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New List: Books Published by Year
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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-04 1:48 PM (#11080)
Subject: New List: Books Published by Year



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We've just added a new list to the site:  Books Published by Year.  With this list you can search the DB by year, genre, and book type.  You can even get just the award nominated books for the year.

This list will address several requests over the years to make searching the site easier and was a necessary step for the next project the Award-Worthy Books list.

Check it out and let us know if you encounter any problems.  Thanks.

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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-05 12:50 AM (#11081 - in reply to #11080)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Bump.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-08-06 4:59 AM (#11083 - in reply to #11080)
Subject: RE: New List: Books Published by Year



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What a fun toy!  I was using it to see the vast proliferation of award nominated books over the years.  If you had wanted to read every award nominee (for awards currently tracked by WWE) every year, it was quite doable up through the seventies, where per year totals  ranged from 14 to 29 with an average of 21.  In the eighties, the average jumped up to 42, then to 60 in the nineties, and then to 92 in the aughts.  So far in the current decade, we are averaging a whopping 119 nominees per year!  If this goes on...

Something I noticed was that, despite the fact that the lists should show all the books "first published in a specified year", the lists don't actually select on the first publication year.  Instead, if a book was published in multiple years, then that book will appear in multiple lists, once for every year published.  So, for example, Thorne Smith's Turnabout shows up in the 1931 list , the 1947 list , and the 1980 list .  It seems like the query needs to be tweaked so as to produce the desired results as stated.

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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-06 2:42 PM (#11084 - in reply to #11083)
Subject: RE: New List: Books Published by Year



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Location: Dallas, Texas
Engelbrecht - 2015-08-06 4:59 AM

What a fun toy!  I was using it to see the vast proliferation of award nominated books over the years.  If you had wanted to read every award nominee (for awards currently tracked by WWE) every year, it was quite doable up through the seventies, where per year totals  ranged from 14 to 29 with an average of 21.  In the eighties, the average jumped up to 42, then to 60 in the nineties, and then to 92 in the aughts.  So far in the current decade, we are averaging a whopping 119 nominees per year!  If this goes on...

Something I noticed was that, despite the fact that the lists should show all the books "first published in a specified year", the lists don't actually select on the first publication year.  Instead, if a book was published in multiple years, then that book will appear in multiple lists, once for every year published.  So, for example, Thorne Smith's Turnabout shows up in the 1931 list , the 1947 list , and the 1980 list .  It seems like the query needs to be tweaked so as to produce the desired results as stated.

Hey, glad you like the new list and I love how you've already used it to analyze the proliferation of awards noms over the years.  We thought you guys would find some interesting uses for it.

Thanks for finding the repeat appearances on the lists.  Whargoul has fixed it already to give it another go.  Let us know if you find anything else.

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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-08-10 12:35 AM (#11107 - in reply to #11080)
Subject: RE: New List: Books Published by Year



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That was quick!

I've started going through the books by year, making book type corrections (collection, anthology, etc.) missed from our initial go-round on this.  It's been a real problem in that, as I'm doing this, I see so many books that I want to read RIGHT NOW!  Seeing all the covers laid out like that is like being the proverbial kid in the candy store... 

With the duplicates having been removed, I've now retotaled the awards by decade.  The seventies now average 19 nominated books per year, the eighties are 38 books per year, the nineties are 53 books per year, the aughts are 74 books per year, and so far this decade, the average is 95 books per year.  So, it's marginally easier to read all the nominees every year, but it's pretty close to being a full time commitment.

I thought of a couple of enhancements that, while perhaps being not straightforward to implement, would be an extension of the utility of the page.

One enhancement would be the addition of lists to the Awards option.  Perhaps the Awards checkbox could be converted to a dropdown with "All Books", "Award Nominated Books Only", "List Books Only", and "Award/List Books Only". (The descriptive text for the "All Books" option for the Novels, Collections, etc. dropdown might then be changed to "All Book Types".)

Another enhancement would be to allow the functionality of selecting a range of years instead of only a single year.

Again, I've really been having fun with this - thanks!

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justifiedsinner
Posted 2015-08-10 2:16 PM (#11109 - in reply to #11107)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Love the new feature should time-suck my remaining years quite nicely. That said you have some weird years in the list all with no books listed: 19, 1308, 1499, 1530, 1532, 1604, 1612 etc.
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illegible_scribble
Posted 2015-10-12 9:25 PM (#11484 - in reply to #11080)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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This feature appeared whilst I was off gallivanting around the country before Worldcon, but I discovered it when I finally got back home. I was one of the people who'd requested this, and it's fantastic! I've already used it a ton for identifying high-priority reads for next year's Hugo nominations.

Thanks so much for all your hard work in creating this functionality.

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Administrator
Posted 2015-10-12 9:36 PM (#11485 - in reply to #11484)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Location: Dallas, Texas
illegible_scribble - 2015-10-12 9:25 PM


This feature appeared whilst I was off gallivanting around the country before Worldcon, but I discovered it when I finally got back home. I was one of the people who'd requested this, and it's fantastic! I've already used it a ton for identifying high-priority reads for next year's Hugo nominations.

Thanks so much for all your hard work in creating this functionality.

You are most welcome and I'm glad you like it!  We're still working on the Award-Worthy Books list which will play into your plans for finding Hugo books for next year very nicely.  We got kinda busy with work and family etc. the last few months so the project has slowed tremendously but we've made some updates here in the last week that have me excited to be moving forward again.  More news as we get closer.

