MobileRead Discussion/Suggestion Thread - Page 2

HomeInMyShoes · 11-29-2011, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Why are there so few posts in the Monthly Book Club winner's discussion threads?

I'd like to know too. The last few months have seen pretty poor numbers of participants to votes the winner received in the RBC (regular book club) as opposed to the LBC (literary book club). I didn't read the last two winners, but I didn't vote for them either. I read the previous two months selections and participated.

Nyssa · 11-29-2011, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

We're discussing changing two classics months for 2013, correct?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Yes everything here is about 2013. Yes WT Sharpe?

I think that anything that can be resolved in time for 2012, should be done in 2012. That will give us more time to discuss other, more involved topics in time for 2013.

sun surfer · 11-29-2011, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

We're discussing changing two classics months for 2013, correct?

Yes, the categories for 2012 have already been settled.

-We already had a poll on changing the two classics months in 2012 and the results were clearly in favour of keeping two classics.

-The majority seemed in favour of not adding or deleting any categories in the earlier discussion, as doing so would open up a can of worms as to how we could ever figure out what to add and delete with so many possibilities (poll after poll after poll after poll?)

-HIMS came up with a reorganising of the months we already had, which the unanimous majority liked.

-Tom has already approved the categories list HIMS came up with for this year and posted it in the selections thread.

So I'd consider the matter of categories closed for 2012.

ATDrake · 11-29-2011, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I suppose that includes Finnegans Wake.

ObHarkAVagrant comic which is Relevant To This Discussion.

The moral of this story? Don't go googling for James Joyce's love letters if you want to be able to sleep at night.

Mind you, we could do those as a February/April brain-break combo of Romance and OMGWTFBBQ?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Why are there so few posts in the Monthly Book Club winner's discussion threads?

I personally like the idea of the book club, but I never end up participating in the actuality of it (I also don't nominate or vote on stuff because it would be unfair to skew the results for the people who do).

Either the books are ones I'm not particularly interested in reading, much less potentially spending money to read (no-romo who doesn't care for whodunnit-less thrillers), or have already read a long time ago and don't feel like re-reading (Canticle, Hitchhikers, Slaughterhouse-Five), and the one time I went and finished a new monthly book within the time frame (Chinese Maze Murders), I'd moved on to other stuff and completely forgot to comment about it in the discussion thread like I'd been intending to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I do like the WTF category, but think it might not be well participated in.

Eh, that's why it's a proposed as an "Alternate Selection". I don't know, maybe having alternate selections of the runners-up for each month would get more people to participate, because they could choose among the winning books they like the best instead of sitting the month out because they're not interested in the one with the most votes.

Or maybe it would just double the discussion apathy.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I really like the "Young Adult" suggestion.

I would also like to point out that classics have always been nominated and accepted in every genre for every month in this club. Not to mention that we also now have a separate book club devoted entirely to Classics.
So it is perfectly reasonable to now have one of the "classic" months changed to something else.

That is the best reason for dumping at least one of the classics.

As for YA as a replacement, I'm all for that. There are a lot of good YA books out there that are very much suitable for adults.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Carried over from other thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1#post1855291]

I like the idea of the alternate for April being WTF?! Fits well with the month; "you thought you'd get a good book to read, but no! We have this instead!"

Where "this" can be some bizarre bit of medical propaganda from history, or some horrifically un-edited self-published bit of egotistical tripe (grab it quick before the author pulls it when they google their name & find the discussion), or a surrealist treatise, or any other text that hurts the brain to read.

I suppose that includes Finnegans Wake.

If we have a WTF? month, I am definitely going to have to convert one of the two formats of The Highland Fling and How to Teach It (that I put up in September 2007) to ePub. All totaled, it's been downloaded 429 times.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

We're discussing changing two classics months for 2013, correct?

2012. 2013 we can do away with the other classic in favor or WTF? and The first classic that goes can be YA.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Yes, the categories for 2012 have already been settled.

