Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Happy results day! This was the most polarizing poll to date... lots of upvotes spread across the board, and lots of downvotes spread across the board. Which is why...

Top
A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author

Bottom
A book with a Clue/Cluedo weapon on the cover

Polarizing
A book involving non-European royalty
A book related to a person featured in a Google doodle

The next suggestions thread will open on Sunday August 30 around 8 AM CST.

Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I don't typically like short books, so I'm going to need some suggestions for this one!

Emily wrote: "I don't typically like short books, so I'm going to need some suggestions for this one!"

THIS is a listopia of Contemporary Short Fiction (books published within the last 25ish years with 100-200 pages).

This is a great list, dalex, and I have not a single one on my TBR haha! Guess I'll be digging!

Wow, I'm surprised! I don't really read a lot of short books either. I took a look at my TBR and it seems like my big problem for this prompt is that I mostly add short books to my list in an effort to read everything by an author that I already really like. But I do have a few options!

Current ideas:
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente
I stumbled upon this one this year because it's available on the Clarkesworld web site and I read just a bit of it. I don't really like reading books on my computer though, so I put it down, though I liked the first little section I read.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
I feel like this is the obvious last step after Dracula and Frankenstein: The 1818 Text.

I wish I could read one of Shirley Jackson's novellas, but alas she is not new-to-me.

I've been meaning to get to Between the World and Me, so this could be a good opportunity for that.

I recently watched the movie Waiting for the Barbarians, which inspired me to want to read the book: Waiting for the Barbarians.

It turns out that there are some books that I've been meaning to read that I just didn't realize were short: Man's Search for Meaning, A Single Man, The Time Machine.

So I guess I have more options than I thought!

For those who read sci-fi and fantasy I found a listopia of Tor novellas:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I find a lot of novellas in translated fiction too, as I guess it's cheaper to translate them. Publishers like Peirene and And Other Stories come to mind.

You can also sort your TBR by num. pages, so that's a handy way to search for this prompt! (Though I always like to double check with an actual copy of the book because sometimes the Goodreads page counts are weird.)

I totally forgot that I could sort by page number. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Because I'm generally a library reader, I will probably just go by whatever the default page count is on Goodreads, rather than checking out a book and realizing after I get it that it doesn't fit the criteria. Some of the books on my TBR, like Peter Darling have editions that are shorter (198 pages) and editions that are longer (308 pages) so whichever one I shelved is the one I will be basing my prompt off of, just to make my life easier.

You can find sci-fi, fantasy, and horror novellas listed on Worlds Without End.

1. Click on "Books" on the menu on the main page.
2. From the dropdown menu select "Books Published by Year" (towards the middle of the page)
3. Select a year, a genre, and novella.
4. Click "Go."

The database is member-generated so it doesn't include absolutely every possible book in the world (like amazon does) but there are still a good number of books in the database.

You can also find lots of short fiction on the SimplyE app, an open source library platform. The first category is Short Reads. I really enjoy novellas and will add some of my favorites to the listopia. I’m glad this prompt made it but wish a few more would have!

dalex wrote: "Emily wrote: "I don't typically like short books, so I'm going to need some suggestions for this one!"

THIS is a listopia of Contemporary Short Fiction (books published within the last 25ish years..."

I can't recommend enough News of the World from Dalex's list. Our book club read it and it was one of my favorite reads that year.

Disappointed we have only one prompt from that great list of suggestions. I didn't even vote for the one that won (although I am fine with it).

I have notice that a lot of kindle editions for classic type books have their page count really low. For example, I'm reading the kindle version of The Grapes of Wrath (GR kindle edition https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...) GR lists this book as being 215 pages on my kindle it is showing as being 212. All the other editions seem to run between 450-600 pages. So, just another idea for some who does not like short books or wants to read a classic, use the kindle version for page count.

How sad, only 1 winner! I did downvote more than I upvoted, but I really liked the ones I upvoted!

This is an easy one. There's the obvious classics, The Great Gatsby and A Christmas Carol, if you haven't already read them. There's tons of children's books or mangas. From my recent reads I can recommend The Refugees, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories, xxxHolic, Vol. 1, or The Ghost. I plan on using The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis or Brokeback Mountain.

Wow, it's disappointing to see only one winner when there were some great prompts on the list. But I voted for the winner, so I'm happy with it.

Edie wrote: "dalex wrote: "Emily wrote: "I don't typically like short books, so I'm going to need some suggestions for this one!"

THIS is a listopia of Contemporary Short Fiction (books published within the la..."

Ditto, News of the World an unexpected jewel

News of the World has high ratings on goodreads. I did not like it, however. Just an FYI that not everyone thinks it’s amazing.

I didn't vote for this at all, so I was surprised to find how many good options were already on my TBR! A plus that so many of them fill other challenges, too.
The Pit and the Pendulum
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Room with a View
Ellen Foster
The Prince
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers
Shiloh
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
A River Runs Through It
The Optimist's Daughter
The Outsiders

Some other thoughts:

Remember that many plays and books of poetry clock in under 200 pages. That could be an option for someone who doesn't want to read a novella.

