MobileRead June 2013 *Category* Poll

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Awards are "someone liked this book well enough to recommend it." Usually, "a group liked this book well enough to recommend it." Sometimes the group claims to like books of a specific literary quality; sometimes they don't. Book awards are, by their nature, popularity contests; it's just that some of them claim to be popular with certain people of specific, supposedly discerning, tastes.

If those tastes don't match yours, the award is meaningless. The Pulitzer tells me that a book fits some set of qualifications for "literary excellence;" it doesn't tell me I'll enjoy reading it, nor that my life will be improved thereby. The Hugo award tells me that I'll probably enjoy reading the book, regardless of whether it's "well-written" by the standards the Pulitzer team uses.

I know I'd probably enjoy any book that's won a Rainbow Award. I might even nominate one. I know that the odds of it getting second-and-thirded would be very low, and the odds of it getting voted in as the selection are beyond negligible--not because MR readers don't trust the quality of the award, but because most of the readers here don't have a strong interest in LGBT-themed books. Likewise, recommendations from the ENnies are unlikely to get selected.

I would love the Award Winners category to avoid the larger, well-known awards like Pulitzer and Man Booker, and seek out smaller, oddball awards to say "here's something that you probably have never heard of, and wouldn't normally consider trying, but it did win an award so you know at least someone thinks it's good."

And whether or not the books from those awards get selected, we'd be able to discuss them and recommend books that might not come up on other topics. Most of the Rainbow Award books fit under "romance;" some are science fiction; some are mysteries--they could get nominated other months. The ENnie winners are in a niche industry that's hard to define; it often straddles the line between fiction and nonfic. (Is a gaming manual fiction or not?) Still, The Investigator's Guide to Occult London might be an interesting read even to people not interested in the RPG aspects.

I agree.
However, I'd personally love for it to be all inclusive. Basically if it won some sort of recognized award, then it qualifies to be nominated.

I'm hoping, if the category wins, that people will also list the award(s) that their nomination has won. It would be cool to see that a book has won both a "larger, well known" award as well as an "oddball" award; that, to me, would indicated even wider appeal than just one or the other.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I also like the idea of learning about other awards. Most of my interest in the book club is finding different things to read based on the diverse interests of the people participating. Where else can I get new ideas for reading from issybird, JSWolf and orlok. All in the same category?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I agree.
However, I'd personally love for it to be all inclusive. Basically if it won some sort of recognized award, then it qualifies to be nominated.

Definitely. I'm hoping people choose to seek out smaller awards related to subjects or groups of interest to them; I certainly don't want to exclude the larger awards.

I'm hoping, if the category wins, that people will also list the award(s) that their nomination has won. It would be cool to see that a book has won both a "larger, well known" award as well as an "oddball" award; that, to me, would indicated even wider appeal than just one or the other.

I'd expect people to list the award, and if possible, provide a link. That helps the goal of "find new books to read and enjoy" even if it's not required by the nominate-and-vote process.

[JSWolf]

I would enjoy finding books that won small less well-known awards. That way, maybe we could find books that we've never heard of before and be able to broaden our reading.

[Nyssa]

Award Winners is our category for June!

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Awards are "someone liked this book well enough to recommend it." Usually, "a group liked this book well enough to recommend it." Sometimes the group claims to like books of a specific literary quality; sometimes they don't. Book awards are, by their nature, popularity contests; it's just that some of them claim to be popular with certain people of specific, supposedly discerning, tastes.

If those tastes don't match yours, the award is meaningless. The Pulitzer tells me that a book fits some set of qualifications for "literary excellence;" it doesn't tell me I'll enjoy reading it, nor that my life will be improved thereby. The Hugo award tells me that I'll probably enjoy reading the book, regardless of whether it's "well-written" by the standards the Pulitzer team uses.

I know I'd probably enjoy any book that's won a Rainbow Award. I might even nominate one. I know that the odds of it getting second-and-thirded would be very low, and the odds of it getting voted in as the selection are beyond negligible--not because MR readers don't trust the quality of the award, but because most of the readers here don't have a strong interest in LGBT-themed books. Likewise, recommendations from the ENnies are unlikely to get selected.

I would love the Award Winners category to avoid the larger, well-known awards like Pulitzer and Man Booker, and seek out smaller, oddball awards to say "here's something that you probably have never heard of, and wouldn't normally consider trying, but it did win an award so you know at least someone thinks it's good."

And whether or not the books from those awards get selected, we'd be able to discuss them and recommend books that might not come up on other topics. Most of the Rainbow Award books fit under "romance;" some are science fiction; some are mysteries--they could get nominated other months. The ENnie winners are in a niche industry that's hard to define; it often straddles the line between fiction and nonfic. (Is a gaming manual fiction or not?) Still, The Investigator's Guide to Occult London might be an interesting read even to people not interested in the RPG aspects.

Thanks for the Rainbow Awards mention. I wasn't aware of that one. I just put The Zero Knot on my wish list. My recent contact with an LGBT award was the Lambda Literary Award. I read an award winner from there and was absolutely impressed with the story - if not the copy editing.

I guess I'm waiting to see what constitutes an award for this one. I have no issue with the big prizes, but I also like some of the smaller prizes. I'm interested in the IPPY awards for example (Independent Publisher Book Awards).

But as long as your Rainbow Award nomination isn't just an LGBT equivalent of a bodice ripper or purely erotica I wouldn't necessarily have trouble voting for it.

[WT Sharpe]

The July category nominations thread is open.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=203464

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by caleb72

But as long as your Rainbow Award nomination isn't just an LGBT equivalent of a bodice ripper or purely erotica I wouldn't necessarily have trouble voting for it.

I've loved everything I've read by L.A. Witt. While they're solidly romance-genre erotica books, they have real plots and well-developed characters. I intend to pick up Static (Rainbow award winner) which is science fiction; I know I'll like it but I'm not sure whether I'd recommend something that niche-y.

Now I get to spend the next few months looking for interesting book awards.

[caleb72]

It might seem quite stupid given how I feel about censoring ideas and how readily I would read literature with all sorts of disturbing and even controversial subject matter, but I don't particularly like graphic sex scenes in novels.

I'm not saying I wouldn't read anything with graphic sex scenes - I certainly have and will probably do so on occasion in the future. It's just that I seem to have a separation of "purpose" for such content as compared to any other content.

Perhaps challenging myself to read something with an erotica basis and then discussing it as part of the book club might be surprisingly liberating. Although I think I might baulk at giving a rating on "hotness" or similar.