Amberfly's ROOTs go deep...

This will be my first year attempting this challenge. The number of books in my "To Read" collection has begun to frighten me, and I thought this might be just the thing to cut it down to size. My book total will not include texts read for my college courses I've decided to count textbooks, since I have to read them one way or another. Books bought in 2014 will not count (unless they are textbooks), and neither will re-reads.

After hearing of the point-based systems other members are using, I've decided to borrow the idea, tweak it to fit me, and use that for a secondary goal. I've decided that for books bought in 2013, regular fiction and nonfiction is worth 1 point, classic or literary fiction is worth 1.5 points, and works bought for literature courses that remain unread (for various reasons) are worth 2 points. Additionally, books gain 1 point for every year they've been on my shelf. This is meant as an incentive to read some of the tomes that have been around the house the longest, so hopefully it works. Textbooks bought and read in 2014 will count for this total, but they're only worth half a point each. My point goal for the year is 130, and here is my point ticker:

Google doc where all my TBR books and their point values, which will be updated periodically:
Click for Points!

This post used to have short reviews of each book, but I felt they were cluttering up the thread so I removed them. I'm still posting my thoughts about each book when I finish it, but this post is just for titles and point values now.

Textbooks read:
1. Doctor No, 1/2 point.
2. Fifth Chinese Daughter, 1/2 point.
3. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, 1/2 point.
4. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, 1/2 point.
5. The Quiet American, 1/2 point
6. Hunger of Memory, 1/2 point
7. The Distance Between Us, 1/2 point
8. Losing My Cool, 1/2 point
9. The Magic Toyshop, 1/2 point
10. I Love Yous Are for White People, 1/2 point
11. The Book of Margery Kempe, 1/2 point
12. The Innocent, 1/2 point
13. Heart of a Dog, 1/2 point
14. The Haunting of Hill House, 1/2 point
15. Collected Poems, 1/2 point
16. The Bell Jar, 1/2 point
17. Face of Another, 1/2 point

Leisure novels read:
1. The White Dragon, 2 points.
2. Killashandra, 1 point.
3. Crystal Line, 1 point.
4. The General's Mistress, 1 point.
5. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, 1.5 points
6. The Jungle Books, 1.5 points
7. Gold Unicorn, 1 point
8. The Kitchen God's Wife, 1 point
9. Red Unicorn, 1 point
10. Lost Things, 1 point
11. Sense and Sensibility, 1.5 points
12. Indian Legends of the Northern Rockies, 3 points
13. A Dance with Dragons, 1 point
14. Krampus, the Yule Lord, 1 point
15. Transformations: Mysteries of the Unknown, 1 point
16. Four for Tomorrow, 1 point
17. Songs of Love, Moon, and Wind, 2 points
18. The Hidden City, 1 point
19. Weaveworld, 1 point
20. The Hunting of the Last Dragon, 1 point
21. Tender is the Night, 1.5 points
22. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1 point
23. A Haiku Journey: Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province, 1.5 points
24. Age of Innocence, 1.5 points
25. Heart of Darkness, 1.5 points
26. Hart's Hope, 1 point
27. Northanger Abbey, 1.5 points
28. Dragon's Winter, 1 point

Re-reads and others (not counted for the challenge, but here for recording purposes):
1. Dragonflight
2. Dragonquest
3. Silk
4. Splendors and Glooms
5. Crash
6. Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
7. The Darkangel
8. A Gathering of Gargoyles
9. The Pearl of the Soul of the World
10. Enchantress from the Stars
11. Nerilka's Story
12. The Renegades of Pern
13. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
14. Dragonseye
15. The Dolphins of Pern
16. The Star Scroll
17. Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
18. The Masterharper of Pern
19. Dragon's Kin
20. Song of Hiawatha
21. The Big Wave
22. Charmed Sphere
23. Madame de Treymes

Welcome and good luck! :)

Thank you! I expect I'll need some luck to get through that many pages =)

Welcome and happy reading!

Thank you for the welcome, connie! I'm excited to start the challenge =)

Hi Amber. Good luck with your challenge.

Thank you, rainpebble!

I'm starting today with the novel Island of the Mighty, which is worth one point. It's a very tiny cheat, as I started it a few days ago, but with the holidays going on I've only had time to read perhaps 50 pages of it. I'm aiming to finish it this week. It's been in my TBR stack since October, but I've been wanting to read it since back in March. I figured I'd start slowly, and this novel should be relatively easy.

Edited for typo. I have a TBR stack, not a TBR stick.

I don't think it's cheating when you start a book in 2013. For me it's when you finish them that counts.

That's how I was thinking, too. For me the new year often seems to start right after Christmas, so I figured it would be ok if I counted a book that I began a few days ago, especially since I'll be reading the majority of it in the actual new year.

Starting last year should definitely be allowed - otherwise a book or two could get caught in ROOT limbo! Besides, we make our own rules, so it's up to you.

I also started reading my first book of the year a couple of days ago. It's a pretty thick novel, so finishing before new years eve was impossible.

Welcome! And happy reading, of course.

Thank you for the welcome! Sadly I haven't gotten the start on my reading that I hoped I would. Island of the Mighty turned out to be a slower read than I expected. I'm enjoying it, but it's longer and denser than I thought. And I was distracted the other day by a re-read of Dragonflight, which I zipped through in about a day--I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed reading about Pern. As a re-read it doesn't count for the challenge, but this week I'll be starting a textbook or two for my literature courses, and since I have so many for this quarter I've decided to count them for my ROOT total as well as my point total. Hopefully that will help me make some progress on my other ROOTs.

I've had the Walton books sitting on my shelf for ages, couldn't quite summon up the energy yet. I find I need to be in a certain mood for mythology...What kind of textbooks are you reading?

I loved the second and third books in Walton's series, but the first and last have both been difficult for me, and I don't know why. They aren't even that long, and I love mythology, but maybe now's just not the time to read it.

My textbooks are a mishmash this quarter, as always--some autobiographies for a course on memoir as a genre, a few spy novels for a course on English fiction from the Cold War era, and (my favorite) The Broadview Anthology of Medieval Drama and The Book of Margery Kempe for a course on medieval drama. There are eleven texts for the quarter in my library already, with two more in the mail, so I'm reluctant to touchstone them all just now.

The course on English fiction from the Cold War sounds interesting! Looking forward to seeing what those are ;)

I hope they'll be interesting! The first one on that list is Dr. No, which I think I'll be starting sometime over the weekend. I don't normally read spy novels so I'm not entirely sure what to expect from it. I also need to start an autobiography called Fifth Chinese Daughter for the other class later in the week, and I need to make a dent in the medieval drama anthology by next Tuesday. On my own I don't read with such a tight schedule, but in literature courses there isn't much wiggle room, I've found.

Medieval drama sounds rather rarefied. Happy reading!

Glad you are with us!

@MissWatson--I love medieval literature. My favorite courses in college have been the ones that focus on it, though I admit I haven't read much drama from the era, other than the Second Shepherd's Play.

@cyderry--Me too! I've gotten a slow start to this challenge, but I hope to meet my goals all the same.

