Amberfly's 2017 Root Thread

Hello and welcome to my Root thread! I'm back at the challenge for the fourth year, with my now-standard goal of reading 50 35 Roots in 2017. Goal revised to 35 in early March.

I define a Root as a book that I owned before January 1, 2017, with some exceptions. Re-reads and new acquisitions will not count for the challenge no matter how long I have owned them. I have decided to count comics and manga on a case-by-case basis, sometimes by volume and sometimes by series, depending on length. I'll post everything (more or less) that I read in the thread, but only Roots will go on the ticker.

Here's my ticker:

Roots read in 2017
1. Beware of the Cat (short stories)
2. Rocannon's World (novel)
3. Emma (novel)
4. The Drawing of the Three (novel)
5. Where Angels Fear to Tread (novel)
6. Wish (manga, 4 volumes)
7. Wizard and Glass (novel)
8. Flower of the Deep Sleep (manga, 2 volumes)
9. The Steam Man (comic, 1 volume)
10. Invader Zim Volume 2 (comic)
11. It Takes a Wizard (manga, 1 volume)
12. The Fifth Season (novel)
13. Voyage to the Moon World (light novel)
14. The Golden Nineties (novel)
15. Black Elk Speaks (nonfiction)
16. Saving Fish from Drowning (novel, bought 2016)
17. The Treasure of the City Ladies (nonfiction, bought 2013)
18. Mansfield Park (novel, bought 2015)
19. Kingsblood Royal (novel, bought 2014)
20. Chinese Cinderella (memoir, bought 2016)
21. X/1999 v.1 (manga, bought 2016)
22. Ivory (novel, bought 2013)
23. River of Stars (novel, bought 2015)
24. A Study in Scarlet/The Hound of the Baskervilles (short stories, bought 2014)
25. Letter from Peking (novel, bought 2016)
26. .hack//XXXX (manga, 2 volumes, bought 2016)
27. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (novel, bought 2016)
28. Grass for His Pillow (novel, bought 2016)
29. Brilliance of the Moon (novel, bought 2016)
30. Alichino (manga, 3 volumes, bought 2016)
31. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (novel, bought 2016)
32. Far from the Madding Crowd (novel, bought 2013)
33. In the Forest of Forgetting (short fiction, bought 2016)
34. A Christmas Carol (novel, bought ????)
35. Black Horses for the King (novel, bought 2016)
36. Noh (nonfiction, bought 2016)
37. The Scarlet Pimpernel (novel, bought 2015)
38. The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 2 (novel, bought 2016)

Non-Roots read in 2017
1. The Book of the Dun Cow (new)
2. The Waste Lands (new)
3. The Sandman Companion (new)
4. Queen of the Tearling (new)
5. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (reread)
5. One Bead at a Time (new)
6. Cythera (new)
7. The Tempering of Men (new)
8. The Machine Stops (new)
9. Wolves of the Calla (new)
10. Across the Nightingale Floor (reread)
11. Song of Susannah (new)

Manga and comics read in 2017

Currently reading these series:
Bleach (waiting for v. 70)
Princess Jellyfish (waiting for omnibus v. 4)
The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths (waiting for v.2-3)
Saga v.1-6 (waiting for v.7)
Death: The Deluxe Edition v. 1
Lantern City v. 1

I have finished these series:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica v. 1-3 (full series)
Tegami Bachi v.1-10 (did not finish)
Chi's Sweet Home v.1-12 (full series)
Ikigami v.1 (library only has v.1)
Gimmick! v.1-9 (full series)
Psyren v.1-16 (full series)
Unwritten v.1-12 (full series)
Fairest v. 1-5 (full series)
Jack of Fables v. 1-3 (did not finish)
Ajin: Demi-human v. 1-3 (did not finish)
Library Wars v. 1

Stand-alone graphic novels read this year:
Neil Young's Greendale
Broxo
Flight Explorer
Dear Creature
1001 Nights of Snowfall (Fables)
Werewolves of the Heartland (Fables)
A Drunken Dream
A, A' (A, A Prime
Wolf Children

Welcome back and have a great reading year!

Glad you're here!

Happy reading in 2017!

Good luck ROOTing in 2017.

Thanks, guys! I hope it's a good reading year. Last year I had a net loss to the number of books in the TBR--it had been around 170-175 (not sure, exactly) and today it's at 159. I hope to do even better in 2017 and reduce it even further.

I've not yet selected my first Root of the year, though tomorrow it probably the day for it. Today I've been reading a manga series from the library, Gimmick!. It's a little outside my normal genre but I'm enjoying it.

Happy to see names I recognize! Good ROOTing and very Happy New Year.

Welcome back!

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Thanks, guys! Glad to see you all back as well.

I've chosen my first Root of the year. It's going to be Beware of the Cat, an anthology of short feline-themed horror stories that I have owned since at least 2013, perhaps longer. I have only just begun it, but the first story was interesting, so I'm hopeful.

Welcome back and best of luck with your 2017 ROOTs! Your first ROOT pick sounds interesting.

Good luck this year!! I wish I had the strength to not count comics and manga, but I don't think I could ever meet a goal without them! I'm taking Princess Jellyfish Omnibus 3 with me on a trip this weekend. I can't wait to read it!

Welcome back, Amberfly! Good to see you again. Happy ROOTing.

>15 Sace: It helps that I don't have very many unread ones. I read them so fast they don't have time to put down Roots.

>16 connie53: Hello! Nice to see you too. =)

Time for 2017's first Root update! I finished Beware of the Cat last night. I've owned this one for at least as long as I've been a LT member, and I'm glad I finally got to it. It was a better read than I expected, having put it off so long. Some genuinely creepy stories in there. On the comics front, I've been reading a a volume here and there in several series, though I did actually manage to finish one, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It got a little strange at the end but was a good read all the same.

Weekly Root update! I'm currently reading Root#2, Three Hainish Novels. I'm not sure yet whether I'll count this as three Roots or as one, because it is an omnibus. It contains Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions, but since all of them are relatively short it only makes for an average-sized book. But however it's counted, I'm enjoying it.

For comics, I haven't finished any new series but am continuing with the 5(!) I've got going. Psyren especially is pulling my interest, though the one I'm focusing on just now is Saga, since that has to go back to the library soonest.

Life is about to get rather busy, as I have a job interview tomorrow (which, if successful, will necessitate moving to a new city 2 hours away), and I am starting an online grad school program in about two weeks. I don't know how much time I'll be able to give to Roots, or reading in general, with all that going on, but I'm going to try and keep it all up. Wish me luck!

Good luck with both the interview and the studying! Hopefully reading can give you a little bit of light relief!

Good luck with the interview and your online program! Sending you good reading vibes to help you unwind when you need it!

Fingers crossed for your interview!

Wishing you the best of luck for your interview!

Good luck w/ your interview today!

Concentrate on today's interview and your new program of study. Your bookshelves will be waiting, filled with companions who don't care if you have a goal for reading them of not.

Who knows, they may have to go in storage should you move. Books always forgive us if we neglect them.

Best of luck to you in all your endeavors!

Thank you for the well-wishes, everyone! The interview did not go very well, but I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. There will be other interviews, for other jobs. There's another position available in the same area and a similar field that I plan to apply for. It doesn't pay as well but might be a better fit for me otherwise. We shall see.

