EDIT: This bounty is now closed for new submissions! Thanks everyone for participating. If you want, you can bet on the winner here!
I’m hoping Manifold can help me find a book (or book-length story) that I’ll love. Win prizes for great suggestions and bet on which will win at least 2000m here.
Requirements for entry:
I haven’t already read it (or tried to read it and wasn’t interested)
Is at least 75,000 words
Max 2 suggestions per person (though see update at the bottom), though if you suggest something and I’ve already tried it, I’ll let you know in the comments and you can suggest again.
Prize Structure:
25M for each good suggestion that I add to the 2,000M prize market (limit 30). “Good” means that when I look it up I think there’s a chance of it winning at least 2000M.
500M for a book I finish, but didn’t rate as something I “really liked”
2000M for a book I finish and “really liked” (see doc under notes in on my taste for examples of books that would have been in this category for me)
5000M for a book I finish that I would rate as one of my favorite books of all time (very few examples of these can be found in the doc below as well)
Bonus multipliers (only apply to finishing a book prizes, not 25M bounties):
2x multiplier for a book I’d never heard of and think I would not have likely found without the suggestion
1.5x multiplier for a book that’s outside my “normal” genres (subjective, but for something to meet this criteria I’d want it to really feel different than other things I’d read)
Multipliers are, well, multiplicative, so the biggest bounty I’d be giving world be for a book I finish that becomes one of my favorite books of all time which I wouldn’t have found without the suggestion that is in a genre I don’t normally read (5000M * 2 * 1.5 = 15,000M).
I’ll use the 2000M prediction market as a hint for what I should try first, but I don’t guarantee that the top choice there is what I’ll start with. I’ll answer questions in the comments about my taste, so feel free to AMA about books. I’m slightly more likely to try out books that are part of a series, because I tend to like extended stories, though The Martian is one of my favorite books of all time, and it’s pretty short.
If a book that you were going to suggest has already been suggested, please “like” it rather than adding a duplicate.
If you do leave a description of / pitch for the book in the comments, please do your best to avoid spoilers. I tend to like to go into things pretty blind.
Some Notes on My Taste:
Fantasy and Science Fiction are my most-read genres, with a side of popular non-fiction. I’ve done a write-up of some books I’ve read and what I thought about them in this doc.
I’ve got a bad pattern with a lot of books that I’d ostensibly like where if they don’t grab my attention in approximately the first 20 minutes of reading I tend to lose steam and not come back to the book. I’ve gotten lots of recommendations from friends for various books that I just don’t quite get started on (Lies of Locke Lamora, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, many others). So it's possible you'll want to lean towards things that start stronger, but then again maybe I'll push through slower starts because of the incentive in these markets!
UPDATE: As suggested by Joshua, you can do more than 2 suggestions per person if you add 25M to the bounty. If I've already read the book you suggest after you add to bounty, I'll give it back to you! I mostly limited it to 2 so people don't spam to claim all the bounty.
Related questions
When we cease to understand the world, Benjamin Labatut
The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut
Bounty number eight awarded! I finished Theft of Fire, as suggested by @goblinodds, for a 500M bounty.
See the comments here for my full review of the book.
(I also tried Catch-22, which I didn't finish. It's the first book from this bounty market that didn't even earn 500M. Sorry to @strutheo for my lack of tenacity in finishing it.)
We're up to bounty number seven! I finished Snow Crash, as suggested by @Vocateur, earning a 500M bounty.
See the comments here for my full review of the book.
The sixth book bounty is awarded! I finished Stories of Your Life and Others as suggested by @TylerJohnston, earning him a 500M bounty. I rated the book as "Good", which is one category short of "Really Liked". See the comments here for my full review of the book.
If you want to bet on which of the remaining contenders will win at least 2,000M, you can check out the new unlinked market: https://manifold.markets/ChrisPrichard/which-books-in-this-list-will-i-rea
We have a 2,000M winner! Children of Time, as recommended by @TheAllMemeingEye was great. Easily fell into the "really liked it" category.
Spoilered thoughts on the book can be found in the market to predict the first 2000M winner.
More books in this market can still win! I'll be continuing with the Children of Time series next, so it might be a little bit until I move on, but I will continue to update this market with winners as they happen. I'll also be adding an unlinked choice market for people to bet on each book separately.
Thanks for all the great recommendations here. :)
The fourth book bounty is awarded! Player of Games as suggested by @Vocateur has earned 500M because I finished the book. Alas, "really liked it" is still out of reach!
Spoilered thoughts on the book can be found in the market to predict the first 2000M winner.
I've awarded the third book bounty! Small Gods as suggested by @Lucio has earned 500M because I finished the book. Again, it didn't win a "really liked it" award. We'll get there at some point!
As usual, my spoilered thoughts on the book can be found in the market to predict the first 2000M winner.
I've awarded the second book bounty! Permutation City as suggested by @TylerJohnston has earned 500M because I finished the book. Unfortunatley, I didn't "really like it". :(
If you want to see my spoilered thoughts on the book, check out the market to predict the first 2000M winner.
I've awarded the first book bounty! The Three Body problem as suggested by @Joshua has earned 500M because I finished the book. Unfortunately didn't win the 2000M "really liked it" award. If you want to see some of my (spoilered) thoughts on the book and the sequel, check out the market to predict the first 2000M winner.
The Book Of The New Sun by by Gene Wolfe is an absolute must read. I don't want to say too much but it's one of the very few 5 star books in my Goodreads account.
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind is another all time favourite of mine. Proposing the theory that conscious experience has emerged some time after the bronze age collapse, this book manages to intuitively and easily explain a lot of things with this single hypothesis. Although I am not sure if I actually buy the theory, this is one of the very rare books that completely shattered my prevalent assumption and imbued me with a new perspective on things.
Godel, Escher, Bach: Eternal Golden Braid- by Douglas Hofstadter It is a mix of Stories, Math, Art, Poems, Dialogues between Achilles and his Tortice friend Mr. T (and friends), Mend bending information, Logic and puzzles, Symbolism and language, Music, as well as the relations of all these things. My favorite book of all time. Kind of math and coding heavy in certain areas so that may be a plus or a minus for you. But I think anyone could enjoy many parts of it. It can also be read out of order without significantly affecting much. Sometimes the book makes reference to earlier concepts in the book though (some made up).