As an update, I've been forced to temporarily abandon Island of the Mighty in favor of required reading, but I hope to get back to it at some point, when I have enough time and the right mindset for it. I've just finished Dr. No, which I enjoyed more than I expected to, although I don't think I'll be returning to 007 the series anytime soon. I'm about halfway through Fifth Chinese Daughter, which I love. Even if the rest of the books for that class are terrible, it'll be worth it to have read this one. I need to finish it by Tuesday, but I don't expect it to take me that long--it's relatively light reading, and enjoyable, so I may finish it tomorrow. After that it's another spy novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and another autobiography, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure, plus some more selections from the Broadview Anthology. Sometime in between all that I hope to squeeze in a novel or two of my own choice, though I haven't decided which one(s) yet.

Another update: I finished Fifth Chinese Daughter today, and it was excellent--an autobiography written in the third person, so it reads like a novel. The author really has a talent for telling a story clearly and simply, and making her imagery stick in the mind. I'm really glad I took the course that has this as a textbook, because it's not something I'd be likely to pick up on my own, but I really enjoyed it!

Last night I began a re-read of Dragonquest, to follow up my earlier re-read of Dragonflight. Neither of them counts for this challenge, but I'm re-reading them in preparation for picking up The White Dragon, an unread book I've had for over a year but which defeated me the first time I tried it and which WILL count. It's a fast read, so I expect to finish it in the next day or two, with enough time to read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for my class on Wednesday.

Oh you fortunate reader, to have The White Dragon to look forward to for the very first time! It took me a chapter or two to get into, if I remember right, because I was initially disappointed that it didn't focus as much on people I'd already gotten to know. But then the story swept me away and became one of my favorite Pern books. I hope you enjoy it!

I have a few of the Pern books on the shelves. And I've read some, but I don't know which ones I've read, It was that long ago. So maybe I should pick them up again this yead and count them as ROOTs.

Yes, I read the first two Pern books my last year of high school, back in 2008 or 2009, and I loved them at the time. I tried The White Dragon at the time, but just like you, Merryann, I had trouble getting into it because it wasn't about the same characters. I gave it up after a couple of chapters, but I've always wanted to try it again. When I got the sudden, inexplicable urge to read Dragonflight again two weeks ago, I went through it so quickly that I decided this might be the time. They make excellent ROOTs, connie53, at least for me--I go through them so fast that they'd be a relatively easy boost to my total, if I counted them!

Why wouldn't you? I will certainly give them a ROOT change!

I'm not counting the first two because they were re-reads for me. I decided not to count re-reads for the challenge, in hopes that I'll get through the enormous stack of books that I own but haven't read yet--those are the real problem for me. The third one will count, because I already own it but I've never read it before.

That makes sense. I don't count re-reads either

My re-reads are finished (for the present). I've finished Dragonquest and started The White Dragon, which I'm enjoying so far (I'm about 50-70 pages in, can't remember exactly). I haven't so far noticed any of the problems that led me to give it up last time I tried. Now my only problem is finding time to read it!

I've also started The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, another textbook for my Cold War Literature class. I'm only about 35 pages in, but I need to hit the 180 page mark by Friday morning. So far it's not bad reading, but it's not really my cup of tea. Tonight I have to plow through some of the York mystery plays for Medieval Drama--I'm not finding those as interesting as I'd hoped, but they aren't terrible and at least they're short.

I'm glad you're enjoying The White Dragon this time around. :)

I am! As I said, the real issue now is finding the time to read it. And determining which Pern book I should read next--that's got to be one of the most convoluted series I've ever tried to read. I consulted the "Other books by this author" pages in three different volumes at the used bookstore today, and each of them listed a different title as the fourth one.

I am mired in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, seemingly unable to make any progress. It's not badly written, just not for me. Reminds me why I don't read realistic fiction that relies so heavily on politics--I just get stuck and have no will to continue. I have to push through this one, though, so wish me luck!

On the bright side, I finished Two or Three Things I Know For Sure today. It's a very short work, just shy of 100 pages and containing lots of pictures, and it was such a quick and enjoyable read that I almost feel guilty counting it. I think it took me under two hours to finish it. But it's a textbook, so it gets counted! One more ROOT down!

Can't you find the correct one here on LT, Amberfly?

I was going to check it out here on LT today, actually, since I finished The White Dragon late last night. But I neglected to check before visiting the bookstore yesterday, and didn't have easy internet access while there. The inconveniences of not having a smartphone manifest themselves in the most unexpected ways sometimes.

hahahaha. I hope you can find it here!

If you haven't read the ones about Menolly, Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, they may be a good place to read Pern next. More new characters, but you probably saw her some in The White Dragon, so it may be enjoyable to get her backstory?

I was looking through the many installments in the series and it does indeed look like the Harper Hall trilogy (the one about Menolly, which I haven't read yet) is the next logical step, unless I want to jump into the novels set earlier in the series, in which case Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern seems to be the one to proceed with. I'll probably end up going with the Harper Hall books, though--they're familiar as you said, Merryann, and they were also written and published earlier than Moreta. It's just a matter of ordering them online or tracking them down in a physical store now--the one I was at yesterday didn't have Dragonsong or Dragonsinger, but they did have Moreta. Such a decision! =)

Moreta, for me, was a 'read once' to have the story. I've re-read the Menolly books many times, and would again right now since we're talking about them if I wasn't determined to stick to my ROOTs.

Of course that's just my opinion. Yet another cool thing about LT is that other people will now chime in and say things like, 'Moreta was my favorite character ever!' Isn't it great?

Yes, it is great. One of the things I love about this site is how diverse it is, and nobody is afraid to disagree with the popular opinion. I think I'll go with the Menolly books if I can find them locally, and in the meantime I'll fit in a ROOT or two.

I totally agree with Merryann. I read Moreta last year and then donated it. It didn't do a lot for me. I loved the Menolly books when I read them a few years ago. And darn it, now I want to reread them!

Menolly it is, then. I'll probably end up reading Moreta at some point anyway, but I'll read the Harper books next, when I find them.

On a more ROOT-related note, I finished with The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and I'm glad to be done with it. Didn't enjoy this one at all--too many plot twists, too much talking, not enough action, and I didn't like any of the characters. Next up in the Cold War lit class is The Quiet American, and I hope it's more palatable to me than the last one.

>36 Merryann:, 38 We have ROOTs. If we're not careful, we're going to create BRANCHes (Books Read Already Now Chosen H'again).

Anyone know a better word for 'h'?

Congrats on finishing the 'Spy Who' book. At least it's good to be done with it. :)

Good job, amberfly!

Thank you both! Yes, at least now I know I can pass that one on when the class is over, which leaves me with more space for other books. And I like the BRANCHes, that's perfect! I have many of those, too...

Oh, I have lots and lots of BRANCHes!

BRANCHes are my life! I can't complain (although I do); I know a book is great, can't remember it, but know that it will give me pleasure yet again.

But does anyone know a word to go with the H?

Happily? Honorably? Here-again?

I gave it about 3 minutes' thought, but came up empty handed. I kind of like your original 'H'again'.

