Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I am chuckling because I picked the addicts theme based on the Infinity and Beyond lists that people had posted as side reading. I remember looking at a bunch of the lists (and they are wonderful lists if you haven't checked them out) and thinking that there were a lot of addicts that ATY members had lined up to read. Somebody had a Stephen King series listed, and a lot of people had Faulkner, Hemingway, Carson McCullers, and Fitzgerald. I thought it would be an interesting concept going into a book really thinking about the substance abuse that was happening while it was being created. How do you feel when you find out Stephen King doesn't really remember writing The Shining (one of my favorites of his)? How does his earlier drug fueled work compare to something that was written drug free? Do you get a sense of the author's emotional state? David Foster Wallace is an author that I really get a deep sense of sadness (and superiority) just oozing off every page. Authors are the vessels that carry the words to us. Their lives are woven into the fabric of the stories and I have found that knowing them a little better helps me to understand their work better.

The ATY voting being shortened is AWESOME. Thanks to the Moderators for making that change!

I like reading characters that have addiction issues, and often those characters are written by authors with addiction issues, so I liked the idea (but I didn't vote for it because we could only pick fourrrrrrr).

My new favorite mystery series features a protagonist struggling with borderline alcoholism, and I'm pretty sure the author herself deals with the same struggle: Kristen Lepionka. If you like mysteries, check her out!

I like the idea of a book dealing with addiction issues; I think I might be more likely to vote for that than for the author one. Probably just because I think it would be easier to find.

I'm also super impressed at how quickly you guys came up with ideas for books that would fit backward day.

Emily wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "My birthday is also “backwards day” which I feel like must have the perfect unusual book to match out there somewhere!"

If you want a weird book, Survivor by [autho..."

I really liked Survivor! (view spoiler)[It would work for the "unusual" narrator we're talking about in the wild thread as well I'd think (though you won't understand why it's "unusual" until the last couple of pages). (hide spoiler)]

Some lists for the Addictions prompt, in case anyone wants to take a look ( I goggled "authors in recovery")

https://sobernation.com/16-authors-wh...
This link is a list of authors with addiction issues and their related works.

https://ew.com/books/addiction-recove...
This is a link of memoirs written by authors in recovery

Thats just to start....

I've come across a book several times recently that would fit the "author with addiction" prompt - Cherry by Nico Walker. It's an autobiographical novel about heroin addiction. It's a recent publication that's getting a pretty huge push from the publisher and it sounds like it could be quite good. I'm not certain what my opinion about it is just yet. I'm generally not a fan of autobiographical fiction.

I’m quite curious about that one. He was in the military, got addicted while dealing with PTSD and wrote the novel in prison.

Pam wrote: "The survey needs to be changed to fix “addiction” from “addition”.

Some really good choices this time! I didn’t vote for the addiction suggestion but the one author who came to mind was Jack Kero..."
I was thinking Hemingway

I will say this for why I voted for the Millions prompt- so many good books have come out this month and I'm trying to fit them into my remaining challenges. It seems every book released is on these lists, so it'll help me fit in my recently released books.

I don't know if it says anything about this set of suggestions or about us as a whole, but I'm surprised to see no one has commented on this poll for 2.5 days! Really surprising when you consider it was only a 5 day poll.

Steve wrote: "I don't know if it says anything about this set of suggestions or about us as a whole, but I'm surprised to see no one has commented on this poll for 2.5 days! Really surprising when you consider i..."

I think the process is so slow and has been going on for so long that people are losing interest, at least a little bit. I know that a few people have actually expressed this thought.

It is strange that we've shortened it to 5 days, and it's still been so long since the last comment. We usually have more discussion than that, but I think that some people are just coming to vote, make an initial comment, and then sit back and wait until the results come out. That's often what I do, although sometimes I watch the discussion for a bit before I vote.

Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I am more active online during the week. I hardly ever access Goodreads on the weekends, unless it's to update my progress on books I'm currently reading. Even if I read the comments on threads I follow, I usually don't participate in the discussion, because I often only use my phone on the weekends (as opposed to my work computer during the week), and I don't like the GR app for comments, so I just don't do it.

Nicole wrote: "It is strange that we've shortened it to 5 days, and it's still been so long since the last comment. We usually have more discussion than that, but I think that some people are just coming to vote,..."

I am more active on a weekday too. I try not to spend too much time online at the weekend yet a peruse of the forums can be a nice little mental break at work!

Katie wrote: "I like the idea of a book dealing with addiction issues; I think I might be more likely to vote for that than for the author one. Probably just because I think it would be easier to find.

I'm also..."

Katie...I hand crafted this for you because of your love of Faulkner. Robert Louis Stevenson, Hemingway, Jean Rhys are just a few of the addicts you have on your list. I'm less into addict stories...too intense for me.

I'm the opposite. I tend to be more active on the weekends since I have more time than after work on weekdays.

I was also surprised to see that the conversation completely died off. I'm also wondering if people might be losing interest since we're close to the end of the process, but didn't we usually end the process around mid-October in previous years? In which case, we're pretty much right on track.