Play Book Tag discussion

Here's a dedicated place to discuss monthly tag specifics to BWF - the spelling and # of tags!

Please use this area to discuss the current tag and which books might fit for the game and the upcoming tag selection. And anything else you might want to chit chat about regarding the challenge!

This game has been surprisingly addictive. I find myself searching the library displays and online book ads for random books that fit the letter and tag.

Love this! Great place for discussing monthly tag in context of BWF, rather than overwhelm the monthly vote threads.

Just want everyone to know I set up a buddy read in Footnotes for On the Come Up, which spells and has a zillion COA tags. If you plan to read it for BWF, join us!

In each of the last 2 months there have been a couple books that multople players have read and reviewed. Lyn and I even finished and reviewed one on the same day last month! Lyn commented then that it should have been a buuddy read. That gave me this idea.

Thanks for setting this up Anita.

Here is a reminder about our Listopia for this month’s challenge. It contains books that qualify for the tag+letter match for this game. This is a great place to help one another.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Vote on the books you liked or want to read. If you click on “5 people voted” below a title, you can see who voted for the book. Below the list you can see all the voters. If you click on a name, you can see what books they voted for, and how they rated the ones they read. This might help new people find members with similar reading interests. This is new, so we don’t have everyone’s votes yet, but it should save you some time.

Thanks so much, Anita - what a great idea! And my warmest thanks for this challenge too. I haven’t ever read as much for the monthly tag as I am doing at the moment! And I’m still knocking more off the TBR than I am adding to it, miraculously.

Like Robin, I’m so enjoying finding options - often unexpected - that have been sitting on my shelf for ages. It’s also got me using my library again. I’m still not a planner with my reading - strictly a mood reader - but I love how the challenge lends itself so well to either mode.

Something I’m having a lot of personal fun with is finding an extra ‘angle’ on the month to explore.

Historical mysteries in January let me sample lots of ‘first in series’ (I love series) and I found one that I’m now hooked on (the Veronica Speedwell books).

February’s ‘authors of color’ tag had the whole team reading around the world. It was so noticeable, I did a quick list for Sassies at the end of the month. The cultural backgrounds of our authors included at least: Dominican, Cambodian, South Korean, African American, Chinese, Indonesian, Haitian, Mexican, Turkish, German, French, Indian, Palestinian, British-Caribbean, Iranian, Japanese, Pakistani, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and Brazilian. That’s a whole load of learning and exploring!

This month, I’m targeting YA, memoirs, and a sprinkling of my usual lit fic. The day job is particularly full on at the moment so I’m chilling with some re-reads as well as picking up more thought-provoking books.

KateNZ wrote: "Thanks so much, Anita - what a great idea! And my warmest thanks for this challenge too. I haven’t ever read as much for the monthly tag as I am doing at the moment! And I’m still knocking more off..."

I cannot take any credit for this idea, lol! It came to me from one of our engaged, proactive members. It sounded like a good one.

I definitely am approaching the monthly tag reading differently because of BWF - trolling through my TBR Towers and lists and pulling up random books I think will fit - and then stacking them up in a mini-month tower to work through. It's led to even more diversity to my reading!

Want to toss out here - I know Olivermagnus has already read and reviewed it for BWF, but I also have The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho to read for tag match letter match this month.

Anyone else got it on their list? We can buddy read it - I think it could be an interesting discussion along side the game.

I do. I’ve had it in my iBooks library for ages and didn’t get to it last month, so am determined to this month. A buddy read would be great.

A DTB that I aim to get to is ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama. Also super happy to do a buddy read on that - if I am not the only person in the universe who hasn’t read it yet, lol

KateNZ wrote: "I do. I’ve had it in my iBooks library for ages and didn’t get to it last month, so am determined to this month. A buddy read would be great.

A DTB that I aim to get to is ‘Becoming’ by Michelle ..."

I did read it and enjoyed it - very easy read. I thought I was the last in the universe to read it!

Will set up a Buddy Read for The Alchemist!

I listened to the audio of Becoming, which was wonderful. I loved the human moments, like having to find winter hats for her girls when Obama announced for President in the winter in Illinois

I'm surprised at how much I've become engaged with this game. I was looking for one with less involvement than many, but am having a lot of fun with this.

It's also great to have this discussion here so we don't have to fill up the voting thread with it since not everyone is playing the game and it's great to have everyone on PBT feel involved with the tag voting.

KateNZ wrote: "Thanks so much, Anita - what a great idea! And my warmest thanks for this challenge too. I haven’t ever read as much for the monthly tag as I am doing at the moment! And I’m still knocking more off..."

That’s a great list of countries! Reading around the world has been very fun for me this year too. I’ve been on every continent (except Antarctica) and visited a few countries that were totally new to me.


