Reading with Style discussion

Prize-Worthy (5 to 15 points): Reward yourself for reading award-winning books. If a book has won a Literary award, you will receive 5 style points. If the book has won two awards, you will receive 10 points. If the book has won three or more awards, you will receive 15 points. Awards to an author for lifetime achievement (such as the Nobel prize), edition-specific awards (audio, translation), best of lists, and people's choice awards are not eligible.

Post your questions about the NEW style category here!

Some awards have long and short lists ( like the booker) which in themselves are a kind of award. Do they count, or does the author have to win the award.

Jama wrote: "Some awards have long and short lists ( like the booker) which in themselves are a kind of award. Do they count, or does the author have to win the award."

Only the books that have won the award count. No short-lists, no long-lists, no "nominated for...".

The award listings at Goodreads are incomplete, but it is what we have been using to make entries for books in the RwS database. If you know a book has won an award and it isn't listed on the book page here at GR, please include that information when you claim your Prize Worthy points. Work on getting the RwS and the GR databases more complete and accurate is ongoing.

Ok, so are there certain prizes, or any prize?

If I look at The Handmaid's Tale I see it has won
Governor General's Award for English language fiction (1985)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (1987)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1986)

Do these all count ?

Amanda wrote: "Ok, so are there certain prizes, or any prize?..."

Any prize that is not disqualified as specified above (lifetime/author achievement; edition-specific; "best-of" lists; "people's choice").

All of those you mention work. Any of these should* work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

(*we haven't reviewed the entire list and will be checking on a book-by-book basis this season.)

That's a lot of awards!

Thanks, Liz.

Ben Lerner's 10:04 won the $5,000 Terry Southern Prize. Does this make it "Prize-Worthy", or not, as only excerpts were published in the Paris Review which awards the prize?

Ben Lerner Wins Terry Southern Prize

Lagullande wrote: "Ben Lerner's 10:04 won the $5,000 Terry Southern Prize. Does this make it "Prize-Worthy", or not, as only excerpts were published in the Paris Review which awards the prize?..."

Yes. When claiming your 5 prize-worthy points, please link to this page:
http://www.theparisreview.org/about/p...

Ooh, thank you. I was expecting a different answer!

Would the Book Sense award count? I haven't been able to find a lot of info on it apart from this: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

Sam wrote: "Would the Book Sense award count? I haven't been able to find a lot of info on it apart from this: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/..."

I am going to say no to this -- it seems to be more of a people's choice/popularity award than a literature award.

A discussion in the completed tasks thread has me wondering. Does this have to be a juried prize, basically? The "people's choice/popularity award" distinction may be a little blurry in some cases.

In the tasks thread, the one under discussion was the Locus Award, which is voted on by Locus magazine subscribers. If that doesn't work, does that mean the Hugo doesn't work also, since it's voted on by people who buy memberships? In fact, of the most well-known and prestigious science fiction and fantasy awards, the only one that is chosen by a jury is the World Fantasy Award. The Nebulas are voted on by all the members of the SFWA.

I totally understand not allowing popular choice awards, but I'd like to understand where that gets cut off. It seems like the Book Sense one that was not allowed is similar to most of the ones I'm mentioning, in the sense that it is voted on by a restricted large group of people, but I think everyone would have expected something like the Hugo award to definitely count.

I have a bit of a NyQuil hangover right now, so I hope this all makes sense :)

Oh, and a followup from my last question - in the same vein are the Ditmar Awards - they're similar to the Hugos, but for Australia only.

Cory Day wrote: "A discussion in the completed tasks thread has me wondering. Does this have to be a juried prize, basically? The "people's choice/popularity award" distinction may be a little blurry in some case..."

Thank you for your questions. I am still trying to find the wording that conveys what qualifies as a "literary" award.

I refused The Booksense of the Year award because Booksense was a "marketing and branding program" and as far as I can tell, there is no criteria, no explanation of what the award is for, other than for a book that was popular with booksellers. Hence I consider it a popularity contest, not a literary award.

The Hugo I do consider a literary award, even though it is awarded by a vote, because it at least purports to reward "best science fiction or fantasy works" and is considered a prestigious award in the field.

If the above seems too arbitrary, let me know and I will limit prize-worthy to only awards that include cash prizes and are awarded by a small panel of experts. However, if y'all are comfortable letting me play this by ear, I would prefer to keep it more open-ended.

Liz M wrote: "Cory Day wrote: "A discussion in the completed tasks thread has me wondering. Does this have to be a juried prize, basically? The "people's choice/popularity award" distinction may be a little bl..."

The marketing one is definitely a good distinction. I expect maybe Locus falls under that too, then? Anyway, I'm all for inclusion and playing it by ear!

Cory Day wrote: "The marketing one is definitely a good distinction. I expect maybe Locus falls under that too, then? Anyway, I'm all for inclusion and playing it by ear! ..."

Thanks for the response, I posted pre-lunch and I was worried my tone came off as cranky!

Liz M wrote: "Cory Day wrote: "The marketing one is definitely a good distinction. I expect maybe Locus falls under that too, then? Anyway, I'm all for inclusion and playing it by ear! ..."

Thanks for the respo..."

Nah, I knew going in that my question was going to be kind of annoying. Your response made sense :)

I agree that you should play it by ear, Liz.

I hope moderating this isn't too much of a pain for you Liz, because I really like this style category:-)

Jama wrote: "I hope moderating this isn't too much of a pain for you Liz, because I really like this style category:-)"

I agree. I've been having a great time adding awards to titles the last few weeks. Three that come to mind because we also have the Not-A-Novel style this time are:

https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

I have to admit, not loading up my Wish List is increasingly difficult.

Does the Goodreads Choice Awards count for these style points?

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Does the Goodreads Choice Awards count for these style points?"

No.

I finished reading Broken Harbour, which has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller in 2012. This one I assume is fine to use.

It has also won The Irish Book Awards (officially: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards) in 2012, for Crime Fiction. Wikipedia says "There are currently nine categories, seven of which are judged by the Irish Literary Academy, two by a public vote." From what I can tell, the book won the literary one, not the public vote one. Am I good to go with this one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Bo...

Kätlin wrote: "I finished reading Broken Harbour.... It has also won The Irish Book Awards (officially: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards) in 2012, for Crime Fiction.... Am I good to go with this one?..."

Yes.

itpdx wrote: "And I couldn't quite figure out the Specsavers award, it seems to be some combo that includes most read. So I will leave that up to the mods...."

This looks like the British version of the Booksense awards. I'm going to say no to this one.

Liz M wrote: "Kätlin wrote: "I finished reading Broken Harbour.... It has also won The Irish Book Awards (officially: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards) in 2012, for Crime Fiction.... Am I good ..."

Thanks Liz!