Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Letter:

A


Shelves:

1. modern-fiction
2. juvenile
3. random
4. 2006
5. 2012-read
6. kids-books
7. have-read
8. digital
9. not-interested
10. lit
11. culture
12. detective


Categories:

a. Number of Pages: 501-600
b. Published in: 1900 - 1919
c. Have at least 10,000 ratings
d. Published in: 1940 - 1959
e. Main Character (90% of book): Male
f. Added to your to-read shelf in the first 12 months you joined GR*
g. An average rating of more than 3.5 stars
h. Person on cover (partials acceptable)
i. Plant on cover (partials acceptable)
j. Number of Pages: 600+
k. Inanimate Object on cover (partials acceptable)
l. Cover is primarily bright colours (white, yellow, pink etc) Think: Happy

*if you don’t maintain a to-read shelf of GR or for any other reason you'd need an alternative for this Category, here it is:

f. Books purchased / received more than 5^ years ago

^I'm just using 5 years as a gauge (PAS is also 5 yo!) -you are more than welcome to change this number to suit your books but 3 will be the lowest number. Please make a note of it on your thread if you are changing the number of years.

Woo hoo!! Let the Planning Begin! :D

Post any questions you have on this Card in this thread.

If you need suggestions / recommendations for a particular Shelf / Category, don't be shy to ask in this thread too.

We've got it easy, I think, with "A" for the first month. Remember though that "A" and "An" are excluded

Do NOT start reading until 1 Jan.

If you'd like to copy and paste onto your own thread (with links), here's the link to google doc: ScatterShelves - January hope this link works, let me know if it doesn't. Oh, and for some reason, GR doesn't like it when you copy and paste html links from word doc, so after you paste on GR, you need to replace all quotation marks (") or your links will not work.

Further clarifications based on Qs below:

Publication date refers to First published date.

Another alternative for Category f:
"has been on your to-read shelf for longest, within 12 months period" if the oldest book added on your shelf was in November 2010 then pick a book that's been added between November 2010 to October 2011.

Colours are totally subjective to the beholder -as long as you think it reflects the 'happy' spectrum.

"At", "And", "Are" are Not excluded.

On number of pages:
1. If reading a physical copy; go with the edition you have if you need to get it from the library, they would usually have the details on the library website too? Otherwise, a check on the ISBN of the edition the library holds may help you with the number of pages; OR
2. If reading ebooks - use the most popular edition's page numbers. On the book page, click on "all editions" on the book details and the most popular edition will be the first one listed on that page

ooh, and, Happy Birthday, Dionisia!

"Published in..." Is that the current publishing date for the book or the first published date?

So, since I joined in 11/2008 and the oldest books on my TBR as now 2010, I can use the alternate rule, right?

And, that would mean a book I own that I had when I joined but did not add to my TBR. Yikes! They are all packed up!

Bright color - I found it hard to decide on this. Light blue and pink were on the kids book I chose but I did not consider them BRIGHT. Is this subjective to me or will you make the decision as to whether the cover matches the category? If the latter, please take a look at the book I chose in my plan.

Tien wrote: "ooh, and, Happy Birthday, Dionisia!"

Ahh, thank you!

Happy Birthday to Dionisia! Hope you have a great day.

Happy birthday Dionisia!

I really love the idea of this game and I don't mean to be critical but for someone who doesn't really enjoy YA books having two shelves (juvenile and kids-books) focusing on this genre in the same month seems a little unfair. It sort of takes the fun out of finding new books.
Is there anyway to switch one of them out and use it for a later card?

The same goes for categories that repeat themselves - 2 categories with books over 500 pages and two categories with books published in the first half of the century. This really limits the options.

Is At also excluded? I would imagine so, but thought I would clarify.

And what about AND?

Bea wrote: "Bright color - I found it hard to decide on this. Light blue and pink were on the kids book I chose but I did not consider them BRIGHT. Is this subjective to me or will you make the decision as to..."

Totally subjective to you -as long as you think it's a Happy sort of colour :)

Bea wrote: "So, since I joined in 11/2008 and the oldest books on my TBR as now 2010, I can use the alternate rule, right?

And, that would mean a book I own that I had when I joined but did not add to my TBR...."

Yes, feel free to use the alternative Category... or if it's too hard to get to your books, I'm happy for you to adjust Category to:

"has been on your to-read shelf for longest, within 12 months period"

So... if the oldest book added on your shelf was in November 2010 then pick a book that's been added between November 2010 to October 2011. Hope that makes sense.

Bea wrote: ""Published in..." Is that the current publishing date for the book or the first published date?"

First published date, Bea... I don't imagine I'd be able to get my hands on a book published in 1900 ;) Good to clarify, thanks!