I'm leaning toward doing a Tor novella or something by Aliette de Bodard.

I voted for the winner and was hoping it would win, because I love short books, but I was still shocked at HOW MANY short books I have on my TBR!! Excluding picture books, graphic novels, and individual short stories or those promotional "in between" novellas released as part of a series ... I still have so many!!! I added a bunch to the listopia but made myself stop before 40 books, I figured that was more than enough!


If these books are so short, and I really want to read them (and I do), why haven't I just read them already? They will only take me a day or two! I need to get on this ...

I'm going to have to dig for this one too. The only novellas I usually pick up are 0.5 books in series I'm already reading. And I don't even read those very often because I sometimes feel like there isn't enough substance in the story.

Looking at my tbr, I did find a handful of books that would work.

That's my problem, Joanne. I like meat to my story and I like good character development, and I feel like I just don't get a chance to fall in love with the characters when the book is too short.

That being said, I actually had a lot of books on my TBR that fit the criteria, especially since the cut off is 210 and not 200 lol. This will probably be one of the prompts I use a 40 Before 40 book for.

I didn't think I would have that many options, but by sorting my tbr, I managed to add 26 books to the listopia.

I have a bunch I can read for this prompt so I'm happy with it. A lot of them are classics I've been meaning to read.

I'm a bit disappointed that it's just one winner this time, especially since there were so many others that I very strongly loved! It was one of the easiest polls for me because I had so many that immediately jumped out as prompts that I wanted.

This one is fine, I guess, I just don't find it particularly interesting. I have a couple of great options, so it won't be a problem. On the other hand, I do multiple challenges a year, so it might help to have something quick and easy to finish.

One of my favorite short books is Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, and it isn’t SFF or part of a series.

And with poll 10 my streak of not having any of my downvotes make it through to the 2021 list comes to an end. Not that I’m too bothered. Not sure if I have anything already on my TBR (don’t think I can sort my TBR via the app) but something always turns up. And genre wise there should be lots of options.

Ron wrote: "This is an easy one. There's the obvious classics, The Great Gatsby and A Christmas Carol, if you haven't already read them. There's tons of children's books or mangas. From..."

Ron - The Ghost and The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis both sound good! I agree this is an easy prompt with the exception of it having to be a new-to-you author. I really like that qualifier, though, since it makes it more challenging! Here are a few of my personal recommendations:

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (Understanding the author's life situation and his suicide will make this book more significant.)
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
Ghost by Jason Reynolds (mid-grade/YA)
Mysteries by French author Pascal Garnier

A few on my TBR that look interesting: Mrs. Caliban, Bullfight, Cousin Phyllis, Varamo and Ghosts by Argentinian author César Aira.

I discovered The Bobcat by Katherine Forbes Riley when the First Novel prize was suggested as a prompt and got it for a good price on kindle. That prompt didn’t make the list but with only 212 pages it’s perfect for this prompt.

Not sure whether we are going more slowly this year in terms of agreed upon prompts. Poll ten is slightly more than halfway through the number of scheduled polls. But we are actually a little under the halfway point in prompts. So are we having more trouble agreeing this year. Or do we normally get more winners from later polls. I honestly can’t remember.

Oh, man, I'm spoilt for choice with this one. I'm gonna dig into my ebook graveyard! :D

It is disappointing that we are getting few results per poll. I wonder if we are getting as many people voting as we have in previous years. There are over 7,500 members in the group, even if there are only a third of those voting, that is a lot of votes. Well done to the mods for sorting those out.

Can the mods tell us how many people are voting? I bet it is 1000 or fewer. Not that it matters, I was just curious. Most GR groups list thousands of people and a few dozen are the ones who post.

If we get to poll 19 and don’t have enough prompts, so we lessen the standards for what makes it into the top? Or create more rounds?

There will be more rounds added if needed. This is the first year that the mods tried planning out the suggestion/voting/results. Before, we just had polls until we got enough top votes. I like this years planning idea.

I think in previous years, that the average amount of voters in a poll ~150.

We are getting the same amount of voters that we had last year (I can't speak for previous years, as I only became a mod towards the end of voting last year). We will continue to have polls until we reach 50, but just a reminder that we will have two prompts chosen independently from the polls -- one from the summer reading challenge and another from the next Read-A-Thon. So the polls will take us to 50 prompts, and we have 24 decided, which is just about half. I feel pretty confident that we will get to the total prompts within 19-20 polls like we had planned.

Emily wrote: "I don't typically like short books, so I'm going to need some suggestions for this one!"

i have a shelf here with close to 100 books on it! https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

my personal faves are

Prosper's Demon, Binti, I'm Afraid of Men, The Test, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Silver in the Wood, The Starlight Watchmaker, To Be Taught, If Fortunate, The Monster of Elendhaven, Upright Women Wanted, Annihilation & This Is How You Lose the Time War

I did upvote the winning prompt, but definitely thought more were going to make it this time around (I really liked a lot of the ones in this poll)!