Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Happy (probably second-to-last) results day!

Top:
A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years
A book you associate with a specific season or time of year
A love story

Bottom:
A book with a fat-positive perspective

Close Call:
A book that takes place in at least two decades

Polarizing:
A book featuring a theme of women overcoming systemic obstacles

Listopias:
A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years
A book you associate with a specific season or time of year
A love story

A few notes:
- We are *assuming* Poll 19 will be our last poll, with results posted on Thursday, October 22
- The final list order will be posted the day after our last results poll, with planning threads opening that same day
- In the days following, the mods will begin opening the weekly threads for you to start talking about which books you intend on reading for each prompt
- These weekly threads will be posted as the mods have time to post them, and they may not necessarily be in order, so please be patient with us :)

Suggestions for Poll 19 will open around 8 am CST on Saturday, October 17!

Hooray! I love these prompts! There were quite a few more that I wanted to make it, but these make me happy. And none of the ones I down-voted are anywhere on this list, so it seems they didn’t have enough interest to make an impact. I’m happy we’re almost to the end, but also sad, because I really enjoy the voting process. Looking forward to one (surely just one) more poll! 😊

Interesting results, not quite what I expected, but I'm pleased with all of them.

Yay, pretty happy with these results! Wasn't expecting the 21 year author one to get in but there are already a couple on the Listopia that I'm interested to read more of, such as Murakami and Eugenides.

Love story is nice and simple and should be easy to fill but still a bit different to our usual prompts.

I didn't vote for the related to a season but I love wintery books so that one should be nice to find options for. I immediately thought of Ali Smith's seasonal quartet - any of these would fit perfectly.

Not what I expected either! But not mad at it! I expected Year of the Ox and Not the Intended Audience to be somewhere in the results!

I suggest a love story be put near February 14th for Valentine's Day!

Excited for one last round tomorrow!!

None of my upvotes made it but I’m not cut!! A useful link for the 21 year prompt (I’m on mobile so cant format)


https://lithub.com/when-80-famous-wri...

Well I think it's the first time this year one of my downvotes made the list. I found a bunch of authors who had been writing for 19 years but not many that were longer than 21. I think I have an essay collection by Terry Pratchett I could use or it's going to be a random Poirot audiobook unless the listopia helps me out.

I did vote for the other two though, so yay. I'd love for the season one to be placed in the final quarter as that's when I do most my seasonal reading.

I voted for two of the upvotes and the third is one I considered voting for, so I'm happy.

I'm sad about the loser, but that makes it easy for me to decide which category to use for the "category that didn't win"

I like that we have 3 winners. I ended up voting for all 3 so that's great!

I'm disappointed that a book with a fat-positive perspective is in the bottom though.

Happy to have three results and grateful that the results were all upvotes for me. I wish time travel had made the list but not surprised that it didn't.

Not a huge fan of love story as I tend not to choose books that have that as a central theme/focus, but I'm sure I'll find things to make it work. Usually when I'm reading a love story, it's because I'm reading a book that happens to have a love story, not because it's a love story.

I had upvoted the 21 years. Plenty of authors for me there. Maybe a King or an Updike.

Nothing jumps out for seasonal/time of year yet, but that should be easy to fulfill.

eleen ✨ wrote: "None of my upvotes made it but I’m not cut!! A useful link for the 21 year prompt (I’m on mobile so cant format)


https://lithub.com/when-80-famous-wri..."
Thank you so much for posting this link! I'm sure that lots of us will find it very helpful!

eleen ✨ wrote: "None of my upvotes made it but I’m not cut!! A useful link for the 21 year prompt (I’m on mobile so cant format)


https://lithub.com/when-80-famous-wri..."

I love this link! Crazy to think Jane Austen had a 6-year career granted how popular so many of her books are today

Wow, these ones really surprised me! I downvoted the 21-year-career prompt, because it doesn't usually interest me to do that sort of research, but now that we have the listopia I see that there are actually plenty that interest me - I'll probably read a Terry Pratchett or Haruki Murakami, or maybe Stephen King. In fact, I realize that there's a pretty cool element to this prompt that I didn't consider: if you look at the kinds of authors on this list, you get a really nice balance between some of the greats of literary fiction (Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway) and the greats of genre fiction (Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Agatha Christie.) Fun!

And I like that we got an atmospheric prompt and a loose genre prompt! Don't know what I'll pick for either of them, but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy both.

I was also really surprised when I tallied the scores! Was not expecting this group to get in. I didn't vote for any of them, but I feel like I can slot in something I want to read into these (besides the 21 year one, but that won't be too hard).