-We already had a poll on changing the two classics months in 2012 and the results were clearly in favour of keeping two classics.

-The majority seemed in favour of not adding or deleting any categories in the earlier discussion, as doing so would open up a can of worms as to how we could ever figure out what to add and delete with so many possibilities (poll after poll after poll after poll?)

-HIMS came up with a reorganizing of the months we already had, which the unanimous majority liked.

-Tom has already approved the categories list HIMS came up with for this year and posted it in the selections thread.

So I'd consider the matter of categories closed for 2012.

Yes, we have a vote for changing the December classic to something else. But, since we have another classic, we can have another vote or just change it. I'm in favor of just changing it. Oh and if we are keeping two classics for 2012, then we better make damned sure that none of the books nominated (outside of the classic months) are not classic at all. That nobody would ever say that what's nominated is a classic. That's only fair to those of us who don't want two classics but have to put up with it. So, do we dump a classic month or do we made damned sure no classics get nominated in any other month?

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATDrake

ObHarkAVagrant comic which is Relevant To This Discussion.

The moral of this story? Don't go googling for James Joyce's love letters if you want to be able to sleep at night.

Mind you, we could do those as a February/April brain-break combo of Romance and OMGWTFBBQ?!

That gives me an idea for February...we could nominate ten different volumes of Letters to Penthouse. I think that's a great idea. We'd get romance and OMGWTFBBQ at the same time. And maybe more men would be interested.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 07:58 PM

We had a vote to decide what to do with classics. That's fine.

But what's not fine is that we had a vote on hidden vs. open voting and then we had a second vote on top of that.

So, what we need to do to make things more even/fair is either the second vote for hidden/open is nullified and it's all hidden or we have a tiered vote for classics and have a second vote for that.

It's unfair to have votes for changing things be completely different. The fair thing would be to have another classic vote-off with only the top two choice available.

So that would mean we could settle classics once and for all for 2012 and that would be fair.

Nyssa · 11-29-2011, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I really like the "Young Adult" suggestion.

I would also like to point out that classics have always been nominated and accepted in every genre for every month in this club. Not to mention that we also now have a seperate book club devoted entirely to Classics.
So it is perfectly reasonable to now have one of the "classic" months changed to something else.

A continuation in my appeal for having one of the classic months changed:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyssa

<snip>The fact that all of the genres can also have something "classic" strengthens my case :

January
Wild Card (no nominations, a vote of all the non-winning nominations from the last 11 months)

Classic - 1; Non Classic -1

February
Romance

Classic - 2; Non Classic -2

March
Nonfiction

Classic - 3; Non Classic -3

April
Humor

Classic - 4; Non Classic - 4

May
Classic

Classic - 5; Non Classic - 4

June
Thriller/Suspense

Classic - 6; Non Classic - 5

July
Fantasy (trees/magic)

Classic - 7; Non Classic -6

August
Free For All (any genre)

Classic - 8; Non Classic - 7

September
Mystery/Crime

Classic - 9; Non Classic - 8

October
Horror

Classic - 10; Non Classic - 9

November
Science Fiction (rivets/science)

Classic - 11; Non Classic -10

December
Classic

Classic - 12; Non Classic -10

12 to 10 = Advantage = unequal opportunity.

Alternates: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Award Winning Works.

EDIT: Yes, we had a vote that said 20 to 12 for two months of classics, but we also had a vote that said 17 to 10 for Hidden only polls, yet here we are with a run-off vote that was tied, and a compromise for every 3rd month being open... that's right a COMPROMISE.

Well we would still have one month of Classics, its not like we're getting rid of it altogether.

issybird · 11-29-2011, 08:46 PM

I'm just going to point out that the poll on hidden v. open votes was ended early. Who knows how many might have come in for open at the last minute, the way they came in for hidden in the more recent poll, when the compromise was the clear winner until the last day? Moreover, the precedent was established that people could change their votes. Without letting the poll go to its established end, we can't know how many might have changed their votes from open only to the compromise position. Perhaps it would have been better if changing votes hadn't been allowed, because it added a lot of uncertainty, but there it is.