I hope you enjoy Michelle Obama’s book. I’m about to read I Am Malala, which seems like another one everyone has read.

NancyJ wrote: "KateNZ wrote: "Thanks so much, Anita - what a great idea! And my warmest thanks for this challenge too. I haven’t ever read as much for the monthly tag as I am doing at the moment! And I’m still kn..."

Few people ever set foot on Antarctica! My sister and her husband got to see it when he worked as a ship doctor on some type of vessel for 3 weeks; she went along for free (they only needed one doctor). However, no one went ashore.

Karin wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "KateNZ wrote: "Thanks so much, Anita - what a great idea! And my warmest thanks for this challenge too. I haven’t ever read as much for the monthly tag as I am doing at the moment! A..."

That sounds awesome. I “visited” Antarctica in previous years, via books of course. Armchair traveling is the only way I travel these days.

I want to read Little Fires Everywhere shelved 200 times as Coming of Age by Celeste Ng. Anyone want to Buddy read?

We actually had a huge buddy read on that years ago. I think that was even before there was a Theresa and Joanne and Jason in the group. Or maybe I’m wrong, and they had all just joined. I was fairly new myself. Honestly, I remembered that that was a read that was such a yo-yo on and off my TBR shelf. People loved it. They hated it. They were trashing it and raving it. So finally, I read and I read it for some tag or another, and I was in the love camp. I absolutely adored it. Maybe there will be somebody who would like to read it with you. I haven’t had as much luck with coming of age. It’s actually a tag I really like, I just don’t like it when it’s YA. I have some wonderful age, even last month before it was picked. This month it’s been harder and harder and harder. Liked Tiger Lily though.

I’d be happy to read along, Melanie, if I can get it from the library. It’s not available through the app, but I can look when I take Miss Small’s batch of library books back in a week or so?

KateNZ wrote: "I’d be happy to read along, Melanie, if I can get it from the library. It’s not available through the app, but I can look when I take Miss Small’s batch of library books back in a week or so?"

That would be great! Just let me know, thank you!

Will do :)

MelanieJoy wrote: "I want to read Little Fires Everywhere shelved 200 times as Coming of Age by Celeste Ng. Anyone want to Buddy read?"

I finished it a week or so ago for my f2f book club. If someone starts a thread, I might pop in.

I don't know about any of the other Team Reporters, but whenever I update my Team's Tracking, my TBR expands! That's happened every month so far. I'm thinking my intentions of reading only from my TBR for this challenge might keep some minimal balance.

Who am I fooling?

Theresa wrote: "I don't know about any of the other Team Reporters, but whenever I update my Team's Tracking, my TBR expands! That's happened every month so far. I'm thinking my intentions of reading only from my ..."

All the time! It happens way before I have to track them though. But I don’t mind at all.

For the April Tag options - just want to mention that fantasy romance now is being called ROMANTASY by publishers, PR, and fans. A number of authors are specializing in it and a lot fits queer literature tags too. Also a lot of YA fantasy fits. Much of it has been written in recent years so tagging would be low.

From a BWF perspective, I think it's a tough month.

I haven’t even done my full research yet, but I didn’t notice that with Tudor. From what I can tell from a brief search, eyeballing my phone TBR, I just have one book that fits Tutor and has the letter. And most of us don’t have a ton of Tudor on our TBR’s. For that one it’s gonna be a very low match tag with 5+ and also letter month. But people will read other kinds of things with those five letters. Not that I think we have to worry about it anyway because I do think fantasy romance wins. Hence why I put iron flame into my library queue. Written by Rebecca Yarros for the Y

I love the Tudor period but I’m struggling too, Amy - at least for things I haven’t read that also spell. I’m sure I could find some options but *sigh*.

If it were to win, the CJ Sansom books are excellent and several of them would spell, including the first (Dissolution) and second (Dark Fire).

Good tips to look broader on fantasy-romance, Theresa. That might help find something I haven’t read.

Overall, I did like the Yarros books, Amy, though I swear my eye-rolling was audible at times…

I have to say that I think while there are a lot of books that will have the Fantasy Romance tag match, I think it will be the Letter Matching that will be the problem. I just checked my read books for Feminerdy which has read about 20 books in the last 5 years that someone has tagged Fantasy Romance (they are not heavy on the romance btw) - and only 2 of them match a letter too. I was rather shocked as most are part of series of some sort -- and none in the series letter match either.

Not that finding a letter matching book is a problem - I've been wishing for a word with F as I have several books sitting here I need to read for different challenges or reasons that match letter. Be careful what you wish for 🤣!

These tags lead me to think it will be more of a letter only matching month in BWF for most.

I may flip a coin to vote.

From my tbr, for Tudor, I can find ones for the consonants, but not for the vowels, but that's only from my tbr.

