Play Book Tag discussion

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

https://forms.gle/2AhRnmy27AByNprU9

Here are the lists of books for each tag:

2014: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
detective: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
winter: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Remember, you may cast up to a total of 10 participation points for your choice. Every PBT member 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.

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

Happy voting! Please cast your votes by 12 noon EST on 3/22.

Some interesting choices, some not so much. Regardless of which is chosen I can find something in my TBR. Voted.

I'm excited about all three of these. I have books on my TBR list that are on all three of this lists. More on Detective and 2014 than winter books. Honestly... ready for spring and flowers blooming so not sure if I want to read another book about winter quite yet. This would be a good prompt for July or August when I'm over summer :)

Hmm. All are good for easy reading. At the moment I'm looking for fascinating history books.

2014 that includes books published in 2014. and books that some taggers read in 2014. I plan to focus on books published in 2014.

There were some good history books published in 2014.

Here is a useful Listopia of Books published in 2014
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

Non-fiction published in 2014
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...


Related tag lists:
2014 releases
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Yes, I consider the 2014 tag to be books published in 2014. Here's a couple of links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

Also helpful:

https://apps.npr.org/best-books-2014/

NancyJ wrote: "Hmm. All are good for easy reading. At the moment I'm looking for fascinating history books.

2014 is one of those ridiculous tags that includes books published in 2014. and books that some tagger..."

You can set your shelves to show date published. It is on the bottom of the page.

I found two listopias with a format that I was looking for. The new format is dominated by large book covers -ugh.

Thanks for the WP and NPR lists! I'm happy to see My Puny Sorrows at the top of the WP list. I bought it last week. And Being Mortal which I started in February.

I'll add any other lists to my post in message 4.

Hmm, I think I only object to the winter tag because I am trying to get out of winter! Otherwise either of the others works.

Booknblues wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Hmm. All are good for easy reading. At the moment I'm looking for fascinating history books.
t..."

I'm not sure which page you mean, but I'll look for it. To search my TBR I would normally click on the pub date column to sort it in order of date, then I would have to find 2014. I have a large tbr, so it's rather tedious.

For the history books I'm looking for interesting nf books that aren't necessarily in my TBR yet. I'm finding some great ones through google searches.

---
I use the settings at the top of the page in MyBooks, but I see that there is also a sort box on the bottom of the page. Thanks.

NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "I'm not sure which page you mean, but I'll look for it. To search my TBR I would normally click on the pub date column to sort it in order of date, then I would have to find 2014. I have a large tbr, so it's rather tedious. "

That is what I meant, it is a little tedious, but no more so than looking through lists and you find ones on your tbr. I always try to read from my tbr.

Booknblues wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "I'm not sure which page you mean, but I'll look for it. To search my TBR I would normally click on the pub date column to sort it in order of date, then I would ha..."

Thanks. It was definitely worth looking at my tbr first. I found at least 10-15 books published in 2014 that I really want to read, along with tags to remind me which challenges I had in mind for them, including the author challenge. I'll keep looking for history books regardless of tags. I wish the other tags were as easy to search in my tbr.

I noticed a lot of the winter books are children's books,

2 of the 3 are winners for me. Not too sure about the 3rd one. LOL! Voted! :)

I hate the year tags... Of the other two, I definitely want one over the other though the other is easier for me. To be honest, I don't think I'll have a problem finding something for any of them.

These all look good. I did sort through my TBR and have a ton of books published in 2014.

I voted - I'll be happy with any of these tags though.

voted

Weird time to pick winter as a theme. I assumed the themes were all random and only found out recently that members choose at least some of them. If someone here picked winter, no personal offense intended, but the heart of the group isn't with that season right now!

Robin P wrote: "Weird time to pick winter as a theme. I assumed the themes were all random and only found out recently that members choose at least some of them. If someone here picked winter, no personal offense ..."

Robin, A while back, we were asked to provide tags to the admins. We were told that one of the group members' tags would be added to the other two randomly pulled GR tags each month. So, "Winter" was either a GR generated tag or a member tag that was randomly drawn.

Like you, I don't want to read about winter now, as we are beginning to see glimmers of Spring. (I personally don't like any of the tag choices.)

