Play Book Tag discussion

Please vote for the tag you would most like to read for February at the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5P9XHX9

You may click on the answer choices in the survey to see a listing of books that fit each tag.

Remember, you may cast up to a total of 10 participation points for your choice. Everyone gets one vote for free so please vote even if you don't have any participation points!

You can see how many participation points you currently have in the spreadsheet below. Please note that if you got points for Bingo or Fall Flurries, those haven't been totaled yet, so you may use any points you have from those activities, but column IL has your total, and the next two columns will be added in next month.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Happy voting! Please cast your votes by 12 pm EST on 1/22.

Wow great choices this month! I was surprised to see I've got a bunch of books for all three tabs.

I think I know which tag will win (which isn't the one I want at the moment!), but leaving off voting until tomorrow when I can do some mileage research!

Did not finish!? That could be fun! I like that... covers a lot of genres.

We did Family Drama my first year on PBT I think and it was a huge success for me :) I think it was Little Fires Everywhere.

I wonder if South America will win because people will use it work in extra mileage. There aren't very many books on my TBR from that shelf. I'm sure I can make it work, though. The other two sound more appealing because I can choose where I go rather than be forced to go somewhere. Hmm...

Jenni Elyse wrote: "I wonder if South America will win because people will use it work in extra mileage...."

That was my thought, too, Jenni.

Well...there is a reason I did not finish-LoL why would I want to go back to it

Great options! I have TBR books fitting all. Also they fit in to popular non-PBT challenges like Popsugar.

Will have to give thought.

Well one man's trash is another man's treasure right? Someone will have dnf'ed something I will like :)

Johanne wrote: "Well one man's trash is another man's treasure right? Someone will have dnf'ed something I will like :)"

Right? LoL I just looked at all the lists and the one i have the most books for is DNF!

I was going to give it a lot of thought until I clicked on the shelves and then it was really easy. Also, I have a migraine, need to sign off and get supper, etc so I was hasty.

Signing off now that I found what I was waiting for today :)

Can't help but wonder how you would go about selecting a DNF book or how far to go to claim such for the monthly read. I wouldn't mind being able to claim Finegan's Wake as a read and trying a few pages could confirm the reason it has been a Did Not Start for decades. :-)

I know that I have books I'm considering for next month's Fly the Skies that can meet any of the tags! I do have a favorite that works well, generally, with my goals for the year, but I can make any of these work.

Michael wrote: "Can't help but wonder how you would go about selecting a DNF book or how far to go to claim such for the monthly read. I wouldn't mind being able to claim Finegan's Wake as a read and trying a few ..."

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

I still have my copy from college about 1975 which is how long it has been a DNF. Might be my oldest.

Or it could be my copy in French of Mort à crédit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Both were around tbe same time.

Johanne wrote: "Well one man's trash is another man's treasure right? Someone will have dnf'ed something I will like :)"

I was thinking the same thing - and Size Matters. I own a copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and I think I would hurt myself if I repeatedly picked it up to read it. (It might be a large print book. It's really huge.)

I spent a few hours last week picking out South American books, and I'm in the right mood. But I wasn't planning to fly there for a few months. it's too close to my January location.

The term "family-drama" makes me think of old-fashioned melodramas, but apparently I love this genre because I've read a ton of them. There are books on the list that don't even involve biological families (but there is a new family of friends).

I have options for all the tags, and it's a short month, so I'll be OK either way.

Oops I was wrong about South America. It could work pretty well for Fly-the-pbt-skies in February.

If South America wins, I'll be headed there and if Family Drama wins, I'll be headed to Australia... Not sure where I'll be headed if dnf wins. I'll be choosing a book from the shelf rather than one of my own dnf.

Meli wrote: "Did not finish!? That could be fun! I like that... covers a lot of genres.

We did Family Drama my first year on PBT I think and it was a huge success for me :) I think it was Little Fires Everywhere."

In the first several pages, I found 5 books that I dnf, so I could actually make it a true did not finish challenge, Nah, maybe not.

