Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

And that's a wrap on our Close Calls poll! As expected, zero of the prompts qualified to be a bottom prompt.

Top:
A book by an author whose publishing career spans at least ten years
A book with a weird or intriguing title

Bottom:
We had no prompts qualify for the bottom this poll!

Close Call:
A book set in a nation, territory, or commonwealth whose predominant language is Spanish

The next round of suggestions will go live around noon CDT on Saturday, October 5.

I’m so happy the weird and interesting title was a winner!

Sorry for asking, but how is it no prompts were bottom? I feel stupid asking 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

This is the first results that I’ve been really irritated by. I hated the weird title prompt last year and didn’t want to do it again. It feels way too subjective to me and I don’t like it.

No stupid questions! We have a threshold of negative net votes that we set to include prompts in the bottom, and none of the prompts met that threshold. The downvotes were pretty spread out this round, so none of them got that much more downvotes than upvotes.

Because bottom prompts are not allowed to be resubmitted, we want to be careful about what we include in the downvotes.

Emily wrote: "No stupid questions! We have a threshold of negative net votes that we set to include prompts in the bottom, and none of the prompts met that threshold. The downvotes were pretty spread out this ro..."
That makes perfect sense! Thanks 🤗

Demetra wrote: "This is the first results that I’ve been really irritated by. I hated the weird title prompt last year and didn’t want to do it again. It feels way too subjective to me and I don’t like it."

I agree- I'm not a fan of judgemental prompts. You can read anything you want and say "well, I think it is!"

Oh, gosh. Out of all those great options. Okay then.

At least this gives me a reason to read Ulrich Haarburste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm.

Demetra wrote: "This is the first results that I’ve been really irritated by. I hated the weird title prompt last year and didn’t want to do it again. It feels way too subjective to me and I don’t like it."

I agree. I downvoted this one as it just feels far too subjective.

Not at all what I expected but easily doable.

Are sandwiches done now as they have been in 3 polls?

Dixie wrote: "Oh, gosh. Out of all those great options. Okay then."

My feeling too.

I’m fine with these, but I wish there were more than two winners since these prompts all did so well before.

I wish the close call on the close call poll made it in too!

This is an odd pair to make it through from the selection we had.

Meh, I'm indifferent about these results, but I expected to be given that I had majority downvotes from the available options. I'm not a fan of the "weird" title prompt for the reasons others have mentioned above, although "intriguing" opens it up a tiny bit in a way that makes it a bit more palatable/achievable to me.

The author prompt was one that was pretty solidly in the middle for me. I'd considered downvoting it at first, but left it alone when I realized I had quite a few authors who would fit. I was really hoping the lucky/unlucky symbol would get in, but at least it will be on my rejects challenge so I'll still get to do it!

I like both of these! There were prompts I perhaps wanted a tiny bit more, but I upvoted both of them and I'm sure they'll be fun.

The negativity this year has really been off the charts, though, so it doesn't surprise me that there are complaints. I might just vote in the polls and not pay any attention to the discussion next year, that seems like more fun honestly.

One of the winners was a downvote for me and one neutral. I only had 3 upvotes though so not surprised none got in.
The author spanning 10 years seems like that's not that hard - 10 years isn't a huge time frame these days.

This is the first year where most of my neutrals have got voted in and my upvotes ended up in close calls. Same this poll as well. I am surprised at the result but ok.

I didn't have any strong feelings either way this round.

The 10 year career one felt very similar to one of the prompts we voted in for the anniversary list, but I get some people won't be doing the bonus prompts. I'll probably just read T. Kingfisher or Seanan McGuire. They've written so many books, surely it's been more than 10 years. I'm dreadful at judging the passing of time these days.

It does seem a bit like any title can be intriguing. It's part of their purpose, and a boring title isn't doing a very good job. I'll probably try and go for a weird one.

I like these prompts. I think I upvoted one and was neutral on the other. Also, it was exciting to wake up and see they were already posted! :)

I upvoted 7 things, and these 2 vanilla prompts weren't any of them.
I think an author who has published at least 7 books and an author whose career spans at least 10 years are pretty redundant. Neither is hard to fill as they involve all the same authors.

