I Had a Dream...

I've been trying to find a means of making a contribution. Even after reading many books on discovering your passions and purpose in life, I couldn't figure out how to combine making lists, gathering data and reading - some of my favorite things - into something that would help others. In the past, I've created and maintained websites for a MUD, a non-profit and a spiritual path and I knew I wanted an online presence for whatever I decided.

At LibraryThing.com, a social book cataloging site, there is a reading challenge for 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and many of us reference 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Why not a list of fantasy books?

So, I appealed to fellow members of the Green Dragon, a group of fantasy book lovers over a thousand strong, to help me with this labor of love.

Nominating fantasy books was the first step. In less than a week, there have been over 377 book/series title nominations for a total of over 987 books. My next step will be to make sure that all World Fantasy Awards have been included as well as sneaking a peek at some other fantasy lists for comparison.

Additional steps:

• Determine how to publish lists on the blog (downloadable file?)


• Research published dates of nominated titles for sorting purposes


• Find a survey app to vote on nominations. I'm probably going to go with SurveyGizmo.


• Create survey


• Tally votes


• Determine categories for lists within the list, i.e. urban fantasy, high fantasy.


• Create descriptions. This will take the longest, probably several months, and will require the assistance of Green Dragon members.


• Categorize books (same time as description writing.)


• Make category lists