Bragan's 2018 ROOTing

Hello, fellow readers and ROOTers! I am back for another year.

This time, I'm keeping my usual goal of 100 roots by the end of the year. I'm also going to keep my secondary goal from last year of also reading some books that I've had on the TBR shelves since I joined LT in 2007, but I'm cutting the goal for that from 10 down to 5. Basically, I just want to make a point of not forgetting to keep making my way through those deep-rooted tomes.

So, the tickers:







I'm also hoping to do in 2018 what I did in 2017, and end the year with fewer books on the TBR shelves than I'm starting it with. The two-out/one-in system I adopted partway through last year seems to be really helping with that, so I'm going to keep at it. Wish me luck!

And I wish all the rest of you luck as well, of course. Happy New Year, and happy reading!

Happy New Year, Bragan.

There is something wrong with your tickers. They are exactly the same. I think that's not what you wanted.

>2 connie53: Happy new year!

And, WTF? A minute ago, they looked different, but I just hit refresh and now they're the same. OK, I'll see if I can fix them. Thanks for letting me know!

Happy rooting in 2018!

Now they are okay!

>4 Tess_W: Thanks, and to you, too!

>5 connie53: I ended up clearing the cookies and re-creating the second one. I'm glad it worked!

Welcome back and have a great reading year!

Happy reading in 2018, Bragan!

Glad you're with us!

Happy ROOTing in 2018!

Hi, nice to see you again, and thanks for the reminder about the deep roots!

Thank you all, and happy ROOTing!

And here we go!

1. Doctor Who: The Vault by Marcus Hearn.

>13 bragan: I received this as a Christmas present several Christmases ago and embarrassingly have not read it yet.

>14 rabbitprincess: I got it shortly after it came out, and can't believe it took me this long to get to it. We've had a whole Doctor come and go since then!

>15 bragan: *sobs*

As excited as I am about Jodie, I'm a wreck over Peter leaving. I watched the Christmas special on Boxing Day and was weeping periodically for the rest of the day.

>16 rabbitprincess: Boy, do I hear ya. I'm also very excited about the new Doctor, but I don't think I was ever, ever going to be ready for Capaldi to leave. He's just been so fantastic!

Welcome back and congrats on your first ROOT!

>18 MissWatson: Thanks! Feels like I'm making progress. :)

Speaking of progress...

2. Sourdough by Robin Sloan.

3. Astray by Emma Donoghue.

The touchstone goes to another book, Bragan. (Led astray by Sandra Brown)

>22 connie53: Thanks. I had that problem with my touchstone for it on the Club Read group, too, but I forgot to come back here and check this one after I corrected that one. I swear, the touchstones are being especially annoying for me so far this year! Anyway, fixing it now...

>23 bragan: LOL. The touchstone is working now! It just caught my attention because I'm interested in all books by Emma Donoghue and this was a title I did not know.

Good to see you back in 2018!

>24 connie53: Well, I'm glad you caught it, anyway. And Astray -- making sure the touchstone is right this time -- turned out to be quite worth while, I think, despite me not being too sure about it at first.

>25 Jackie_K: Good to see you, too! And good to be here. :)

4. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.

5. Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki.

6. The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales.

7. Rocket Girl by George D. Morgan.

>30 bragan: I agree with all the points you raised in this review and am glad we had this story in some form, anyway. And may many more stories like it be told.

>31 rabbitprincess: That is very well put. Absolutely.

8. The Matchstick Castle by Keir Graff.

9. The Witch Who Came in from the Cold by Lindsay Smith, Max Gladstone, et al.

You are doing great, Bragan!

>35 connie53: Yes, so far, so good, thanks!

10. On the Road with Charles Kuralt by Charles Kuralt.

And with that, not only do I reach double digits on my regular ticker, but I also finally start moving the needle on my "deep roots" ticker, as I've had this book for a very, very, very long time. Hooray!

And that's it for January, I guess! Let's see where I stand...

JANUARY 2018

Books read: 10
Books acquired: 8
ROOT books read: 10
ROOT books YTD total: 10/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 1
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 1/10
Current TBR total: 955
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -2

OK, so, as you can see I haven't been quite sticking to my one-in/two-out system, but the TBR total is at least going in the right direction, however slowly. I'll be tracking it this year to see if it keeps doing that. I have hopes!

And onward into February!

11. Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.

12. Dog on It by Spencer Quinn.

13. A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston.

Good job, Bragan.

>41 bragan: Lately whenever I see Bryan Cranston's name, I think of the time he appeared on the Graham Norton show with Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch. That was a hilarious episode! He seems like an interesting man.

