Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

The results are in!

Top 3:
- A book by Shakespeare or inspired by Shakespeare
- A book with a weird or intriguing title
- A book with a (mostly) black cover

Bottom:
- A book with a month in the title during that month

Polarizing:
- A book linked to one of your favorite songs or artists
- A book that's sad, depressing, devastating or dark
- A book from a GR list of lesser known books recommended by people in the ATY group
- A book based on a "classic" monster (eg. vampire, mummy, swamp monster, Frankenstein, zombie)
- Two books: A book with a female protagonist & a book with a male protagonist who are in the same profession
- A book published in a special-to-you year (birth, graduation, marriage, child born, etc.)

There were no close calls this round.

Results are calculated by subtracting the number of voters who put a prompt in their bottom 4 from those who put a prompt in their top 4 (top 4 - bottom 4). The totals are then compared to find the top result(s).

Total number of votes: 120

The sixth round of suggestions will open tomorrow, July 24, at 4:00pm EST.

Wow!! Holy Polarizing Topics, Batman!!

What does polarizing mean?

Clare, polarizing means there are about equal numbers of people who voted in favor and against those topics, so a lot of people liked them, but a lot of people also disliked them.

Look at all those polarizing books!

I'm glad Shakespeare and a black cover got a second chance and won out on this round. I'm also really excited for the weird title prompt!

I'm not super surprised by the book in the month getting the lowest... that's a hard one for people reading in order.

I wonder if we saw so many polarizing topics this time because there was so much discussion or if it was just a coincidence?

Once again, I have one of my top picks in the top and one of my bottoms is on the bottom but I think all of my other choices were polarizing. I really hope now that we have an actual list for people to see that the lesser known group list prompt gets another chance. I haven't even gone through all of them and I have already found one that is on my tbr list and a few others that look terrific.

I'm surprised the dark book prompt was polarizing. Who doesn't love a good, cry your eyes out devastating novel?! ;)

Of my top four picks, two were polarizing and two were not listed anywhere. Of my bottom four picks, one made the top, one made the bottom, and the other two were polarizing.

So, none of the ones I wanted to win were in the top, and one of the ones I really didn't want to win was in the top. I'm sure I can find something to read for it, but I hope that my choices align better with the group in future votes.

Thanks for the explanation!

Pretty much all of my top votes are in the polarizing list. Hopefully some of those get another chance!

Interestingly enough, all of my Top 4 and Bottom 4 picks made one of the above lists.

Two of my Top choices made the final list (Shakespeare, and the mostly black cover), and my other two (classic monster, and sad/dark/devastating) were polarizing. Weird or intriguing title was a bottom choice for me because I don't like prompts that are so vague.

The month in the title in that month was a clear bottom choice for me because it was so restrictive, so I'm not surprised that others seem to feel the same way. My other bottom votes were for the 2 books with protagonists in the same profession of opposite genders, and the lesser-known list that we are compiling, but I'm not surprised those two were polarizing.

Rachelnyc wrote: "I'm surprised the dark book prompt was polarizing. Who doesn't love a good, cry your eyes out devastating novel?! ;) "

I think this was a case, once again, of people thinking too narrowly about the prompt. "I don't like sad books" = no. But what about books that get a little sad in the middle but end with a happy-ever-after? Or what about suspenseful instead of sad, like the domestic thrillers that are all the rage at the moment? Or a book about a sad topic that's actually rather light-hearted in tone? I can think of multiple books that fit that description, both fiction and nonfiction.

Oh well. Maybe it'll come back in another round of voting.

dalex wrote: "Rachelnyc wrote: "I'm surprised the dark book prompt was polarizing. Who doesn't love a good, cry your eyes out devastating novel?! ;) "

I put that in my bottom four, not because I don't want to read that kind of book, but just I don't want to know that much about the story beforehand.

Wow, so many polarising topics this week. I’m happy that two of my top choices were chosen (Shakespeare and the weird or intriguing title). The black cover was one of my bottom choices but I’m sure I’ll find something that fits so I’m quite happy with that too.

I’ll admit to being one of the people who voted against the sad or depressing book. My reasoning was that although I do read books that have sad or upsetting elements in their plot, I don’t actively seek out sad books so it wouldn’t have felt like an enjoyable prompt for me to fill. I’m probably a bit over sensitive too, for instance even when re-reading as an adult I cried when (view spoiler)[Matthew died (hide spoiler)] in Anne of Green Gables.

