Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
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2020 Monthly Reads
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2020 Monthly Group Reads Category Suggestions
Nadine wrote: "2020 Monthly Group Read Category SuggestionsOut of the 40 regular categories, I found 26 that would make excellent group read categories, so it’s not easy to pick out 12! Here are the ideas, with..."
I think these are great! I especially like the ones that have two options... would they stay that way or do we need to limit each month to one prompt?
I'm not "thrilled" about a medical thriller (although I see An Anonymous Girl on the list which I really enjoyed). Maybe "related to the seven deadly sins" would also work for October? Not a big deal though.
This looks like a great list, Nadine! I have no especially strong opinions on the OR options, but I would prefer "trans or non-binary author" in June for Pride.There might not be a reason for a book on the cover or about a book club in August, but I really like the idea of us reading one of those together!
Mod
In the unlikely event that we have an equally fervent movement behind two different categories, we could try two group reads in that month, but it seems like we barely have enough people involved in just one group read, I wouldn’t want to try to split that in two.
I’m not married to medical thriller for Spooktober! We can certainly change that to seven deadly sins. The only problem then is: which sin?
Those look great, Nadine. Since you're not tied to anything in August, are monthly reads of advanced prompts allowed? If so, then August is National Children's Eye Health and Safety Month and also National Eye Exam Month. So we maybe we can do the vision prompt in August?
March 8th is also International Women's Day, so I am all for that.
Mod
Nadine wrote: "No I want us to come to a consensus on one or the other each month. I just couldn’t decide!!In the unlikely event that we have an equally fervent movement behind two different categories, we coul..."
I think if there are two prompts (especially if they're somewhat related or similar like the options you have above) we wouldn't have to split into two discussion groups. It would widen the range of books that could be selected for that month, but then we would all ultimately read the one book that got the most votes. I guess I just like the idea of more options, but I won't be upset if those OR months are narrowed down to one prompt. ;)
These look great. I don't have strong opinions on the either/or prompts. Some of them are thematically similar enough (book on the cover + book club) that maybe they could both be eligible for nominations, BUT there's still just one group read (whichever happens to get the most votes).For the January nomination topic, it would be cool if people would post the first line of the book with their nominations.
Great selection.On the months with choices we need to narrow down, my preference would be:
May - An author with flora or fauna in their name
July - set in an Olympic city (because the Olympics usually does flashbacks to past events in their coverage, we should too!)
August - about a book club (just sounds like a great group read theme)
Okay, my votes would be:June - a book by a trans or non-binary author
July - set in an Olympic city
October - I like the seven deadly sins prompt for this month
Drakeryn wrote: "These look great. I don't have strong opinions on the either/or prompts. Some of them are thematically similar enough (book on the cover + book club) that maybe they could both be eligible for nomi..."Yes - I like the idea of posting the first line with the nomination for January's prompt!
Mod
I love that book about a book club is included in the group read list somewhere! This is one of the prompts that looks like it will be a little more rigid/limiting so I think a good chunk of people doing the challenge might end up reading the same book!I also know that last year we avoided group reads of advanced prompts so that we didn't alienate anyone only doing the regular challenge. I'm not sure how everyone feels about that though?
Plus it just somehow feels right to read a book club book in a group read? :)
Nadine wrote: "Yes I am missing Mike’s presence very much right now!!"Ditto!
These look great! My preferences would be for the bird on the cover, set in an olympic city, bildungsroman, and about a book club, only because I'm not attached to the books I picked for these categories and would likely switch to whatever the group reads :)
Stacey wrote: "I love that book about a book club is included in the group read list somewhere! This is one of the prompts that looks like it will be a little more rigid/limiting so I think a good chunk of people..."I agree! Reading a book about a book club for our online book club is perfect imo.
Information for submitting a book nomination for January is now available here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...We are trying a new method so please let me know if you run into any issues.
My votes for months with multiple options would be :May - flora or fauna
June - Bildungsroman
July - set in Olympic city
Aug - book club
I like the idea of medical thriller in oct. and wouldn’t mind a read from advanced challenge-love the 20 theme!
Sara wrote: "Information for submitting a book nomination for January is now available here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...We are trying a new method so please let me ..."
Thanks for working on that! The only potential downside of using the Google form for submissions is that we'll all be submitting blindly. I would usually browse other people's nominations before deciding to add a new option, or "boost" something other people where already interested in. With the form you might get dozens of individual nominations, which could make it difficult to vote on. One way to get around this is to post the submissions received each day in case people want to "boost" any of those options by also submitting them. It means more work for y'all though. :/
Either way - thanks for all your efforts in making this a great group!
