MobileRead December 2013's *Category* Nominations

[John F]

I'll second Fantasy.

I'll nominate Modern Fiction.

[AnemicOak]

Third Fantasy

[desertblues]

I nominate Folk Tales

Spoiler:

Folktale

The oral fictional tale, from whatever ultimate origin, is practically universal both in time and place. Certain peoples tell very simple stories and others tales of great complexity, but the basic pattern of tale-teller and audience is found everywhere and as far back as can be learned. Differing from legend or tradition, which is usually believed, the oral fictional tale gives the storyteller absolute freedom as to credibility so long as he stays within the limits of local taboos and tells tales that please.

A folktale travels with great ease from one storyteller to another. Since a particular story is characterized by its basic pattern and by narrative motifs rather than by its verbal form, it passes language boundaries without difficulty. The spread of a folktale is determined rather by large culture areas, such as North American Indian, Eurasian, Central and Southern African, Oceanic, or South American. And with recent increasing human mobility many tales, especially of Eurasian origin, have disregarded even these culture boundaries and have gone with new settlers to other continents.

In many preliterate cultures folktales are hardly to be distinguished from myths, since, especially in tales of tricksters and heroes, they presuppose a background of belief about tribal origins and the relation of men and gods. Conscious fictions, however, enter even into such stories. Animals abound here whether in their natural form or anthropomorphized so that they seem sometimes men and sometimes beasts. Adventure stories, exaggerations, marvels of all kinds such as other world journeys, and narratives of marriage or sexual adventure, usually between human beings and animals, are common. Much rarer, contrary to the views of earlier students, are explanatory stories. Tales of this description are especially characteristic of Africa, Oceania, and the South American Indians.

In much of the world, especially Europe and Asia, the folktale deals with a greater variety of incidents than just described. In the course of time folktale scholars have given most attention to this area and have classified these stories so that the vast collections of them in manuscripts or books can be referred to with exactness.

All readers of such collections as those of Grimm will easily recall examples of tales of speaking animals. These may be old, Aesop’s fables or parts of the medieval Reynard epic, but most of them are based on some ancient oral tradition. Such animal stories are especially numerous in eastern Europe. But better-known perhaps are the ordinary folktales that deal with humans and their adventures. For these tales, usually laid in a highly imaginative time and place—a never-never land—and filled with unrealistic and often supernatural creatures, there exists no good English word, so that usually scholars use the German term Märchen. Here belong “The Dragon Slayer,” “The Danced-Out Shoes,” the “Swan-Maiden” tales, “Cupid and Psyche,” “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” “Faithful John,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and the like. Here also belong certain stories with religious or romantic motivation and tales of robbers and thieves—“Peter at the Gate of Heaven,” “The Clever Peasant Daughter,” “Rhampsinitus.” A major division of this classification of tales deals with jests and anecdotes. Examples are the many stories of numskulls, of clever rascals, and tall tales filled with exaggerations or lies. Finally come formula tales like “The House that Jack Built.”
(from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...tale#ref500936)

edit: and I second Philosopy

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by desertblues

...and I third Philosopy

That's a 2nd. Philosophy is still in need of a 3rd.

I'd do it, but my votes are all used up.

[orlok]

I'll third Philosophy, third Speculative Fiction and second 21st Century.

There...all done!

[WT Sharpe]

Yay, Philosophy!

Second folk tales.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I nominate Lottery 3.

I second folk tales.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I nominate Lottery 3....

And I nominate you to run the club that month if it wins.

[CWatkinsNash]

Second Young Adult.

[AnemicOak]

Third Young Adult

[AnemicOak]

I nominate History (fiction or non-fiction)

[JSWolf]

I'll nominate everything not already in 2013. Meaning if the books is not in one of the other 2013 categories, it's a fit for December 2013. So basically, every book that exists as an eBook wold be covered for 2013.

[desertblues]

I second Modern Fiction

[caleb72]

I nominate MR Authors for what it's worth.