Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

It's now time to get ready to vote for our first set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any question you may have regarding the prompts, do some research, or ask for recommendations.

Voting will open in the morning of Monday, June 26 and results will be posted in the morning of Friday, June 30 (CST time).

How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 4 votes this poll to spread across your favorite and least favorite prompts (you can also use less than 4 votes)
- You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.
- The prompts with the more favorable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list

We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile.

As a reminder: You have a total of 4 votes to use among your top and bottom votes. The mods have access to each individual vote, so we can see if you use more than 4 votes. If you use more than 4 votes in the poll, your vote will have to be deleted, so please make sure to follow the directions so your voice can be heard.

Possible Prompts:
1. A winner or nominee from the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards
2. A book published in 2024
3. A book you meant to read in 2023
4. A book that fits a suggestion that didn't make the list this year
5. A book connected to something you read in 2023
6. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2023 or 2024
7. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists

Feel free to discuss the prompts below, but please remember to be respectful to the other group members.

VOTE HERE: https://forms.gle/JF3MVD72EGi7Db1n6

It begins! How exciting!
I am most keen on 1 2 7

I’m intrigued by #5. Can think of so many ways to achieve it beyond a sequel:?same topic, same part of the world, character with the same name, another book with the same or similar title…..
Also like #7

I'm voting for 2, 3 and 6! Not sure if I'll use my 4th vote for 5 or maybe downvote something.

Can't believe we're here already.

Denise wrote: "I’m intrigued by #5. Can think of so many ways to achieve it beyond a sequel:?same topic, same part of the world, character with the same name, another book with the same or similar title…..
Also l..."

I love this one too. These connected pairs tend to be very memorable to me. Sometimes I'll read a book that was mentioned in another book. The Reading List has a great story, and it led me to some great connected books.

I might do all upvotes.

I can't believe the year has gone so quickly! I had so much fun last year, I'm looking forward to this.

I'm probably going to go all upvotes. 2, 3, 4 and 5 all look a lot of fun.

The Goodreads' blog has a "most popular books of the year so far" thing which will probably be a good indicator of many of the titles that will be "nominated" for the Choice Awards:

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...

Here’s a link to this years NPR app, the past years also accessible.
https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view...

I'm liking 2, 4 & 5 up to now

2. A book published in 2024
I don't tend to read new releases much, so I like the reminder to check out some newer books.

4. A book that fits a suggestion that didn't make the list this year
I feel this prompt is like a safety net, so you don't have to be so bummed if a certain prompt doesn't get through.

5. A book connected to something you read in 2023
I love finding connections between books, especially unexpected ones. I recently just happened to be reading Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton and Men without Women by Ernest Hemingway at the same time and it struck me how similar their themes were, they will be linked in my brain forevermore.

I'm going to do 2, 4, 5, and 6 even though I always find it hard to read a newly published book as library waiting lists are cuckoo. All upvotes.

The voting link is posted! https://forms.gle/JF3MVD72EGi7Db1n6

Emily- I Thomas Peaple submitted my vote at 11:36 CST time. I couldn’t post a link so please let me know if I did not post enough information for my votes to be counted

I can't believe we're voting again already!

Yay! We’ve officially started!! I upvoted 1 & 2!!

Totally fine Thomas, I have it noted.

We are trying out Google forms instead of our previous survey site, and I feel like you're a lot less likely to double vote by accident than you were with the previous site.... so hopefully we get less duplicates!

Thanks Emily

Love the start of list making season! And a few new choices that made it hard to pick just 4.

Looking forward to seeing the results on Friday.

I really like:

5. A book connected to something you read in 2023

And I up voted one other; and did a couple of downs. And for the life of me, I can't remember them! We finished up Summer Reading today at the Library and my brain is a bit frazzled. From now on, I'll make notes!

Wow we are back again! Maybe this will motivate me a bit to actually get back in gear on the 2023 challenge LOL.

5 is my run away favorite here, and I always love pick-a-prompt prompts like 4 as well.

I used all UP votes! My logic changed during the voting process. Most of them are fine, but the only one I would have considered downvoting is #1 Goodreads Choice Awards.

I upvoted #s 3, 4, 5 & 7 because I thought they gave me the most latitude. I chose "#3 - Meant to read in 2023" specifically because I've been thwarted a couple of times by my IRL book group who chose books that fit one of our prompts, and therefore moved aside something else I especially wanted to read.