Lauren wrote: "The only potential downside of using the Google form for submissions is that we'll all be submitting blindly. I would usually browse other people's nominations before deciding to add a new option, or "boost" something other people where already interested in."Lauren - I have a setting that is supposed to let respondents see the other responses, but it's hard for me to check that since I'm the owner of the form. IF it's working I think you'll see an option just above the form title which lets you select "Question" or "Response". Check to see if that's an option for you and let me know!
I also like to see others' nominations before deciding what to pick.The question/response option doesn't show up for me on the form.
Sara wrote: "Information for submitting a book nomination for January is now available here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...We are trying a new method so please let me ..."
Hi Sara. I wasn't paying attention and submitted a book title without the author. So now there are multiple entries for the same book. I am am so sorry for being too excited and not reading thoroughly.
Drakeryn wrote: "I also like to see others' nominations before deciding what to pick.The question/response option doesn't show up for me on the form."
Ok I will look into it. Thanks for letting me know.
Milena wrote: "Hi Sara. I wasn't paying attention and submitted a book title without the author. So now there are multiple entries for the same book. I am am so sorry for being too excited and not reading thoroughly."It's bound to happen! We'll get this new system figured out :)
My experience was that I could see the other responses, but not until after I responded :) I had to laugh because the first line I liked was so simple (but nice, in my opinion), compared to the much more epic options already listed hahaha
I was little like, jeez guys, you're putting me to shame!
I also like to see the other nominations before I enter mine.....
Hi Everyone,Love the list. I'm leaning towards..
May - An author with flora or fauna in their name
June - a book by a trans or non-binary author
July - Gold/Silver/ bronze in the title
August - a book about a book club
Ooh, high tech with the nominations! (yeah yeah, I live under a technology rock! ;) I will have to go comb through my shelves to find a good choice! How long will the nominations be open?I'm game with whatever monthly choices we go with, but wanted to suggest that October is also breast cancer awareness month- pink cover??
Mod
February and March will be next, we’ll have more time for them.
May - both sound good to me, but I'll side with bird on cover
June
I will go for Beldungsroman for International Children's Day because I have a child with special needs and teach piano to children
July - Gold/silver/bronze because I think that would be fun in the summer (rather arbitrary, to be sure)
August
book on the cover since I hope to get a lot of reading done in August before Sept comes around.
Not trying to be a pain- but I’d really like to see the results before I vote too (And it seems like the only way to see results is to vote).So can I change my vote after if I’d rather endorse something else?
Mod
I guess my question then becomes- do we vote on just the top nominations? Or do all the nominations get placed in the vote?
Mod
Oh, sorry, I went off of what I saw others posting! So are we to nominate the books here or in the individual threads for these categories?
Mod
This is a bit accelerated because we want to get the January group read title chosen in plenty of time for library users to get the book.
After that, we will open up discussions for nominations of Feb and March books, then open polls for those.
Choosing the monthly categories is a bit informal. Because we’re seeing some differences of opinion for some months, I think we will create polls to vote for those categories to finalize all twelve categories.
Later in the year, we’ll nominate and vote on second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter books.
The monthly read is just for fun. (Well, the entire reading challenge is just for fun!) No one has to read the book chosen. Generally no more than one or two dozen people participate in the group reads. The goal is for a popular book to win so that lots of people will be happy to read it together, but that doesn’t always work out. If a group of enthusiastic readers wanted another book for a certain month, members can always create a discussion post for a group read of that book. We’ve done that a few times.
Sarah wrote: "So can I change my vote after if I’d rather endorse something else?"I was wondering about this too. I'll often start by nominating a niche favorite, but if nobody else jumps on, I'll switch to something that has a chance to make the poll.
So I've been futzing around with this and found a couple issues just to let the mods know:It let me submit two responses when I tried to go back and change my nomination. Unless I misunderstood the rules and we are allowed to nominate more than one?
If anyone would like to see the results before they vote you can click on the link to submit a response and change the very end of the URL from:
"viewFORM" to "viewANALYTICS"
That should take you to the results sheet.
Having the respondents sign in would give us some additional options, but I know we have members that are very protective of their personal information and would not want to be required to sign in. We were testing out the Google Form option to help us in counting up results. It will automatically transfer the results to a Google Sheet for us. When we use the GR thread like in the past we literally have to scroll through the list, type out book titles into a spreadsheet and manually count them.
Obviously there are some issues with this new method.