1 of my tops made the top and the other 3 are polarizing. 1 bottom made the bottom, 2 are polarizing and 1 isn’t listed. Shakespeare of course was in my bottom 4 and since I’ve already decided that I’m just reading next year and slotting in as I go I’m just skipping that one altogether. That makes it a lot less stressful!

Charity, if you haven’t seen it already then there are some great ideas for the Shakespeare prompt in this thread (thanks dalex!). Some of them are very loosely linked to Shakespeare so you might find something you want to read just happens to fit in. Or of course you can just skip it or use a wild card. :-)

When will the next round of suggestions be open? I missed them last time - it was a busy day and it moved so fast!

Chinook wrote: "When will the next round of suggestions be open? I missed them last time - it was a busy day and it moved so fast!"

It’ll be tomorrow (24 July) at 4pm EST.

I love the Shakespeare prompt but understand why some people wont. You could simplify it and use a theme such as star crossed lovers or a comedy of errors which appear in lots of different stories that might not seem to be linked.

He apparently invented a huge amount of words and phrases - it'd probably be really easy to find a book linked to one of those, even if it was just in the title.

Just one of my top made it to the top list, two were polarized and one (author from an island) was not even mentioned, but I am ok with the winners, except with the intriguing or weird title, just because I cannot think of any book :( Suggestions? Is there a list?

The bottom was on my bottom list, and regarding the rest of my bottom, two were polarized and one was not mentioned.

Hmm, my results were exactly the same with the top and the bottom :P

Don’t like the Willie B. prompt, but I’ll find something to satisfy nonetheless. Nothing on my TBR comes up for it, so I’ll have to add something. I’ve already got a couple of books lined up for the black cover and weird title prompts.

Meanwhile, the list of ATY recommendations is awesome. Hope we can vote on that prompt once again. Can we?

My only issue with "weird or intriguing title" is that I have too many choices! I wonder if my interpretation of what is "weird or intriguing" is the same as others'? Just a few from my list that I started - my list of ideas is long but I don't want to type all of them!!:
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Lead the Rebels There (Valente)
The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton)
The Girl Who Was Saturday (O'Neill)
What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Arimah)
How Long Til Black Future Month? (Jemisin)
Bucking F*cking Dent (Duchovny)
My Sister the Serial Killer (Braithewaite)
Everyone Brave is Forgiven (Cleave)
The Boy in the Suitcase (Kaaberbol)
You Die When You Die (Watson)

To be honest, I don’t know what my interpretation of that one is. I didn’t vote for it either way because of that. I think for me that’s going to end up being a bit of a freebie.

I have a big selection for weird and intriguing title, so it's a bit of a freebie for me too. My top three are The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Fingers in the Sparkle Jar.

If you were looking to narrow down the prompt, you could look for books with made up or silly words (Izzy, Willy-Nilly comes to mind, or even The Untelling) or titles that don't make sense (like most of what Nadine posted above, like How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories). Even some that are surprising, like They Both Die at the End would work.

On my TBR, I have some interesting ones:
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
An Instance of the Fingerpost
The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
My Heart and Other Black Holes
The Princess Saves Herself in this One
Eat Only When You're Hungry
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I think it's the 1st time since our 1st homemade challenge that I've 0 of my tops in the winners (the previous polls were a little better, but nothing very good). I hope we'll have prompts that will suit more my tastes because it's decreasing a little my enjoyment while hunting books for some categories. My loved ones are polarizing so far.

I bottomed twice Shakespeare , I'll go cry in a corner.

dalex wrote: "I think this was a case, once again, of people thinking too narrowly about the prompt...."

Quite possibly! I feel like this is a hobby horse of mine, but it's really helpful when a person gives lots of links and examples when nominating a new topic. That helps people to think about a prompt in a useful way rather than just dismissing it out of hand.

I don't seek out books for the catharsis of crying either, but since that prompt also had that "or dark" qualifier, it would allow for any noir or gothic novel, or anything about the ennui, malaise, or paranoia of modern life, which are all things that I do find satisfying to read about.

I feel like last year during the voting process we ended up making a goodreads list of books with funny titles. Does anyone remember that? That list might be good to resurrect for the weird/intriguing title prompt.

I don’t remember that Katie. Maybe it was the year before? I’d love to see that list!

I remember that, Katie! I think Marta started it. I am almost certain it's this one.