My thought was that I could read something a lot of people didn’t finish, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to finish it. Almost every book of any length has a lot of people who classed it as DNF. There are very few books that I didn’t finish, and I am sure I don’t want to go back to them. I have been stopped one-third through The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz since last summer, but I plan to go back to it, so I don’t think of it as DNF.

I dnf’d Casual Vacancy but I’ve always planned to go back to it someday. I could read that if DNF wins. It wouldn’t help me for Fly the PBT Skies, though, since I’m already in England.

I can work with any of the lists. I hadn't intended to visit South America next for Fly PBT but sometimes travel plans change.

Robin P wrote: "My thought was that I could read something a lot of people didn’t finish, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to finish it. Almost every book of any length has a lot of people who classed it as D..."

I have a book like that - Gentleman in Moscow. I always intended to finish it, but it's been more than 6 months and I "did not finish" it (yet). I think I tagged it "paused" because I didn't want to insult the book (which is beloved by so many people).
If the tag wins, I'll have to fly to Russia because it seems that Russian books are overrepresented on my paused list.

If it helps, Splendid and the Vile also has a lot of "did not finish" tags by other people.

Michael wrote: "Can't help but wonder how you would go about selecting a DNF book or how far to go to claim such for the monthly read. I wouldn't mind being able to claim Finegan's Wake as a read and trying a few ..."

Good point. I think this tag could give us a little push to read books we didn't finish, OR challenging books we didn't start.

Finnegan's Wake has a reputation for being the hardest book to finish - I heard this in a romcom movie recently, but maybe it's true. There are many books that I didn't start simply because I knew that others were unable (e.g. Infinite Jest) or unwilling (e.g. 50 Shades of Grey) to finish them.

On the subject of Finnegan's Wake.... whatever course in college I was supposed to read it for...and didn't....also had us buy a study guide to use...which I also still have.

I know I have told this story before...at the end of the school year I returned to the farm with, of course, boxes of books. I left them in the entry, planning to carry the boxes upstairs in stages. My dad unbeknownst to me went rummaging and chose Finnegan's Wake to read. Suddenly he comes roaring out of the livingroom over to where my mother and I were talking while fixing dinner. He was outraged by the book, called it garbage, could not understand how anyone could want to read it, etc. I tried to explain and told him about the study guide...this irritated him more! He was offended. I thought it funny but was also relieved he had not dug further and found my copy of Marquis de Sade from a history seminar.

Come to think of it, I believe I have kept that copy of Finnegan's Wake all these years, through so many purges and moves, because of thiscstory about my dad.

I’ve got a DNF shelf that is helping me not count those books I don’t want to count as read. I don’t think I’ll go about finishing those books.

But I also have a shelf called “Was Reading”. I’m a mood reader so I tend to pick up a book read about a quarter of it and then move on with a new book just because it’s something new. Those books I have planned to finish but still haven’t.

Voted for, and threw, all ten points to 'Did Not Finish' as I'll build up a lot of miles if I travel from California to India! And didn't bother with a second option as I'm not fussed either way.

Theresa wrote: "On the subject of Finnegan's Wake.... whatever course in college I was supposed to read it for...and didn't....also had us buy a study guide to use...which I also still have.

I know I have told th..."

Great Story. Yeah, you're lucky he didn't find the other one. That would make a parent worry.

Voted.

Interestingly enough, for each of these tags I've already read a majority of the books on the first page ... S*I*G*H

OMG DNF is HILARIOUS to me! Love it

Voted. The DNF category is hilarious! If I didn't like a book the first time I tried to read it, why would I want to go back and try again? That would be too awful to even think about.

But, I'm fine with the other two categories-plenty to read in both.

After much deliberation, I finally voted for the one I was least enthused about and the ones which I have the smallest number of books.

It will be interesting for me to see what is finally chosen.

Booknblues wrote: "After much deliberation, I finally voted for the one I was least enthused about and the ones which I have the smallest number of books.

It will be interesting for me to see what is finally chosen."

Now that is any interesting strategy!

I am counting as Did Not Finish as books I started but was pulled away from for any reason ... not just ones rejected part way through. You did not finish them after all and may never. I have several in that category like The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, Grand Hotel, and Despair by Nabokov.