Some southerners (I'm not one of them) can gracefully pronounce an 'h' in front of certain words. That's how I came up with h-again. A common example is 'hits' for it's. So, if everyone wants to pretend to be a deep southerner in the United States...the 'proper' pronunciation would be 'hahgin' (hard 'g'). :)

I like Happily!

I like h'again too. I can't think of any synonyms to it that begin with H.

ROOT update: I'm having a hard time getting into The Quiet American, but I think once I do get into it, it'll go faster than the last spy novel. Probably I should focus more on that than on the leisure novels I'm trying to read, but they're so much fun! In addition, I need to read Hunger of Memory for my autobiography course this week. I haven't started it yet, but the other books for this course have been good, so I hope to enjoy it.

I haven't been able to track down McCaffrey's Harper Hall books in any local stores yet. I suspect they may be out of print since Barnes and Noble didn't have them, but none of the used stores seem to have them either. I'll probably bite the bullet and get them online eventually; I'm only looking locally because I'm stingy and I don't want to pay for shipping. In the meantime, I've turned to the other McCaffrey books in my vicinity--the Crystal Singer trilogy. I read the first one about a year ago, and the other two volumes have been on my shelf long enough to count as ROOTs. I started the second one, Killashandra, last night and got through about 40 pages before I was too sleepy to continue. Liking it so far!

Amberfly - You might try checking The Book Depository online - they do free worldwide shipping to most places (though they don't usually have out-of-print, so may not be of much help!)

Caramellunacy--thanks for the tip, I'll check them out! I'm not certain if the books are out of print or not, just speculating. B&N didn't have them, but they've been going a bit downhill for a while and their science fiction/fantasy selection isn't what it used to be (in terms of paper books, I mean--I can't speak to their ebooks).

ROOT update: I've finished with Hunger of Memory and The Quiet American and sadly didn't really enjoy either of them. I'll definitely be passing those along when the quarter is done, leaving more space for more enjoyable books. Next week I'll be reading The Distance Between Us, another autobiography, while the Cold War Lit class takes a short hiatus. Hopefully this will also give me time to finish Killashandra, since I haven't had a chance to pick it up all week. But I have a lot of schoolwork to do next week as well, so this may not be the case.

ROOT # 7! Wow Amber, you are really Flying (I could not resist this, sorry)

Thanks, connie! And lol, flying =)

It's the textbooks making me go so fast--I have to finish them by the class deadlines, even if I only skim the endings (or the second half, in some cases). I wouldn't go this fast on my own, and I probably won't continue at this pace when I'm not in class (over the summer, for instance). But then again, I probably wouldn't read half of these books on my own anyway.

Time for another weekly update (since it seems that's the pattern that fits me). I finished The Distance Between Us yesterday evening, and finished Killashandra this morning. The Distance Between Us was really good, once again something I wouldn't have picked up on my own but that I'm really glad I read. I'm now very glad I decided to take this autobiography course, since most of the books have been so good! Killashandra was quite good as well, though I think I liked Crystal Singer better. I have the third volume of the trilogy, Crystal Line, ready to go, and I'll probably read that next. I also need to start The Magic Toyshop this week for my Cold War lit class--hopefully it will buck the trend of disappointment that the others for that course have set. I'm not sure if there's another autobiography to read this week as well--I'll post it here if there is.

Good reading! I, like you, enjoyed Crystal Singer more than Killashandra.

Update: I've finished Crystal Line, the last of the trilogy, and I think it was my favorite of the three. Made me think about the nature and importance of memory, something so basic that we don't miss it until it's gone, and then it is others around us who see the lack because we can no longer recognize it. A tad less...focused? than the others in the series, but it all ties together in the end.

In terms of other fiction, I'm about 3/4 of the way through The General's Mistress, a ROOT that mixes history, romance, and fantasy/mysticism in a very effective manner. I've read and loved a lot of this author's other work, and this one is no exception. I also picked up Lady Chatterly's Lover at a used book sale last week, and I've been dallying in reading that as well. An interesting read, though slower than I'd like and not quite what I expected. I'm not too far into that one yet.

As textbooks go, I'm about halfway through The Magic Toyshop and I'm enjoying it so far--very different from the other books I've read for this course. Some of the prose is really enchanting. I'm finishing it later this week, I believe. I'm also about halfway through the next of my autobiographies, Losing My Cool. It's quite interesting as well, and I'll probably be finishing it this week. I need to start The Book of Margery Kempe today for my medieval drama course, but I don't need to finish that until next week.

I've finished both The General's Mistress and Losing My Cool. Both were enjoyably reads, though it's hard to imagine reading two more disparate works as these at the same time. In other ROOT news, Margery Kempe, The Magic Toyshop, and Lady Chatterly are all proving more difficult to progress with than I had hoped. I'll probably put Chatterly aside for a while until I'm more in the mood for it, though I don't know what I'll pick up in the meantime. Chatterly isn't a ROOT, though, since I bought it this year, so it won't affect my totals much. Will report back when I decide on another book.

Good luck with the hunting and deciding!

Thanks! After some deliberation, I chose The Jungle Books, partly because it was near the top of the stack. My mother read me Kipling's Just So Stories when I was a kid, but it's been several years since I looked at them and I've never read anything else by Kipling. I read the first 50 pages or so last evening and I wish I hadn't waited so long now. And it counts as a ROOT, since I acquired it in December. Progress is being made =)

Good for you, Amber!

Thank you! And one more crossed off the list: I finished The Magic Toyshop last night. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. It had some really striking imagery and themes, but the ending bothered me. I realize that the author made it deliberately open-ended and vague, but I'm still bothered by how abrupt it was and how many questions it left unanswered. I think I need to digest this one for a while before writing about it.

On the itinerary for next week are two new textbooks--The Innocent for Cold War Lit and I Love Yous Are for White People for Autobiography, plus finishing Margery Kempe. These will be the last textbooks for this quarter, after which I will disappear in term paper writing for a week or two, before going out and purchasing more textbooks for next quarter's classes.

And another one finished--a pocket-sized copy of The Yellow Wallpaper and four other stories by the same author. I almost feel silly counting this one since it was so short, only 87 pages, and I read it cover-to-cover in an afternoon. And yet it's a book, and a ROOT, and it made me think, which is more than can be said of a lot of other books. I'll be starting those new textbooks tomorrow, but I'm glad I took the time to read this today.

Yeahhhhhh!!

Don't feel silly at all, especially if it made you think! I zipped through Twenty and Ten in about an hour and it made quite an impact on me (story of French children choosing to hide Jewish children from Nazis during WWII). And I finished slogging through a 400 page please-let-this-book-end-soon shortly afterwards. Of the two books, you can see which one I thought more worthy of being counted!

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! The Yellow Wallpaper remains thus far my only completed ROOT for the month, and it's earned its place on my bookshelf, so it's counted.

Finished my last autobiography for the quarter, I Love Yous Are for White People. An interesting read, but it didn't speak to me the way some of the others for this course did. Still struggling through The Innocent and The Book of Margery Kempe--I hope to finish the former sometime today, but the latter may force me to turn to Sparknotes because it's so dense. Not a bad read, just not something that can be read quickly, on a deadline.

