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Administrator
Posted 2012-07-17 9:25 AM (#3761 - in reply to #3758)
Subject: RE: Non-fiction?		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas

Well, as a practical matter we don't usually have non fiction books in the database so you would not be able to count them, or at least tag them on the site.  The idea of the challenge is to get folks to try some Grand Masters they might have missed and it was always intended to be their fiction.

Having said that, I don't feel particularly strongly about it except that we'd have to decide if we are going to start adding non-fiction books to the database.  My first inclination is not to.  We've been pretty zealously sticking to our fairly narrowly defined mission for years and there is certainly a world of fiction still to be added even if we just stuck to works by the 1,169 authors we already have.

I'm always leary of diluting the content/focus of the site but memoirs from the Grand Masters seems like a reasonable place for an exception to be made.  At work we'd call it "scope creep" and try to ward it off with holy water but surprisingly I'm fairly well disposed to the idea.  Those kind of books can do much to increase our appreciation and understanding of the authors and the genre and that can't be a bad thing in my opinion.  The trade off is that we'd have to shift some focus to finding those books and deciding which to include and that would take some time away from adding new books, lists and awards etc.

If there is enough interest from the community we'd certainly consider going that route so let's hear it.  Who likes the idea of including non-fiction books in the database?  Are you interested in memoirs, genre history and guide books etc.?


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