>24 Limelite: So very true! Though honestly my home is not a home until the books are unpacked. It can be a stressful time, and that's when I need my oldest paper friends the most.

>25 Amberfly: Too bad you don't feel good about the interview, Amberfly. Don't let it get you down. As you say, there will be other jobs for you.

>26 connie53: Thank you. It's not bothering me too much, and I applied for the second one I mentioned. I really hope it works out; I don't want to keep doing what I'm doing now.

No new Roots to report, but I am reading comics. I finished Chi's Sweet Home today, and it was adorable up to the very end. I gave up on one series (Tegami Bachi), because...I don't really know. It just gradually stopped holding my interest. Sad, because I liked the early volumes a lot. I have also had to quit reading Fushigi Yugi (which I talked about in my 2016 thread), because for some reason the library only has the first 8 volumes, and vol. 18, the last one. Still scratching my head about this. I'm still reading Psyren, Gimmick!, and Saga (and loving them all) and I've started another new one, The Unwritten. Only one volume into that last, but I'm hopeful about the rest.

>27 Amberfly: Very good! I hope you get the interview and the job!

>27 Amberfly: I'm in a similar position too - recently had an unsuccessful interview, don't particularly want to be doing what I'm doing now. I'm looking at reducing my hours and going freelance.

>27 Amberfly: Good luck with the second one!

also >27 Amberfly: Don't feel like you are missing much with the missing volumes of Fushigi Yugi. If I still had mine I would give them to you, but I gave mine to a student :-)

>25 Amberfly: well, it happens and it's good experience even when it doesn't go as we'd like! Sounds like you have the right response -- there will be other interviews for other jobs!

Good luck w/ the 2nd job!

>28 connie53: Thank you! I feel better about this one, honestly. Fingers crossed!

>29 Jackie_K: Nice! I'm searching for a position in the field my graduate degree is going to be in. Right now I'm in retail and I really don't want to stay there longer than I have to.

>30 Sace: Thanks on both counts. =) I was moderately invested in the story, but not enough to spend money and shelf space on it. If it was one or two volumes, maybe. But ten? Nah.

>31 avanders: Thanks for the encouragement. Sometimes for me it's hard to stay positive, so I keep telling myself things of that nature.

I actually have a Root to post this time! I finished Rocannon's World today. I didn't love this one as much as I'd hoped to based on the prologue, but maybe the others in the series will suit me better. Planet of Exile is the next in the omnibus, and the next Root.

Crossing all things crossable for your next interview!

Joining the crossing all things!

>33 rabbitprincess: and >34 connie53: Thank you for crossing all the things! Unfortunately I was told yesterday that they won't be interviewing me for this one. Continuing the search.

>32 Amberfly: I think that's true for a lot of people... it's good to keep trying to stay positive though! The right thing will come along.. (even without getting the newest interview - like Dory says (legitimately good advice): just keep swimming!)
& congrats on your ROOT!

In Scotland there is a saying, "what's for you won't go by you", which I always think about when I flunk yet another interview. I just wish I was better at recognising what is for me, and not bother wasting my time with the others!! I suppose it's all good experience, but it feels rubbish at the time. I'm sorry to hear you weren't shortlisted this time - better luck next time!

Thanks for the well-wishes, guys. The last week has been really stressful, unfortunately. Two health issues came up unexpectedly, one mine (annoying but minor, thankfully over now) and one concerning a close family member (much more serious, and unfortunately ongoing). Silence on the job front, though I'm still searching. I started classes this week, and at the same time my supervisor decided it was a good idea to increase my hours at work. These are both good things but I wish they had not happened at the same time.

I did read a Root, though. Not the one I posted about earlier, but Jane Austen's Emma. I wanted something literary but not too dense, and it fit the bill exactly. It's been on the shelf for about a year and a half, and I'm glad that I finally got to it. I also did a naughty thing, though. I found a new-to-me used book store and brought home no less than seven new acquisitions. Definitely not helping the Root situation, though it was fun. =)

I have been picking at all my various comic series and actually managed to finish one, Gimmick!, which is about a special effects makeup artist and was genuinely a lot of fun all the way through. I have finished all the released volumes of Saga, and now I must impatiently wait until April to read any more. I am still reading Psyren and Unwritten, and I also read the first volume of Ikigami. I am sad that I can't finish it as no library in two counties has any of the other 9 volumes.

This post came out longer than I expected, but...well, life and reading are both extra eventful right now.

My best wishes that things will calm down for you. And best of luck with the job search!

>38 Amberfly: sounds like a rough week! Especially dealing with health issues -- I echo Birgit and hope things calm down for you!
Glad you were able to read an enjoyable ROOT :)
AND despite the increased number of ROOTs... it's also nice to find a new bookstore and bring home a little haul like that :)

I'm sorry to hear that life is being eventful in a bad way. Hope things improve soon and that you enjoy your new acquisitions!

>39 MissWatson:, >40 avanders:, and >41 rabbitprincess: Thank you. I'm hoping for peace and good news as well. But the new acquisitions are promising:

The Queen of the Tearling, Erika Johansen
The Storm Lord, The White Serpent, and Lycanthia, Tanith Lee
The Book of the Dun Cow, Walter Wangerin Jr.
Golden Fool, Robin Hobb
Danse Macabre, Stephen King

I suspect it is going to be a good batch, when I get to them.

Sorry to hear of less than stellar life events, but you will survive to read another day!

>42 Amberfly: fun new acquisitions! Of course I'm one of the many who loved the Tearling book -- hope you enjoy!

I'm back! Life continues to be busy but I am coping. And I read a Root! Root #4 is The Drawing of the Three, second book in the Dark Tower series that I started last year. I bought this in December at a library sale, and it's the first real page-turner I've read this year. I have book 4 (also a Root) but not 3 (yet), so I have to pause before continuing. I have another shorter Root half-completed that I may finish in the meantime.

>38 Amberfly: I'm hoping things start slowing down for you. I'm sending well wishes/karma/etc. Both Gimmick and Ikigami sound interesting to me (I may have said that already about Gimmick....) Two more for the B'day wishlist!

>42 Amberfly: oooo. The Book of the Dun Cow looks intriguing.....

>45 Amberfly: Woo hoo! A page turner! Those are the best and I'm glad you found one!

Woo hoo congrats on your ROOT! And a great one too... glad you enjoyed it! I haven't yet finished the series (at this point, will likely go back and re-read the whole thing) because I started it before it was all written... but I read through book 5, I believe. 3 and 4 were my favorites :) (so far anyway...)

>46 Sace: Thanks, I hope things calm down too. They haven't yet, but I'm adjusting to the new normal where I don't get days to myself anymore. Gimmick is a really fun read though, I'd recommend it for sure. And the only bad thing about page turners is coming down from them, wondering what to read next.

>47 avanders: I'm eager to read 3, but it's stuck in the mail. I ordered it a week ago and for some reason it hasn't been shipped yet. Annoying.

