Play Book Tag discussion

We will be asking you to make one more list and that will be for the top 15 books which you have read and were published in the past 15 years.

We will set up a thread for you to post your list around August 1st. At that time we will let you know the format, your timeline for posting the list and any other details which are relevant.

Sounds fun and mysterious!!!!

One for each year or any published within that time frame?

Jgrace wrote: "One for each year or any published within that time frame?"

Your top 15.
One per year is an intriguing idea.

Fun! I just took a quick look and I found approximately 20-25 five star books published in the last 15 years. It’ll be interesting narrowing them down.

Excited to see what this is for - I LOVE lists 😂

Well, I have no tracking going back 15 years .... will likely end up concentrating on when I started tracking - 2016. If I find time, I can check some best seller lists --- for example, I read Bel Canto many years after it was published -- that first edition hardcover sat in my TBR Tower for years -- before I read it, and if I had been tracking and reviewing, it would have gotten 5 stars.

But I will have no trouble compiling a list of 15 books.

This is fascinating, going through my Read shelf! Dang, I have read some great books-especially since joining this group.

I am wondering, can we list a duet or trilogy that was outstanding? Or is listing the 1st enough?

Getting back to reading (Kathleen) wrote: "I have ten out of fifteen so far. Most of them are for the tag adventure and moral dilemma.

I had no idea how much I enjoy moral dilemmas."

That is interesting!

Phew-Step one done. Went through my Read shelf, have 50 books I picked out. Now I will split them between Fiction and Non (I would like to have an equal amount of both-I need 16 books BnB-LoL). From there reducing will be challenging!

Booknblues wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "One for each year or any published within that time frame?"

Your top 15.
One per year is an intriguing idea."

I’d prefer not to have to choose one per year. Some of us might have read fewer books from some years than others, or we just happened to have no favorites from one year.

Choosing books from every year would drastically change my list- turns out 2014 knocked it out of the park and produced more than its fair share of five star reads! It’d be so hard to choose!

Interestingly, my list naturally came back with an even 50/50 split Fiction and Non-Fiction. (I only have 14 books set aside atm. haha)

There is no way I can have a book from each year-Some the books have no dates!

We are not doing one per year.

This sounds like fun!

What will we use as cutoff dates?
I started with books published since January 1 2008 just in case. Realistically, I won’t read books published in 2023 for some time, though I might have a 2024 pub date if I get any arcs.

Joanne wrote: "Phew-Step one done. Went through my Read shelf, have 50 books I picked out. Now I will split them between Fiction and Non (I would like to have an equal amount of both-I need 16 books BnB-LoL). Fro..."

I changed my books read list to date published and waded through those from 2008 forward and compiled a list of 44, so I have to do some whittling as well.

It's 10 am, about 90 degrees F and rising. I think I'll stay out of the sun, drink iced tea, and work on a list.

I'm going to try using the select multiple function on the My Books page. I have a Read shelf for each year. I can take them one at a time and sort by stars awarded, so I only have to look at 5 star books. I'll still end up with more than 15, but it's a start.

I've started to consider books for the list and have a question.

Should I only consider books that are widely known and popular (similar to the Best Fiction List)?

Holly R W wrote: "I've started to consider books for the list and have a question.

Should I only consider books that are widely known and popular (similar to the Best Fiction List)?"

It should be your favorites fiction or nonfiction.

Holly R W wrote: "I've started to consider books for the list and have a question.

Should I only consider books that are widely known and popular (similar to the Best Fiction List)?"

Holly, just speaking for myself, I'd much rather see books that you really liked, and books that I might not know much about already.

When I had to pick ONE book for the other list, I wanted it to be "list-worthy" to have a chance in a vote. But your question just made me decide not to censor myself by listing only books I think people in this group would like.

Jgrace wrote: "It's 10 am, about 90 degrees F and rising. I think I'll stay out of the sun, drink iced tea, and work on a list.

I'm going to try using the select multiple function on the My Books page. I have ..."

That's a good idea. I often forget I can combine two lists.

I tend to use Bulk Edit a lot. I can rank order a list of books (such as favorites, recent favorites, or all the books I read) by publication date, or my rating, and copy the needed range into a new 2008-2023 shelf. There I can prune away. I included many 4 star books too, because sometimes my appreciation for a book grows over time after thinking about it, talking about it, or comparing it to others. And sometimes, the reverse happens.

I took a nice little trip down memory lane by looking at my old favorites too.

Every time I do something like this, I discover books marked Read that I know I didn't read (this happens a lot when I click on books in listopia or tag lists) or I find books I rated but forgot to change to "read."

Booknblues wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Phew-Step one done. Went through my Read shelf, have 50 books I picked out. Now I will split them between Fiction and Non (I would like to have an equal amount of both-I need 16 book..."

I was really generous and included a lot of 4 star books as a start. I have 156 (oy). Now that I did that, I think I'll just keep them in a 2008-2023 list for now, because I might use that as a start for other lists. I'll create a new file(s) for pruning.