I finished The Jungle Books today. Very glad I read them, fascinating read. Part of me wishes I'd read these stories as a kid, but another part is glad I waited--I don't think I would have appreciated them as a kid. They were more complex than the movie versions led me to believe. I haven't yet decided what to read next--there are some tempting morsels I brought home from the used bookstore last week that might overpower my drive to pick another ROOT. It remains to be seen.

Still working on The Innocent--it's not a dense novel but it just doesn't interest me much. Turns out I was wrong about the deadline for this one--I don't need to have it finished until Monday, so I have plenty of time to get through the remaining 100 or so pages. I'm giving Margery Kempe until Tuesday to redeem itself before I resort to Sparknotes. No telling how much I'll get through before then.

Edit: I decided that my next book would be Silk, which I picked up earlier this week for the whopping total of $2 at the used bookstore. I breezed right through this one in about two hours. It was an odd little novel that I don't quite know how to describe, although I enjoyed it a lot. Sadly, having acquired it so recently, it doesn't count as a ROOT. My next read will probably be Tanith Lee's novel Gold Unicorn, which has been on my shelf since last autumn and will count as a ROOT.

...and I've finished with The Innocent and the Book of Margery Kempe, neither of which were enjoyable reads. With Kempe it was more a matter of giving up--something about this book just rubbed me the wrong way all along. Glad to be done with these, especially as they were my last textbooks for the quarter. Now it's just leisure reading and term paper-writing for two weeks, followed by a week off for spring break, and then I begin a whole new set of textbooks for the spring quarter.

That's a relief to be finished your textbooks, but that's a shame they didn't prove to be enjoyable. I read The Innocent a couple of years ago and was not enamoured of it either; I didn't even finish it.

Good luck with your papers! :)

Thank you! Term papers are always such a pain in the backside to write, but I'm trying to stay on top of them this quarter.

I enjoyed many of my textbooks this quarter, just not this batch. Most of the autobiographies I had to read were a joy, and some of the Cold War fiction wasn't bad. I just found the main character in The Innocent really annoying, and it's hard for me to stick with a book when I don't like the main character. I had the same issue with Margery Kempe and Richard Rodriguez, the writer of Hunger of Memory, which I read a few weeks ago--I just didn't like these people, so it was incredibly hard for me to finish their books. It's a weakness in me as a reader, but I don't seem able to do anything about it. Hopefully next quarter's books will be easier to stick with.

Edit: I started Gold Unicorn and it's really good. Of course, I should have expected no less from Tanith Lee. It's a light, fast read and I'm already halfway through it, so I'll probably finish it either this evening or sometime tomorrow.

Good to hear you now have time for fun reading!!

Thanks, connie! I'm glad too, though it won't last--I have this week and next to write papers, then one week off before the new batch of textbooks demands my attention. Hopefully I can get through some good ROOTs in that time, though!

I've finished Gold Unicorn and enjoyed it--lighter than I'd hoped, but a fun read. I own the sequel Red Unicorn, also a ROOT, but I'm staying with my boyfriend for a few days and didn't bring it with me, so it'll have to wait a day or two longer for me to read it. Instead I think I'll go with a complete change of pace and read The Kitchen God's Wife, which I bought last winter at a Black Friday sale for about 25¢. I have no idea what it's about--it just struck my fancy and was really cheap, and I remember liking one of Tan's other works a few years ago. Let's see where this goes.

That last one gets a good rating here, so enjoy!!

Time for another ROOT update: I've finished The Kitchen God's Wife--a really engaging read. It sounds terribly closed-minded of me, but for a long time I was convinced that I just wasn't interested in books about or set in Asia. Something wasn't connecting between me and the fiction. Now I'm convinced I was just reading the wrong books. This one was a very enjoyable and interesting read, and it may nudge me into other books of a similar type.

I also read and finished Red Unicorn, which left me with a similar impression as Gold Unicorn--beautiful but too simplistic, somewhat naive, know I'd have loved it as a kid but not quite what I'm looking for now. Makes me feel jaded, but I'm still glad I read these.

>70 Amberfly: I felt the same about the Jungle Book(s) (my library only had the Jungle Book, but afterwards I bought a copy of Books, but I haven't gotten to it yet), I thought there was a lot of great stuff in it that I wasn't at all expecting based on the silly Disney stuff I'm familiar with. Obviously I expected it to be deeper than that, haha, but not nearly so much as it was. It's something I'd like to read with my children (when I have them) and talk about with them, but I agree, I don't think it can be fully appreciated until one is older. :)

>78 .Monkey.: Yes, even though I do like Disney's Jungle Book cartoon (it's the version I'm most familiar with since I owned it as a kid) and I did expect more depth from the book, it was still surprising how much depth was actually there. I was expecting something closer to the Just So stories, which my mother read to me when I was little--those read like they're for kids. This doesn't. I had no idea that the cartoon contained less than half of the story put forth in the book--I didn't know it was cut that severely! I'm actually surprised, looking at the book, how anyone came to the conclusion that it was for little kids. Some stories, like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (which I'd never seen or read before, though I had heard of it), definitely seem like they were written with a younger audience in mind, but the rest of it? Nope, at least not to me.

ROOT Update: I've been very busy with my term papers this week (two down, one to go--have to write that one tomorrow) but I'm squeezing in reading time when I can. I started Lost Things the other day and I'm enjoying it so far. It was a little slow at first, but it's picking up the further I go, and I bought it last October so it counts as a ROOT. In other news, most of next quarter's textbooks came in the mail this week (still waiting on one) and some of them look pretty juicy. I haven't added them to my library yet, but I'm looking forward to starting them in another couple of weeks!

Edited to put the right title in--Steel Blues is the sequel I've been eying on Amazon. The one I'm reading is Lost Things.

And another update: I've finished Lost Things and found it an enjoyable read. It took me a while to warm up to this one, but it was worth it in the end. I'll definitely be picking up the sequel at some point, but not just now, I think. Too many ROOTs for that. I'm toying with some different options as for what to read next. Probably something a little denser--I feel like tackling some literature or nonfiction rather than picking up another quick recent fiction right away. Will report back once I've made a decision.

Edit: Decision made. My next ROOT is Sense and Sensibility. I started it this morning; I'm about 70 pages in and liking it so far.

Wow! You are doing great with your reading! :)

Keep it up, Amber!

Thank you both! I haven't gotten as much reading done over my spring break as I would have liked, but I did finish Sense and Sensibility today. I found it an engaging read, more plot twists than I expected and a somewhat improbably convenient ending, but still interesting. I think I liked Pride and Prejudice better, though. I have a couple of other TBR Austen novels hanging around the house, but I'm going to wait a little bit before jumping into another one. There are a few days left of my break before I have to start next quarter's required reading, so maybe I'll even work out another ROOT before then.

I started another ROOT last evening. It's Indian Legends from the Northern Rockies, which has been sitting on my shelf since approximately 2010, making it one of my older ROOTS. It's been a while since I read straight-up mythology as opposed to myths-reworked-into-novels, and I think it was the right time for this one at last. 100 pages in and no roadblocks yet.