I finished the half-completed Root I mentioned in my last post: E.M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread. I had really high hopes for this one, because I liked Howards End so much when I read it for last year's challenge. This wasn't a bad read, but it didn't appeal to me in the same way. But it's another Root read, and that's a good thing. I also finished the Psyren manga, which disappointed me somewhat in the end. It started out really strong but...I don't know, the last few volumes just didn't move me. Too much combat versus not enough character development, maybe. And there were several plot threads apparently dropped partway through. I've dabbled with a few other comics but nothing has stuck so far.

>48 Amberfly: "And the only bad thing about page turners is coming down from them, wondering what to read next." Oh I absolutely agree! That is the worst feeling!

>49 Sace: I have heard it called a book hangover, and I agree with that sentiment.

I started The Book of the Dun Cow. Not a Root, but it was calling me, and I needed to get out of my little reading slump. I haven't had time to get very far yet, but it's oddly compelling.

>50 Amberfly: "Book hangover" Perfect term.

I finished The Book of the Dun Cow this morning. Excellent read, even if I can't count it for the challenge. It seems there is a sequel, which I will be tracking down at some point, but not yet.

It's been a very busy week, and the week to come is going to be even worse. As such, I'm thinking of revising my Root goals from 50 down to 40, or even 35. With the way things have been going, I'm just not certain I'll be able to reach 50. My Master's program is also beginning to wear me down, and I'm only a month into it. It's the point at which I begin asking myself, "What was I thinking?"

I'm glad you enjoyed the read. Sorry to hear you are feeling overwhelmed. There's nothing wrong with adjusting goals.

>52 Amberfly: Life does tend to get in the way of ROOTing, so maybe revising your goal is a good idea. Setting goals for what you do in your spare time should increase motivation not stress levels.

>52 Amberfly: Great thing about this group, you can revise as you wish!

>52 Amberfly: Yes, absolutely, revise your goal as needed! :)

>52 Amberfly: I agree! When I was studying I didn't read anything at all apart from study-related material, so the thought of a goal of 50 books would tip me over the edge! Do what's right for you - reading is meant to be fun, not yet another stress!

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I've decided to revise my goal from 50 down to 35. I've always done 50 in the past, but I think this is more in line with the actual pace I've been moving at the last two months. I want a goal that's within reach, not another source of "Where do I find the time?" questions.

I have also rethought my decision to not count comics. I realized that I actually have a small collection of them that were bought in 2016 and are still waiting to be read. I'm not sure exactly how to count them yet, so I'm taking that on a case-by-case basis. Starting with the first one:

Root #6: Wish, a four-volume manga by Clamp. I found three of the volumes at a library sale in December, for less than a dollar each. I tend to love their work, so I bought all three and ordered the last one online. Overall a good decision, because it was a fun light series that I breezed through in an afternoon, a great way to recharge in the middle of all the intense schoolwork. I didn't love it as much as I've loved some of their other work--a little silly, and without some of the depth I was hoping for--but it was worth my time all the same.

>58 Amberfly: Yes. Don't let ROOTing become a source of stress :-)

I've enjoyed the Clamp that I've read. Wish is a work that does not appeal to me for some reason. Nice to hear that you enjoyed it. Maybe one day I'll check it out. Have I asked you about Clover and Magic Knight Rayearth? Do I have them on my wishlist on your recommendation? I wish I had a better memory of all the manga we've discussed. LOL.

>59 Sace: Rayearth might be my fault, lol. I haven't read Clover yet, though I want to.

Honestly I might have passed on Wish as well if they hadn't been so cheap, but with Clamp and for that price I was willing to risk it. I'd call my reaction pleasantly surprised. It is a silly love story but it took my mind off things. I have the first volume of X/1999 in my TBR right now, and I really want to try RG Veda at some point too. I keep seeing the omnibus for that one in stores and I haven't succumbed yet, but it's only a matter of time.

>60 Amberfly: *adds RG Veda to wishlist*

>61 Sace: Oops XD

>62 Amberfly: Never feel bad about passing along Manga information. :-)

>63 Sace: Point taken =)

I am really not doing so well with the Roots, or with maintaining the thread this year. No new Roots to report, though I am reading rather a lot. I started The Waste Lands, the third book in the Dark Tower series. It's not a Root in itself, but it will lead me to the fourth book, which is. But I keep getting distracted by comics, including but not limited to two rereads of series I really liked, Sandman and Fables.

I'm in the middle of The Sandman Companion, something I'd been wanting to read for a while and finally ordered, but reading it of course necessitated a reread of the comic. Fortunately I own all of them except Dream Hunters. I am enjoying this quite a bit, picking up things I missed the first time through.

As for Fables, a few weeks ago while reading the Unwritten series (which I've since finished), I ran into the crossover arc between the two series. The effect on me was probably not the desired one, because the events in the crossover are really relevant only within the Unwritten plotline, but all it did was remind me that I liked Fables a whole lot better than Unwritten. And thus was born a reread of that series, which is more difficult than Sandman because I don't own these. So I ordered some. I am sometimes very naughty. And very unrepentant. =)

I also read a very quirky volume from the library called Dear Creature, a love story involving sea monsters and Shakespeare. And finally I read the most recent volume of Bleach, #69, which I had pre-ordered over a month ago. It did not quite live up to my expectations. Maybe the next one will.

In not-Root related news, I am still managing my master's program, though it is challenging, but I will soon no longer have to work my much-maligned food service job. I interviewed for a circulation assistant position at the library this week, and I got it! It's fewer hours than my current job, but it's a higher wage so I'll be making more, and my schedule will actually be the same from week to week, something I've never had at Starbucks. And it's in my field of study, and the staff are all super nice. A win all around! I start the first week of April. =D

Woo hoo! Congrats on the job!

>64 Amberfly: Congratulations, that's great news!

Congrats on the new job, Amber!

Good luck with the new job and the Masters - you certainly deserve some downtime with new books!

Yaaay new job! That is awesome! Congrats!

That's great news!

Thanks, everyone! I'm really looking forward to leaving my current job and starting this one.

... I will definitely not be able to "catch up" on threads.. so I'm just dropping in to say Hi!! :)

& Congrats on finding a new job!

>72 avanders: Hi! Glad to see you back! And thank you =)

:-)

I'm still here! And I've finished a new Root! Wizard and Glass, #4 in the Dark Tower series and Root #7. It made for grim and strange yet completely absorbing reading. I have the remaining volumes in the series but none of them are Roots, and I have not yet decided whether I'll immediately go on to #5 or read something short and lighthearted first. I think I might like something with a happy ending, and yet the series is so fascinating.

My last day at the much-maligned Starbucks job was four days ago, and I had orientation for my new job today and yesterday. I'm going to be working for the county library, and since our local one is considered an outlying satellite branch, orientation was held at one of the big central branches in Las Vegas. Which happened to have an absolutely fabulous graphic novel collection. I borrowed almost more than I could carry, and made an even longer list of things to request from them once I've read these. I think this is going to be fun.

Other things are less fun. A while back I mentioned a family member (my mother, actually) undergoing a health crisis; that is an ongoing situation and she goes in for surgery on Monday. I am being as supportive as I can but it is difficult sometimes. Grad school is still grad school; I never expected it to be easy but this weekend is probably going to be even less easy than before just because of hectic scheduling. I had to buy a new laptop and that is always annoying for me. It still needs some setup done so I'm still on the old one for a while, and I'm sad because I really liked my old one, but it's old and somewhat battered and I feared its time was imminent. I really hope the universe has a calmer period ahead for me. I like my life but I miss it being a little less interesting.

