Literary The MR Literary Club 2013-2014 Categories Vote

[sun surfer]

Help us choose the categories that the MR Literary Club will keep to alternate for our July 2013-June 2014 cycle.

The poll will be open for seven days.

The vote is multiple choice. You may vote for as many or as few as you like.


Six months of the next cycle will be devoted to alternating selections from our members, leaving six months of other categories. We have 12 categories from the previous cycle, so we need to pare down by half.

The 12 categories are:

July - Highly Challenging
August - Lottery
September - Contemporary
October - Plays
November - Region
December - Open
January - Poetry
February - Time Period
March - Non-Fiction
April - Obscure
May - Region
June - Short

I'm taking three categories out without a vote - Lottery, Open and a second Region.

I'm also fast-tracking two categories past the vote - Poetry and Highly Challenging. These two will be categories for the next cycle. They are two of our most challenging categories and I'd like them to stay.

That leaves seven categories with fates unknown. Another category - Biographies & Memoirs - has been suggested as well, bringing the total to eight.

These eight have been arranged alphabetically and listed in the poll. With four slots open, half of these eight possibilities will become categories for our next yearly cycle.

We are not necessarily voting on categories to get rid of altogether; we may switch out some categories from year to year. Making it to next year will ensure a category isn't eliminated, but some categories that don't make it may or may not appear the year after.


Since I fast-tracked two categories, I won't vote in the poll, but if there is a tie, I will cast a vote to break it.

[Bookpossum]

Thanks, sun surfer - a good solution to the problem.

[paola]

tough, tough choice - but I am pretty confident that the six member selections per year will make up for whatever categories are left out.

[fantasyfan]

It looks like there are five front runners for the four slots.

[desertblues]

Could Contemporary be considered Time Period?

[Bookpossum]

I would think so, unless the Club has already covered the current period.

It's looking like a three-way contest for third and fourth places at the moment!

Edit: Just looked it up and 1961-80 is the most contemporary period still available.

Region and Time Period are retained.


I am a bit curious as to how all these lottery months will function. Continue to disqualify all previous lottery winners until a month comes where no one puts their name forward? Then reopen it for all previous winners? Or for those who last won a certain amount of time before?

[Bookpossum]

Well, my understanding (which could be wrong!) is that we are simply to take it in turns with sun surfer leading the way.

We haven't decided how to go on from there: maybe "seniority" according to joining date would be the simplest, so you would clearly well ahead of me, Hamlet - March 2009 to July 2011.

That's an interesting result, with both the non-fiction categories getting up. fantasyfan will be glad he suggested Biography/Memoir.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

That's an interesting result, with both the non-fiction categories getting up. fantasyfan will be glad he suggested Biography/Memoir.

[desertblues]

Hmm....I can live with the choices ( if contemporary is a time period.....) .

[sun surfer]

And we have our four, and they're an excellent choice! Congrats to fantasyfan on his suggested category being chosen. I'm sad to lose the four that didn't make it this year, but it would've been the same no matter which lost because I liked them all. But I think we have an excellent line-up of categories, and mixed with the sure-to-be-interesting selections during the rotating selections month, I think we have a great year to look forward to.

desertblues, I enjoyed the Contemporary month too, but it won't be a poll option on Time Period this year unfortunately. Even if I add it back to Time Period, it'll be ineligible for awhile since we've already had a month of it.

[desertblues]

Thanks, sunsurfer; I'm looking forward to the selections.

[Billi]

Desertblues, I don't know if you will be amongst the members who will do a lottery month, but if, you can propose a whole bunch of contemporary books if you like. I am very curious how these months will be.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

... I'm sad to lose the four that didn't make it this year, but it would've been the same no matter which lost because I liked them all.

Obscure could be picked up at any time as could short and there is still the lottery selections by members who may choose, not that I'm hinting at that, that their theme of selections be contemporary, or obscure, or short or plays.

[paola]

yes! The lottery months will make a lot of categories available.