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What makes RwS unique are the styles, the extra credit you get for books. Each season includes both combo and jumbo. We know you like the combos, and certainly think you should get something extra for reading longer books. What are your other favorites? With the styles we've added in the last year, we now offer:

Canon
Female
Lost in Translation
Multiple
Non-Western
Not a Novel
Oldies
Review
Series
Prize Worthy
Aged
Young

Please tell us your 3 favorites and an alternate. Inquiring minds want to know.

Because I am rather new, I do not have experience with all the of styles, but with my limited experience:

1. Lost in Translation
2. Oldies
3. Not-a-novel ( I like that this could include plays or short stories.)

Alternate. Series.

The reason I did not pick prize worthy is that I just do not have a good track record with prize winners. Often the books seem to be chosen on shock value. The reason I did not pick female is because I tend to read a lot of female writers anyway, and it seems redundant. It would help with points, but not really add much for me.

1. Multiple - Most seasons I don't plan for an RWS finish, so this rewards me for repeating tasks that really appeal to me.

2. Not-a-novel - I've always loved short stories, and recently I am reading a lot more non-fiction.

3. Aged - I'm discovering this season that there are many more aged authors I enjoy compared to young authors.

Alternate - Oldies

My favorites are:

1. Lost in translation
2. Not a novel ( the tasks seem to lean toward fiction so this provides balance)
3. Non western

Alternate: prize worthy

My least favorite are the age related tasks if they are defined as the age the author was when they died. However a young style tied to when the book was written could be an interesting way to read early works.

1. Not a novel—I am a heavy reader of nonfiction and because nonfiction is often denser and takes careful reading, I like the little “bonus��

2. Female
3. Lost in translation

Both because they provide me an incentive to look for authors that can be overlooked by whatever creates bestsellers.

Alternate—Prize worthy It has been fun exploring regional and lesser known prizes.

Favourites would be:
1. Lost in translation
2. Prize worthy
3. Not a novel

Alternate: series

1. Review - because I really like reading what everyone has to say about their books

2. not-a-novel - for all the reasons above-a way to encourage myself to read denser nonfiction and think about plays and short stories as well

3. Lost in translation OR non-western - to encourage reading authors I might otherwise overlook

Alternate - Young - to encourage me to explore new authors

Honestly, I like all of them (even the ones I never seem to use!) because it adds an interesting challenge to the challenge.

If I am forced to pick 3 I would say:

1. review - 'cause I do like reading the reviews, however I particularly like when we have a break from it as a style

2. oldie

3. multi - this one is good if either I am on fire in a season and read more than 30 books, or if there are one or two tasks that don't turn my crank I can still get points

alternate: not a novel - this is good for the non-fiction I try to get to.

For some of the styles I just find it hard to find books that fulfill the requirements - such as LiT or non-Western. This makes me sad actually because it isn't because of lack of interest, it is lack of availability.

Also - I like Mary's suggestion about the age related styles.

My favourites are:

1. Oldies

2.Review

If I have to pick a third, it would be not-a-novel, but there's not much to choose between all the others for me.

My favorites are:

1. Not-a-Novel--It encourages me to read nonfiction, short stories, plays, and poetry which I also enjoy.

2. Reviews--I enjoy reading other people's reviews, and writing them myself.

3. Multi--Sometimes there are one or two tasks that I really enjoy, or that fit into another challenge that I'm also working on.

Alternate--Prize-worthy--When it comes to prizes, I often enjoy the nominees more than the winners of the prizes. So styles/tasks that include nominees would work well for me.

(The styles I enjoy the least are aged and young. It does not add anything positive to my reading experience to have to spend time searching for a birthday of an author. Young authors often do not publish their birthday since they probably worry about identity theft. I always read a mix of older and young authors so having these styles does not change my reading plans.)

It's fun that you change the styles around every three months.

Favorites:

1. Not a novel
2. Prize worthy
3. Oldies

Alternate: Review

My top 3 are:

1. Multiple
2. Prize worthy: I personally enjoy trying to complete prize lists, but I know it's not for everyone.
3. Not a novel

Alternate: Oldies
I prefer oldies to Canon because we can choose our own classics. I would also suggest the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list over Bloom's Canon.

1. Reviews - writing reviews makes me think more about a book and I like reading them.
2. Prize worthy
3. Non-Western

Alternate- Not-a-Novel

Favourites:


1. Lost in Translation
2. Female
3. Prize-Worthy


Alternate: Not-a-Novel

1. Not-a-Novel - because I read a lot of that anyway
2. Non-Western - because I want to expand my horizons but some of it is written in English to start with so I prefer this one to Lost in Translation
3. Prize-worthy - I like better as a style than a task because it's optional and I do have all those Hugo/Nebulas to work through on my to read goals

Alternate:
Review - because it skews my point total higher :) and is fun but takes more time

1. Not-a-Novel
2. Oldies
3. Lost in Translation

Karen Michele wrote:

"I would also suggest the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list over Bloom's Canon. ."