>75 Amberfly: sounds like you're having a really challenging time - all these things can be exhausting so make sure you take care of yourself. And reading can be a great distraction if you can find time for it. Hope that big pile of books gets you through!

That's a lot to have on your plate right now, I hope things will get calmer.

I hope that you can get through the next couple of weeks relatively unscathed! The new job sounds great though, so I hope it provides some relief from everything else.

I had to smile when you talked about your old and new laptops though. I went through that a couple of years ago when my old and much-beloved laptop started showing signs of age (although it still works, the screen only works if it is at an angle of 45 degrees or less to the keyboard, so I had no choice but to replace it - even super-techy husband couldn't fix it, despite sterling efforts!). Two and a half years later I still can't stand my current laptop (bought because it was cheap and I needed it in a hurry - never again!) and can't wait for it to pack up (sadly I simply can't justify buying a new one when this one still works). Knowing my luck it will keep going for years yet!

>76 floremolla: It is somewhat exhausting. I'm holding up, though, and the big pile of books will probably be my best friend over the next few weeks.

>77 MissWatson: I hope so too. I used to have a boring life and sometimes I want it back.

>78 Jackie_K: I have high hopes for the new job. About the laptops, I was in a similar situation when my last one went kaput. The charging port on my first one was unexpectedly damaged beyond repair, and I was a student with term papers so I had to have a new one right away. I bought my current one in a hurry and I got lucky. I love it and didn't want to replace it, but the disk drive no longer works and I've been having startup errors and issues with the screen for months. I wanted to do the smart thing this time and get one before it could crash, but still. Shopping is fun for me most of the time, but not for electronics. I just want them to work.

>75 Amberfly: oooh, you're making me want to go back to the Dark Tower series!

Congrats on starting your new job! & working for a library to boot!

Sorry about your mother, though... hopefully things are looking up!

>80 avanders: Things are starting to look better, thank you.

I officially started at the library on Saturday, four days ago, and I love it. Compared to Starbucks this is going to be a walk in the park. Very relaxed atmosphere, no uniforms, no 4 a.m openings or 9 p.m. closings, and my coworkers are great. Not to mention that the physical labor part of it is much lighter--books are heavy in large numbers, but crates of syrup and gallons of milk are worse.

Family stuff is going as well as can be expected. Mom's procedure went off without a hitch and she's home now, doing very well. I got through the three school assignments that were due this week with my sanity more or less intact, and now we wait an see if my GPA also made it through in one piece.

I have been reading mostly comics. Several Fables spin-offs, Fairest which I liked and Jack of Fables which I didn't. I also finished my Sandman reread (man I love those books), finished The Sandman Companion that I began weeks ago (prose, but not a Root), and started one of that series's spin-offs, Death: The Deluxe Edition, which I like almost as much as the main series. I still have to order the second half of that. I'm aiming to get through the enormous stack of library comics I picked up in Las Vegas over the next two weeks, so I don't know if I'll get any Roots in for a while yet.

It's great to hear things are working out for you. Enjoy the Easter holidays.

>82 MissWatson: I plan to =)

I actually have more to add to my long post above, but this time it's about Roots. I had a free day today and read two of my Root comics, a single-volume comic called The Steam Man and a two-volume manga called Flower of the Deep Sleep.

Steam Man was a steampunk horror/adventure story that took a lot of things from both The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. Nice as far as it went, but aspects of those stories took up a lot of pages and I was hoping for more depth in the original part of the story. It appears to be a stand-alone volume, which is a little disappointing because I would've liked more time to get to know the world and the characters. Still worth the read, though.

Flower of the Deep Sleep was also an instance of me wanting more from the story than it had to give. The characters and premise were interesting but I wanted more depth and time with them than I got. It seemed like pieces were missing at times, as if a couple of pages had been skipped. I suspect this might have to do with the translation; a lot of the text seemed somewhat repetitive, and I wonder if that is present in the original. Again, though, I'm glad I took the time to read it.

I have chosen another Root comic, the manga It Takes a Wizard, though I'm only a few pages in. I have to take advantage of this momentum while I've got it. =)

>83 Amberfly: I agree with you about taking advantage of the momentum when your thoughts and energies are being pulled in lots of different direction! It helps that you don't have to worry so much about your mum.

Coincidentally I'm currently reading an HG Wells three novel ROOT - comprising The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau. I think they stand up well 120 years later but was wondering how they were viewed by modern sci-fi fans - good to know they're still a source of inspiration anyway!

>84 floremolla: Oh yes, they are still thought of as classics, especially true the steampunk genre. Reading them in a modern context is sort of a foundation aspect of steampunk, and in my opinion they are better written novels than many a modern work trying to emulate the setting. The same is true of Jules Verne, though I'm more a Wells fan myself. Moreau is my favorite.

I have two more comic Roots to report: Invader Zim volume 2, and the manga It Takes a Wizard, both acquired last November.

Invader Zim is a part of my adolescence, and I don't think I would otherwise pick up a series like it today, but man, this volume was hilarious. I'm looking forward to reading the third one, though I haven't bought it yet.

My thoughts on the wizard book are a lot less favorable. I hated it, and I'm going to rant about it. It appears to be one of those comics in the manga style but written by English-speakers, and the way the word balloons are structured makes no sense for an English original. Every other sentence is a fragment, and while I value the stylistic importance of speaking in fragments, it should not get to the point where the poor grammar interferes with reading the story. I thought a lot of the worldbuilding was sloppy, the villains were two-dimensional, and the resolution too quick and easy. None of the characters' actions had any emotional impact. It was so tiresome I almost gave it up. I've read one other original English manga, a pretty good ghost story, so I know they aren't all like this. This is just not a good example of the genre.

>81 Amberfly: glad to hear your mom's procedure was successful! & yay for a library job that you love!
& congrats on pulling more ROOTs!

>87 avanders: Yes, thing are calming down somewhat. But now my bank has dropped the ball and I've had to set them straight as well. As if I really needed that on top of everything else.

I have no new Roots, but I did read some library comics, mostly manga. I started a new series, Ajin: Demi-Human, which is bloody and confusing but really good. I'm waiting on the library to send me the second volume. But even more interesting was the single-author anthology A Drunken Dream; it is still blowing my mind and I finished it two days ago. Such a surreal and strange assortment of stories. I'm just dying to read more by this author, Moto Hagio, but this is the only book of hers that my library has, and it seems her works are neither easy nor cheap to find in English. I foresee much spending in my future.

Hi Amberfly, Just stopping and skimming your thread. I was absent for some weeks and now I'm working my way through threads.

>89 connie53: Nice to see you!

Today I have a Root to report! This morning I finished Root#12, The Fifth Season. I loved this one and can't wait to read the next in the trilogy, though I don't own that one. Yet. It's only a matter of time. I bought this one in November and can't believe I waited this long to read it.

>90 Amberfly: it's nice when you find literary treasure on your own bookshelf and even better when it's first in a series :)

>91 floremolla: It is. I've read two other series by the same author and they were both wonderful, so it was a safe bet that this one would be great as well.

