Play Book Tag discussion

Just a quick note for anyone interested...

We're hosting our 3rd annual bookish march madness reading challenge on our blog. Currently taking nominations for books. They have to be published in the past year Jan 2017 through March 1 2018. The person who nominates the winning book gets a $25 gift card.

You can read more on the blog. Nominate your books by posting the title of the book as a comment.

For the challenge, all nominated books get ranked then paired with basketball teams and there is a grant prize for the person who predicts and reads the most number of points. Lots of PBT members have played in the past.

Here's the link to the blog post: https://thereadersroom.org/2018/02/11...

Thanks for the reminder, Jen. I didn't have time to participate last year but it looked fun....might give it a try for 2018. 😃

Good luck Lisa!

OMG, it's that time of the year already? It seems like we just had the last one! I'm joining again.

annapi wrote: "OMG, it's that time of the year already? It seems like we just had the last one! I'm joining again."

Good luck to you too! Another good book selection! And yes, it feels like we just finished up the last game.

2 more days to submit your nominations. I have about 10 spots left (for books not participants).

Jen wrote: "2 more days to submit your nominations. I have about 10 spots left (for books not participants)."

Jen, I added 3 more nominations. LOL and I can add more if you still have open spots!

annapi wrote: "Jen wrote: "2 more days to submit your nominations. I have about 10 spots left (for books not participants)."

Jen, I added 3 more nominations. LOL and I can add more if you still have open spots!"

I responded. I’m only allowing one nomination per person so can’t take more but you can always advocate for your books here and maybe someone will nominate them. also we have a good mix - not all literary fiction.

Jen wrote: "I’m only allowing one nomination per person..."

No problem! I'll just leave it at that and if any one of them makes it that'll be great!

It took me about a dozen suggestions to get to a book that wasn't already in the bracket, but I finally submitted one!

Voting is up if people are willing to help out and rate our books. You can vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KMHF7BT

Warning: it will be bad for your TBR

Survey takes about 10 mins (less depending on how familiar you are with the titles).

Jen- I voted but likely won't have time to participate in the brackets/reading part. Hope everyone has fun though.

Done! I won't be participating, but it's always fun to look at the lists.

I can't believe no one nominated Pachinko!

Thanks all. You definitely don’t need to participate in the reading challenge to vote. Joi- I’m stunned no one nominated it. And no one nominated Lincoln in the Bardo either.

Thanks to everyone for voting. We did get some great nominations. Voting will be open through March 5!

Voted.

Booknblues wrote: "Voted."

Thank you!

Voted!

Michelle (MichelleBookAddict) wrote: "Voted!"

Thanks Michelle!

Voted. :-)

Voted!

Voted too. That is seriously bad for the TBR. I got through it as quickly as possible so I wouldn't remember many titles...

Susie wrote: "Voted. :-)"

Thanks and good luck!

annapi wrote: "Voted!"

Thank you!

KateNZ wrote: "Voted too. That is seriously bad for the TBR. I got through it as quickly as possible so I wouldn't remember many titles..."

Thank you! It is bad for the TBR. I added too many

Voted --- always love looking at the nominations.

Can't participate because of another challenge that I'm doing but hope everyone has fun!!

Voted! Now that took like 45 minutes to an hour out of my life.

Amy wrote: "Voted! Now that took like 45 minutes to an hour out of my life."

Really? I’m sorry. The survey said it is taking the average person 8-10mins to fill out. Thanks for voting though

I'm going through it now. I remember it taking me quite a while last year (and it will again), but I'm choosing to go through it.

8-10 minutes might be for people who have heard of the books and don't need to read all the summaries, I'm guessing! :-) I have to read the majority of the summaries in order to make a true decision on how to rate them.

Exactly. You can rate the books you are aware of or have read extremely quickly. But a lot of these title were new to me, and I took the voting seriously. So I read the blurbs and thought about them. Your 8-10 minute voters are less diligent than Karin and I. And I thought I was pretty “up” on books.

Well while I appreciate the diligent voting I would like to add that for anyone else who wants it vote it’s just voting for a reading game and if it takes more than 10mins, then you are encouraged to abandon the survey.

It wasn’t designed to take that long and the 8-10 mins I listed was a mean/average time to complete based on over 150 responses. It took me about 4 mins to complete but I was familiar with most of the books.

Jen wrote: "Well while I appreciate the diligent voting I would like to add that for anyone else who wants it vote it’s just voting for a reading game and if it takes more than 10mins, then you are encouraged ..."

I wasn't familiar with most of the books, Jen. But I skimmed the blurbs and voted as honestly as I could. It took me 10 minutes.

Jgrace wrote: "Jen wrote: "Well while I appreciate the diligent voting I would like to add that for anyone else who wants it vote it’s just voting for a reading game and if it takes more than 10mins, then you are..."

