Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Johanne wrote: "I try to put it off because I won't follow the list I will make anyway. But I like the idea generating process (I already have loose ideas for some of the prompts)."

I like making a list too but won't follow it as I can't bear to have my reading planned out for a whole year! It's good to know what I have on my shelves that works even if I end up reading something else.

Thank you so much, mods!

My 2019 Spreadsheet

I used Emily's template but made several changes, especially in the stats section.

dalex, I copied some of your stats that you have over to my sheet!

Since I don't have anything to do til next Thursday I made some printables and PDFs for the 2019 challenge! Thought it might be pertinent to post it here. We've got

– two bingo boards (randomised the numbers before the mods came up with the ordered list, so there is no bias! There's also no overlap)
– two printable lists (1 horizontal, 1 vertical)
- interactive PDF versions of everything

image preview
dropbox link

Eleen! I love that printable of the final list -- thank you!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mh2E...

Excuse me while I geek out for a minute, but it was asked...

Here's part of mine. The first tab is my 2018 list and I have one of these for each of my challenges. For week 46, column H has all of the books that originally fit for this prompt (I keep this in there to be able to make suggestions later). Column G originally had everything from H but I deleted all the books that I already read, so I only have Strange the Dreamer left. It wasn't a great fit, so when I came across The Cloud Roads, I replaced that as my planned choice in column F (green is I either own or have borrowed from the library and orange is on hold). I also have a conditional format to show any duplicates in my planin this column. When I finish a prompt it goes in column E and I delete F and G to clean it up.

My library tab shows my overdrive wishlist and I have it for both libraries I belong to. The number is the order it is in on the wishlist. The title is conditional formatted to show duplicates, almost all book and audio. Author, type, length (pages or hours), holds and copies (to show which ones may be hard to get), Goodreads add date, a formula to show what page in the wishlist it is, and then if the book is in Brooklyn, NYC, or both libraries. I also have what prompt I currently have it penciled in for (W for ATY, P for Popsugar).

Once it's up and running, this has been pretty easy to maintain and made it easier for me to pick and choice when I was looking for something that meets a specific criteria.

That printable is gorgeous! I will definitely upload it to the group :)

eleen, if you have any interest in designing new avatars/banners for the main group page (at the top), I would definitely post them. We lost our graphic design wizard partway through the year. So if you're ever feeling bored...

eleen ✨ wrote: "Since I don't have anything to do til next Thursday I made some printables and PDFs for the 2019 challenge! Thought it might be pertinent to post it here. We've got

– two bingo boards (randomised ..."

That's fantastic! Thank you!

Okay, am I the only person who doesn't spend hours PLANNING. It's two months before I can read books for this challenge... and I am not good at waiting to read something and even less good at having to follow some list I created months earlier. What about the new books by favorite authors A, B, C. There is only 1 published in 2019 prompt, so they have to be slotted elsewhere.

As for me, I would rather use today reading... and figuring out January's books when it comes.

Edie - We have some super planners in this group!! I like having a “back up plan” but most of the books I read for the challenge wind up not being on my original plan! Also, sometimes the plans help others who are struggling with specific prompts. This year I hope to do a little better, especially in reading books that I own. The books that I plan on reading between now and December are not on my list. I do have a few 2019 books built into my plan.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stats sheets and letting us use them! I have a simple one that I use now
(I think it was modeled after one i saw on here?) but i think i will add some of the elements on these. We have some really talented members in this group!

For me, planning is a big part of the fun even though, yes it is cutting into reading time right now. This year, I joined the challenge late so I didn't spend a ton of time planning. I did come up with 3 or 4 options for most prompts and still sometimes swapped for something else that came along so I am not a slave to my original list.

It will be interesting to see how much I adhere to my plan this year since I actually do have plenty of time to plan.

Thanks to all who have shared your spreadsheets and the printables! I already copied Emily's but I am going through the others and will be incorporating bits from each!

Emily, Pam — No worries, I'm glad you like them!! I hope they were accessible if you downloaded them.

Laura — I'd be happy to! Just let me know what you need!

We typically change the avatar and the main banner seasonally. So we do fall, winter, spring, and summer options. I changed them to the generic design ones but if you felt like making a fall or winter option for each then it would be appreciated :)

Edie wrote: "Okay, am I the only person who doesn't spend hours PLANNING. It's two months before I can read books for this challenge... and I am not good at waiting to read something and even less good at havin..."

