/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

I've noticed a trend of the BoTMs being relatively newly released books. This is good for introducing readers to new series/writers, but at the same time it is keeping new readers from being introduced to some of the more established series/authors.

In general, the people who are voting are voting for books that they have not read, which is the newest books or controversial older books that have mixed reviews (Malazan).

My question is this: Would anyone be interested in having two books of the month, one within the last 5 years, and the other always being older?

This would give those of us who quickly read through the BoTM another BoTM to work on, and lessen the chance of our being stuck without a BoTM to read and discuss when a book is selected that we've already read.

This would also help tidy up the nomination process, giving some of the books that are regularly nominated, but not voted for a chance at succeeding.

I would be happy to have two BoTM's.

I'm in

Sounds good.

Sounds like a great idea. I'm down.

Two books is fine by me :)

How many more do we need to do this? And how are we going to make this happen, i.e., who is going to actually make all the threads and polls and whatnot? Not necessarily the biggest task but I don't have the capabilities. Any volunteers?

I like the idea, but my concern is that there won't be enough interested parties to support 2 book reads a month yet. Ideally, I'd like to see more participation/comments in the discussions that we currently have going and worry a bit that adding another option could actually make some of those people have to pick one or the other, resulting in less comments. Not everyone will be able to (or want to) read both picks.

This is not a definite no, I'll let some more people weigh in, but I wanted to put my concern out there. My inclination would be to hold off on offering two BotMs until we get more discussion while we are offering just one BotM.

While I agree with you Lisa, I think that having two options would satisfy more people. I know personally, I loved reading Red Rising, but I had no interest in City of Stairs. Having a second option would give people a chance to choose between the books if they aren't interested in one of them.

I guess it just depends on what you look for in a BotM. Some people see it as an external factor deciding 'what-to-read-next' to explore new stuff, and some people see it a group event where you explore new stuff together, less concerned with the what, but more with the how.

I fear that changing it will benefit the first: more 'what-to-read'
and it probably will diminish the second: less discussion per book.

(obviously, a lot of people are in between, making it two sides of a coin)

As I have only just joined this group I am a little diffident about venturing an opinion so early but as a voracious reader the thought of an older book as well as a new one is quite attractive. Finding an older book that you like normally means you have a whole series to catch up on.

Sounds like a good idea.

Why not do a new book one month then do a classic/old book the next?

then in turn after that.

Lisa wrote: "I like the idea, but my concern is that there won't be enough interested parties to support 2 book reads a month yet. Ideally, I'd like to see more participation/comments in the discussions that we..."

Agreed. I think more participation is needed before splitting.

For me, a lot depends on the size of the books. If two large books are selected, I'm not sure I'd have the time to do both justice without rushing through them. Yes, I could read only one of them, but what if everyone else makes a similar decision to not read both, and I find myself reading the less popular of the two? Then I might find that there is little to no discussion of my chosen book, which would defeat the purpose of participating. So since I wouldn't want size to be a screening criterion, I "vote" against going to two books a month. But if the decision is to do so, I will charily participate still.

My issue this month was that I read 3 of the 5 books and I read Tigana recently

I would be very happy to see two books of the months with this criterion, it is a great idea!
I see it's very difficult for not-recently-published books to make it to the top, and I don't think it would create competition, also, I agree with those who say it would be nice to have two books to choose from, if not both, selected with different premises.

Another thought, many new releases have a lot of exposure, so it's easier to have already read them or discussed them in other threads (I'm thinking for instance at the current book of the month), maybe also too recently for a re-read.

Has the May 2017 book of the month been chosen?

I just looked on /r/fantasy and I couldn't find a nominations thread.

I just posted a topic, please come give feedback: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...