they look good, I will add them to my list, as well.

Another place I have gotten a lot of mine is from Amazon. I look at a lot of the free/cheap Kindle books and download them. I have gotten a ton of those, but a lot of times, the ones they list as free or $0.99, $1.99, or $2.99 are books that didn't get a lot of publicity because they were by a new author or an author who is somewhat unknown, things like that. A lot of those don't have as many reviews because even though they might be a year or two or three old, not many people know about them yet.

The ones I have with less ratings are a total mixed bag - some are kindle books that were only 99p, some are paperbacks I bought second hand. The newest was published in May, the oldest in 1982.
There are new and indie authors, but there's one by Tad Williams, and another by a really well known English football referee that I would assume sold a lot of copies. I've even got a Neil Gaiman short story that only has 122 ratings!

I went back & looked through my list again. It looks like I have around 400 books (maybe a few more) that have fewer than 2,018 ratings. I also have quite a few cozy mysteries that I'm planning to read, and for some reason, a lot of those don't have a lot of ratings. Even if the first few have over 2,018 ratings, they tend to drop off the more books are added to the series.

Also, it seems that a lot of my books with fewer ratings are nonfiction, so that might account for something also. I know there are tons of books that are nonfiction that have thousands of ratings, but I would say of my under 2,018 ratings ones, they are probably half fiction, half nonfiction, which is not at all representative of my TBR list. I have lots more fiction on my list, so the fact that it's roughly half & half on the low end just means that, for at least the nonfiction that I've picked to read, they aren't rated as much as the fiction books are.

I also found a soon-to-be-released John Grisham novel (The Rooster Bar), a collection of stories from Charlaine Harris (Dead But Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse), a sequel of sorts to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book by Sean Covey (The 7 Habits of Happy Kids), a young readers' edition of a popular book by William Kamkwamba (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition), things like that.

Some of the soon-to-be-released books may have more ratings by the time I get to that prompt next year, so they may not work anymore, but I'm sure I'll continue adding as I go, so there will be plenty of choices. Of course, we don't even know if that option will end up in the top, so this could all be for nothing.

Nicole wrote: "...Of course, we don't even know if that option will end up in the top, so this could all be for nothing.."

Thanks for your answers, Nicole and Marie! But is not for nothing, Nicole, I have learned a new thing :D I didn't vote for this suggestion, but I was really curious :P

When are the results of this one final? Today or tomorrow?

Nadine wrote: "When are the results of this one final? Today or tomorrow?"

We should get them today. I'm so ready!!!

Spoiler alert: we'll have at least another poll. It's the never ending list this year.

Zaz wrote: "Spoiler alert: we'll have at least another poll. It's the never ending list this year."

Oooooh, that's interesting. Now I really can't wait to see the results. *twiddles thumbs*

Zaz wrote: "Spoiler alert: we'll have at least another poll. It's the never ending list this year."

It still feels like we are finishing early, or is the year just slipping by faster than I want it to? :-/

Now I'm curious and impatiently waiting lol

I feel like a 5 year old refreshing the page every 5 minutes....

Is it done yet?
Is it done yet?
Is it done yet?

Whennnnnnn do we see??? I run my phone battery down, checking checking checking

At least I'm not the only one

My non-reading life was encroaching on my reading life today. Results are now posted.

Silvia wrote: "I am curious. How did you find out about all these books with less than 2018 reviews? I mean, I usually update my TBR with books that sound interesting and are mentioned by others, but I checked my..."

Most of my books with less than 2018 ratings are from authors outside of the US and UK (mainly France and New Zealand). Other books were recommended on this group.