I have 2019 releases pencilled in on my list where they fit a prompt. New releases are the main reason I won’t read in order. I can basically spend a few minutes planning at work here and there so it’s not eating into reading time either. My plan is more a reminder of books that I want to read that will fit prompts but by no means a set in stone reading list for next year.

Ellie wrote: "Edie wrote: "Okay, am I the only person who doesn't spend hours PLANNING. It's two months before I can read books for this challenge... and I am not good at waiting to read something and even less ..."

I have a goal next year of reading 8 books from my 40 Before 40 list and all of the physical books that I own (30ish of them), so I'm planning so that I don't end up forgetting to read something!

This year I hardcore planned and less than half of the prompts were filled with books that I planned for them. For me, planning is half of the fun! (And I'm in a bit of a slump and also 8 books ahead on my reading goal, so I can afford the time to plan haha!)

This discussion made me curious, so I reviewed the 2018 prompts I have read so far. Out of 47 prompts, I stuck to my planned book 30 times. The other 17 I substituted something newly released, or something I was more in the mood for, or just stuck a book that fit because I was worried about running out of time. I joined ATY kind of late, so this may have been different if I had started planning in 2017.

My results for Popsugar were very similar, 32 stuck to planned book, which leaves 15 substitutions. I started planning for Popsugar as soon as the list came out in November 2017.

Laura wrote: "We typically change the avatar and the main banner seasonally. So we do fall, winter, spring, and summer options. I changed them to the generic design ones but if you felt like making a fall or win..."

I'll see what I can do!

Very excited for January too! I'm a little ahead for this year and nearly down to one book on hold to finish off Popsugar for this year, so I'm tackling the 2017 ATY list to keep me busy for the rest of the year since I only joined the challenge this year. I'm trying to hold off on planning TOO much for 2019 because I'm sure I'll find too many things I want to read NOW!

Thanks to the mods, spreadsheeters and everyone else for feeding my reading obsession!

Eeeek!! The setting aside of books begins!

I usually wait until December to choose my books. This year, if possible, I want to use young adult books.

I'm gonna commit to this list next year! Thank you for making this group organized and motivated. 😁

Thank you, mods, for putting the clues in the list by monthly 'clumps' (space after a month ends). It made it easy for me to insert the month name in for each month)... who would have thought September had five weeks?

I went by which month each Sunday fell in. September 30 is on a Sunday. So it just depends on how you lay out your weeks and if you would prefer to place it in the month that has the majority of days or which month the week starts during.

It's the first time today I see the list and I am excited to get started. It looks really good and yes I am a huge planner. Love spreadsheets and statistics for reading challenges.
Can't wait to start going through my TBR list and seeing recommendations for each prompt.

I shifted this list a bit so that the weeks would match the weeks on the homepage. The homepage will have each week going by the first of the year for 2019, with the "weeks" running from Tuesday-Monday.

I personally have my weeks starting on Sunday, regardless of where the 1st falls but I know some would rather it all be consistent.

Laura wrote: "I went by which month each Sunday fell in. September 30 is on a Sunday. So it just depends on how you lay out your weeks and if you would prefer to place it in the month that has the majority of da..."
That's the way I lay out my weeks too... so no wonder I liked what you did so much.

I’m attempting to read in order next year, but BECAUSE I’m a dork & want all of the wedding prompts in June, I’m moving prompt #22 (number in title) to after the wedding prompts instead of before. 😂

Ach, I look at the list and it just does NOT jazz me! The only weeks that piqued my interest on the read-through were the wedding and the cultural themes (ex. Mediterranean, Indigenous, Far Eastern, etc.). The STEM theme also seems unusual. I think I'm going to skip this challenge in 2019 and do a "Clean Sweep" year instead: read a few sequels to some of the books I ripped through while doing this challenge for the past 3 years (;-)) amd catch up on some recommendations from friends and book club moderators. See you again for the 2020 list next Autumn! Going ROGUE! VIVA LA LIBERDAD!!!

Haha rogue is good Sesia! Even if you’re not participating in the challenge don’t hesitate to stick around to share your thoughts on the A-Z folders or participate in the read-a-thons 😃

A clean sweep sounds good. It doesn't work for me though - there are always new books added to TBR in a higher frequency than I can manage to read them, with or without challenges ;) Happy rogue reading!

I suspect that I wouldn't get nearly as much reading done if I went rogue. I've done the challenges for 3 years now but I just have too many distractions so I have a feeling I would enter into a major reading slump.