I think this was the list we created for funny book titles:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Here are the booklists I found to help with the Shakespeare prompt

Inspired by Shakespeare
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Here is the list of ideas I have suggested in several other places for the prompt "A book by Shakespeare or inspired by Shakespeare."

a title inspired by Shakespeare like The Fault in Our Stars
a book with Shakespeare as a character like Ink and Steel or Fools and Mortals
a book that features a performance of a Shakespeare play like Station Eleven or If We Were Villains
a book that has at least some sort of Shakespearean connection, like in Cascade a Shakespearean theater is part of the plot

You could read a nonfiction book about Shakespeare.

You could read a historical fiction novel set during the Shakespearean time period (Elizabethan era 1558-1603).

You could even look at the Complete List of Shakespeare's Characters (which is like multiple hundreds) and use a book with an author or character with that name.

And, of course, there are many many options for books inspired by Shakespeare like Fool or A Thousand Acres or the books in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. There are several gr lists of books inspired by Shakespeare.

I like the winners and am fine with the bottom choice, but I hope some of those polarizing choices come back for another go. For intriguing title, I might use Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest: Poems.

I have a couple more Shakespeare recommendations. Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams is a fantasy novel using Caliban from The Tempest, and if you like urban fantasy and supernatural creatures the main character from Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros novels is named after Caliban, so you could say his mother was inspired by Shakespeare.

I'm pleased Shakespeare got in and the other two are easy choices. Not surprised the book in the month was bottom as too restrictive. As the ATY list of lesser known books has now been created, I expect to see that back as a suggestion.

Kathy wrote: "Here are the booklists I found to help with the Shakespeare prompt

Inspired by Shakespeare
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6633...."

Thanks Kathy.... I had forgotten that A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley was a Shakespeare retelling, and it's been on my TBR list forever.

Most of my Top and Bottom choices are in the polarizing section. I’m happy with 2 of the Top picks. For the 3rd, Shakespeare, I may read a Shakespeare conspiracy book or Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth, which I won as a GR giveaway. For an intriguing title, I think any title that you makes you wonder what it’s all about is good! I’m thinking about The Lacuna or Half Gods, since I have no idea what either title refers to.

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

There's another list of title allusions. For fans of extremely literary fiction, I recommend Javier Marías. Almost all his novels take their titles from or discuss the themes of Shakespeare plays.

I choose both shakespeare and weird title (I'm going to read Exotiqa). I didn't choose black cover as I was going to go with blue cover for something blue and figured this was a similar prompt. That's cool though, I will be able to fill it.

Month in the month was in my bottom pick so I'm happy with that. The polarizing - wow! I had 2 in my top (dark and special year) and one in my bottom (female/male protagonist).

Angie wrote: "I like the winners and am fine with the bottom choice, but I hope some of those polarizing choices come back for another go. For intriguing title, I might use Early Occult Memory Systems of t..."

that's a good idea. There are so many new poetry collections with intriguing titles!

two that I've read and loved:
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

three that I have on my TBR:
Dear Jenny, We Are All Find by Jenny Zhang
Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker

I'm not surprised by the bottom but I am kinda surprised to see that A book with a weird or intriguing title was in the top. I like title prompts but it is starting to feel like there are quite a few of them already.

Elise wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

There's another list of title allusions. For fans of extremely literary fiction, I recommend [author:Javier Marías|7195..."

Thanks, Elise, for this great list!

Good point Jillian. There seem to be a lot of title and cover prompts. I hope people take this into consideration when making suggestions and voting so that we can maintain an eclectic mix for the challenge as a whole.

Meh. It's early days yet, too soon to say that we have too many of a certain type of prompt.

I'm glad you all pointed that out. My first thought was that we didn't have a lot of cover/title options, but I was completely forgetting about the Name in a Title and Number on the Cover prompts!

Cover:
Something Blue (Possibly)
With a Number
Mostly Black

Title:
Something Blue (Possibly)
Person's Name
With a W Word
Weird or Intriguing Title

We only have 13 prompts, so you are all right to point out that these are in the majority! I'd like to see more character/genre prompts next round.

Emily wrote: "I'm glad you all pointed that out. My first thought was that we didn't have a lot of cover/title options, but I was completely forgetting about the Name in a Title and Number on the Cover prompts!
..."

I agree

In the beginning of this post, the mods keep track of our prompts so far, including the list divided into type of prompt.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The problem is, the character and genre suggestions don’t seem to be voting favorites! A number of the have been in the bottom or polarizing...