>88 Amberfly: ugh - banks dropping the ball! Glad you were able to set them straight!
Ajin sounds really interesting ("surreal and strange assortment of stories")! It's graphic/manga?

>90 Amberfly: congrats! And that book is on the shelves... or wishlist. Somewhere. I need to get to it... ;)

>93 avanders: Ajin is interesting, but more of a conventional action series. The surreal and strange one is A Drunken Dream by Moto Hagio. Sorry if that wasn't clear. It is manga and one of the best ones I've read in a while. Some supernatural, a little scifi, some more realistic but all very good. It's the first time I've read an anthology of short, stand-alone manga stories so I was worried I wouldn't get into it, but the characters are so well-drawn (no pun intended) that I was able to get inside their heads with no problems. It's beautiful.

And I definitely recommend The Fifth Season. And really all of N.K. Jemisin's work; all of it is good.

Sounds wonderful! No I'm sure it was clear -- my "mama brain" kicks in sometimes ;)

>95 avanders: No worries =) I just want to be sure my recommendations are for the right book!

>96 Amberfly: I went back and looked... it was definitely clear! My bad ;)

Almost two weeks have gone by since my last post and I have attempted two Roots in that time.

The first is a Japanese light novel based on the Rurouni Kenshin manga that I read and loved so much last year called Voyage to the Moon World. Unfortunately it was terrible. I'm usually very cautious of tie-in media and I'd never read a light novel before so I didn't know what to expect. Writing advice articles are always full of the adage "show, don't tell" and I feel like this novel could have benefited from that advice; way too much telling, not enough showing. I'm not sure if this is because of a bad translation, if it's just not a very good example of the genre, or if all light novels are like this. Any way you slice it, it was disappointing. I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't even finish it.

The second is a scifi novel about time travel to turn of the century San Francisco called The Golden Nineties. I'm not far into it yet and also not very impressed. I'll stick with it for now but I'm hoping it gets better soon or I'll have to quit this one too.

Oh, bad luck with the reading choices - it can be very offputting if you read several uninspiring books on the trot :(

>98 Amberfly: I hope you find the book gets better soon, Amberfly. Or at least the next one will be a good one.

Golden Nineties has gotten somewhat better. I'm hoping to finish it soon though.

>101 Amberfly: Good to hear!

I finished Root #14, The Golden Nineties. Intriguing premise, but not as much to my taste as I'd have liked. The "romance" was neither believable nor comfortable to read, and I don't typically care much for ambiguous endings. Probably going to pass this one along to the library sale.

>103 Amberfly: A pity! Well, another ROOT finished is good too.

>98 Amberfly: blech - sorry your ROOTing attempts didn't go well!

>101 Amberfly: good news on the 2nd .... >103 Amberfly: that turned south ;P
"The "romance" was neither believable nor comfortable to read" lol love that description ;)

>105 avanders: Yes, unfortunately there have to be some lousy ones in the bunch. That's how we know where the good ones are. And I did find a good one this week. I just finished Queen of the Tearling today. It got off to a slow start but I ended up really liking it. Unfortunately it is not a Root; I thought it was but realized it doesn't meet my date requirement. Still a very good read though, and I have the sequels on my wishlist now.

>106 Amberfly: true about the duds!
And oooooh I really loved that trilogy! Glad you enjoyed it, even if it wasn't a root ;)

>107 avanders:. Same here! I'm still waiting for the translation of the third book. The publisher let me know that it is expected in the Autumn.

I'm eager to read the others but am holding off buying them. I have been buying a lot of books lately and I need to get that under control. I'm hoping to tackle some Roots while my resolve holds out.

In the last week I've started two books, Legal Drug (a manga omnibus, bought in April and too new to be a Root), and Black Elk Speaks (a biography/history/spiritual text, a Root bought in 2014). I liked Legal Drug but did not love it. It has a somewhat episodic plot, and I tend to prefer longer story arcs. I plan to read the continuation (Drug and Drop) at some point, but I don't own that one yet, and it's not high on the priority list. Black Elk speaks is not the book I thought I was getting when I bought it. The bookseller had shelved it in the mythology section, and while it does have some discussion of mystical elements it's much more on the biography and history side of things, at least in the first half. Nonetheless it's a worthwhile read, and I expect to finish it in the next couple of days, maybe even today if I have the time.

>109 Amberfly: I certainly know that feeling ;P

>110 avanders: I know, right? I brought home 15 last month, and 6 of them are TBR.

I finished Black Elk Speaks. My above assessments stand. I also blew through The Obelisk Gate, sequel to The Fifth Season that I read last month. This one isn't a Root; I bought it as a reward to myself when I finished my spring semester. I liked the first one better, but I'm still going to buy the final volume when it comes out in August. Right around the time my summer classes will end.

I am only steps away from finishing Root #16, Saving Fish from Drowning. I bought this last year, knowing it was a safe bet. I have enjoyed all of Amy Tan's works that I've read so far, and this is no exception.

I'm trying a new system for organizing and choosing Roots, starting this month, and I'm hoping it will work out. I'm organizing all my unread books by the year that I added them to my LT catalog, as in all the ones bought in 2013 are all on the same shelf, all the 2014 ones are together, etc. The plan is that every month I pick one book from each shelf. Saving Fish is the 2016 pick for this month.

My book organization schemes never seem to stick for very long, but this one creates new juxtapositions and gets some books into more visible positions. If it is in the shadowy bottom shelf, I'm less likely to choose it as my next Root, but if I put the oldest ones at eye level, as they are now, I might be spurred to read them. That's the idea, anyway.

I share your enjoyment of Amy Tan's novels - always entertaining and heartwarming.

I organise my fiction alphabetically in two main collections - read and to be read. They're all catalogued on LT so I can just go through the TBR's in the catalogue and decide what to read or cast my eye along the shelves.

But you're so right about books disappearing from view. Hope your system ensues your ROOTs don't get too ancient. Some of mine have been with me for over three decades *hangs head in shame* - my husband had them before we met and I've 'assimilated' them into my library because they're lovely old Penguin classics of the 60s and 70s and I really have been meaning to read them...so I make a conscious effort to include one of these a month.

>113 floremolla: I don't have any that are that old, but all of them are squarely mine, no mixing of libraries here. I used to be very good at reading what I bought, never having more than maybe two dozen unread books at once, but that changed in 2012 when I started work on my Bachelor's. I kept buying at the same pace but had drastically less time to read, so they piled up. I finished the degree in 2015, but I still have the backlog. Right now I own 176 unread books.

My books aren't strictly organized, I have to admit. Or rather, they are organized in ways that make sense to me but don't follow a scheme. I have a small mythology collection and they are all on the same shelf but not alphabetical, and there is fiction on the shelf as well. Dracula makes sense shelved next to Stephen King, but I don't want Harry Potter on the same shelf. I try to keep all the books with the same author together, on the same bookcase if not the same shelf if they are wildly disparate sizes. But mostly I don't move them around much, so I know exactly where everything is. Roots are the only ones that move frequently. I think stirring up the shelving makes me pay more attention to what's there and why I was so excited to read it in the first place.

>112 Amberfly: Interesting idea! Hope you find some hidden gems with the new arrangement.

>115 rabbitprincess: Interestingly, I already have, though not in the way I expected.