But as Sophie said, definitely stick around for the general group activities :)

Hey Sesia! Have fun going rogue! Hope you return in 2020.

I know this probably doesn´t have an easy answer, but I wanted to link the two-book prompt with something title-related, for example an original book and one that has a word-play of the original title, like To Kill a Mockingbird and Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist, or two similar titles, like The Leopard and The Leopard. But then I noticed the wording: "2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme"...
What are your thoughts? I may do something entirely different, just my thoughts.
Edit: I just realised, there is an abundance of books named tequila mockingbird...

I think it’s your interpretation! Sounds good to me!

Johanne wrote: "I know this probably doesn´t have an easy answer, but I wanted to link the two-book prompt with something title-related, for example an original book and one that has a word-play of the original ti..."

That was a topic I suggested, and I intentionally narrowed it to the contents of the book (since we have quite a few title and cover prompts as is). So I'm personally sticking to it.

That being said, your challenge, your rules! If using the titles got you excited, I say go for it.

Title connections generally gets me excited ;) I´ll see what I´ll do. One could also argue that a literary reference is a connection not limited to title, so some of my ideas would work.

And thanks for both of your input. For some reason I hadn´t read the wording properly before my brain started getting ideas.

Title connections are exciting! I always want to do something like this (read a series of books linked by a word in the title) but there are SO MANY other books I ALSO want to read, so I have no discipline.

I've compromised by deciding to look at titles for the four book prompt. For the wedding categories, I'll be reading books with "Old," "New," "Borrowed" (or borrow, or borrower - this word was hard to find many choices so I broadened it), and "Blue" in the title.
No Country for Old Men
The Last Days of New Paris
The Borrowed
Baltimore Blues

Johanne wrote: "I know this probably doesn´t have an easy answer, but I wanted to link the two-book prompt with something title-related, for example an original book and one that has a word-play of the original ti..."

I had a similar idea! I had been waiting for Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman to come out and Thunderhead by Douglas Preston kept coming up. I finally read the one I wanted and my friend randomly suggested the other one this weekend. Seems like I was meant to read both.

Oh that Preston/Child Thunderhead looks like it would be a fun audiobook for me (I like those over-the-top adventure & espionage stories as audiobooks, they remind me of the old radio show Suspense!) - added it to my Overdrive Wishlist. One could say I've just .... stumbled upon it!!

Ha! good one Nadine :)

My brain likes connections, patterns and puzzles of all sorts. And connected by genre or theme just seems too ...easy... so my brain wants to make up other connections. I could just let it go and see what I read that fits. This year I´ve read multiple books about grief, set in space/other planets, dystopias and more.

I am taking the connection one super literally. I plan to read Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction and Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines. It's the same story told from the father's and son's point of view. I don't know which came first, and they could both be terrible, but it sounds interesting. And Beautiful Boy has been made into a movie.

Milena wrote: "I am taking the connection one super literally. I plan to read Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction and Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines...."

Milena, that sounds amazing!

I'm doing fiction/nonfiction on the same topic, and I have a few that I'm looking at. Mental illness, cults, serial killers, feminism, and WWII are a few topics that I'm choosing between, then I'll pick my books based on the theme I choose.

I hope that for the weekly threads, we get these two prompts in one thread... I'd like to see the connections people are using in one thread!

Fiction/non-fiction sounds great too. One pairing I have seen suggested is An American Marriage and Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. A related idea I had is Just Mercy and The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which is a memoir of a death row inmate that Bryan Stevenson represented.

Some other connection ideas:
Moby-Dick or, The Whale/Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Anne of Green Gables/Marilla of Green Gables
Beowulf/Grendel

Milena wrote: "Some other connection ideas:
Moby-Dick or, The Whale/Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Anne of Green Gables/Marilla of Green Gables
Beowulf


And the Ocean Was Our Sky is also Moby Dick told from the whale´s perspective. I thought of that connection as well, but I already have some massive books and will probably steer clear of Moby Dick :)

This cool nonfiction book about zombies (Danish sorry) came out recently - I could read that and pair it with some zombie fiction.

I could use some zombie fiction recommendations. The only one I have read in the last few years is The Passage, the first 2 books.

The best ones I have read recently are not translated to English, sorry.
But here are the covers ;)


It´s a YA trilogy with a zombie apocalypse, a pandemic and general survival mayhem. Edit: And of course a badass heroine.
I would also like some zombie recommendations.