The other one is pretty much read a book.

There certainly seems to be a preference this year for simple straightforward prompts. It would be intriguing to compare the number of creative prompts this year to years past.

Dixie wrote: "At least this gives me a reason to read Ulrich Haarburste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm."

YES!!

Oh, I really don't like these prompts. One is bland - read any book, and the other is a tiny bit better since you've added intruiging butbI found it hard to find a suitable book for it last time.

Shouldn't the Close Call from the Close Calls poll be a winner too?

Bec wrote: "Are sandwiches done now as they have been in 3 polls?"




I don't think we have that rule any longer, BUT voters are probably tired of seeing it and therefore less likely to vote for it now.

dalex, it would be hard to judge since "creative" is so subjective.

Siobhan, I agree. It's been hard for me to read through the comments when I know how much time and effort is put into the polls (not just mine! but all of the members!). The only ray of hope is that I've been doing this long enough to know that it always gets this way at the end of polling, and that people are generally happy with the list once we get to January. We get a bit myopic when we are in the process, but the process is almost over and the enthusiasm will return.

As for the Close Call on the Close Calls poll (lol), that one was in and out of the top all week, but fell away with the last 10-15 votes, so I felt like it needed to be recognized, even if it didn't make it to the top.

And yes, this means Sandwiches is out of the running. Per the Rules thread, "Prompts that are submitted in 3 polls and do not make it to the final list cannot be resubmitted in later polls unless substantially reworked."

I found this list of the length of many authors' careers. You have to scroll down past age when they started writing and age when they wrote their last books to find the list of career lengths - followed by a rather fun graph. https://lithub.com/when-80-famous-wri...

How fun, Dixie! I'm going to include it on the weekly thread.

Emily wrote: "dalex, it would be hard to judge since "creative" is so subjective."

I guess I'm thinking of "open to interpretation" versus "it is or it isn't" prompts. Generally these are the "related/connected to" type prompts.

So far in 2025, I'd say we have two - collective noun and Do-Re-Mi song.

The 2024 list has seven - Wonderful World song, X connection, Raining Cats & Dogs, Ben & Jerry's, Jimmy Buffet, Going for the Gold, and Snow White.

Dixie. Good find. I think this article (or something similar) was also linked to the prompt about authors with long careers. (20+ years). I wonder if there is another blog like this for living authors,

Veering off topic- I’m curious now which current writers have had the longest careers of all. Nora Roberts is sure up there. Though ghost writers can certainly extend the life of a series.

NancyJ wrote: "I’m curious now which current writers have had the longest careers of all.

Two that come to mind - Anne Tyler (1964-present) and Stephen King (1974-present).

Another author with a long career is Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa - 1959 to 2023. Maybe he has another book in him? He’s 88.

dalex wrote: "Emily wrote: "dalex, it would be hard to judge since "creative" is so subjective."

I guess I'm thinking of "open to interpretation" versus "it is or it isn't" prompts. Generally these are the "rel..."

I might add a couple for 2025 - I think people are taking a haunting book in a few different directions. I'd also say title that could be a country song is certainly open to interpretation.

Also to me, this year's breakfast club prompt is pretty similar to last year's Seven Dwarves - you've got a list of characters archetypes / traits, and have to find something with at least one who qualifies.

And of course you can go very open with 'suggestion that didn't make the list' and 'fill for a prompt from ATY 2016'.

Joanna wrote: "I might add a couple for 2025."

Breakfast Club is specifically "main character" whereas Snow White is "related to the name of" so it could be title, author, plot, cover, etc.

Country song is specifically "title." It cannot be author, content, character, cover, etc.

Granted, those are creative prompts but they are limited and not open to interpretation, imo.

Haunting could arguably be open to interpretation but I think it lends itself primarily to plot. I mean, I don't think a rom com is going to have a haunting cover.

Emily wrote: "dalex, it would be hard to judge since "creative" is so subjective."

We are able to vote on the Goodreads Lists. It might be fun to encourage people to upvote books on our Group List for this prompt and have a mini challenge of who can read the most creative title (or, at least, we could strive to be highly rated in our creativity).

I was hoping that more prompts would get in from this poll. There were a lot of creative ideas on option.

