New Leaf New Themes! Time to Sound Off!

[gmw]

How about Tales of Tails: Birds or Beasts

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by gmw

How about Tales of Tails: Birds or Beasts

That could be fun, as long as we don't finish up with a slate of kids' books about animals.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't agree that the second part is the problem; I think that helps to focus the theme a little bit to what the person intends or hopes for, but still leaves the first part open.

Over the Hills and Far Away: Journeys seems fine to me--I see Journeys as more expansive than Travel; e.g., Journeys could include personal growth.

I'll be blunt and say I don't like Survivors--I don't know what to do with it. What comes to mind are memoirs or nonfiction adventure stories; I don't know how to broaden it out to something I personally would want to read. Sadly, I also have a problem with Morality Tales--after Aesop's Fables, what fits?

(Sorry, GMW.)

Catlady, you are right, and I shall go with Over the Hills and Far Away: Journeys.

What's more, going back to earlier posts, I also think you are right with your suggested change to the wording of themes used previously. Rewording definitely gives us more possibilities with our thoughts rather than finding ourselves back in the mindset from the last time around, for those of us who were there.

To give it the two-part style, what about something like Beautiful world: Color?

[Bookpossum]

Or even All things bright and beautiful: Color?

ETA: Sorry, I hit the button to post it and meant to say, what do you think Charlie, as you came up with doing a repeat on Colo(u)r?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Or even All things bright and beautiful: Color?

ETA: Sorry, I hit the button to post it and meant to say, what do you think Charlie, as you came up with doing a repeat on Colo(u)r?

I rather preferred the rainbow part, just because it clearly points the way to LGBTQ as part of the theme as well as just colour. But honestly, I don't care what we call it, since we can all agree that the interpretation is up to the nominator. And as for colour v. color -- I suspect that we are probably evenly divided here.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My favorite idea is Tasty Morsels. I have been waiting to see what Dazrin decides to do. I don’t have any other creative ideas yet.

[Dazrin]

If you want to use that one, go for it. For me, so far, I have been vacillating between Tasty Morsels, Short and Sweet, or An Author You Can't Refuse, Irresistible Tales, or If Books Could Kill, Thrilling Stories. If you take Tasty Morsels, that's one less choice for me to make.

All three should have good options. If Books Could Kill definitely leans toward a thriller or something but could also be a murder mystery, a true crime book, or several other options. An Author You Can't refuse could be about the mob (fiction or non-fiction) or just something from a favorite author so lots of choices there too.

(Any suggestions for taglines would be welcome too, still not sold on these.)

And CRussel, if you prefer Rainbow, keep it. There were lots of good books suggested for that month and I'm sure we could come up with another list just as good if we do repeat it. I think we're all just brainstorming and bouncing ideas at this point anyway.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I rather preferred the rainbow part, just because it clearly points the way to LGBTQ as part of the theme as well as just colour. But honestly, I don't care what we call it, since we can all agree that the interpretation is up to the nominator. And as for colour v. color -- I suspect that we are probably evenly divided here.

Yes, in terms of nominations, I seem to remember that some of the nominations picked that aspect up last time around. Nothing wrong with that of course, though I think changing the words does mean we take a fresh look at the theme.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Yes, in terms of nominations, I seem to remember that some of the nominations picked that aspect up last time around. Nothing wrong with that of course, though I think changing the words does mean we take a fresh look at the theme.

Stylistically, I'm with those who'd prefer something different, just for the sake of being different, and the LGBTQ aspect was one that was suggested during the first go-round. I'll note that pushing toward a particular interpretation has seemed to backfire; I think we pride ourselves on lateral thinking!

I'll just add that ultimately each person can decide for herself or himself the ultimate phrasing of a theme. The point of this thread is to solicit input, knock off the rough edges and tweak the themes into their best form.

So that said, if people will come up with a single theme that reflects their current thinking, I'll list them together for reference. Nothing would be set yet and everyone would be free to come up with something entirely different.

[gmw]

While thinking of various examples for my Tales of Tails idea, I remembered Jonathan Livingston Seagull and then remembered Richard Bach also wrote an odd little book called Illusions, and this led me to a theme idea of: Twisted Thinking: Philosophy or Claptrap. Of course, people who enjoy strange philosophical diversions can be few and far between (and some such as Illusions are probably best ingested while young and naive enough to think it consists of original thought - worked for me! ), so not sure if this would make a good club topic or not. I think I probably prefer Tales of Tails.

[issybird]

Harking upthread as I missed a few, in addition I particularly like both Journeys and Traitors. For some of the others I still would be scratching my head for a bit, although I'd come up with something eventually.

Originally Posted by issybird

For my own suggestion, how about Life's a Beach: The Sea?

I thought of tweaking this to: Water, Water, Everywhere: Life's a Beach. But if there's little appeal (the beach! as I look outside at a sleety snowy mess), I'll happily throw it overboard and come up with something else.

[Catlady]

Re the color theme: I don't know if it's necessary to explicitly include the word rainbow, as what's more colorful than a rainbow? And those who've commented seem to agree that we want LGBTQ included; I nearly nominated a book this month that I will most likely offer for that theme. Using the word rainbow, maybe something like A Rainbow of Choices or All the Colors of the Rainbow.

Re Life's a Beach: I like the revised version better because it's a bit less limited.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

If you want to use that one, go for it. For me, so far, I have been vacillating between Tasty Morsels, Short and Sweet, or An Author You Can't Refuse, Irresistible Tales, or If Books Could Kill, Thrilling Stories. If you take Tasty Morsels, that's one less choice for me to make.

All three should have good options. If Books Could Kill definitely leans toward a thriller or something but could also be a murder mystery, a true crime book, or several other options. An Author You Can't refuse could be about the mob (fiction or non-fiction) or just something from a favorite author so lots of choices there too.

I like all of these, especially If Books Could Kill. I wonder, though, if An Author You Can't Refuse has too much overlap with Guilty Pleasures, as both could be favorite books/authors?

[issybird]

As another stylistic comment, the Rainbow theme (the first three themes, in fact) came before we adopted the form of tagline: theme and I personally would like to retain it. So in line with Catlady's comment, would it be possible to use the word Rainbow but flesh out the theme so it's in line with our current style?

[issybird]

I think there's a lot of potential overlap. It's not a deal-breaker and attention should be paid when it comments to scheduling. It is why we needed the six-month prohibition!