I had chosen as my next Root Kingsblood Royal, bought at a thrift shop in 2014 for about $15. More than I normally spend on a used book, but it was a nice-looking hardcover in a slipcase, so I splurged but didn't look too closely. Yesterday, on finally picking it up to read, I discovered that it is a numbered limited edition of 1,050, the signature on the first page is not a facsimile but the actual signature of Sinclair Lewis, and copies are listed online for 10x what I paid for it. I feel like I have discovered buried treasure. The downside being, now I am leery of reading it, lest I damage it somehow.

I do have some other reading to report, namely a non-Root manga called A, A' (A, A Prime), which was a very interesting collection of short science fiction pieces, and a nonfiction Root, The Treasure of the City Ladies. That was one of the oldest Roots on my shelf, added to my LT in 2013 but owned for probably several years before that. I bought it for a class on medieval literature that I ended up dropping before we got that far. Unfortunately I also had to drop the book after 40 pages. It was too dense for me, but I made a sincere effort so I'm counting it anyway.

>116 Amberfly: WOW! That is amazing!

>116 Amberfly: Wow indeed. Do you feel like needing to wear white cotton gloves when handling it, as they do with rare books in libraries?

>116 Amberfly: and thrice Wow! What a lovely surprise.

Good work with the ROOTing too - nothing wrong with abandoning a book if it's not rewarding a sincere effort!

>117 rabbitprincess: I know, right? I was very surprised, to say the least.

>118 MissWatson: That's part of it. I am worried about getting it dirty, because even clean hands have oils and whatnot. I'm also worried about doing some damage to the spine or cover boards, because I normally like to hold my books open somewhat far. With most of my books that's not a problem because they aren't rare or valuable, so I don't have to worry about being extra careful with them; a regular amount of care will suffice. On the other hand, books are meant to be read, so I'm a little torn.

>119 floremolla: It was indeed, and thanks. I don't feel guilty most of the time about dropping books that I don't enjoy--there are too many good ones out there to waste time on one that isn't fun. I do feel a smidgen of guilt over this one, just because I owned it without reading it for so long, probably since 2009 or 2010. I know there are people in the group with Roots much older than that, but that's when I first started accumulating unread books in large numbers so it feels old to me.

>120 Amberfly: I suppose it depends on wether you want to sell it after reading it, doesn't it?

>121 MissWatson: sell it first, buy a paperback and enjoy the profit? Or am I a philistine? ;)

>122 floremolla: I would be sorely tempted to do so.

It is tempting, I agree. Undoubtedly there are people out there who would value it more highly than myself. I was in it to try a new-to-me author and add a handsome book to my collection. And I could buy so many paperbacks with that. If that thought makes me a philistine, then so be it. But I think I'll keep it for a while, and handle with care when I read it. It's the kind of literary luxury I couldn't normally indulge it, so I'm going to take advantage of it while it's here, and store it carefully when I'm done.

But before that, I have to finish at least one of the books I started while debating what to do with Kingsblood Royal. One is Mansfield Park, a Root from 2015. I turn to Austen when I want something literary but not too long or dense. This is the last of her completed novels that is new to me.

I have also been wanting to read Tolkien lately. For some reason in the summer I crave epic fantasy sagas, and this year it's him. I'm embedded in The Silmarillion, not a Root by virtue of being a reread, though the last time I read it was nearly ten years ago and I don't remember it very well. When that is done, I plan to move on to Unfinished Tales, another one of my oldest Roots. The idea was that Silmarillion would be a refresher and lead into Unfinished Tales, but it's even denser than I remember, so we'll see.

I finished Mansfield Park today. Not my favorite Austen (that title remains with Northanger Abbey), but still a good read, as I expected. I have now read or attempted one book each from three of my four lists, and I only have to read something from the 2014 list to reach my goal for the month.

That's wonderful progress, congratulations!

Great progress and plenty of month left for your next read :)

>112 Amberfly: >113 floremolla: Oh I've never read anything by Amy Tan... but I do own at least one of her books... The Joy Luck Club... which was your favorite of all her books?

>126 MissWatson: and >127 floremolla: Thanks! I'm working on the next one already.

>128 avanders: My favorite was The Kitchen God's Wife. It has more of a historical bent than some of the others and that might be why it appealed to me so much. But I've read four of her books, including The Joy Luck Club, and they've all been worth it.

>128 avanders: I've read four of Amy Tan's books and liked them all!

>129 Amberfly: >130 floremolla: Good to know! I'll keep my eye out for the Kitchen God's Wife too :)

>131 avanders: Hope you enjoy them, when you get around to it =)

I am coming along with my Roots. I'm about 2/3 through Kingsblood Royal and loving it. It seems very relevant for a book published seventy years ago, and some of the issues it raises about race are things American society still grapples with today. We've come a long way, but not as far as we think. I don't want to open a political discussion, but this book is making me think while also being a very enjoyable read. Definitely a good investment, in more ways that one. I expect to finish it sometime tomorrow.

I finished Kingsblood Royal today. It remained good and thought-provoking right up to the end, though it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Totally worth it, though.

And with that, I complete my goal of reading 4 Roots in the month of June, one from each year I've been a LT member. It was such a successful strategy that I'm eager to do it again. The original plan was to start in July with 4 new picks, but I'm eager to keep my momentum so I might start sooner.

First, though, I'm tackling at least one new acquisition, the memoir One Bead at a Time, picked up as a free ARC copy at the library. They receive these for free all the time, and they can't legally sell them, so the books go on a cart in the staff room for anyone to take who wants one. It's a good thing they only do this at the distant branches and not at the one where I work, because otherwise I would be bringing home strays all the time.

>133 Amberfly: Woo hoo! :) Congrats on meeting your goal & congrats on finishing your book!

Interesting that they acknowledge that they can't legally sell the ARCs -- I've definitely bought an ARC or two from my local library's used book store/sales!

>134 avanders: That is interesting. I'm just repeating what they told me when I toured the building a couple of months ago. Maybe it varies by state, or maybe my guide misspoke and it's a district policy rather than a law.

No I think that your library is right... I think mine is wrong. I didn't know any of them acknowledged it ;)
I get the same "warning" when I receive ARCs directly from the publisher -- you can't re-sell those! :-o

Ha, figures. My district can be a real stickler for the rules. I don't often pick up ARCs on purpose, so I'm not too familiar with them or their rules.

I finished One Bead at a Time and...I'm not sure what to make of it. It was interesting to read, but it rambled a lot and sometimes repeated itself. The forward indicates that this was deliberate, because it was transcribed from a very long series of interviews over the course of many months, but it was somewhat distracting. I feel like it also could have used another beta read and a trip through spellcheck; it had lots of typos. I hope that was fixed before it hit the shelves for real. Overall, I'm fond of memoirs but this wasn't a favorite.

>137 Amberfly: ah, well, if you think about it ... re-selling a book that's technically not in its final form wouldn't be encouraged w/ publishers... and even more so, re-selling a book that was never sold in the first place is rough for an author! ;p So I've never sought to sell an ARC that I received... I do still buy them, though, if I can get my hands on a book I've been wanting to read, even if it's in "ARC Format" because... they're usually close enough to final form that I'm happy w/ it ;)

>138 avanders: All very true. I totally get why publishers and authors would not want free advance copies being sold. The only time I've ever bought an ARC on purpose was in the search for affordable college textbooks. Anything to save money on those, even if it was only ten bucks here and there.

