The Catholic Book Club discussion

Based on the discussion in The Atrium, your moderators have decided on changes to the way we move books onto and off of the Voting List. Recognizing that there may be books that the group wants to read right away due to their immediate relevance, we are also going to add a way for those to be considered promptly.

The changes are:

(1) Voting List. Each month any book that gets 0 or 1 vote will be dropped from the voting list. The books that get 1 vote will automatically be added to the bottom of the Nomination List. Of course, anyone may re-nominate a book that is no longer on the lists, whether it was dropped for lack of votes or was read. New books on the list will no longer be exempted from the vote requirements. All books removed from the Voting List will be replaced by the books from the top of the Nomination List and except as noted in Change (3) noted below, the Voting List will remain at 15 books. This change will be effective with the November voting for the December 2020 BOTM.

(2) Nomination List. Each November, after voting for the December BOTM, we will vote to re-prioritize the books on the Nominations List. Everyone will have up to five votes. We will re-order the position of the books on the Nomination List based on order of preference. Ties would be resolved by the current order, i.e., if the book that is currently 10th on the list and the book that is currently 20th on the list are tied for 6th place. the current 10th place book will be 6th and the current 20th place book will be 7th. You can nominate new books during the voting, they just won't be added to the Nomination List until after the vote and will be added at the bottom of the Nomination List in the order in which they are nominated. Given the faster trip through the Nomination list that we expect to result from Change (1) and the opportunity to re-order the Nomination List each year, we will no longer apply limits to Fonch's or my nominations. This change will be effective after the November voting for the December 2020 BOTM.

3) Current Interest List. Each month, there is a possibility of adding a 16th book to the Voting List if there are any books on the Current Interest List. The Current Interest List will operate as follows:

(a) Anyone nominating a book that qualifies may ask that it also be added to the Current Interest List, but only if they (or someone else on their behalf) are willing to volunteer to prepare the initial discussion questions for the book. (If you want to jump the queue, you should have some skin in the game.)

(b) To qualify for the Current Interest List a book must be "timely" (as determined by the moderators in their discretion) and must have been published within the 12 months prior to the month in which the voting will be held. Examples of "timely" books would include Encyclicals, potentially other Church documents, books by senior Church officials, books addressing current affairs from a Catholic perspective. The moderators will determine whether books should be included on the Current Interest List. The Current Interest List is not expected to have books on it all the time and is not anticipated to ever have a large number of books. The moderators may adjust the criteria to ensure this is the case.

(c) Each month the top book on the Current Interest List will be added as a supplemental 16th book on the Voting List, while keeping its position in the normal Nominations List.

(d) If the book from the Current Interest List is not selected as the BOTM, it receives at least two votes, and otherwise still qualifies, it will be dropped to the bottom of the Current Interest List. The 3rd time a book from the Current Interest List is included in the Voting List and not selected as the BOTM it will be dropped from the Current Interest List, though it will remain in its position on the Nomination List. If it is selected as the BOTM, it will be removed from the Nomination List. If a book from the Current Interest List gets only one vote, it will be dropped from the Current Interest List, but will retain its position on the Nomination List. If it receives no votes, it will be dropped from all lists, though, of course, it may be re-nominated, and if it still qualifies, may be placed back on the Current Interest List.

Change (3) will go into effect immediately and may apply to any book on the Nomination List that qualifies.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

One other note. During the discussion it was suggested that we include some voting history for each book. We should be able to do that.

What data do you need for the voting history? I may have it collected already.

I was planning to ask you. :-)

Did you say you had the tallies for the last twelve votes? Can you either send it to me or post it here?

Thanks,

John

The books are ordered by total average number of votes, in increasing order.

Title, Number of times with 0 or 1 vote, Times running since Jan 2019, percent of low votes, Av # votes, date it joined the voting list.

World such as heaven 3, 3 (100%) 0.33 (joined Sep 2020)
Paradoxes of Catholic. 1,1 (100%) 1 (joined Nov 2020)
Financial Planning 8, 13 (66%) 1.30 (joined Aug 2019)
The light 2, 5 (40%) 1.6 (joined July 2020)
Divine Milieu, 6, 15 (40%) 1.86 (joined April 2019)
Bodies & Souls, 4, 10 (40%) 2 (joined Dec 2019)
Marian Option 1, 4 (25%) 2 (joined Aug 2020)
Invasion 14 0,1 (0%) 2 (joined Nov 2020)
Poor Banished Children 1, 4 (25%) 2.75 (joined Aug 2020)
The mango murders 0, 7 (0%) 2.86 (joined March 2020)
Paul 1, 6 (17%) 3.17 (joined June 2020)
Doors in the Walls 0, 8 (0%) 3.87 (joined Feb 2020)
Race with the devil 0,2 (0%) 4 (joined Oct 2020)

I was thinking about actual number of votes received by each book, each month it was on the Voting List. Do you have that? If not I can look up the information.

World such as heaven, 0,1,0
Paradoxes, 1
Financial Planning, 0,1,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,2,2,2,2
The light , 2,1,2,2,1
Divine Milieu, 1,2,1,2,2,3,1,3,3,1,2,1,2,3,1
Bodies & Souls, 1,3,1,3,1,1,2,2,3,3
Marian Option, 1,3,2,2
Invasion 14, 2
Poor Banished Children, 1,5,3,2
Mango murders, 4,4,3,3,2,2,2
Paul, 3,4,3,5,3,1
Doors in the Walls, 7,3,3,2,2,3,3,4
Race with the devil, 4,4

Thanks!! :-)

Will you be including the whole list of votes for each book, or just the last few?


I will have to see how this new process works with regards to keeping stats. If books are coming in and out of the list a lot faster, stats may not be very meaningful.

I haven't decided yet. Too much info probably just creates noise, so probably the last three or four. By definition, after a few months none of them will have ever had less than 2 votes. We can post the info for the next few months.