I can't add to listopia since I'm on the app, but Robin Hobb and Ursula le Guin also have careers spanning 21+ years.
I expect to read both Hobb, le Guin, Pratchett and probably also Murakami next year, without thinking too much on it.

I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that great choices. Thank you to the mods for running and if I got impatient at the end I apologize

Many romance, mystery and fantasy authors have long careers.

eleen ✨ wrote: "None of my upvotes made it but I’m not cut!! A useful link for the 21 year prompt (I’m on mobile so cant format)


https://lithub.com/when-80-famous-wri..."



This was both helpful and fascinating!! thanks! Now I know I can add Chester Himes to my list of possibilities (along with Elizabeth Peters

Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that great choices. Thank you to the mods for running..."

What is it about the prompt that you are dreading? If we know what it is that you don’t like about it, we could suggest other ways of looking at the prompt that could help you find a book you would like to read for this one. Also, there are always KIS and BIO options that people suggest, so maybe a Keep it Simple option would help you be able to read a book that “fits” without making it a prompt you dread.

I love that list!

One KIS for the season on is just read a summery book during the summer. I feel like there are so many books that fit that prompt.

I personally will either do a scary book during October or a Christmas book during December.

The season one can also be very subjective, since it's 'you associate with'. For example I read the first Forgotten Cemetary books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon on summer holiday in Barcelona, so I associate those books with summer, and I could read the latest that I haven't read yet.
Other people have traditions of reading certain books during Christmas fx even though they are not necessarily Christmas books.

Also Thomas, Goodreads usually has a list for all the seasons like "new summer reads" or recently the different horror lists categories (since the prompt is also for time of year).

You can find these in the News section

Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that great choices. Thank you to the m..."

Thank you all, to answer the question i just don't associate books with seasons, so like I don't go oh its summer I will read a romance or something like that I just read whatever takes my fancy at the time. So a book "I associate" would be hard to do,

Thomas wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that great choices. Tha..."

That makes sense. I don’t often think of books related to seasons like that either. But, I could definitely associate a book that involves a celebration of Hanukkah or Christmas with winter, or a book set at a beach or in a beach town with summer, things like that.

Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that gre..."
exactly for me it would need to be that obvious. Still we all get one WC and that will probably be mine not because its a bad prompt ( its a great prompt) but because it does not work for me

There are lots of different ways to intetpret the time of year prompt but here are a few I've come up with.

- A beach read (summer)
- A snowy book (winter)
- A school text (exam period)
- A book you were given as a gift (birthday, Christmas etc.)
- A book involving travel (summer holidays)
- A book with a monster (Halloween)
- A book with a mummy, witch, zombie, cat etc. (Halloween)
- An atmospheric murder mystery (Halloween)
- A romance (Valentines Day)
- A book with a season or month in the title
- A book with flowers or leaves on the cover
A book with sun, snow, rain etc. on the cover

Thomas wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Othe..."

I agree that the Wild Cars is a great gift to have. I don’t know what I’m going to use it on yet, but that’s another great thing about this group. We can all use our WCs for whatever we want, and we can all make our prompts as general or specific as we want, and we can all make the challenge our own. It’s so fun to see how each person does the exact same challenge in their own way, and this group is so good at encouraging each other to do that.

I definitely feel like there are books I consider "October books." Right now I'm reading the Dublin Murder Squad series, and they feel like October books. A friend of mine just told me I need to read The Secret History this month because it's an October book.

Other authors with careers over 21 years:
Anna Quindlen
Neil Gaiman
Anne Tyler
Philip Roth
Isabel Allende
Colm Tóibín

Pretty underwhelmed by this lot. My percentage of prompts that I voted for will have plummeted. My three upvotes were bottom, polarising and not anywhere. I was sure “the beginning” would make it. Author with a career of at least 21 years was a real surprise. Which just goes to show, once again, that the discussion tells you absolutely nothing about the final vote. Hoping for better things next week.

Katie wrote: "I definitely feel like there are books I consider "October books." Right now I'm reading the Dublin Murder Squad series, and they feel like October books. A friend of mine just told me I need to re..."

Yes! Books like The Shining by Stephen King and Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi scream October/Halloween to me! I’m not big on all-out horror, so I don’t want those kinds of books, but creepy/spooky books like these, whether fiction or non-fiction, definitely seem like books to read around Halloween.

Katie wrote: "I definitely feel like there are books I consider "October books." Right now I'm reading the Dublin Murder Squad series, and they feel like October books. A friend of mine just told me I need to re..."