I read another non-Root, a novella called Cythera by one of my favorite authors, Jo Graham. I probably never would have picked this up if she weren't the author, as it is much closer to erotica than anything I normally read. But I love the way she creates relationships between characters, and the way she makes cultures and settings come alive in my mind. It was a good read, and I would read more with these characters and this world, but I prefer her longer works.

Update time! I've done a lot of reading in the last few days: six graphic novels, one text novel, and one memoir.

The memoir, Chinese Cinderella, was intended to be one of my July picks, but I got impatient. Sadly it wasn't what I was hoping it would be. Not a bad read, but not my cup of tea. I think it might have been intended for a YA audience, and if I'd realized that going in I might have liked it better. Oh well.

The novel, The Tempering of Men, was really good. It's the middle book of a trilogy; I read the first one for the Root challenge last year, and I can't wait to read the third one. Sadly I haven't owned this one long enough for it to be a Root.

And now, comics. It's been a while since I posted about them, but I got a large load of them from the library last week and have been working my way through them. I've started two new-to-me series, Durarara!! and Yona of the Dawn. I like Durarara and I love Yona and am really looking forward to continuing both. I also attempted another comic, Filmish, about the history of cinema, but I was disappointed by that one and didn't finish it. I wanted anecdotes, not analyses.

Managed to sneak in one more manga Root for the month, the first volume of X/1999. I own v.2 as well, but it's too new to be a Root. I'm not in love with the series yet, so I don't know if I'll continue it beyond the second book. We'll see.

I also read a library manga, Wolf Children, that I absolutely loved. I wish there was more of it.

I'm going to be out of town tomorrow, so this is probably my last Root for the month. It was a good reading month, and July promises to be a busy month in other ways than literature, so I'm glad to be finishing June ahead of the curve. I'm more than halfway to my goal. Yay!

>141 Amberfly: Well done!

>142 MissWatson: Thank you!

I finished Root #22, Ivory, today. A really interesting premise and a good read, though not without its...problematic passages. I've owned this since 2013, making it one of the older Roots in my collection, so I'm glad to finally have gotten to it.

More updates! I attempted Root #23, River of Stars, this week, but gave it up after about a hundred pages. While not objectively bad by any means, it just didn't do anything for me. I am beginning to suspect that I just don't like Guy Kay that much. This is the fourth of his novels that I've attempted and the third I've failed to finish. But the one I did finish (Tigana), I loved, so I keep trying his other works.

I have also begun Root #24, A Study in Scarlet/The Hound of the Baskervilles. I have a hardback edition that has both stories in one volume, so I'm counting them as one. I finished Scarlet already and expect to not be too long in reading Baskervilles as well.

Root #24, A Study in Scarlet/The Hound of the Baskervilles, is complete after three years on the shelf. I also read The Machine Stops yesterday, which is not a Root but was a wonderful read in spite of the plague of typos that afflicted the copy I bought.

I need to read one more Root in July to meet my goals, and I've chosen one, but I won't be jumping in just yet. There is at least one non-Root calling my name from the shelves first. =)

Great progress!

Echoing >146 MissWatson: great progress! :)

Just dropping by to say Hello!

& great progress!

Hi Amberfly, just stopping by to say Hi. I've been away from LT due to RL things, but I'm trying to be better about keeping up.

>116 Amberfly: Congrats on finding a treasure,

Hi guys =)

Thanks for the encouragement. Life has been busy lately and it's interfering with my reading, Root or otherwise, and it won't be calming down anytime in the near future. Still, I hope to get the reading at least back on track soon. Then maybe the rest will magically follow.

Since my last post two weeks ago, I've read only one book, and it wasn't a Root. I bought Wolves of the Calla (#5 in the Dark Tower series) earlier this year, and it feels like I have been reading it for months rather than the two weeks it actually took. It felt like I'd never finish it, and I'm not sure I like the extremely meta-textual direction the story seems to be taking. We'll have to wait and see on that. I am very skeptical.

I had planned to have my last Root of the month be East of Eden, but after getting through the doorstop that was Wolves, I'm not sure another doorstop is the best move even if it is a Steinbeck. I might have to pick something shorter and tackle Eden next month.

>150 Amberfly: I really liked Wolven van de Calla. I read the whole series in 2011/2012 (That long ago !! ) but still remember the feel of it.

>151 connie53: I didn't dislike Wolves, exactly, just didn't like it as much as previous volumes. And for some reason it felt slow. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, it just didn't work for me as well as I'd have liked.

I'm working on Root #25. It's going to be Letter from Peking, bought late last year and a more manageable length than my previous choice. I'm past the halfway point and loving it.

I finished Letter from Peking and it made me want more. Very good. And in my search for the next Root I settled on a two-volume manga series, .hack//XXXX, bought last year at a library sale. A pretty good read. I know there are other related series, and I may pursue them at some point, but right now there are too many other manga wanting my attention. =)

Root #27, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, is done. This was a good read, and a page-turner, but uncomfortable to read in places. Especially the extensive description of the foot-binding process, which almost made me quit reading. Pushing through that part was worth it, though.

>154 Amberfly: One of my all-time favorite books, although brutal.

>155 Tess_W: Brutal is a good word for it. But the characters and the peek into the past made it worth getting through those parts.

>154 Amberfly:. Hmmm, I have this as an e-book in the Dutch translation. Should I read it if it's brutal? I like the blurb though.

>157 connie53: I'd say yes. The only part I had actual trouble with was the foot-binding chapter, which is at the beginning of Part 2. So if you're squeamish you might want to skip that bit, or skim it. The rest of it is well worth it, though it has its moments of darkness.

>158 Amberfly: I don't mind a little brutal in books. It's worse to see it in movies than to read about it.

So on the Kobo it goes, to be read sometime in the future.

>154 Amberfly: wishlisted, thanks!

>159 connie53: and >160 floremolla:: Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I just finished a reread of Across the Nightingale Floor. I read this for a Root challenge of years past, but I've since acquired two sequels which are now also Roots. I wanted them to be my next Roots but realized that, in the intervening time, I'd forgotten nearly everything about the first book. Now that that's been remedied, I'm on to the next one.

>162 Amberfly: I read that book too and loved it.

I finished Grass for His Pillow today, bringing my Root total to 28. Next is going to be the third book in the series, Brilliance of the Moon. These books seem to take a while to hit their stride, but once they do they're fast reads.

I finished Brilliance of the Moon last night. It took me longer than expected, but life's been busy. It was a good read and a good semi-conclusion to the series. It was apparently intended as a trilogy, of which this is the final book, but a prequel and a final volume tying up the loose ends are also out there. I don't own those yet, but I plan to get my hands on them in the near future.

I finished another Root, the three-volume manga Alichino. This is the last of my comics that I can count as a Root. It was a good read with a lot of compelling elements, and the art is totally gorgeous, but the story gets a little murky in places. Additionally, I didn't realize when I bought them that it's an unfinished series, and it's been up in the air for many years whether it will ever be completed. I wish I'd know that from the start.

>168 Amberfly: I hate it when that happens.

