Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
2025 Reading List Creation
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{2025] Poll 2 Results
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I also downvoted AI and am happy I won't be seeing that prompt again.

Gosh I love this time of year! (well on Goodreads, not IRL cause I detest heat!). This is such fun to see what we come up with and what we vote for!
These two are good middle road picks- lots of choices but not "read any book."
These two are good middle road picks- lots of choices but not "read any book."

I hope the close call gets in later.
I prefer to search for topics or concepts rather than letters, but we need a good mix to keep it interesting for every one.
I’m disappointed that the Science Gone Wrong idea didn’t get in. It’s the most interesting idea we’ve had on a long time. I hope it will be suggested again, later this summer. I’ll keep it in mind as I look for other books.
I really like the Pursuit of Happiness concept too. I like that you could use it for something serious or fun, edgy or sentimental, historical or contemporary. How often does that happen?
I’m sorry I submitted east-west connections so early, without listing any examples. The suggestions round was going so slowly I felt the need to add something different. I’ll resubmit it in September. If anyone has book examples can you let me know?
NancyJ wrote: "These are easy enough. It will be fun to spot them, but I don’t have to search. I’m sure I’ll end up reading several books that fit without planning for them.
I hope the close call gets in later...."
I liked the East-West prompt. I think sometimes in trying to broaden a topic to make it appealing to people, it makes the whole thing confusing- the description of the prompt was quite confusing. Maybe start a listopia for people to get inspo from and just do the first part of the description.
Book ideas:
For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink
Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery. Book 1.
The Joy Luck Club
Crazy Rich Asians
The Painted Veil
The Quiet American
Colonialism list: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
I hope the close call gets in later...."
I liked the East-West prompt. I think sometimes in trying to broaden a topic to make it appealing to people, it makes the whole thing confusing- the description of the prompt was quite confusing. Maybe start a listopia for people to get inspo from and just do the first part of the description.
Book ideas:
For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink
Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery. Book 1.
The Joy Luck Club
Crazy Rich Asians
The Painted Veil
The Quiet American
Colonialism list: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

I hope the close call gets in later...."
With the Sci-fi and fantasy prompt getting in last round, I think the science gone wrong was suggested too soon to make it.
The East/West was my other up vote. I have no clue what I’d read for it so I’m no help with examples, but I like the prompt.

1) a book set in Turkey as it is part of Asia (East) AND part of Europe (West).
2) a book involving gangs, as they are territorial. In my town there seems to be a rivalry between the “East Side” and the “West Side” (luckily not a very active rivalry).
3) a book involving swing dance, since two of the styles are East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing. I don’t know of any books involving swing dance, but I’m assuming they might be out there.
4) a book involving the Berlin Wall (East Berlin and West Berlin).
The close call was SOOOOOOO close. Like... one upvote would have made the difference. So I hope it will get resubmitted in a later round.

Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ken Liu, R.F. Kuang, Abbas Khider and lots of others

For noun in the author’s name, I might go with Octavia Butler, Louise Penny or Barbara Kingsolver. That’s an easy one to fill from my shelves!

I hope the close call is resubmitted.

I downvoted two out of three of the bottom ones (not the dungeon one), and upvoted at least one of the top ones, so I'm happy.

I upvoted 5 prompts and 1 of them got through. I would’ve preferred more of them had been successful however I’m pleased we got 2 from this poll.
I’m interested to see what gets nominated tomorrow.

Babel
The Reluctant Fundamentalist"
I liked Babel too, and I want to read the Reluctant Fundamentalist.
I created an “East meets west” shelf and I have 89 books so far! They’re both on it now.

East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"
River East, River West


I was looking forward to a Gatsby prompt



Were the results really scattered between the other ones?
Was just wondering if everyone was more split between the other prompts and if they were by themselves if they would be clear winners, if that makes sense.

I'm wondering if the 10th prompt would work better.

I prefer picking from the 2016 list, too.


I downvoted Great Gatsby as I didn't see any possibilities that interested me. maybe it wasn't discussed enough.
I'm happy with the winners, I voted for both of them.
I would have voted for the close call if I had another vote. It was in and out many times over my decision making.
In the past, we’ve done a poll that only had Close Call prompts. Last year, however, most of the Close Calls eventually made it in, so we didn’t have a need for a poll for them.

That makes sense, thank you!

I was actually thinking of submitting a prompt of an author's name that is (was) an occupation, so that noun prompt works for that! I think I'll try to stick with occupation to fill it, but probably something else will come along that fits!

However, I did not understand the East-West prompt suggestion, but felt that it was better than any of the others so it got an up vote. Now that several of you are noting possible books, I am even more excited about it. Yep...bring it back!


Not so much that people wouldn't be able to find books, but that people were objecting to the fact that ChatGPT etc. pose a threat to writers, translators and other creative people.
Books mentioned in this topic
East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" (other topics)River East, River West (other topics)
Babel (other topics)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (other topics)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Salman Rushdie (other topics)Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
Ken Liu (other topics)
R.F. Kuang (other topics)
Abbas Khider (other topics)
Top:
A book whose title has ten or fewer letters
A book by an author with a common noun in their name
Bottom:
A book suggested to you by an AI model (ChatGPT and Co.) based on any prompt you give to it
A book with dungeons, donjons, or in high dudgeon
A book related to "The Great Gatsby"
Close Call:
A book that fits prompt no. 25 of a previous year's ATY challenge
The next round of suggestions will open around 11 am CDT on Saturday, July 13.