We are open to suggestions if anyone has an idea for an easy way to collect nominations!
I want to be able to utilize the "add book" link feature and require all nominations be added that way, but until Goodreads makes that an app feature we can't require it (well,we could, but I expect we would get a ton of negative feedback).
So all that to say, please let us know if you have any ideas on how to do this smarter!
Mod
Sarah wrote: "If anyone would like to see the results before they vote you can click on the link to submit a response and change the very end of the URL from:"viewFORM" to "viewANALYTICS""
Thank you! I knew there was work around for that, but I couldn't remember what it was.
@Sara I’m sorry I wasn’t picking on it! I totally understand how this makes it easier. I was more letting you know because I wasn’t sure if there was a feature on Google Forms you could turn on that would prevent me from submitting another response. I definitely appreciate not being required to sign in.
Sarah wrote: "@Sara I’m sorry I wasn’t picking on it! I totally understand how this makes it easier. I was more letting you know because I wasn’t sure if there was a feature on Google Forms you could turn on tha..."Oh, no worries :) I appreciate all the feedback. I almost turned on the feature to prevent multiple responses, but when it said it would require a sign in I knew the group would not be in favor of that. Unfortunately, without signing in there's no way to go back and change your nomination. We are hoping that everyone will be on the honor system and only nominate once (accidents happen, don't worry about having nominated twice on this one).
Mod
Here’s where we stand so far:
January - A book with a great first line (for a great first month!) - currently taking nominations via the Google Form, voting for this book will start soon. (Like, tomorrrow or Wednesday)
February - A book with the same title as an unrelated movie or show.
March - A book by a WOC.
April - A book by or about a journalist.
May - An author with flora or fauna in their name.
June - A Bildungsroman OR a book by a trans or non-binary author (because both International Children’s Day and Pride Month are in June) - there will be a vote
July - A book set in an Olympic city.
August - A book about a book club.
September - a banned book during Banned Books Week.
October - a medical thriller OR featuring one of the seven deadly sins OR a pink cover - there will be a vote.
November - a woman in STEM.
December - book published in 2020.
Sara wrote: "Sarah wrote: "@Sara I’m sorry I wasn’t picking on it! I totally understand how this makes it easier. I was more letting you know because I wasn’t sure if there was a feature on Google Forms you cou..."I have no problem with my initial nomination being dropped if that's okay? I nominated The Lies of Locke Lamora first and changed to Red Sister. I'd like to read either, but I was just hoping to get a fantasy book into the poll, even if it doesn't win.
Sarah wrote: "I have no problem with my initial nomination being dropped if that's okay? I nominated The Lies of Locke Lamora first and changed to Red Sister. I'd like to read either, but I was just hoping to get a fantasy book into the poll, even if it doesn't win."Ok, we can remove your vote for Lock Lamora and count the Red Sister vote instead. Thanks for letting me know!
I wonder if we could do it with a Goodreads poll. Then we have a runoff poll with the top responses.Something like this:
(unfortunately since I made it in a different group, you'd have to be a member of that group to vote)
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
If you make a "book poll" instead of a regular poll, it requires all write-in responses to be books in the database, so it's super easy for tallying. Caveat: I don't use the app, so I don't know if this works for app users.
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Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Red Sister (other topics)An Anonymous Girl (other topics)
Out of the 40 regular categories, I found 26 that would make excellent group read categories, so it’s not easy to pick out 12! Here are the ideas, with reasoning behind them:
January - A book with a great first line (for a great first month!)
February - A book with the same title as an unrelated movie or show (because the Oscar winners are announced in February)
March - A book by a WOC (because March is Women’s History Month in the USA)
April - A book by or about a journalist (because the Pulitzer Prizes are awarded in April)
May - An author with flora or fauna in their name OR a book with a bird on the cover (because May is the change in seasons, either the start of winter or the start of summer, and birds are migrating and flora & fauna are hibernating or emerging)
June - A Bildungsroman OR a book by a trans or non-binary author (because both International Children’s Day and Pride Month are in June)
July - Gold/silver/bronze in the title OR set in an Olympic city (because the summer Olympics start in July)
August - A book on the cover OR about a book club. (I had no good reason for this)
September - a banned book during Banned Books Week
October - a medical thriller for Spooktober
November - a woman in STEM (because November is Sara’s birth month! :-) And also because the Society for Women Engineers holds their annual conference in November)
December - book published in 2020 (because this category is our annual tradition in December)
Thoughts? Ideas? Adjustments? Rearrangements?