[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Having people post lists is ok, but I am still for using sun surfer's suggestion from last year which is a poll with up to 30 different categories to vote on (below). We would take the top 11 categories, plus Runners-Up in January, and a volunteer (or 2-3 working together) would decide the order.

More details from that suggestion in the spoiler:

Spoiler:

If there is a tie that would effect the final list (e.g., the 12th and 13th most popular items are tied) we will have a single choice run-off vote. If we still have tie, the winner will be chosen by either WT Sharpe or another volunteer.

30 choices is the maximum allowed by the software I believe, so that is where the limit came from.

The vote could be a fairly long one (1 month plus) at this time of year in order to allow as many people as possible to see it and participate.

If we want to reduce the number of literary titles we should consider replacing or just removing some of these categories (+).

Here is the slightly updated list of categories:

1. Action/Adventure**
2. Award Winners +
3. Banned/Challenged Books +
4. Classics
5. Contemporary
6. Fantasy*
7. Fiction***
8. First in a Series
9. Foreign (Originally Non-English) +
10. Free-For-All
11. Historical Fiction
12. History (Non-Fiction)
13. Horror
14. Humor
15. Indie
16. Mystery/Crime*
17. Non-Fiction
18. Not Classic or Contemporary
19. Patricia Clark Memorial Library
20. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (and Boats)
21. Philosophy
22. Pulp Adventure
23. Romance
24. Science (Non-Fiction)
25. Science-Fiction*
26. Short Stories
27. Thriller/Suspense*
28. Travel**
29. Westerns
30. Young Adult

+ These categories tend towards more "literary" choices and might be removed/replaced if we want to avoid that.
* I removed the combined "Science-Fiction/Fantasy" and "Mystery/Thriller" categories in favor of the separate categories. We could add them back if wanted.
**I split up "Adventure/Travel" into "Action/Adventure" and "Travel" to more accurately describe the fiction and non-fiction flavors of this category.
***Added "Fiction" as a semi-Free-for-All month.

Thanks Dazrin (and thanks for re-posting my post here from the other thread - when I was writing it the discussion was still in that thread and I didn't realise it had moved over here).

Actually, my views have changed a little since I made that category suggestion. I do really like Tom's suggestion and choosing that way we'd end up with a cohesive list for the year. While I like the categories we have now, some don't make sense taken as a whole. For instance, we have Science Fiction but no Fantasy. If we use my idea from the last category vote that you're proposing, something similar could happen. However, if more people and Tom prefer to do it the way you're suggesting then I'm on board (after all, I did come up with the idea so I should like it ).