Which one are you on? I just went through all the books this year.

With regards to the seasons prompt, another idea is to read a book set during one season. Some examples: Montana 1948 (summer), Dandelion Wine (summer), Something wicked this Way comes (fall), One Summer: America 1927. I don’t usually read “seasonal books” but one I’ve been meaning to read is CHRISTMAS in Absaroka County: Walt Longmire Christmas Stories (one of my favorite TV shows). Since I like cover prompts, I might also go with a cover that evokes a season. I didn’t vote for this prompt but I like it.

Serendipity wrote: "Pretty underwhelmed by this lot. My percentage of prompts that I voted for will have plummeted. My three upvotes were bottom, polarising and not anywhere. I was sure “the beginning” would make it. ..."

The beginning did make it, but that was Poll 17!

Yay, I'm glad the seasonal prompt made it! I've been wanting one of these to make it in for a while, so I tried to make the wording as general as possible, and it worked :)

If you're not really a "seasonal" reader, one easy way to interpret it would be to read a book around the time of year it was published. Nice and direct!

Pam wrote: "With regards to the seasons prompt, another idea is to read a book set during one season. Some examples: Montana 1948 (summer), Dandelion Wine (summer), Something wicked this Way comes (fall), One ..."

Oh man, Dandelion Wine is a perfect summer book. I really want to lean into this prompt in a more "mood" way and read a book that really captures the feeling of a season for me, and that's a perfect example!

That is why I should never check the results and comment online first thing in the morning!

Thomas wrote: "I admit I was slightly dreading the season one as I don't really do that. No disrespect to anyone but I may have to make that my WC. Other than that great choices. Thank you to the mods for running..."
I agree...I don't associate books with seasons at all.

Johanne wrote: "I can't add to listopia since I'm on the app, but Robin Hobb and Ursula le Guin also have careers spanning 21+ years.
I expect to read both Hobb, le Guin, Pratchett and probably also Murakami next ..."
I have Robin Hobb on my list every year and then seem to not get to her books as they are so long. Once I do I really enjoy them....but it's a matter of getting to them. I read book 1 of the Tawny man last year and book 2 was going to be for the first prompt this year (and I was going to read it straight away) but I just didn't get to it yet....so next year I'm determined to finish this series....(or if not finish at least read book 2!)

my gut reaction was disappointment tbh. i think it's the first time something i downvoted made into onto the list! i'm not quite in love with the 21 years prompt only because i read mostly ya, but i'm happy that robin hobb & agatha christie count! i'll probably read something from that

i love the seasonal prompt!! i'm not much of a summer = romance, winter = sff reader but i enjoy reading that way for readathons. i love reading spooky stuff in october and 'cozy' sorts of books at the end of the year too

@Bec, yes they're really long. And emotionally dense in a way. So I find myself taking a long time reading them. But that's okay since they'll last longer :)
I read somewhere she was contemplating retirement from writing (due to arthritis and grandkids) so we may only have the books she has already written. You never know with writers though.

I do have a bunch of Robin Hobb on my Kindle. I read the first one and kinda wanted to continue on audio but the narrator was so unsuited so I stalled. Maybe if I'm in the mood for big fantasy when the prompt comes up I will try again.

Alicia wrote: "Which one are you on? I just went through all the books this year."

Alicia, I'm currently on Broken Harbor. Every time I start a new one, I feel mild disappointment because I just loved the previous one & I don't feel like I'll be invested in the new character, but every book I am proven wrong! I think she's such a great writer.

I read all of the Dublin Murder Squad books. The Likeness is my favorite but I liked them all.

The Likeness and Faithful Place are my favorites! My least favorite is Secret Place.

I accidentally read the trespasser years ago not realizing it was a series and was ambivalent. I have yet to read it since I've finished the other 5, but I'm excited to see how it changes my perspective. I'm sure I'll like it more because I remember thinking some things weren't explained properly.

I've read the first five, I still have The Trespasser yet to read. Faithful Place is my favorite in the series, and one of my all time favorite books.

I agree, The Secret Place was my least favorite too.

Oh, another Tana French Fan chiming in here. My (slightly controversial?) favorite is In the Woods...I guess I really love the ambiguity of it, but I know some readers hate that. It was also too creepy for me to read at night, ha! Faithful Place is my next favorite. Broken Harbor was also good, and probably the second-most creepy one (couldn't read it alone in the dark). Secret Place and, oddly, the Likeness were my least favorites.

I read Trespasser and her new one The Searcher this year, and now I'm all caught up :(