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I have something I want to try for the poll creation next month and I'm looking for some feedback. There is a feature that allows write in answers, unlike other larger groups that put up five or six books because they are way to large to add every book suggested, we give every member two suggestions and they all go into the poll. The last few months we have had more active members and the polls are getting to where they take me a long time to create and tag all the books. How do you feel about instead of getting one week to suggest books and one week to vote, I make a two week long poll with write in answers? One of the best things about this small group in my opinion is that every single member gets to contribute and all suggestions go into the poll, in order to keep doing that as the group grows and we get more active members I think this is a good idea. Of course it will have a test run and if it don't work we will switch back and possibly say only one suggestion each or some other solution. What do you think?

I like the one suggestion each because I like seeing the commentary in the discussion thread. (even though I am not the most active in those threads). Somehow, the write in answer solution doesn't sound as good to me, but I get it if it reduces admin effort. Plus I do believe it is good to try new things.

I don't mind doing it now but as the group gets bigger I won't be able to add every suggestion. It took me about 20 min to make next month's poll that I just put up today. We will always have the future group read discussion thread to talk about our nominations in, or even the comment section on the poll itself.

I agree that there is no need for two suggestions each. One is plenty.

I think we should give it a try Justin, one suggestion as a write in is fine by me!

We can give it a try. The problem I see with write-ins is that unless someone gets their write-in entered very early then some people aren't going to see it and consider it

Oh, and I do think limiting it to one suggestion each sounds like a good idea

Robert wrote: "We can give it a try. The problem I see with write-ins is that unless someone gets their write-in entered very early then some people aren't going to see it and consider it"

Yea that's why I would make the poll open for two weeks in place of the one week for suggestions and one week to vote. It's probably best to just do one suggestion each since everyone had said they are ok with that.

So it's almost November and I figure it is about time to start talking about anything we may want to set up for next year, should we do challenges again? If so which ones? Any ideas for something we didn't do this year? Another idea I thought about is themes for monthly group reads, maybe say a certain month will be a two novella group read like we used to run along side the main group read or something like that. Any ideas comments our suggestions?

I think monthly themes would be fun and keep sub-genres kind of together. I also think it would be nice to have two reads a month, one a short story, the other a novel. Another idea is to two books a month, have theme based of the sub-genres in horror and a free choice.

I like the challenges. I wasn't able to do one of them because I started up too late.

I like the idea of two books each month with one of them being themed and the other free choice but I think we would have the same problem we did when we ran the novela group reads along side the main group reads, instead of having the 4 or 5 people that is normal for this group to get in one group read we will get two or three in each of them. The group just isn't big enough with enough participating members to do more than one book per month. A short story every month would be easy enough to read both and probably not mess up the main group read though, I could make a folder for all the short story threads and then maybe vote on a short story collection and read one or two out of it each week until finished and then vote on another one. For the main group read I was thinking about maybe doing a certain theme every third month or something like that.

I really loved the idea of the challenges for this year but I have to say I haven't been very successful with them. Now I'm at the point where I have to read certain books and it's taking the fun out of doing it. I'm going to be less ambitious next year.

I had an idea for a challenge next year: The Bram Stoker Award Nominees & Winners Challenge.
If we listed all the books from 1987-2014, this would give a huge amount of variety to choose from and should ensure some good quality reads.
What do you think?

I also still like the idea of the random TBR challenge even though I haven't really stuck to it this year.

The only one I have made an effort at doing is a-z and that's only because up until last month I didn't make an effort at any of them and then I just filled all the letters in with books I read this year. I plan on trying to get my last four letters before the end of the year but the other challenges I don't even want to try because like you said it sucks the fun out of reading something you have to. The thing I like about the a-z challenge is you can pick any book that starts with the letter you need and try to find something that you want to read. The random tbr challenge you have to read a certain book for. I even used the random generator to pick thirty books and then only challenged myself to read twenty of them and I still didn't want to do it.