Are we supposed to include both Fiction and nonfiction in this first 15-15 list, or just fiction?
eta - I just saw your answer to Holly - both fiction and nonfiction. Thanks.

I’m going to do this by simply going through my reviews since I joined GR in 2016. Although I must admit. When asked to make such a list, 5 or 6 books immediately come to mind. Which tells you how seminal they are for me.

Amy wrote: "I’m going to do this by simply going through my reviews since I joined GR in 2016. Although I must admit. When asked to make such a list, 5 or 6 books immediately come to mind. Which tells you how ..."

This is my approach I think. I joined in 2018 and I know I can easily fill a list of 15 books that were 5 star reads for me -- 5 or 6 spring immediately to mind too. Those will absolutely be part of the 15 merely because they srping to mind instantly.

My dilemma is whether I will include more than one book by an author. I really don't like it when top lists of books have mutliples by authors, it just grates and feels unfair. I'm not talking series -- which should e mentioned IMHO as a series = single book. I'm talking abou listing for example 2 of Amor Towles books, for example, not just one.

Interesting. I wonder how many of my 5-6 books that sprang to mind are also on your list as well. Seems we have three in common already.

Theresa wrote: "My dilemma is whether I will include more than one book by an author. I really don't like it when top lists of books have mutliples by authors,..."

I agree with this. I even try on my annual top 10 lists not to add the same author more than once.

I have to remember that the books also need to be originally PUBLISHED in the last 15 years. Off to do more editing.

Haha, thanks for the heads up on that Tessa, I missed that (no surprise there, eh?)-back to the drawing board....

Booknblues wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "One for each year or any published within that time frame?"

Your top 15.
One per year is an intriguing idea."

But one per year would be too hard and limiting, IMO, since for me some years have been better than others since, as BC reminded us, published in this century. :)

I am looking at my list of 5-star ratings on goodreads. I'm already on page 4 and have yet to find a single one that was published in the last 15 years. S*I*G*H

I went back by date published, too bad you can’t sort for 2 categories at once. I have just about 15. Some of my 5 star books were 5 stars for me because they were part of a series, or just great fun, like The Thursday Murder Club. For its type, it was excellent, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a 5 star read for everyone.,

Book Concierge wrote: "I am looking at my list of 5-star ratings on goodreads. I'm already on page 4 and have yet to find a single one that was published in the last 15 years. S*I*G*H"

Just took me to oage 3 of my 5 stars before I found any published in last 15 years. I will be moving to the 4 stars next.

I started by writing down the books, I loved most and which stayed with me, then moved to setting my books read to date published, started at 2008 and moved forward.

I didn't necessarily go by rating, although I'm sure that most were 5 star but by lasting impression. I ended up with a list of 46. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten one.

Now for whittling them down.

Book Concierge wrote: "I am looking at my list of 5-star ratings on goodreads. I'm already on page 4 and have yet to find a single one that was published in the last 15 years. S*I*G*H"

Is your list of 5 stars in its own shelf? (Rather than sorted pages in your whole read folder). Having all your 5 star books in one shelf can be very handy.

If yes- If so you can simply rank the whole file by publication date. You can then use batch edit to copy only the 2008-2023-5-stars onto a new shelf.

If no - start by creating a new shelf name for your 5 star books. Go to the first page of your five star books. Open bulk edit ( upper right). Select all (or click on the five star books). In the bulk edit box where it asks for file, type in the name of your NEW file (don’t click on it). Then in the bulk edit box click on “add books to this shelf” it will tell you how many it added, confirm, then go to the next page and repeat.

Note, if your list is on infinite scroll you won’t be able to check all the books on the infinite page. You may need to go up to settings and look for “per page” and change it to 30.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I have a big list 😅 - all 5 star. I am going to add a couple that are not 5 star but are on my highly recommended by me shelf. I am whittling it all down a bit at a time. Set a couple guidelines for myself - one book by an author and genre doesn't matter are 2 of them.

NancyJ wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "I am looking at my list of 5-star ratings on goodreads. I'm already on page 4 and have yet to find a single one that was published in the last 15 years. S*I*G*H"

Is your lis..."

I didn't create a shelf for 5 star books. You can sort any shelf by stars by clicking at the top of the column. I have shelves books read in each year. So when I look at the 'read in 2009' shelf I can sort it by stars or publication date, but sadly not both at once. I had 88 books on a list just looking at 5 star books for those years. Once I sorted again by publication date, the list went to 66 books. I picked 12 standout books from that list without much difficulty. The final 3 are harder to decide.

And I can't tell you all how much of a comfort it is to me that I know you all can appreciate my process! There is no one in my 'real' life who understands why this would matter. (They do love me even though I'm a little bit weird.)

Nancy, I did realize, after making my list of lists, that IF I'd created a 5 star list, I could have sorted just for publication date ...... Oh well.