>42 connie53: Thanks!

>43 rabbitprincess: I didn't see that, but I bet it was lots of fun! I have seen him giving interviews and things elsewhere, and he always comes across as funny and interesting. He's more serious in the autobiography, but definitely always interesting.

>44 bragan: Here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsEPGc72Iuk

>45 rabbitprincess: OK, that was freaking hilarious. Thank you for sharing that!

14. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.

15. Artemis by Andy Weir.

Skipping over my first non-ROOT of the year...

16. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith.

17. The Pirates! in an Adventure with Communists by Gideon Defoe

18. Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

19. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

>52 bragan: Have fun with Stephanie!

>53 connie53: I fear I might have spent a little too long hanging around with Stephanie at this point. :)

>54 bragan: That is my fear too. I think I stopped by part 6 or 7.

>55 connie53: That sounds to me like an ideal place to stop, actually, before they start to feel like too much of the same, and the humor begins to run a bit thin. But somehow I just can't seem to stop reading them!

FEBRUARY 2018

Books read: 11
Books acquired: 4
ROOT books read: 9
ROOT books YTD total: 19/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 1/10
Current TBR total: 948
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -9

The two-in/one-out system is working really well! Right now, my in-vs-out ledger is perfectly balanced. That is, admittedly, partly because several of the books I acquired recently qualify as gifts, so they don't count. And it may not last long. Still! I am feeling decidedly accomplished.

>57 bragan: Excellent work on perfectly balancing your in-vs-out ledger!

20. Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters edited by Jeff Burger.

21. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

>60 bragan: that sounds like a nice read, and I liked your explanation of the benefits of reading a YA either as a child or an adult. I loved some of the YA stuff my daughter pressed me to read when she was a young teenager - now that she's an impoverished young professional her book buying is restricted, but she hasn't abandoned YA fiction - for Christmas she asked for La Belle Sauvage and I'm looking forward to borrowing it!

>61 floremolla: I've been reading a fair bit of YA, off and on lately. Although most of it is aimed more at kids in their late teens, whereas The Girl Who Drank the Moon also feels right for preteens, if they're good readers (although less right for the small kids). I tend to find that the teen books are a bit love it or hate it for me, but the good ones really impress me. And there is something about reading the kind of books I myself might have read and loved at as a youngster that can bring back the magic of childhood for me in a really pleasant way.

22. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

23. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

24. The Blue Fox by Sjón

Hi!! I've been away and ... so much has happened! I'm happy to see you're doing so well w/ your ROOTing :)

>66 avanders: Thanks! And good to see you again. :)

25. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Keller.

26. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan.

Excellent progress 8-)
What did you think about >65 bragan: ? I remember it as very poetic and beautiful but also pretty weird.

>70 Henrik_Madsen: Honestly, I couldn't decide what I thought about it! If you want to see me floundering around trying to figure out what to say about it, my review of it is here.

27. Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson.

Which I did not like, and which took me entirely too long to read. But it does at least count as another deep root pulled, because it had been on the TBR shelves for a long, looong time.

And that's March down. So:

MARCH 2018

Books read: 10
Books acquired: 4
ROOT books read: 8
ROOT books YTD total: 27/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 1
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 2/10
Current TBR total: 942
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -15

Wow, those are some really encouraging numbers! I'm even slightly ahead now on the one-in/two-out ledger, although I did just order a couple of books, so that's likely going to change soon. Still! For the moment, it actually seems to be working. Go, me!

Mind you, it looks like I'm going to be starting April with a little run of non-ROOTS, but since I'm fairly well on track for those, too, I'm not going to be too concerned about it.

Great stats, looks like you've got everything under control and you're making a dent in that TBR pile!

>74 floremolla: It's a big TBR pile, so even a big dent is a small dent, if you see what I mean. But I will totally take it! Progress is good. :)

Erm, so, if you see a post by me in this group with one deleted message, please ignore it. I accidentally posted my new Club Read thread in the wrong group. I"m not positive, but I think if nobody replies to it, it will eventually go away, and then I can go back to pretending I never make any mistakes. :)

>76 bragan: Hihihi, I starred it but saw what happened and took the star away again.

>77 connie53: Yes, nothing to see there! Heh.

Finally, my first ROOT for April!

28. A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back by Kevin Hazzard

>79 bragan: Hurray! And what an interesting-sounding book, too :)

>80 rabbitprincess: The title alone is great, isn't it? :)

29. Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore.

30. