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Old 02-04-2015, 04:18 PM   #18
Dazrin
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Posts: 2,733
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: PDXish
Device: Kindle Voyage, various Android devices
Quote:
Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes View Post
Here's a six-month running average for voters in the bookclub.

I was thinking originally that the drop had something to do with changes to categories, but looking more closely, the drop was across all categories and from February 2011 on. Categories weren't changed in 2011, they were in 2010, but voting was still high.
I think your original thought has some merit. My gut feel, which I heard last year from others as well, is that part of the reason we are seeing less participation is because this is turning into the Literary Book Club "Lite". I am not bashing the Literary Club, but I don't think the main book club was intended to be that. Not that a specific purpose is really defined.

Here are the categories for 2010 (highest participation) and 2014 (lowest).
Code:
2010                             2012-2015
January:   Science Fiction	 Second Chance 
February:  Romance	         Romance
March:     Nonfiction   	 Travel/Adventure
April:     Humor     	         Classics
May:       Classic	         Mystery/Thriller
June:      Thriller/Suspense	 Award Winners
July:      Fantasy (trees/magic) Non-fiction
August:    Free For All	         Science Fiction
September: Mystery/Crime	 Banned/Challenged Books
October:   Horror	         Patricia Clark Memorial Library
November:  Science Fiction	 Foreign (originally non-English)
December:  Classic	         Short Stories
If we look at what is now gone vs what we now have:
Removed (-6): Science Fiction (x1), Fantasy, Humor, Free-For-All, Horror, Classic (x1)
Combined (-1): Mystery/Crime and Thriller/Suspense into Mystery/Thriller
Added (+7): Second Chance, Travel/Adventure, Award Winners, Banned/Challenged Books, PCML, Foreign, Short Stories
Same (5): Science Fiction (x1), Non-Fiction, Romance, Classic (x1), Mystery/Thriller

We have taken out 4 months with genre categories (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and Mystery/Thriller) and added several categories that lean toward "literary books" (Award Winners, Travel/Adventure, Banned/Challenged Books, Foreign). I think the loss of Classic and addition of PCML is about a wash as well as the Second-Chance vs. Free-For-All.
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