Well, I haven't finished the Indian Legends book yet, but I had to start my reading for the new quarter today. First up is Heart of a Dog, which I started today. It's for a course on the history of the horror and fantasy genres that I absolutely HAD to take when I saw it in this quarter's schedule. Good reading so far, and the book is pretty short, so I may finish it by the weekend. In another day of two I need to start the Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, but I haven't begun yet. I don't know yet if I'll need to read the whole volume--it's a little on the intimidatingly large side for a textbook.

And now I've finished the Indian Legends, one of my older ROOTs that I am glad to have read and proud to have taken out of the TBR stack. I started Plath's Collected Poems today, and though I haven't had time to get back to Heart of a Dog yet, I plan to finish it by Sunday. It's pretty short, so I may finish it tomorrow if things go well.

Just finished Heart of a Dog. Kind of a disturbing read, though it actually went a lot faster than I thought. It reminded me a lot of The Island of Dr. Moreau, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I did Wells. This one was a little heavy on the political implications for my taste.

You are doing great, Amber!!

Thank you! I'm thinking of increasing my goal to 75--I think I'll hit 50 by June or July, but I don't think I'll have finished my ROOTs by then.

After picking up three or four different ROOTs in as many days and being unable to settle on one, I finally picked up A Dance with Dragons, which made its way into my TBR pile when it came out in paperback last fall. I read the first four books in the series last summer, but with so much going on during the fall quarter I didn't have time to sink into it for a week or two. I still don't have the time, but the itch to continue the series finally overcame my resistance and I gave in. I am now thoroughly embroiled. I'm still pushing through Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems, much more slowly than I expected. My other course only requires short readings this week, but next week I have The Haunting of Hill House on my itinerary. Very much looking forward to that one!

#91 The Haunting of Hill House is on my wishlist. I would like to know what you think of it, if you like to share your thought.

>92 Tallulah_Rose: Will do! I finished it today. It's actually the only re-read I'm counting for the challenge, because it showed up as a textbook this quarter. I first read it when I was in high school, and my impressions then and now are the same: creepy. I don't read much horror, but the horror in this book seems rather more subtle than I would expect, with most of it residing in the potential and growing mental unbalance in the characters. Jackson does this well, so that the reader begins to doubt what it real and what is not at the same time that the characters do, and the doubt never really goes away. I found some of the characters annoying at times, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of the novel overall. I'd recommend it.

Another update: Still pushing away at A Dance with Dragons--I'm really enjoying it, but time is short and life has been throwing a lot of upheavals my way. Had to take the car to the mechanic on last Friday, who couldn't tell what was wrong with it (it stutters when shifting gears, but only sometimes). Then on Saturday night I came down with a rather nasty cold--fever, dizziness, congestion, all that jazz. I'm better now, but not 100% yet. Then on Monday morning my one-year-old computer wouldn't start--turns out the hard drive failed and I had to replace it. It took three days of my wonderful boyfriend's time to get it working again, and I lost all my files, programs, bookmarks, you name it. I had two papers due this week, one on Tuesday and one today, and I have a Spanish test tomorrow. A bit worried about it, since I missed two days of class by being sick. Fun stuff.

In other ROOT news, I'm done with Plath's Collected Poems. I didn't read it from cover to cover, but I read large sections of it and the class is moving on, so I'm done with it. Next week I'll be reading The Bell Jar, which I know next to nothing about, as well as Face of Another for my horror lit class, which I know absolutely nothing about. I'm going to try to finish at least one of them over the coming weekend, but we shall see.

My goodness, when it rains it pours! I hope you are feeling totally better now!

>94 Amberfly: You lost all your files? That is a horror scenario. Best of luck for your test!

Thank you both! I am feeling mostly better, although my voice is still hoarse--I always lose my voice when I get a cold, and it's always the last thing to go back to normal. I did lose all my files, but truth be told there wasn't much that was irreplaceable or essential. I don't keep much permanently stored on the computer for exactly this reason. If I can't live without it, it gets a hard copy.

>96 MissWatson: That is what I thought too. But you were wise enough to keep a hard copy. Amber! I hope you will feel 100% better soon. And good luck on the papers!

Thank you for the well-wishes, all. Papers are all in and the test is taken, and I feel pretty good about all of them, considering the circumstances. I'll find out how I did sometime this coming week, most likely. Instructors always seem to take so much longer to grade a paper than I did to write it, lol. The computer is only waiting on the restoration of a couple of minor programs, some frequently-visited bookmarks that I have the urls for, and my music library, most of which is on CDs. It's just a matter of finding the time to enter all 50+ of them. Maybe today. But things are definitely looking better after what I've dubbed "the week from hell".

On the ROOT front, I started Face of Another yesterday. Unfortunately, I'm halfway though it and it's a bit of a slog. Too metaphysical and abstract for my taste, and the second-person POV keeps throwing me off balance. That's probably deliberate, but it gets annoying sometimes. If this weren't for a class I'm not sure if I'd finish it, but maybe I'm wrong and the payoff at the end will make up for the abstractness of the rest of it. I'm going to try to push through it today. Haven't started The Bell Jar yet, but if I finish Face of Another today I'll be starting that tomorrow. Dance with Dragons is on hold while I read the others. I really shouldn't start such long books during the quarter. There just isn't time for them.

Finished The Bell Jar. Plath's poetry wasn't to my taste, but wow, was this a brilliant novel. Disturbingly relevant to me as well. I'm now looking forward to trying her Journals, which I need to start over the coming weekend--I had been dreading them before. Still stuck at the same point on Face of Another, though. I find it hard to go back to it knowing what I'm in for.

>94 Amberfly: My computer also had to have its hard drive replaced after I had it for a year. Luckily I was having problems and took it in to Best Buy. They tried to tell me there was nothing wrong but I told them I wasn't taking it back because it wasn't working. They looked further and realized the hard drive was fried, fortunately they were able to save most of my files but I was really worried because my school work was on there as well. I also have an old net book and had to do my papers on that as I remember. I was so lucky how it turned out and can really sympathize with you over all the lost files. When you are going to school you really rely on your computer and I thought I was all set when I had replaced my computer the year before. I seem to remember having to use my net book for the previous computer's melt down as well.

>101 Familyhistorian: Wow, good thing you had them check it out! Mine was a silent one--completely normal one evening and absolutely refusing to start the following morning. My boyfriend was really my superhero last week--lent me his old laptop to write my papers (he just bought a new desktop about three weeks ago so it was available) and worked diligently to get mine in working order again (he's taken courses on this type of computer repair). I'm taking the old hard drive in to a professional sometime soon to see if I can get the data retrieved--there are some older files that aren't essential but that I would like to have, and we don't own the doohickey to try it ourselves. I'm just lucky it chose this time to fail, rather than three or four weeks earlier, which would have been right in the middle of last quarter's finals. That would have been a nightmare on a scale I don't even want to contemplate.

I hope you can get your files back, Amber.

I have all my 'important' documents and pictures in the Cloud my brother ownes. So I think I'm alright there.