>168 Amberfly: Me too. I don't mind ongoing series when there's hope of seeing a conclusion sometime. But the 3rd volume of Alichino was published in 2005, so I'm not holding my breath.

I was very naughty and went to a library book sale yesterday. They've been downsizing their classic literature section recently, so there were many literary finds for very cheap and some of them came home with me:

Babbit, It Can't Happen Here, and Main Street, all by Sinclair Lewis
Oil! by Upton Sinclair
Catch-22
Of Human Bondage
Gone with the Wind

None of which I have read, and all for the low, low price of $1.75. What can I say? I'm only human.

That's a great haul! You're doing the library a favour, really, by giving the books a new home :)

I just wanted to drop by to say hi :)
I couldn't possibly catch up on the threads here (explanation on my own thread), though I wish I could!
I hear that you feel like you have a little more time again at some point after having a kid... here's to hoping ;)

Nice haul, Amberfly!

great acquisitions - some really chunky reads there! :)

>171 connie53: My thoughts exactly! I mean,* someone* has to give them homes.
>172 floremolla: Hi! Nice to see you around! I have heard kids will do that to you, sucking up time like cute little sponges.
>173 Amberfly: and >174 MissWatson: Thanks! I look forward to reading them...sometime.

Life's been busy lately, but mostly in a good way. I'm in the process of moving out of my parents' house and into an apartment, so everything is in flux, I'm drowning in boxes and packing tape, and I don't know where any of my stuff is. I haven't had much time to read since my last post, though I did finish one (non-Root) book, Song of Susannah from the Dark Tower series. This might end up being a Rootless month. We'll see.

Oh, moving is such a tumultuous time! Good wishes that everything ends up where it should.

>176 connie53: Moving is always difficult, true. Everything is in flux and I still don't know where anything is.

I'm still here in the group, but I haven't done any Root reading, or much reading at all, and it may stay like that for a while. Life has unexpectedly gotten a lot more difficult and I don't know when it will get back to normal.

>177 floremolla: I hope you can solve all the RL stuff soon, AF! And have some time to read again.

Sorry to hear life has become difficult - hope to hear it's on the upturn again soon. Reading is always there to come back to when you have the time and you're in the right frame of mind.

Echoing >178 rabbitprincess: and >179 Amberfly:. Hoping things get back to normal soon.

...hello? I'm still here. Life is still difficult but I'm reading again. Mostly comics, true, and mostly from the library, but in my extended absence I've read two Roots: Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd.

I bought a curious tiny hardcover of Tess last year for cheap, and periodically since then I'd pick it up and wonder if the time was right. For reasons beyond my understanding, the time was now. Go figure. FftMC has been sitting on my shelf since 2013, the year my Root problem truly began and the year I joined LT. It's nice to cross a Root that old of my list. I'm pretty sure I have The Mayor of Casterbridge around here somewhere; maybe I should look for it while I'm on a Hardy kick.

Hello! You're doing really well - not far to go now. Most of us have peaks and troughs of reading while real life throws things at us periodically - I had a good whinge about my rotten October on my thread and got it off my chest!

I've got Far From the Madding Crowd in my TBR for December and plan to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 2018 - real life permitting, of course!

Hello again! It's nice to know our books are patiently waiting for us to find them. I've got some Hardy novels on my shelves, but have read only The return of the native so far.

>182 Amberfly: Thank you! I normally set my goal higher than this, so it doesn't feel like I'm close to it even though I am. I'm used to peaks and troughs but this one was worse than usual. October seems to have been a bad month for a lot of people I know. Maybe I need to have a mini-rant too.

>183 rabbitprincess: Very true! It's one think I enjoy about having a large TBR collection--there's always something to fit my moods, and my paper friends won't be annoyed that I haven't called in four years.

Tess was actually the first Hardy novel I'd ever read. Somehow I managed to miss him in school, but I'm glad I waited. I don't think I'd have liked him at the time.

Hurray, glad to hear you've been knocking long-standing ROOTs off the pile! It's funny how a book decides that it's time for it to be read.

>181 MissWatson: Sorry to hear life is still difficult for you, Amberfly! But it's a good thing you are able to read again. Welcome back.

Hello again! Real life is still kicking my butt, but I'm still here. I have been reading, but not Roots. I've read two longish books, The Harsh Cry of the Heron and Heaven's Net is Wide, since my last post. Excellent conclusion and prequel to a series I've enjoyed very much, but too new-to-me to count as Roots. I'm working on Root #33, In the Forest of Forgetting, also an excellent read. I'm really going to make a push to hit my goal; after Forest I'll only need two more. So close!

>186 connie53: Thanks! It is nice to read again. Hopefully I'm back for good this time.

>185 Amberfly: It is a funny thing. I've had it happen many times, when suddenly it's time to read this thing I've owned for 4 years and not glanced at once in that time. I thought I was the only one.

>187 floremolla: Good to see you here again, Amberfly!

>187 floremolla: hi, just popping in to say hello and keep your chin up - hopefully the butt kicking thing will pass soon. You're doing great with your reading!

>188 Amberfly: and >189 floremolla: Thanks, I hope so too.

I had some downtime today, so I knocked back both In the Forest of Forgetting and another Root, A Christmas Carol. I'm not sure when the latter came into my possession, but it was more than a year ago. I'd seen several adaptations, of course, but never read it till now. Forest was an excellent read all the way through. And they both count as Roots! This means I only need one more for the year to hit my goal!

Oh, nearly there, good work!

You can do this!

Hello... sorry for such a long absence! I kept seeing that "unread" number get higher and higher and was completely intimidated... Finally, I figured it's better to just stop by and say HI. :)
I wish I had time to go through these threads and read all about what you've all been doing and reading! But, alas, I very much do not. But I think of you often!! And my "hello" is heartfelt and repeated often in my own head ;)

I'm not sure how I will remain involved next year, but I will be around in some fashion!
xo

>191 avanders: and >192 Amberfly: Thanks, guys!

>193 Jackie_K: Hi! Nice to see you again!

I did it! Root #35, Black Horses for the King, is done. I purposely chose this because I knew it would be a light and fast read (Anne McCaffrey always is, for me), so I could take the last weeks of the year to read whatever I wanted with no pressure. It was a good read, though not a great one. It has a distinct YA feel, and I wish I'd found it in my horse phase, when I would've appreciated it more.

I may tick off a few more Roots before the end of the month, but it's a relief to be done with the challenge. Until January, that is =)

>194 floremolla: Hooray! Congratulations on hitting your goal!

Yay! Well done! :)

Hurray!! Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!

Yay! Congrats! I remember reading Black Horses for the King when I was more Y than A and really enjoying it.

Thanks, guys! It feels good to have reached the goal early this year. In the past I've always scrambled to get the last book or two read on the 30th.

>199 connie53: Nice to know I'm not the only one who felt that way. Sometimes YA titles work for me as an adult and sometimes not. This one was oddly somewhere in the middle.

I've actually picked at a few more Roots in the last few days, finishing a little book on Noh theater (very heavy on the photos) and taking a crack at The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I abandoned somewhere in the middle of the second chapter. Not for me. But it means that for the first time I've actually gone over my goal, and that's a nice feeling.

Good job, Amberfly!

Hi Amberfly! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas & Happy New Year!


And Congrats!!