MobileRead Administration: New years reading categories

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I agree. We need a stickied Discussion/Suggestion thread as well as an Administration thread once decissions are made.

One thought is, to prevent sticky clutter, we could possibly turn the "selections" thread that Elfwreck started into an all-encompassing categories/selections/discussion/suggestion/administration thread, if Elfwreck were for it.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I agree that looks like the way to go for 2012.

HIMS really did a great job reorganising the list.

Tom, to be clear, it seems you may be killing two birds with one stone and also agreeing to this statement from HIMS' post:

I think a six month hiatus is good with the obvious exception being the RunnerUp month in January.

Is this the case?


{Edited - I had some nonsense written at the top I forgot to delete; I had originally written it before I wrote my post so that I could test preview the quote-within-a-quote I was trying to do and it wouldn't let me preview until I wrote something}

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

One thought is, to prevent sticky clutter, we could possibly turn the "selections" thread that Elfwreck started into an all-encompassing categories/selections/discussion/suggestion/administration thread, if Elfwreck were for it....

Originally Posted by sun surfer

...Tom, to be clear, it seems you may be killing two birds with one stone and also agreeing to this statement from HIMS' post:

Is this the case?...

Let's discuss those ideas in the new Discussion/Suggestion sticky thread.

[sun surfer]

OK, Tom, I'll post there. But I see I may have been a day late and a dollar short with the "one big stickied thread for everything" idea.

[orlok]

Some good work has been done on this, and I'm looking foward to next year with anticipation (particularly the Romance category, as wild horses wouldn't normally get me to read anything here, so it will be interesting to see what is recommended).

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

1 – Award-Winner: must have won one of the following awards – open for other options: Pulitzer, Booker, Giller, and Hugo.

You forgot the Dresden Awards.

[pilotbob]

I think you should change it to a single classics month because I can't wait to see what the next dead horse Jon hitches his wagon to.

BOb

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

From a non-participant perspective, I'd suggest reallocating the two "Classics" months to the suggested "Award-Winner" and perhaps "Public Domain Literature/Foundational Texts*", the latter of which is what "Classics" seems to usually work out to most of the time.

* Yes, I know this is a vague category, but I trust my fellow MR-goers not to troll-nominate, say, Contagious Abortion of Cows on the grounds that it's some sort of trailblazing monograph in its field.

Cow miscarriages will never more foundational than urethral crayons. Manhood Perfectly Restored is an important treatise on health in America today. (For those values of "today" that happened over 125 years ago, of course.)

I would really love a month for "OMG I cannot believe someone published this book and please we should all read it and boggle together," but I suspect that (1) it'd be hard to find a category name and (2) not enough other people would enjoy the game.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I've got one.

Originally Posted by Nicotiana

Many an excellent cause has been lost through the want of sound arguments,
founded on a knowledge of the case, to support and place it in its proper
light. None, perhaps, more than _smoking_ and _snuff-taking_, the
propriety of which, in the upper orders of life, have been and are,
whether as regards their social or medicinal qualities, so frequently
called in question by their enemies. These, the author is sorry to say, by
the use of a few specious arguments, that chiefly pass current in refined
society--the ladies in particular--have, strongly aided by prejudice,
often made the defence succumb to the attack--an unpardonable weakness on
the part of a _consumer_ of the herb, who is naturally enough expected to
know the entire history of the favorite of his adoption. Unacquainted with
the excellence of his subject, its importance and consequence in ancient
and modern annals--its high worshippers and eulogists, medical, and
non-medical, with its many endearing and social virtues acknowledged over
the far greater part of the world; he, the Author asserts, unacquainted
with the above _data_ and references, opposes but a feeble barrier to the
sweeping and general assertions of his adversary.

From: Nicotiana by Henry James Meller

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I would really love a month for "OMG I cannot believe someone published this book and please we should all read it and boggle together," but I suspect that (1) it'd be hard to find a category name and (2) not enough other people would enjoy the game.

I cannot speak as to the 2nd point, but as for the 1st, "WTF?!" seems like a nicely self-evident category name which would need no further explanation. We could slot it in April as an optional book club Alternate Selection* for "Humour".

* I think those mail order book clubs like the SFBC do alternate monthly selections as backup for their subscribers uninterested in the featured offering Y/N?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

It wasn't at all close. Twelve voted for change, twenty to keep two classics months. That's two-thirds more!

That poll was unfair. We never got a tiered vote.

[Elfwreck]

The vote was fair enough. This is not a democracy; MR members don't have the right to set MR policies--we vote sometimes to give the mods an idea what most people would prefer.

Anyone is allowed to set up a book club. No one person owns this one; it's run by a rough consensus process. Voting may be used to decide some questions, but it's not definitive.

I don't necessarily believe that there really is a 2/3 majority in favor of keeping two classics month--but I *do* believe that there isn't an overwhelming majority who are bothered by two classics months. There's a vocal minority who'd like it to change, and in order to get support for that, we'd have to convince a lot of the majority that it'd be replaced with something better. We have another thread to sort out the details of that.

[JSWolf]

I thought YA was the chosen replacement should one of the classic get to go away.

[Elfwreck]

Nothing's been chosen yet. I like YA as a replacement for one classic; I also like "Award Winner." And I wouldn't mind an odd category like "government document"--like the US constitution, or UN declaration of human rights, or various political speeches.

[Skip_intro]

Should one "classic month" go to the cornfield, then either YA or Award Winner would be a fine choice. Government Documents? I'd rather have the Cow book described above.

Of course, 'Award Winners' could open a whole new can of worms...

[WT Sharpe]

Keep in mind that any changes that we're talking about in the categories won't take place until 2013. We've already voted to keep the categories as they are for 2012. That being said, I wouldn't at all be adverse to seeing one of the classic months replaced by something like award winners or young adult.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Keep in mind that any changes that we're talking about in the categories won't take place until 2013. We've already voted to keep the categories as they are for 2012. That being said, I wouldn't at all be adverse to seeing one of the classic months replaced by something like award winners or young adult.

Actually, that's incorrect. The vote we had on the second classic took place in 2011 for the year 2011. We can have another vote for dumping the extra classic for the year 2012 no problem. We didn't vote for keeping the extra classic for 2012. Just for 2011.