I’m doing the same thing I did last month. I’m going systematically through different resources to find books that fit both the tag and the letter, without regard to my immediate interest. It doesn’t take much thought at the start. I’m still using my March list.

Did anyone find the Coming of Age Listopia helpful? If so, I can set one up for Fantasy Romance which would benefit the most from collective digging.

Did anyone find the Coming of Age Listopia helpful? If so, I can set one up for Fantasy Romance which would benefit the most from collective digging."

I definitely did and would appreciate the list if it's not a hardship.

Jen wrote: "Did anyone find the Coming of Age Listopia helpful? If so, I can set one up for Fantasy Romance which would benefit the most from collective digging."

I definitely did and would appreciate the lis..."

Thanks Jen!

Before I vote, I have a question for the Tudor fans. Were you able to find enough books for TUDOR to keep you busy in the game? I don’t have much on my tbr that would fit, but I don’t want to rule it out without checking with the experts.

So far I found more than enough fantasy romance options for each letter to keep me busy. (I found about 50 that fit both the tag and letter.)

One of the problems I have with Tudor - besides having read quite a bit already - are that the books are long, even chunksters, and not fast reads. And frankly, I would have a very hard time reading more than one tag matching Tudor book.

Plus if you look, you are down to only 4 tags by Page 11 .... so there are not going to be a lot.

However, BWF players are not the only ones voting. And maybe there are some players who would like things to slow down.

Tudor would be very easy to read for matching letter only, which of course is part of BWF challenge if you are into spelling more than tag matching. Some are, especially those who are relying solely on their existing TBRs for the books to be read for the challenge and also on book club reading that has priority over challenges.

Thanks Theresa.

Yes, well I love the tag for Tudor, I simply did not feel like it was going to be an easy thing for most of the players to find letters that match the tag that have 5+ tags. That would also hold their interest. I think that if it were not the BWF challenge, you would get a lot more interest in this tag. But too many people playing the game would find this difficult. As it is, I only found on my list two books that matched at all for 5+ tags. I believe one was an and the other was an O or R. I simply don’t think that’s enough for folks. I’ve already asked my library for some fantasy romance books and have already started looking in that direction. How surprised I will be if anything else wins.

I have zero interest in reading fiction or nonfiction about British royalty, and Tudor is rife with that, and they're so long. However, if it wins I have no doubt I can find something. Fantasy-Romance is easy-peasy, but I like only certain fantasy sometimes. However, there are so very many that finding books can be done.

Fantasy romance has lots of chunksters too. Just sayin'

So true, Joy. Plus there is little variety in fantasy romance though more than either Tudor or Star Wars. I can't see a month of heavy reading tag matched books for any of the tags, especially as I have other reading, work and life commitments. It is far less likely that something I happen to be reading and need to be reading will tag and letter match, for that matter.

I doubt I'm alone in that.

I assumed that we would break records every month for "number of books read for the tag", but now I don't think so. I also have MANY other books and groups demanding my reading so I won't mind stopping at one or two.

Also a big Tudor fan here.

Just by what's on my tbr, I found books for the consonants, T,D,R. But that's just from my tbr. I didn't check what might be out there for O and U.

Robin P wrote: "I assumed that we would break records every month for "number of books read for the tag", but now I don't think so. I also have MANY other books and groups demanding my reading so I won't mind stop..."

haha! Good point. Makes me breathe a little sigh of relief, really. It won't take as long for me to do the shelving!

Joy D wrote: "Fantasy romance has lots of chunksters too. Just sayin'"

Yes, but there are also short ones in both, especially in Fantasy Romance if you go digging. I am not a fan of either, but you can find more with FR than Tudor. I like scifi, but not spin offs from small or large screen, other than the William Shakespeare Star Wars ones, that would never count for this game.

A lighter month would be a blessing aye Cindy!!

I can read any but I confess Star Wars would be a struggle, fan girl that I am. Whichever is chosen, though, there’s probably a lot more focus on the non tag books for April. Spelling isn’t hard and some new letters will be nice!

Personally I would embrace an "F" .... spelling only. I seem to have a lot of F and K letter matching options. Sadly no tags but that's fine with me.

I wonder of FAKE is a tag???? I should look.

I swear, BWF is making me look at my TBR and get downright silly.

At the moment, I frequently find myself starting things with an F as well, Theresa (and a K may also feature) … but perhaps not quite in the way you meant…

🫨🤣

😒🙄🤣

Theresa wrote: "Personally I would embrace an "F" .... spelling only. I seem to have a lot of F and K letter matching options. Sadly no tags but that's fine with me.

I wonder of FAKE is a tag???? I should look. ..."

Fake is totally a tag: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/fake

🫣

See what you started?!