Thanks, I appreciate your voting and it makes me feel better to hear that it only took you 10 mins. It wasn’t my intention to impose on anyone’s time for this activity and certainly wouldn’t have asked if I thought it was going to take more than 10-15 mins.

took me 10-15 because I kept stopping to add books. I felt your descriptions were adequate research.

I voted.

Thanks to all who voted! We had over 250 people
who completed the full survey and and additional 15 who completed part of the survey. Brackets are done. We divided all 68 books into 4 groups/divisions using the randomizer and then I used the ratings from the survey to rank all the books in each group.

4 number 1 seeds were: Sing unburied Sing, Beartown, Eleanor Oliphant, and The Hate U Give.

The bottom two from each group will battle it out for a spot on the bracket.

Anyone who is interested can see the full bracket on our challenge page:
https://thereadersroom.org/march-madn...

And anyone is welcome to play along if you like.

Jen wrote: "4 number 1 seeds were: Sing unburied Sing, Beartown, Eleanor Oliphant, and The Hate U Give..."

Yay! Four great books that are on my TBR! Though I have been reluctant to read Sing Unburied Sing and The Hate U Give because I know they will depress me. And Radium Girls is a number two seed, so that's another one I plan to read!

Jen wrote: "4 number 1 seeds were: Sing unburied Sing, Beartown, Eleanor Oliphant, and The Hate U Give...."

Oooh, thanks for the update! I was curious!

Two more days to fill out a bracket for this challenge. If you do not submit before March 15 am then you will be locked out of the challenge. We have a lot of people participating and quite a few PBT members.

UPDATE: We changed rules so that you may now start your reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket to the CBS Pool.

If anyone is interested, full instructions: https://thereadersroom.org/march-madn...

annapi wrote: "Jen wrote: "4 number 1 seeds were: Sing unburied Sing, Beartown, Eleanor Oliphant, and The Hate U Give..."

Yay! Four great books that are on my TBR! Though I have been reluctant to read Sing Unbur..."

Make sure you see my update above. You can now start reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket. Good luck

Jen wrote: "Make sure you see my update above. You can now start reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket. Good luck "

Oh good! I submitted my bracket yesterday. This year I went solely by the books I want to read. I have a feeling some of my choices will be disastrous, but you never know when the underdog will upset a favorite, right? After all, the LA Kings were the first 8th-seeded team to win a Stanley Cup!

Jen wrote: "UPDATE: We changed rules so that you may now start your reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket to the CBS Pool.."
Hooray, I can start reading this gigantic pile of books I got from the library since I submitted my bracket yesterday. I put a bunch of books on hold thinking it would take awhile for them to get here since most of them are new books but several have already come in.

Annapi last year I picked solely on what book I wanted to read and ended up winning the challenge so that strategy can work :-). I doubt I'll do anywhere near that good this year but I'm looking forward to reading a lot of great books.

annapi wrote: "Jen wrote: "Make sure you see my update above. You can now start reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket. Good luck "

Oh good! I submitted my bracket yesterday. This year I went solely ..."

I don’t see your bracket in the standings. You might want to go in and double check that they saved. I just see a blank by your name not the asterisks which signify someone has submitted

Rachel wrote: "Jen wrote: "UPDATE: We changed rules so that you may now start your reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket to the CBS Pool.."
Hooray, I can start reading this gigantic pile of books I g..."

I do see your bracket in there

Jen wrote: "I don’t see your bracket in the standings..."

I submitted it again, Jen, hopefully it went through this time, please let me know.

annapi wrote: "Jen wrote: "I don’t see your bracket in the standings..."

I submitted it again, Jen, hopefully it went through this time, please let me know."

Yes, i see it in there now. I can’t see your picks because they won’t be posted until the brackets lock but I do see the asterisks next to your name meaning you are all set

Rachel wrote: "Jen wrote: "UPDATE: We changed rules so that you may now start your reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket to the CBS Pool.."
Hooray, I can start reading this gigantic pile of books I g..."

I tried this strategy two years ago and the team/book I chose to win was beaten in the first round!

I’ve posted my picks. I’m under MichelleBookAddict or Michelle M (now sure as it’s telling me the later).

Michelle (MichelleBookAddict) wrote: "I’ve posted my picks. I’m under MichelleBookAddict or Michelle M (now sure as it’s telling me the later)."

I see you there under Michelle M. Good luck to you!

Tracy wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Jen wrote: "UPDATE: We changed rules so that you may now start your reading as soon as you have submitted your bracket to the CBS Pool.."
Hooray, I can start reading this gigantic pi..."

That was unlucky. Last year was an odd year -more upsets than usual if I remember correctly

Whoohoo!!! Villanova won the championship and I predicted that, so that gets me 20 points! I will probably still have to read a bunch of books to rack up more points since my bracket on the left side was trashed, but I'm a happy camper!