Jgrace wrote: "Nancy, I did realize, after making my list of lists, that IF I'd created a 5 star list, I could have sorted just for publication date ...... Oh well. ..."

It could be handy in the future.
I don't have a 5 star tag either, bit wonder if I should add one just in case.

I feel like this is something you just get a feel for. Like on one hand, I have maybe six or seven books that have come to mind that I think I would put immediately on this list. But I care less whether I rated them five stars at the time, I care more about whether it’s still Elyssa it’s the same feeling for me now that it did at the end of the book. I feel like I can just go through my thousand read books and be quietly surprised at the other seven or eight that will jump out at me and say yes I should be on your list. I was really special.

Theresa wrote: "I have a big list 😅 - all 5 star. I am going to add a couple that are not 5 star but are on my highly recommended by me shelf. I am whittling it all down a bit at a time. Set a couple guidelines fo..."

I did the same thing. I sometimes give 4.5 star ratings when I write reviews, but they get either 4 or 5 stars on gr, which are always provisional. So I added some of my 4 star books to my 5 star list too - books that could easily be bumped up or recommended to others.

I have some 5 star books that are very special to me for personal idiosyncratic reasons, but I don’t necessarily recommend them to others. I might recommend a 4 star book to more people.

I have a very clear top 10 and then my second tier is huuuuuuuuge. I would probably pick a slightly different five every day of the year!

I think I'll wait to see if there are any books from your lists that I want to throw some weight behind (assuming it's that type of thing :) before I torture myself narrowing mine down.

Everyone has there own system for shelving, tracking and isolating books based on their own idiosyncracies. Or not. Personally, I created a shelf for this task. Then I added books that automatically came to me for this, went through my highly recommended by me shelf by publication date, then went through the 5 star read ratings in my read shelf, also by publication year. No book under 4 stars made it and almost all were 5 star.

Ended up with 93. Immediately started whittling - only 1 book per author, would I re-read the book, do I remember more than just an overall impression (that got rid of a suprising number!), have I recommended it to others, is it a book lots of others are likely to suggest - those led me to remove a ton. Then I went by genres -- as I wanted to show a variety as I read very eclectically - that whittled it down quite a bit as I picked the top of each genre I'd isolated. Another elimination round was if events that have happened since I read the book (i.e. pandemic) likely to have changed the rating I gave and reaction I had -- that removed Station Eleven actually. Lastly, the one category that got it to where it is now[ - is there something groundbreaking about the style, format, writing, subject that makes it special and stands out and contributed to that 5 star rating - if answer yes, it stayed.

That's left me with 21. I still need to remove 6 but I think I know which ones they are -- and it will hinge on whether the book is a little known gem that needs exposure - i.e. treasured books. Another stern eye at titles that are likely to be on more than one top 15 list -- Hamnet already fell to that.

I think a few of you will be surprised at some of the books I have included -- which also plays a roll in my decisions. I do like it when I surprise others by an interest or favorite I have. (I'll never forget the look on a friend's face when she asked me for a list of favorite movies and along with Casablanca were several John Candy comedies.)

Oh and my initial 'off the top of my head' books are still on the list. That immediate gut reaction list -- always but always stays.

I'm so excited to start planning my list. I have 6-8 that stand out straight away. I do have a 5-star shelf, so I'll need to see when I look at it which ones really stand out to me still and try to narrow it down to only 15 books.

Robin P wrote: "I went back by date published, too bad you can’t sort for 2 categories at once. I have just about 15. Some of my 5 star books were 5 stars for me because they were part of a series, or just great f..."

It would be one of my favorites.

2016 looks to have been a pretty good year for books. Probably because it was the last year before all the death and destruction started so I was reading more and choosing books with more depth without fear of being triggered. Suspect several of my top 15 will be from 2016.

NancyJ wrote: "Holly R W wrote: "I've started to consider books for the list and have a question.

Should I only consider books that are widely known and popular (similar to the Best Fiction List)?"

Holly, just ..."

Yup I did the same. But for this one I will probably go weird (normal for me).

Jgrace wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "I am looking at my list of 5-star ratings on goodreads. I'm already on page 4 and have yet to find a single one that was published in the last 15 years. S*I*G*..."

We are all a bit weird, that's why we love books so much! Different books for different weird but we are a harmless bunch so better to be our common kind of weird.

I have a favourites shelf which is my 5* reads of whatever type. So I have just followed NancyJ's instructions and edited them by date published then plopped all my fiction 5* reads from the last 15 years on another shelf and narrowed down from there. There were almost 40 so first up I trimmed any double/triple ups from a series (one series started pre 2008 so I ended up with the second to last of the series), then only allowed 1 per author, then which ones do I remember a strong feeling towards and stuck with me. Some were very good but didn't have that smack in the guts which makes them important reads I associate with a time in my life.

It's done unless I read another before the list is due.