>102 Amberfly: I know several people who have gone through computer melt downs while taking courses. It is almost like they are lying in wait. Good thing they don't know enough to get us at the worst moment - like when you were in the middle of exams or when I was in the middle of a term paper.

Almost all my classes require a term paper, too--some require both a term paper and an in-class exam. Not fun. But I know exactly what you mean about them lying in wait. Thus my aversion to keeping any kind of calender on the computer--it gives them too much knowledge =) Cloud storage sounds wonderful, but I can't afford it right now.

A ROOT update: I finished A Dance with Dragons today. Kind of binged on it, really. I intended to do all sorts of other things today, but instead I just plowed through the last 300-400 pages. It is causing me emotional distress to think of how long I may have to wait to find out what happens next. Still struggling with Face of Another, though--it just isn't grabbing me. I may need to write a paper on it sometime next week, though, so I have to push though. Maybe on Monday I can get through it.

#105 I have stored most of my text documents in Dropbox - it's free and it's very good to know, that I can find it again if the unspeakable should happen!

>106 Henrik_Madsen: I'll check that out. Having had this happen twice in such a short time, it'd be nice to have some security against it happening again. Thanks for the tip =)

ROOT Update: I gave up on Face of Another. I have enough of the story down that I can get by in the class, and I need to move on from it to my other textbooks. I also started Splendors and Glooms, a YA novel that I picked up at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't count as a ROOT, but I'm about halfway through it and it's a nice light read. It's refreshingly adult for a YA with 12-year-old narrators. It lacks vampires, shapeshifters, teen angst, and overt romance, which are some of the elements that tend to keep me away from YA these days. This leaves a good historical-adventure-fantasy with good characters and plot development, at least so far. I'm really enjoying it.

Finished Splendors and Glooms today--a really good read, although I agree with many of the reviewers who said the ending was a little too neat and convenient. I also started The Unabridged Journals, which is proving pretty interesting.

I started reading Crash by J.G. Ballard today for my horror lit class. I read ten pages and was so disturbed that I'm not sure I'll be finishing it. I've never been this disgusted by a book before. I may be resorting to online summaries to get by, it's that bad.

Still grappling with Plath's Unabridged Journals. It's a hefty tome.

Yikes, that sounds really like a bad book to read. 10 pages in and you already feel disgusted! don't read on, I would say!

>110 connie53: If it hadn't been assigned for a one of my classes I probably never would have picked it up in the first place. I don't usually read very much horror and this one is very graphic in a lot of ways--it just has some imagery that I really don't need tumbling around in my head. I might give it one more look before totally abandoning it, though, just to say I tried.

>109 Amberfly: I was curious about a book that showed itself to be so disgusting in 10 pages that I looked it up on Wikipedia - that is a very strange and disturbing premise.

>112 Familyhistorian: It is indeed. My initial reaction may have been somewhat extreme, and some of the reviews here on LT say that the first chapter is the worst, so maybe it's worth it to try again. I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow or Thursday, but with so many books clamoring for my attention it seems a shame to waste time on one I reacted so strongly against.

If you don't like it, skip it! Live is too short to read books you don't like.

>114 connie53: I totally agree, life is way too short for that. I have no qualms about giving up on a book if it's one I picked myself--the only thing making me hesitate on this one was that it was a textbook. But I decided I don't need that kind of book in my life right now regardless, so I gave up anyway. I won't be going back to it. I haven't had very much free time this week, so I haven't picked anything else to read yet, but there's no shortage of choices!

Just curious if you picked a new book this weekend!

>116 connie53: Actually I've picked several and can't seem to settle on one. When I do, it may not be a ROOT. There's a used book vendor who comes to my campus for two days every quarter, and he was there yesterday. I had about 20 minutes to burn waiting for my boyfriend to get out of class (we carpool), and in that time I found five new additions to the TBR. My next read will probably be one of those, but I haven't decided which one yet.

Three days gone by! Did you pick any of the new ones?

I started Songs of the South, one of my finds from the book vendor, and I've been reading it a bit at a time the last few days. The introduction is very interesting, with lots of historical context about a time and place not very familiar to me, but I haven't gotten very far yet. I suspect I might be in a reading slump.

You will get out of it eventually! Just keep some reading going.

Oh, no worries about that. I have no lack of unread books floating around, it's just a matter of figuring out which of the 100+ is the right one for the moment. But yesterday I picked up Krampus the Yule Lord, which I received last Christmas, and it's completely the wrong season to read it but it's what I needed--I've gotten more than halfway through it already. I find I like books set during winter or in cold places for when summer sets in around here--it's like a reminder that the soul-sapping heat won't last forever. I read most of the Song of Ice and Fire series last year around this time, and they served a similar purpose.

Good reason to read in the opposite season! Getting warm in the winter and cool down in the summer.

Absolutely! I love winter, but I live in Southern California and we didn't really get one this year--the weather just stayed hot and sunny, only cooling off and raining for a few days at a time before shooting right back up to 85+, sometimes 95+. Incredibly frustrating. Someday I'm going to live in a place that actually has seasons.

On the ROOT front, I finished Krampus the Yule Lord today. There was something not quite right about this book, and I don't know what it was. Characterization, maybe? I did notice that the characters' diction wasn't consistent--sometimes they'd use slang and turns of phrase consistent with their place and time, and sometimes they'd slip out of it for a while. It was kinda distracting. I did enjoy the book, though--the plot was unique and several of the characters fell into the gray area between hero and villain, which I really liked. And the illustrations were beautiful, as always. I really enjoy works that are illustrated well and consistently.

Once again I'm not sure what to pick up next, though I'm leaning towards Transformations: Mysteries of the Unknown, a book of essays on shapeshifters in different cultures around the world. I picked it up at my local $1 book store last summer, started it, then got distracted and didn't finish it. I've been meaning to get back to it every week since then and haven't found the drive, but I think Krampus put me in the mood for it again.

I've finished Transformations. It turned out to be much shorter than I thought. It didn't present very much that was new to me, but some of the historical anecdotes were interesting. It wasn't what I expected in that it didn't make much effort to represent other cultures expect in the first section--there are one or two references to Asian mythology, some bits and pieces on Native American shapeshifters, and a few stories out of Africa, mostly occurring in the first section, and the rest of it is all European. Kinda disappointing. Some of the artwork is worth seeing, though--it's printed on glossy pages with color illustrations, worth the $1 I spent on it, I suppose.

Wow, I can't believe I neglected this thread for so long. Sad to say I don't have anything to report in regards to my ROOT reading, though. For a couple of weeks I didn't pick up anything that held my attention for longer than a chapter or two, ROOT or otherwise. But I just finished a long-overdue reread of the Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, and while it doesn't count for the challenge I'm hoping that it gives me the momentum to start something else that does count.

Let's hope that! I been on-off the last couple of months too, but a vacation and some great reads just reminded me how great reading and writing about books is.

I've been reminded about the awesomeness of books recently, too. Since my last post I've read Enchantress from the Stars and Nerilka's Story, both good reads. They aren't ROOTs, however--Enchantress was a re-read and Nerilka was too recently acquired. The other day I picked up The Renegades of Pern, which is also too recently acquired to be a ROOT, but it hasn't grabbed me yet.

