Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

In case some people haven't seen my posts in the individual threads, we have changed the rule for the page count.

The previous rule: Since page counts vary among formats, we will accept the highest page count listed on Goodreads for whatever book you're reading

We have decided to use the most popular edition's page count instead.

It was just a lot of work to compile a list and sift through all of the page numbers for every buddy read. The most popular edition is the edition that pops up first when you search the book. If you aren't sure, click "other editions" when you are on a book's page and it will be the top one.

Please adjust your challenge points accordingly.

Thanks for clarifying. I've seen at least one person use the wrong count but I didnt feel comfortable telling them 😬

Hacen wrote: "Thanks for clarifying. I've seen at least one person use the wrong count but I didnt feel comfortable telling them 😬"

Yes, I've seen a couple. We'll give them some time to adjust it themselves and if they don't, we will send them a message. :)

I haven't been checking close enough to notice much... unless 2 people read the same book and have different counts...

EDIT: Actually... I just realized this is why you had to archive the page counts thread... people are using the 728 we posted for Blood Song, instead of 591

And isn't Gardens of the Moon 666 pages? (EVIL :)... that's the number I have for when I read it, anyway...

Iain wrote: "I haven't been checking close enough to notice much... unless 2 people read the same book and have different counts...

EDIT: Actually... I just realized this is why you had to archive the page cou..."

yep its 666

But why not using the actual page count read? What was so difficult about it?

Mayim wrote: "But why not using the actual page count read? What was so difficult about it?"

I'm guessing because people could lie and say they're reading the edition with the most pages to get more points. This way everyone's getting the same thing for the same book.

I think it's because we could both be doing Gardens of the Moon right now, and I'm reading the 496 page paperback from Tor, and you're reading the 752 page paperback from Bantam Press...

We're both reading the same story, but you get 13.2 points for it, and I get 8.8 points for it, including bonuses...

This way, everybody uses the popular 666 page version and gets 11.8 points

ah well, I was never one for counting :) asking out of curiosity

There can also be all sorts of minor questions if people just count the pages themselves (outside of cheating)... what pages count... the story?... what about any early pages numbered i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, etc?... or if there's a sneak preview of the next book at the end>

This way it's standardized to whatever Goodreads is using, which is usually taken from the publisher website or Amazon or some other source...

Not to mention that ebook readers vary in how they measure pages, if they even measure in pages at all... it all gets very complicated the deeper you go... thus it was standarized...

Sorry if it seems like I'm lecturing... I think my questions are the source of a lot of the page-related clarifications and revisions since the competition was announced...

I don't like this rule :( my Hero of Ages is 748 pages but I'm only going to get points for the popular one which is 550 ish :(
I feel cheated lol.

Don't know if anyone agrees, but I think under this new rule, foreign language books with longer page counts shouldn't be accepted either. The person might be reading the book in a different language but it's still the same story, so should also have to use the most popular page count.

Someone using a French or German publication etc would be the same as me wanting to use the UK one. (we always seem to have longer page counts haha XD)

Oh Siobhan, you stab me in the back, your own team mate? 😲

To defend myself, the higher page count is often due to longer sentences because one need much more words to say the same thing. So it's not only the formating...
But in general I agree with you, my Blood Song copy (english) also got 700ish pages but the most popular only has 550 or something like this... it's sad to loose those points.

Anni wrote: "Oh Siobhan, you stab me in the back, your own team mate? 😲

To defend myself, the higher page count is often due to longer sentences because one need much more words to say the same thing. So it's..."

I didn't mean to stab you in the back my dear!! 😱
It just got me thinking, Iain's sound logic about two people reading the same story but getting different points seems to apply to other languages as well. Generally speaking, the translation will be word for word. Some things might need slightly different phrasing, but not 100s of pages worth right?

However, as you're a Jaghut guardian you can have as many pages as you want xD

Siobhan wrote: "Anni wrote: "Oh Siobhan, you stab me in the back, your own team mate? 😲

To defend myself, the higher page count is often due to longer sentences because one need much more words to say the same t..."