As a lover of all things winter, I feel honor bound to stand up for the tag! Plus as I perused the tag, I was surprised at how many classics, both older and modern, were there!

Theresa wrote: "As a lover of all things winter, I feel honor bound to stand up for the tag! Plus as I perused the tag, I was surprised at how many classics, both older and modern, were there!"

I have no problem with winter. If it wins, I will read Kristin Hannah's Winter Garden (I had it in mind for the author game) and an Ursula le Guin book. I'm also interested in reading more about the Russian revolution. The Children's books on the list are a bit annoying to wade through, but they're easy to spot and skip.

Holly R W wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Weird time to pick winter as a theme. I assumed the themes were all random and only found out recently that members choose at least some of them. If someone here picked winter, no p..."

I am with you Holly-The marvelous Tag Machine has not been my friend for quite a while

I just want to clarify the current process for selecting tags for the vote.

We have a compiled list of the top 300 tags (shelves) for Goodreads (from here https://www.goodreads.com/shelf) excluding tags that are obviously personal i.e owned. This list is revisited annually.

Two of the tags for the vote are selected at random from this list.

The final tag put up for the vote is from a member.

This member is drawn at random from members who have read for the tag the month prior. So, if you read 3 books for the tag in February, you will have 3 chances in the drawing to select the tag for the following month.

So the more you read for the tag, the higher your chance that you will be selected to put up a tag for the vote.

That being said, I would say the member selected tag wins about half the time, so it's definitely no guarantee.

I leave it up to the member if they want to reveal themselves as the person who chose the tag or to indicate which tag is member-selected.

Based on the votes I've seen over the years, it's usually very competitive, so people's views on what constitutes a great tag vary widely.

As I understand it, 2 of the 3 are picked randomly and 1 is suggested by a member.

Joy D wrote: "As I understand it, 2 of the 3 are picked randomly and 1 is suggested by a member."

This is accurate! See message 22 for details.

Holly R W wrote: "Robin, A while back, we were asked to provide tags to the admins. We were told that one of the group members' tags would be added to the other two randomly pulled GR tags each month."

We did use member suggested tags one year for fun, but found the list didn't differ that much by doing so . . .now we go with the top 300.

What would be interesting is to know how much the top 300 GR tags varies year to year -- and I don't expect anyone to have the answer! Or even try!

I have to assume that over time some tags drop out and new ones pop up or rise up as the case may be.

Theresa wrote: "What would be interesting is to know how much the top 300 GR tags varies year to year -- and I don't expect anyone to have the answer! Or even try!

I have to assume that over time some tags drop ..."

I definitely haven't done a formal analysis, but after doing this for multiple years, I would say it doesn't change a whole lot, but hot current topics do bubble up i.e. racism. from time to time.

Over the couple of years I've participated here, I've been able to find at least one book I enjoyed that matched the monthly tag.

The "challenge" is matching up the tag with the current "Challenge". Clearly not required, but is a big part of the fun of participating for me.

I think the system is very fair, well thought out, and well executed. I've found some real gems and have enjoyed some of the buddy reads that come out of the discussions.

I was NOT this month's tag picker, but I have been in the past. Once my tag got a resounding thumbs down, and the other time it was selected. I think the mood of the group is very clearly expressed in the tags selected or not selected.

I agree with Theresa - it would be so interesting to see the ebb and flow of tags on the list. (And I also agree that it wouldn't be worth anyone's effort to figure out.) I suspect most of the movement is out near the 250-300 mark.

Hmmm. Not particularly inspired by any of these. I can make any of them work, but I definitely prefer one over the other two.

I have found that even when I have whined and pouted about the winning tag, I always find at least one book to read, and often enough some real gems. A few duds too, just to balance things out, and sometimes my choice is a little inventive shall we say?

Theresa has the right attitude. I'm going to go ahead and vote right now, so consider me "voted."

Theresa wrote: "As a lover of all things winter, I feel honor bound to stand up for the tag! Plus as I perused the tag, I was surprised at how many classics, both older and modern, were there!"

I want winter to win, too! :-)

The last time I got to choose was during a year long game and mine won either in 2020 or 2021, but I haven't chosen more than a couple of times that I can remember. I no longer remember the tag.