I finished Renegades of Pern a few days ago and enjoyed it--it took a while to get going, but the ending made it more or less worth it for me. I also read Four for Tomorrow, a quartet of short fiction by Roger Zelazny, which, unlike many of my recent reads, DOES count for this challenge! Yay for progress! Zelazny seems to be a tad hit-or-miss with me--I've adored some of his works and been totally unmoved by others--but fortunately this book was more or less a hit. Hopefully this is enough to get the ball rolling for the rest of my ROOT goals, but I made a trip to the used bookstore today, so that remains to be seen. Four new acquisitions followed me home, three more Pern books and a translation of the Kalevala, and they look so good...

Oh, you're making me want to read Pern again. The last time that surge hit, I managed to deflect it with some good nonfiction because I'm trying to read new things this year and not re-read. But...but...Pern is so interesting and I've not read any in years...

>Merryann It is addicting, isn't it? The first time I read them, several years ago, I didn't get sucked in enough to continue the series after the third book. But this year, for whatever reason, the time is right and it's got me. Every time I go into a used book store lately and they've got a Pern book I haven't read, it comes home with me. And there are so many of them to acquire that it happens in most of the stores I enter. It made my trip to Book Alley in Pasadena the other day much more difficult--they had about seven that I hadn't read, and I didn't have the cash for all of them.

Ooh, it's hard when you have to make that kind of choice (which to buy and which to leave for another day)!

It is, isn't it? It's why my "To Read" collection is as big as it is--I'm not too good at choosing between books, I want them all!

Yeah, I want them all and I want them now...

> MissWatson: exactly! My purchasing always seems to outstrip my reading pace for exactly these reasons.

In other news, I actually finished a ROOT! It was Songs of Love, Moon, and Wind, a slim book of Chinese poetry that I started reading sometime last year and neglected to pick up again until today. I'm not sure why I didn't finish it at the time, but it made for an interesting read today. I also read Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern in the last few days, which I also enjoyed, though not so much as some of the others I've read. I probably would have liked it better had I read it before Nerilka's Story, which is a companion novel to Moreta. I liked Nerilka better, but it may be just because I read it first, so I already knew how the Moreta story was going to end.

I never really 'clicked' with Moreta. It would be interesting to hear from someone who loved the character and book, wouldn't it?

It would indeed. I liked Moreta as a character, but I thought the book dragged in a few places, in spite of my finishing it in just a couple of days. Maybe the book was trying to do too many things at once? I mean, we get our first glimpse into the historical past, first look at a Gather, a plague, a love story, and several incidents of weyr politics and life-or-death Thread injuries. That's a lot to pack into one book, and that might be what interfered with my enjoyment of the story, besides the fact that I'd already read Nerilka's book.

Makes sense to me. I always figured that I didn't much care for it because I have a 'thing' about spending my time reading a book and growing to care for a character who is just going to die in the end. It's part of what's scientifically known as my 'Weenie Hiding-My-Head-in-the-Sand Problem'.

Yes, I have issues with that type of resolution as well, though I don't have nearly such an awesome name for it =) If it's done right it doesn't usually interfere with my enjoyment of the story. I must admit I'm a sucker for happy endings, though, especially when there's a love story involved.

More explorations of Pern have been made. Since my last post, I've read The Dolphins of Pern and Dragonseye. I enjoyed both, though I thought the premise of the dolphin one was just a little absurd, especially when I tried to explain it to other people. I also read The Star Scroll, second book in the Dragon Prince series, and enjoyed it more than the first book. The characterization issues with the three main protagonists are less obvious in this one, I think. Now I just need to acquire the third book and read it, before I can move on to the ones I already own which are actually ROOTs. None of the above were ROOT books, being acquired too recently. I think I may have read something else in that time, too, but if so it's slipping my mind just now.

Currently I'm dipping into no less than four other books, two ROOTs (The Hidden City and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and two non-ROOTs (The Kalevala and The Lore of the Unicorn). I really want to finish the unicorn one--I've been reading it for weeks--but The Hidden City is just too interesting and it keeps pulling me away. I kind of want to award myself points for the non-ROOT books, just because the unicorn one is really information-dense in its style and the Kalevala is so darn thick, but I'm trying to stick to my original goals in this regard.

The best thing the Dolphins of Pern book did for me was give me a desire to learn more about our own Earth dolphins. I do appreciate that. I'd probably never thought about dolphins at all prior to reading the Pern book.

Is the unicorn book about actual unicorns?

The unicorn book is about the real-world history of European unicorn legends. The author talks about how the creature was originally derived from a composite of other "exotic" animals, like the rhinoceros, as well as more mythological aspects of the legend, like the alicorn's supposed ability to counteract poison. There's a good amount of discussion about how the legends evolved through history. It is very dense, though, more an academic study than a light read.

I finished The Hidden City, a ROOT, and some more Pern books (not ROOTs). I quite liked The Hidden City and will probably be continuing the series at some point. As a fan of epic fantasy it's right up my alley. Character development was a strength in this one, and I'm interested to see where the story goes from here.

For Pern, I read Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, The Masterharper of Pern, and Dragon's Kin. Masterharper was by far the best, better than I expected from a book that late in the saga, but maybe I just love Robinton that much. Dragon's Kin was decent and I'll probably be reading more of the collaborative Pern books, of which this was the first. I always thought watch-whers were awfully vague where they appear in the other books I've read, so it was interesting to read about them here. First Fall was definitely the weakest of this batch, and I don't feel that I would have missed much by skipping this one. The first story was interesting, but the others didn't do much for me.

I really like the Pern books, but there are only 8 books translated and not number 1-8 but the translation starts somewhere in the middle of the series.

>143 connie53: Ugh, that must be annoying. Why would they start translating in the middle...? I'm reading them in English and it's annoying enough trying to find some of the volumes unless I order them online. The much-praised Harper Hall trilogy are not in any of my regular used bookstores (and I have several), so I haven't read them yet even though they're early in the series.

ROOT update: Started reading Weaveworld last week, a ROOT from last December, but I'm mot liking it much. Logically I should love this book, but for some reason it's not striking the right chords with me. I'm about 150 pages from the end (it's just over 700 pages in the edition I have) and I can't wait to be done with it, maybe by the end of this week.

I've finished Weaveworld. It remained somewhat of a disappointment to the end. I didn't hate it, but I felt like I should have enjoyed it more than I did. I loved Clive Barker's Abarat books (the first two at least--I had a number of issues with the third volume), and I kind of hoped that Weaveworld would be a sort of Abarat for adults. In a way it was, but somehow it wasn't enough. I found the horror elements jarring alongside the fantasy ones, and the characters failed to draw me in with the depth I hoped for. Oh well.

Another ROOT down! I read The Hunting of the Last Dragon today. Unfortunately I didn't love it--the story was a little simple and detail-lacking for my taste. I didn't realize when I bought it that it was YA, and although that doesn't necessarily mean it was bad (it wasn't), it does leave me wanting a little more than the story can give most of the time. This is something I probably would have loved when I was twelve, but doesn't meet my expectations now. I also found the main character a little annoying, and there wasn't much suspense. On to the next!