Yes, this. I think the Canon is pretty restrictive and needs to be updated.

Joanna wrote: "Karen Michele wrote:

"I would also suggest the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list over Bloom's Canon. ."

Yes, this. I think the Canon is pretty restrictive and needs to be updated."

I know what you both mean, but Bloom includes poetry, plays, and some non-fiction (philosophy, religious texts), while the 1001 list is almost entirely novels, so it's restrictive in a different way.

Having said that, I'm not a fan of the Canon style. I'd have Oldies more often if it it were up to me :)

1. Not a Novel
2. Lost in Translation
3. Oldies

These are the three styles that most nudge me toward selecting/reading books I've been meaning to read but need an extra push to do so.

Alternate: Prize worthy.

My favs:

1. Not-a-novel
2. Multiple
3. Series

And as an alternate: Prize worthy

My favourites

1. Series
2. Female
3. Multiple

Alternate: Aged

Ooooh! That is a tough question--I like them all, because they each challenge me in different directions.
After much thought I have three that tie for first in my head, so in no particular order my favorites would be:
Lost in Translation
Not a Novel
Review (I love hearing other people's takes on books and I find so many great books this way!)

(And to get in on the 1001 vs. Bloom debate: my vote is to keep Bloom--for the mere fact of the diversity of texts: prose, poetry, plays in addition to novels)

I am not a big one for using styles...yet, at different times, I have liked the challenge of checking my books for most of these. I seldom use them to choose a book.

Female, multiple, or series are too easy of a style for me. That is what I read most of the time.

My vote:
Lost in Translation makes me more aware of the origin of the book and usually ends up meaning I read about a culture I have not experienced.
Review. I hate doing them but love reading them. Having to do a review pushes me just a bit more.
Not a Novel. I read mostly fiction with a bit non-fiction thrown in now and then. Seldom do I read other forms unless a task calls for it.

Alternate: Oldies.

Other miscellaneous thoughts:
Canon. I find it hard to use as one must have an idea of the date in time that a book was written. I tend not to even check this.
Non-Western. Since I live in the USA, this equates often to LIT.

My top 3:

1. Oldies
2. Lost in Translation
3. Prize Worthy

And, as an alternate,
Review -- like Bea, I like reading them even when I don't write them for every book I read

Oldies, Classics, Canon

Ed wrote: "Oldies, Classics, Canon"

Classics isn't one of the choices - is there another you'd like to replace it with?

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Ed wrote: "Oldies, Classics, Canon"

Classics isn't one of the choices - is there another you'd like to replace it with?"

Prize-worthy.

I like the Multiple, Review, and Oldies.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered their choices. We'll see what we can do to incorporate your favorites more frequently. Although it will not be going away, we had already started to use Canon less frequently, and that discussion was interesting to us. I am currently working on a way to incorporate a 1001 style. It will not be next season, and I can't even promise Winter for certain.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Thank you to everyone who has volunteered their choices. We'll see what we can do to incorporate your favorites more frequently. Although it will not be going away, we had already started to use Ca..."

I like the 1001 idea!

I like the 1001 idea too, and have an earlier version of Boxall's book.

My favorites are...multiple, not a novel, non-western! And as an alternate, for good measure, I like series ;) Though review is fun too - I like reading other people's reviews.

Oldies
Lost in Translation
Not a Novel

Alternatives: Female, Prizeworthy

Another vote for the 1001 idea here!

I know you didn't ask...but my least favorite style is "Review".....

I DO like to read other folk's reviews..... but I find myself, as I'm reading a book, to make mental notes to mention something in my review..... which becomes more complicated when I change my opinion of a book as I'm reading it...and maybe change again near the end. I recognize that is all a good exercise...and what good readers should do anyway...but, I don't like the stress that goes along with trying to make a succinct summary of a book's worthiness.
As an example.... I'm reading Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve right now..... and not really enjoying it. But then I had a thought...that if John Waters was the author.... I would have a different opinion.(I would have picked up the book expecting craziness.) I know that's not logical and doesn't evaluate the writing fairly.... but that dichotomy would be difficult to express in a review.
Of course, I could just ignore that style...but I couldn't let those points just sit there, could I? LOL

By the way.....in addition to being a possible future style.... maybe a new group project would be to read all the books on Boxall's 1001 list... (or some other similar list.)