Lauren wrote: "I really love the idea of this game and I don't mean to be critical but for someone who doesn't really enjoy YA books having two shelves (juvenile and kids-books) focusing on this genre in the same..."

Sorry, Lauren, I've had a randomiser on to pick the monthly shelves & categories so I'm loath to mess around with it.

Please keep in mind that you don't have to read these books in one month. This January Card is open all the way to 31 December 2014 so you can spread out your kids / YA books. There will be more kids / YA related shelves later on too, however, you do have 6 skip provision. You may want to hang on to them a little bit and see what else comes up.

I've not finished my planning yet, but so far, I've chosen Winnie The Pooh for my juvenile book. Do / would you read kids classics? If so, I'm sure you could find these gems on these 2 shelves.

Edited: I've seen choices for Anne of Green Gables, Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, and even Where the Wild Things Are (this last option would be a nice and easy one to read! I might taken this one on board too)

"At" And "And" are not excluded.

Tien wrote: ""At" And "And" are not excluded."

Oh, my goodness, I missed that "and" was acceptable and skipped all those books! I might want to revisit by choices now.

Tien wrote: ""At" And "And" are not excluded."

Ohhh, cool. My At book works then. :)

Thanks Tien. I forgot that we could spread them out over the year. I'll definitely do that.

I've read a lot of kids classics (including Winnie the Pooh, which I love) because my MA is in children's Lit. That's actually why I don't read that many YA or kids books - I'm all "kid lited" out, lol!

Just finished figuring out what I'm going to read. Amazingly, I had no problem with the shelves or categories, but the "A" was a killer :)

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes!

Tien wrote: ""At" And "And" are not excluded."

How about "are"?

How frustrating! A book I want to use is on the shelf "read-2012," but not "2012-read."

Regarding the number of pages - does it matter which edition of the book is used because some editions say 450 while others say 560?

Lauren wrote: "I've read a lot of kids classics (including Winnie the Pooh, which I love) because my MA is in children..."

Oh, I see... We can look to you for recommendations then :)

LynnB wrote: "Just finished figuring out what I'm going to read. Amazingly, I had no problem with the shelves or categories, but the "A" was a killer :)"

Really... I thought, "A" would've been easy! So many words and / or names that start with A.

I have to admit, it still wasn't as easy as I thought it would be but it wasn't a killer?

CassieV wrote: "Tien wrote: ""At" And "And" are not excluded."

How about "are"?"

Yep, "Are" is fine too.

Susan wrote: "How frustrating! A book I want to use is on the shelf "read-2012," but not "2012-read.""

I know exactly what you're feeling, Susan! Hope you could fit it in elsewhere.

Lauren wrote: "Regarding the number of pages - does it matter which edition of the book is used because some editions say 450 while others say 560?"

On number of pages, I would...
firstly go with the edition you have / are reading (if you hold a physical copy or if you need to get it from the library, they would usually have the details on the library website too? Otherwise, a check on the ISBN of the edition the library holds may help you with the number of pages)
If going for ebooks - use the most popular edition's page numbers. On the book page, click on "all editions" on the book details and the most popular edition will be the first one listed on that page

Tien wrote: "I know exactly what you're feeling, Susan! Hope you could fit it in elsewhere."

Yep. I found another place for it, and another 2012-read book. But it took some doing.

Susan wrote: "Tien wrote: "I know exactly what you're feeling, Susan! Hope you could fit it in elsewhere."

Yep. I found another place for it, and another 2012-read book. But it took some doing."

But don't you just feel that satisfaction of getting it done? LOL - or maybe I'm just that addicted to the planning rather than the reading, oops!

Tien wrote: "Really... I thought, "A" would've been easy..."

I thought "A" would be easy, too, but either I had read books and didn't want to re-read them, or they just had "a" or "an" which weren't useable, or they didn't fit in the shelves AND categories, or I wasn't interested in reading them at all. But in the end I was successful in finding books... I'm finding the hunt for books to be a game on it's own! Great game idea, Tien!

Tien wrote: "Lauren wrote: "I've read a lot of kids classics (including Winnie the Pooh, which I love) because my MA is in children..."

Oh, I see... We can look to you for recommendations then :)"

Thanks Tien.
Sure, I'd be happy to recommend :0)

Tien wrote: "But don't you just feel that satisfaction of getting it done? LOL " ..."

Oh, yes, absolutely! There's a feeling of fulfilment in the planning somehow even if the books never get read.

can i still join

Fairlee wrote: "can i still join"

Fairlee, you're welcome to join in anytime! It's not quite started anyway... we are in countdown more:

2 days to go!!!

I always feel extra extra antsy prior to the start of a new challenge. Countdown to January!

lol only some hours to go, Dionisia!

It's here! It's finally here!

GO, Dionisia! ;D