Nyssa · 11-29-2011, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm just going to point out that the poll on hidden v. open votes was ended early. Who knows how many might have come in for open at the last minute, the way they came in for hidden in the more recent poll, when the compromise was the clear winner until the last day? Moreover, the precedent was established that people could change their votes. Without letting the poll go to its established end, we can't know how many might have changed their votes from open only to the compromise position. Perhaps it would have been better if changing votes hadn't been allowed, because it added a lot of uncertainty, but there it is.

If I were not allowed to change my vote, and since I was the only one who requested to do so, Hidden would still have won 16 to 11.

If the 3 people who spoke up and said they voted for "alternate" because they didn't think "open" would win had voted for open, Hidden still would have won 17 to 10 or 16 to 11.

If the 2 people who voted for "Other" had voted for "Open" or voted for "alternate", Hidden still would have won 17 - 12 & 9 or 16 to 13 & 9.

issybird · 11-29-2011, 09:04 PM

You can't know if others might have requested to change their votes as the poll neared its end. It would have made sense if they did. Nor can you know how many votes might have come in on the last day, as they did with the latter poll. If the poll had come to its natural conclusion, you might have an argument. But it was ended early in favor of the second poll, as Tom thought that would give a better reading of sentiment.

Frankly, I think it's always a bad idea to allow a vote change. Muddies the waters, as it did in this case. But anyway, the poll ended early, so who knows? If the second poll had ended a day early, the compromise vote would have been the clear winner.

JSWolf · 11-29-2011, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

You can't know if others might have requested to change their votes as the poll neared its end. It would have made sense if they did. Nor can you know how many votes might have come in on the last day, as they did with the latter poll. If the poll had come to its natural conclusion, you might have an argument. But it was ended early in favor of the second poll, as Tom thought that would give a better reading of sentiment.

I agree with you that the original poll should have run to it's conclusion and whatever the results were, that's what we should have gone with.

11-29-2011, 09:04 PM	#29
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,684 Karma: 226331449 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	You can't know if others might have requested to change their votes as the poll neared its end. It would have made sense if they did. Nor can you know how many votes might have come in on the last day, as they did with the latter poll. If the poll had come to its natural conclusion, you might have an argument. But it was ended early in favor of the second poll, as Tom thought that would give a better reading of sentiment. Frankly, I think it's always a bad idea to allow a vote change. Muddies the waters, as it did in this case. But anyway, the poll ended early, so who knows? If the second poll had ended a day early, the compromise vote would have been the clear winner. Last edited by issybird; 11-29-2011 at 09:06 PM.

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11-29-2011, 07:58 PM	#25
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 76,513 Karma: 136565488 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	We had a vote to decide what to do with classics. That's fine. But what's not fine is that we had a vote on hidden vs. open voting and then we had a second vote on top of that. So, what we need to do to make things more even/fair is either the second vote for hidden/open is nullified and it's all hidden or we have a tiered vote for classics and have a second vote for that. It's unfair to have votes for changing things be completely different. The fair thing would be to have another classic vote-off with only the top two choice available. So that would mean we could settle classics once and for all for 2012 and that would be fair.

11-29-2011, 08:46 PM	#27
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,684 Karma: 226331449 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I'm just going to point out that the poll on hidden v. open votes was ended early. Who knows how many might have come in for open at the last minute, the way they came in for hidden in the more recent poll, when the compromise was the clear winner until the last day? Moreover, the precedent was established that people could change their votes. Without letting the poll go to its established end, we can't know how many might have changed their votes from open only to the compromise position. Perhaps it would have been better if changing votes hadn't been allowed, because it added a lot of uncertainty, but there it is.

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