I just finished another ROOT--Tender is the Night, which I acquired about a year ago and actually really enjoyed. I expected to hate it after my experience with The Great Gatsby in high school, but it was a far more enjoyable experience than Gatsby was. There's nothing like a $1 hardcover to convince me to give an author a second chance.

It must be very frustrating to read several books that are less than you expected.

What are you reading now?

As long as I'm not reading several in a row that are actually bad, it's not a big deal to me. I also don't mind if I don't feel obligated to finish the book, which I rarely do unless it's a textbook. After all, it's not like I don't have other books waiting for me, and they all have the potential to be awesome.

I recently acquired a nice hardcover edition of the Song of Hiawatha and other works by Longfellow, which I'd never read. Hiawatha was a wonderful read, but the other long works in the volume aren't appealing to me just now. I also stumbled on The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck at the used book store, which I enjoyed in spite of its clearly young target audience. The illustrations were also really nice in that one. Sadly, neither of these was a ROOT since I bought them both this month. However, I did pick up The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam last night, and that is a ROOT. Guess I'm just in the mood for shorter works at the moment. I hope to finish the Rubaiyat by tomorrow, as it's not a long work and I have to go back to school on Thursday.

I just finished the Rubaiyat. The copy I have has three different editions of the translation by the same person (Edward Fitzgerald). I've never read a book with this structure before, but I found it was actually helpful. Because the editions are all slightly different, I was compelled to read them all, which meant re-reading the poems more than once. That isn't something that I normally do, but I found that it aided my comprehension of the work and made it more enjoyable. I had multiple instances to grasp the more difficult metaphors and themes, all from slightly different angles, and I think that I understand it better than I would have if I'd just read one translation and moved on to something new.

I finished another short ROOT-- A Haiku Journey: Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province. Interesting reading, though I expected it to be longer--I didn't realize when I bought this copy that it contained both the translation and the Japanese text (which I can't read). Oops. Still a good read, though.

I started another ROOT--The Summer Tree. So far it's not grabbing me, though. It should be just my thing, but so far something's missing and I don't know what it is. Guy Gavriel Kay can be hit-or-miss with me, though, so maybe this is just a miss. And I have some new acquisitions just begging for my attention, so we'll see.

>152 Amberfly: I read that recently too. My own feeling is that the writing is a little awkward; I put it down to being his first book. The only other I've read by him is The Lions of Al-Rassan, which I quite enjoyed.

What others by him to you recommend I avoid?

I've read two others by him: Tigana, which I loved and have read twice, and A Song for Arbonne, which I hated and couldn't finish. The Lions of Al-Rassan is in my wishlist but I haven't read it yet. As I continue with The Summer Tree, I find that I really enjoy it while I'm reading it, but after I put it down I have no drive to pick it up again. That and I keep comparing it to The Lord of the Rings--for me, almost everything suffers by that comparison.

> I think I'll try Tigana next based on what you say here.

I liked both Tigana and Een lofzang voor Arbonne and also enjoyed the Fionavar series. Ysabel too, that one is a young adult book by Kay

I've temporarily given up on Fionavar. It just wasn't grabbing me, but I may return to it at some future time. Or not, as the mood strikes me. I can tell that it's a pretty good story but something just isn't working right now. No new ROOTs to report before the end of the month--I've been dabbling with Cyteen, but that's too recently acquired to be a ROOT, and I haven't gotten very far with it anyway. I'm going to have to move faster if I'm going to meet my goal for the year.

After a gap of over a month, I actually finished a ROOT today. It was The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed Ethan Frome or The House of Mirth, which I read last year for school. I've read other books in the last few weeks, but this was the only ROOT. I have nine more books to go in order to meet my goal, but I'm not sure I'll reach it. I'm trying, though!

Other books read since Halloween include Cakes and Ale (loved this one), The Ship Who Sang (loved this too), and Houston, Houston, Do You Read?/Souls (enjoyed this idea--it was two novellas in one volume and they made an interesting contrast).

Yeah for finishing a ROOT! Good for you.

Thanks! I don't think I'm going to meet my goal but I haven't given up yet! I'm about halfway through another, rather short, ROOT--Heart of Darkness. I'm hoping to finish it either this evening or sometime tomorrow. I have to admit I chose it at this time because it was short enough that I had a good chance of finishing it within a few days, even with finals going on at school, but it's actually proving more interesting than I expected. Problematic, but interesting.

Finished Heart of Darkness today. My earlier assessment stands--a lot of things about this novel are problematic, but it was still an interesting read. I might have benefited from covering this one with an English class. I felt that there was a lot going on that I wasn't picking up on, perhaps due to the density of the writing. It might be clearer on a reread, but I have no plans to do one anytime soon.

Started another ROOT, Hart's Hope, which I bought last year around this time. It's got a good beginning but I'm reserving judgement until I've gotten a bit further with it.

Finished Hart's Hope. A really good read, and I loved the way it ended. I'm so glad I read it, and it brings my ROOT total to 43. I have seven books left to reach my goal, and just over two weeks in which to read them. I really hope I can make it!

Good luck and lots of time for your reading!

Thank you! I started another ROOT yesterday, Northanger Abbey. I hadn't intended to push through this one very fast, but I was enjoying it so much that I got through about half of it yesterday almost by accident. This might knock Pride and Prejudice out of its place as my favorite of Jane Austen's novels, though there are still a couple that I haven't read. I expect to have a lot of time on my hands tomorrow, so I might finish it then.

Just finished Northanger Abbey, and loved it right up until the end. Definitely my favorite, and it marks ROOT #44 on the way towards my goal! 13 days and 6 books to go, and I honestly have no idea if I'm going to make it. Haven't picked my next ROOT yet, but I'm leaning towards something light, possibly Dragon's Winter.

I finished Dragon's Winter last night, making 45 ROOTs read. It was a decent read, not the best, and I found the ending a little confusing, but I still enjoyed it well enough. I don't yet know what my next ROOT will be, but I'll be choosing it later today. As I was saying in the general thread, I might just seek out the shortest ROOTs I have left and read those, to improve my chances of finishing on time.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Go, go, go!!

Thank you! Unless I manage to read an average of one book a day until New Year's Eve, I don't think I'll be finishing. But hey, nothing's impossible!

Yep, it's impossible. I'm not going to meet the goal this year. I've been having trouble settling on anything to read the last few days, and although I did read another book today (a very short one, Madame de Treymes in a pocket-size), it wasn't a ROOT. Other books that I picked up failed to hold my interest for more than a few pages, though I have hopes that one of them might hook me in tomorrow.

Even though you didn't meet your goal, 45 is an impressive number!

>170 Tess_W: Yes, it is! I'm proud of myself for reading that many already-owned books, especially a few that had been handing around for a while. But next year I hope to do even better, since I'll no longer have so many textbooks mixed in. I might squeeze in one more 2014 ROOT before New Year's, but we shall see.