Thanks for the comments so far. I see Bookpossum likes the bonus votes idea; does anybody else have an opinion on it? It might seem sort of like a big change so I'm curious how others feel about it. To get a taste of its breadth, here's who would be currently eligible:
Spoiler:
BelleZora, Bookpossum, Bookworm_Girl, caleb72, ccowie, desertblues, fantasyfan, Hamlet53, HomeInMyShoes, Lin2412, paola, sun surfer, Synamon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Hey team - no other comments? Poor old sun surfer needs some encouragement after all that typing!
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Heheh. I will get you for calling me poor and old, just as soon as I finish telling those kids to get off my lawn.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes
We should only be reading books from 1947 to 1973. 
There are a lot of countries with very few published or translated into English books. I've probably only got a dozen or two countries left that will be fairly easy to locate a book for. There's a reason Western Africa has proven hard for me to navigate (almost everything is only in French) and the Caribbean, Polynesia and Melanesia areas are just so unpopulated there is very little selection. I've found a few, but then even locating copies of the books is very difficult.
What if we just made the region vote into a journey around the world one where we have to pick an author from a country we haven't covered yet? That might keep things open enough that we'd be able to find books a little more easily. |
Interesting idea. I'd like to keep the original Region category as is in the categories poll. issybird and I came up with the list of regions originally and I'm partial to it, and if nothing else I like the map I made for the category!
If we reconfigure the category, it'd be complex and the map would be out. You're worried about not having enough to nominate from, but I see at least five or more categories left with loads of English-language or English-translation books - three European categories, Japan, China/Korea, a category with South Africa, a category with Australia and New Zealand, etc. At one per year, those alone would take us to 2022!
I don't know if we'd choose an easier or harder region each time, but the possibility for an easier one is there and it'd be up to the majority on the poll. Of course having the category at all is dependant on whether it's chosen in the categories poll.
It almost seems like you're suggesting a new category though, and we could also add that to the categories poll if you want, as a separate category from Region. Maybe called something like "Journey around the World" or "World Journey"? If I'm understanding your concept correctly, maybe it could basically be an open category minus any countries of any authors of official monthly selections so far, so that every nomination would have to be from an author of a country we haven't read a book from yet? For this someone would need to go back and discern the countries of every author of an official selection so far and make a list. I'd rather have such a list before we add the category to the poll, so that I wouldn't be forced to make it myself if it won and so that people could see where the category would currently be at in terms of restriction. Is this along the lines of what you were thinking, HIMS? Let me know how you see it and if you want me to add it to the poll.