Justin wrote: "The only one I have made an effort at doing is a-z and that's only because up until last month I didn't make an effort at any of them and then I just filled all the letters in with books I read thi..."

Yeah, the idea of it was much better than the actuality.

I like the Bram stoker award list and would definitely set a goal but I wouldn't stress it if I didn't complete it either. That might make a good theme for suggestions on a monthly group read, maybe the month that the winners are announced we say all suggestions for the following months group read have to be past winners.

I will probably do more personal goals next year like read more paperbacks (i have so many at home that i haven't touched since I got my kindle and because I love the used book store i keep buying more and never reading them) or do at least x amount of buddy reads each month etc

I think I'm going to call it a day on my classics challenge and the tbr challenge and try and complete the A-Z challenge and the HA horror challenge.

I think I'll enjoy my reading a lot more.

Justin wrote: "I will probably do more personal goals next year like read more paperbacks (i have so many at home that i haven't touched since I got my kindle and because I love the used book store i keep buying ..."

Maybe do a buddy read challenge or something. At least it'll be more fun as you're doing your reading with someone else.

Maybe a group goal. Say all buddy reads within the group count and we try to reach a certain number. Then not only are you not reading alone your not trying to complete the goal alone either we are all working on it together.

Justin wrote: "Maybe a group goal. Say all buddy reads within the group count and we try to reach a certain number. Then not only are you not reading alone your not trying to complete the goal alone either we are..."

Sounds good. :)

I will make a folder just for discussing next year's challenges and send out a broadcast message letting people know about it.

I liked the TBR challenge and would like to see it again. I was able to get a few reads off my shelf.

Hi everyone, I've been doing a bit of housekeeping and created a Buddy Read Archive Folder. I've put all the buddy reads that haven't been commented on for the last 3 months into it.
If anyone adds a comment to an archived buddy read I'll move the thread to the current buddy read folder. Here's a link to the folder.
/topic/group...

Congrats to Maxine who is now a moderator at PR.
I'm looking forward to seeing what ideas she has for the group.
:D

Good for you, Maxine! You'll do great!

Thanks Kate and Mallory! I love our little group!

Oh, congrats Maxine!

Congratulations, Maxine!!!!! :D

Kimberly wrote: "Congratulations, Maxine!!!!! :D"

Thanks, Kimberly and Rachel!

Participation in groups in GR seems to be pretty low at the moment.
I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts about what they would like to get out of the group next year.
I'm going to put a thread up for challenges but wanted to get a feel for what the other members thought for participating in 2017.

I don't really have any new ideas, but...

I like the idea of the monthly read, even though I didn't participate in every single one.
I think one thing that might help is having a schedule of when Nomimations (Like the 15th to the 20th) are done and when the Poll is up (like the 20th to the 25th). That way, people who don't check every day won't miss it, because it will be the same time frame.

I also like the idea of the buddy read section. Either from a request or a close/almost winning 2nd place winner.

I think you all do a nice job trying to get all of us involved. This is a very friendly group and I enjoy it.

Thank you for your kind comments, Vicki. :)

I like the monthly reads too but sometimes I let the timeline get away from me and end up finishing late. I'm still only 25% of the way through Little Girls which I think was our April read. LOL

We can definitely tweak the schedule to be more consistent and more timely.

Thanks.

Kate wrote: "Participation in groups in GR seems to be pretty low at the moment.
I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts about what they would like to get out of the group next year.
I'm going to put a threa..."

Yeah its hard to do group reads when there's so little participation. I'm heading over to look at the challenge's thread now! I enjoyed the A-Z title challenge this year.

I loved the A-Z challenge, and I have been checking back here for nominations, etc. I participate in a few other group reads, and review for various places--what I like the best about this group is that we only have to read a set amount each week, which gives me plenty of time for the reviews I *need* to do, week to week.

That being said, I agree that having a specific timeline for group monthly reads would be a nice idea, and give us plenty of time to find a copy of the book. Also, perhaps a "themed" choice once in a while? Ex. "thriller, this week", etc...