@Emily - you mentioned that moving to Google Forms to reduced the chance of voting twice. I noticed after I just voted that there was a link actually INVITING me to vote again! Can that be removed?

Tracy wrote: "I just voted that there was a link actually INVITING me to vote again! Can that be removed?"

Thanks for pointing that out! I removed it. .

Hooray, it's voting time again!

I have trouble with "a book you meant to read in 2023". There are many books I think about reading each year and don't get to but I don't track them, so I would just be picking something I've had for a while and saying "I might have wanted to read this last year".

Thanks Jackie!

Thomas, the next time you use your phone to vote, you can still add the link to goodreads. Open Goodreads in your browser and copy the link.I do it this way all the time.

Robin P wrote: "

I have trouble with "a book you meant to read in 2023". There are many books I think about reading each year and don't get to but I don't track them, so I would jus..."

I agree. I have books I may read, but then I choose something else to fit the slot and I'm wouldn't say I necessarily 'meant to read a book'. So for me this would just have to be a book I've had for a while.

Bec wrote: "Robin P wrote: "

I have trouble with "a book you meant to read in 2023". There are many books I think about reading each year and don't get to but I don't track them, so I would jus..."

I agree. ..."

I really like this prompt because I plan out my ATY at the start of the year, but sometimes read outside of the plan and fit that book in a prompt that had another book planned. So all those unread but originally planned books can be the books I meant to read in 2023. So far I think 50% of my ATY prompts I went with a different book from what I originally planned.

I like the book you wanted to read the year before prompt because I always expect that I can "read ALL the things!!!", which I really can't, so basically any book that I was even slightly aware of before the end of that year counts for me!! :)

This is my first year participating in all the poll events. I hope I do it right lol

Jennifer W wrote: "I like the book you wanted to read the year before prompt because I always expect that I can "read ALL the things!!!", which I really can't, so basically any book that I was even slightly aware of ..."

Haha yes me too. I tend to use that prompt to read a release from the previous year that I was excited to read, went and got a copy, and then never read for some reason.

I am like AnaAZ. I totally agree, and think it is a great prompt

Of course Goodreads would go haywire the day we open voting lol

Emily wrote: "Of course Goodreads would go haywire the day we open voting lol"

I know, just think if it happens on one of the suggestion days! It's still giving intermittent errors, showing you the girl in the rocking chair, or saying there's an error in your post, etc.

And we're off! I know we were off yesterday but everytime I've looked Goodreads has been down! I did get an error trying to go to the ATY page but a refresh fixed that.

Only voting for 4 hurt! I liked them all!

Still can't get on the Goodreads website but at least the app is working! excited for voting(:

The app is only partially working for me so far today. Sometimes a particular thing works (opening a book page), and then that same thing doesn’t work.

SO glad I’m not in charge of fixing this!

(First time I tried to post this reply I got an ERROR…)

I’m not sure I actually submitted my vote yesterday before the system went down. So I apologize if I voted twice.

I used all up-votes too. I’d be happy if they all make it in, but I voted for the ones that feel more essential to me.

I chose NPR over the Goodreads awards because it gives me many more choices with less duplication. I also like that it isn’t as dependent on a big publishing budget. I’m sure I’ll read many of the gr Choice books anyway.

I'll check for you, NancyJ!

I voted yesterday, but Goodreads went down right after, and now I can't remember which ones I voted for.😝 But I like them all, so I'm going to be fine with whichever ones make the list.

I voted for Goodreads Choice Awards and published in 2024. I know a lot of people hate the GCA because they are a "popularity contest" but I don't really get why that's a problem. I typically interpret any kind of "choice" awards (ie. the Kid's Choice Awards show, etc.) as a popularity contest since it's done by vote.

I downvoted "connected to something you read in 2023" because I don't like that kind of super vague prompt that almost anything could fill (at least given the number of books I read per year), and a book that fits a suggestion that didn't make the list because it's not so relevant for me. I already do a rejects challenge based on the prompts I personally voted for that didn't make it, so I get the ones I want anyway.

Rachel wrote: "I voted for Goodreads Choice Awards and published in 2024. I know a lot of people hate the GCA because they are a "popularity contest" but I don't really get why that's a problem. I typically inter..."

It gets in every year