I have a DNF shelf with 3 books on it: the Nabokov, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, and New York Exposed: The Police Scandal That Shocked the Nation and Launched the Progressive Era. Only one I would never pick up again is New York Exposed: The Police Scandal That Shocked the Nation and Launched the Progressive Era which was the most boring book I have ever attenmpted to read. I got through 35 painful pages, skimmed some of the rest to see if improved, then tossed it aside. Reading an insurance policy or set of by-laws is more exciting.

I do not DNF many books. And the handful I can think of have zero appeal.

If this one wins, I’ll take a look at the shelf and maybe there is a book on there that lots of people have given up on but I have always wanted to try....

Nicole R wrote: "I do not DNF many books. And the handful I can think of have zero appeal.

If this one wins, I’ll take a look at the shelf and maybe there is a book on there that lots of people have given up on b..."

I actually found plenty of books on there which are on my want to read list. It would provide my with lots of choices, but if I stayed true and chose one which is on my dnf, it would be a little painful.

Robin P wrote: "My thought was that I could read something a lot of people didn’t finish, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to finish it. Almost every book of any length has a lot of people who classed it as D..."

If it wins, that's what I'll have to do. I refuse to go back to read the one or two books in my life that I DNF'd!

I have ONE booked tagged DNF on my shelf and no way am I reading that awful thing. I do have a good book marked "paused" so that would be possible. . .but if it wins, I may just go with Bringing Up the Bodies . . .plenty didn't finish it apparently.

Anita wrote: "I have ONE booked tagged DNF on my shelf and no way am I reading that awful thing. I do have a good book marked "paused" so that would be possible. . .but if it wins, I may just go with Bringing Up..."

...and she continues to punish herself 😂

I really hope DNF doesn't win. I don't want to read a book someone else put down, usually because they didn't like it. What I love about this group, I mostly get books I really like a lot if I follow the recommendations. To me, a DNF doesn't sound appealing. I also don't have many books on my TBR that are tagged in the South American category so my choice was easy and I had lots of books to read there.

I’m not sure I have ever DNF-Ed a book. Maybe what I would do in the case but that wins, it look to the shelf and see what other people have DNFed and pick one out that’s on my TBR. And either clean it off my TBR, or read it! That’s a good use of the challenge. I just don’t think it will win. But you never know

Joanne wrote: "Anita wrote: "I have ONE booked tagged DNF on my shelf and no way am I reading that awful thing. I do have a good book marked "paused" so that would be possible. . .but if it wins, I may just go wi..."

@Anita - from whence this need to self-inflect pain? Please try to pull out of it! Joanne and I cannot stage an intervention due to pandemic travel restrictions!

If I DNF a book, I don't record or review it.

Neither do I, Robin.

I have started a DNF shelf on Goodreads, to track them.

So many great titles on the GR DNF shelf! Doesnt have to be something you did not finish.

Anita? If DNF wins, count me in for Bringing Up the Bodies!!

I already have one picked out for DNF if it wins - from the list. It's on page 1 and I want to read "Crazy Rich Asians"!

Lol, Theresa!!!! Yours and Joanne's comments are literally making the whole endeavor worth it.

I have only recently learned to appreciate the value of the DNF. When I drop or pause a book I'm not enjoying, it feels as good as taking off a tight bra.

I used to feel compelled to finish every book, and it restricted my reading. I would only buy sure things, and I wouldn't start a new book until the old one was done. I'm getting older and life is too short to read books that don't fit my current mood or interests. If I liked a book enough to get half-way, I almost always return to finish it eventually. But I don't have to.

It was a hard adjustment, but it was worth it.

I DO record and "review" DNFd books (and that's the tag I use 'DNF' - I don't use "did-not-finish") BUT, I only use this for books I have no intention of ever returning to, and I want to remember WHY. If I "pause" a book ... just not the right book at the right time ... I don't record those at all, just leave them on the TBR.

I have one BIG one on "pause" right now .... I read about the first 250 pages or so of Moonflower Murders in November because I was participating in an author event. I've just never gotten back to it. It would be perfect timing to read it for February if "did-not-finish" wins.