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dustydigger
Posted 2015-10-15 12:36 PM (#11499 - in reply to #11485)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Great new resource. I was thinking of perhaps doing a ''Life in Space'' challenge,one book for each new of my life from 1948 to date,and this would be perfect for choosing my reads. I am expecting to have my other knee replaced next year,perhaps January,and I remember the 6 months of hell recuperating ,so perhaps I may leave that 69 book challenge till 2017! lol.
I do intend to read a lot of 50s stuff next year,since I have enjoyed the Defining Books of the 1950s enormously,and intend to concentrate once again on that decade in 2016. It looks as if I will find a lot of extra books from this list! Fantastic!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-10-28 10:36 PM (#11580 - in reply to #11499)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Location: Dallas, Texas

dustydigger - 2015-10-15 12:36 PM Great new resource. I was thinking of perhaps doing a ''Life in Space'' challenge,one book for each new of my life from 1948 to date,and this would be perfect for choosing my reads. I am expecting to have my other knee replaced next year,perhaps January,and I remember the 6 months of hell recuperating ,so perhaps I may leave that 69 book challenge till 2017! lol. I do intend to read a lot of 50s stuff next year,since I have enjoyed the Defining Books of the 1950s enormously,and intend to concentrate once again on that decade in 2016. It looks as if I will find a lot of extra books from this list! Fantastic!

Hey DD, sounds like some great uses for the new list!  Sorry to hear about the knees.  I hope that goes well.  You'll need to stock up on the books - especially given how fast you plow through them.

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dustydigger
Posted 2018-10-24 9:35 AM (#18386 - in reply to #11080)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



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Well,I was intending to do a Birth of a Reader challenge in 2017,as I posted on this thread way back on in 2015,but all sorts of real life issues got in the way.However,I was thinking I would finally get on to it in 2019.(better late than never!) but I find that I want to read several books for some years,so wondering if I should just work through year by year though in that case I likely will need to live to 120 just to do the main books ! Our WWEnd lists are just so tempting I want to read them all.
Waiting to see what the new site will look like,somewhat in trepidation since I love the layout of the lists we have now,and hope changes will not be too drastic,I like the no nonsense simple and informative layouts we have now,and hope there isnt too much flash and dash at the expense of giving us the straightforward facts so we can inform our reading choices
Anyhoo,I regularly browse this books- by-year feature,and hope it survives the changes

slightly off topic.
My shocking memory. A few years ago,when I was just getting back into SF after decades away,someone,maybe Scott Laz,or possibly Jim Harris,published a very long list of books,around 400 titles if I remember rightly on a thread. Lots of stuff from post 2000,which didnt mean anything to me at the time,but now it would be fun to see how much I have now read,or can earmark for the future.
I did bookmark it at the time on an old computer now long dead and gone,and I have no idea what the list was for,but its niggling at me.Maybe a long list to choosing some best book list? Sorry gone right out of my head!
If no one remembers it will mean reading through an awful lot of old WWEnd threads,and I just dont dont have much time .
Hope someone can help


Edited by dustydigger 2018-10-24 9:52 AM
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Administrator
Posted 2018-10-24 2:01 PM (#18388 - in reply to #18386)
Subject: Re: New List: Books Published by Year



Admin

Posts: 3932
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Location: Dallas, Texas

dustydigger - 2018-10-24 9:35 AM Well,I was intending to do a Birth of a Reader challenge in 2017,as I posted on this thread way back on in 2015,but all sorts of real life issues got in the way.However,I was thinking I would finally get on to it in 2019.(better late than never!) but I find that I want to read several books for some years,so wondering if I should just work through year by year though in that case I likely will need to live to 120 just to do the main books ! Our WWEnd lists are just so tempting I want to read them all. Waiting to see what the new site will look like,somewhat in trepidation since I love the layout of the lists we have now,and hope changes will not be too drastic,I like the no nonsense simple and informative layouts we have now,and hope there isnt too much flash and dash at the expense of giving us the straightforward facts so we can inform our reading choices Anyhoo,I regularly browse this books- by-year feature,and hope it survives the changes

This is an old thread you've come back to!  Better late than never in more ways than one.  Still sounds like an interesting and big reading challenge.  You should go for it.

As for the site changes to come let me put your trepidation to rest.  You're going to love it.  It's everything we have now only better with a ton of new stuff added on.  There are only a couple of very small things that may get cut from the current feature set but they're things that nobody uses so I doubt they'll be missed in the flood of new features.  There are some new things coming that I think will be of particular interest to you and if you're game I'd love to give you a tour of the new site via Skype to show you.  In case you're not familiar with Skype it's a free program that lets your talk via the internet for free from anywhere in the world and allows me to share my screen so you can see the new site.  Hit me up via email if you have any questions or if you want to set up a time.

dustydigger - 2018-10-24 9:35 AM slightly off topic. My shocking memory. A few years ago,when I was just getting back into SF after decades away,someone,maybe Scott Laz,or possibly Jim Harris,published a very long list of books,around 400 titles if I remember rightly on a thread. Lots of stuff from post 2000,which didnt mean anything to me at the time,but now it would be fun to see how much I have now read,or can earmark for the future. I did bookmark it at the time on an old computer now long dead and gone,and I have no idea what the list was for,but its niggling at me.Maybe a long list to choosing some best book list? Sorry gone right out of my head! If no one remembers it will mean reading through an awful lot of old WWEnd threads,and I just dont dont have much time . Hope someone can help

This one is not ringing any bells for me but I know Jim Harris loves making big lists.  You can find his stuff here:  Auxiliary Memory  Great blog and he's go links to his list projects.  Good luck!

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