Uh, thanks god the translations are not word for word, this would sound horrible :D I googled the extracts for Well of Ascension in german and english and compared the exact same sentences and the english got 2555 characters without space while the german got 3266. If I'm not too tired to calculate, the german book got more then 20% more characters. I think this indeed makes a difference.

Siobhan wrote: "Don't know if anyone agrees, but I think under this new rule, foreign language books with longer page counts shouldn't be accepted either. The person might be reading the book in a different langua..."

Foreign page counts will count if you read the book in that language. After all, even if they are reading the same story, they might be reading a lot more than the English version (at least in the case of some languages).

Siobhan wrote: "I don't like this rule :( my Hero of Ages is 748 pages but I'm only going to get points for the popular one which is 550 ish :(
I feel cheated lol."

This is the reason why we made it the longest page count at first, but organizing it all was just too unmanageable. Iain gives sound reasoning above.

So, how many pages should I put for Sookie Stackhouse 01 - Dead Until Dark?

Choko wrote: "So, how many pages should I put for Sookie Stackhouse 01 - Dead Until Dark?"

The most popular edition says 292.

Looks like 292. All you have to do is look at All Editions on the books page and it's the page count for the very first book.

Hacen wrote: "Looks like 292. All you have to do is look at All Editions on the books page and it's the page count for the very first book."

Thank you guys, I didn't realize that... Learn something new every day:)

Anni wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "Anni wrote: "Oh Siobhan, you stab me in the back, your own team mate? 😲

To defend myself, the higher page count is often due to longer sentences because one need much more words t..."

If translations were as simple as taking a sentence and translating it word for word, Google could crank out translations all day long... translations require artistic license, because sentence structure and meaning can vary between countries/languages... even UK versions translate into metric sometimes, don't they?...

Choko wrote: "Hacen wrote: "Looks like 292. All you have to do is look at All Editions on the books page and it's the page count for the very first book."

Thank you guys, I didn't realize that... Learn somethin..."

It's only the top book if you are sorting by "num ratings" in the dropdown menu... but that seems to be the default sorting method...

When you follow book links like this: Dead Until Dark you'll see something like this:

Mass Market Paperback, 292 pages
Published May 1st 2001 by Ace Books

Iain wrote: "Choko wrote: "Hacen wrote: "Looks like 292. All you have to do is look at All Editions on the books page and it's the page count for the very first book."

Thank you guys, I didn't realize that... ..."

Thanks, kiddo! Got it:):):)

Just thought I'd clarify... the general idea is that you'll find a number like that on the copy of the book Goodreads naturally takes you to when you look a book up... no use of "other editions" required...

Huh, 20% for translations seems to be the magic number, I was just gonna pitch in with this info, but then someone beat me to it.
Fun facts: in the olden days russian translators were paid for wordcount of the result text, so they would deliberately make everything longer. Unrelated, some translators thought they knew better than the author and added whole page-sized chunks of their own text.

Also, some editions do not have the same page count as what you have read. Speaking from experience, the most popular edition generally has more pages than I have read.

The opposite happened with most books I read, Slytheepuff. Consider yourself lucky. :)

I’m not participating in this yet because I don’t have the 100 comments. I joined like 2 or 3 days ago and have around 70 comments so far. I still felt like jumping in.

Miche wrote: "The opposite happened with most books I read, Slytheepuff. Consider yourself lucky. :)"

Ditto. Deadhouse Gates only earning 600 pages will be my epitaph.

I think it all evens out... some Malazans are painful in their smallness... then a Riyria omnibus will come along and earn nearly 800 pages...

When I'm reading a translation, I just put in my sheet the English title with between brackets: 'Dutch translation', so there can be no mistake.

Scott wrote: "Miche wrote: "The opposite happened with most books I read, Slytheepuff. Consider yourself lucky. :)"

Ditto. Deadhouse Gates only earning 600 pages will be my epitaph."

I completely understand the feeling.

I generally read shorter books.