I like the “intriguing” wording more than “weird” for the title. I plan to read more nonfiction next year, so I might consider the title intriguing because of the topic not so much that it’s a weird or unusual title. But, I feel that the title has to capture my attention so there has to be something interesting/creative about it.

The problem with a poll where there's so many good options is that there's too many good options and the voting gets split haha.

There's also "related to fire", which is wide open on how you interpret it.

dalex wrote: "Emily wrote: "dalex, it would be hard to judge since "creative" is so subjective."

I guess I'm thinking of "open to interpretation" versus "it is or it isn't" prompts. Generally these are the "rel..."

Maybe the voting this year is a reaction to there being so many in 2024? Those are some of my least favourite 2024 prompts, and I know I've been downvoting a lot of the "related to" prompts this time around.

In the past we had a "You read what??" prompt, and I read I Hate Men. I do tend to pick up the occasional book due to an intriguing title, such as Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories for last year's "unusual or surprising" title prompt. I have a high threshold for weirdness, and so whatever I pick for this category will have to be weird indeed! According to my notes, I had also considered The Dud Avocado and Penguin Island so they'll go back on my list of possibilities (also to be filed under "animal, vegetable, mineral" apparently, ha).

Siobhan wrote: "I like both of these! There were prompts I perhaps wanted a tiny bit more, but I upvoted both of them and I'm sure they'll be fun.

The negativity this year has really been off the charts, though, ..."

Same...

I have been doing reading challenges for 10 years. For me some of the very creative prompts sound fun during voting, but then when it comes time actually pick a book that fits I no longer care for the prompt. Strangely, I have only had 3 of my bottom votes ended up as winners (2 came from poll 15). I'm not someone who likes to stretch prompts, I prefer to know something actually fits. Looking at the overall prompts that have been pick, I think we currently have a great variety.

I've been negative about the blandness of some of the prompts, but being a planner, I've been trying to fill them - I've ended up with some interesting books that I wouldn't otherwise have read, so even the most uninteresting seeming prompts can be made to work - which is a lesson to me.

Jillian wrote: "I have been doing reading challenges for 10 years. For me some of the very creative prompts sound fun during voting, but then when it comes time actually pick a book that fits I no longer care for ..."

I agree and then I feel like I didn't lean into the creativity of the prompt when I do something like pick a book with a doc in it for the 7 dwarves.

Trying to figure out what else we need next poll. Guess everyone who has complaints about what we have should nominate.

Pamela wrote: "Trying to figure out what else we need next poll."

We have a pretty even distribution so far. The lowest categories are "character" and "other" (which are the fun related/connected to type prompts).

THEME/GENRE/PLOT - 10
AUTHOR/PUBLISHING/PAGE LENGTH - 7
TITLE - 6
SETTING - 6
COVER - 5
RECOMMENDATIONS - 5
CHARACTER - 4
OTHER - 4

LeahS wrote: "I've been negative about the blandness of some of the prompts, but being a planner, I've been trying to fill them - I've ended up with some interesting books that I wouldn't otherwise have read, so..."

Good point. Also we always have the option of creating our own side challenges. For 2024, I jointed Dalex's Awards and Lists challenge, made up of all the award and list prompts that did not make it into the final master challenge. And I did my own side challenge using a prompt about full moon names that I loved but didn't get in, I've been really challenged finding books for all 12 moons (Hunter this month, Beaver next...). I might do that next year with the Vegas hotels, and/or sandwiches, and/or the Wizard of Oz characters...

I really don't think people have been any more negative this year than last year or the year before around this time of the voting process. It gets down to the wire and people are ready to be done and we all have prompts we love that didn't make it in, and other prompts we're not as excited about, and it's natural that there's some disagreement over what you wish got in vs what someone else is sick of seeing in polls. On the whole I think this group does a really good job managing this last painful stretch, and the challenge will end up being one of the best reading challenges available, just like it is every year. We only have three five prompts to go.

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "I really don't think people have been any more negative this year than last year or the year before around this time of the voting process. It gets down to the wire and people are ready to be done ..."

I’m counting that we need 5 more prompts. (47 weeks worth of prompts so far).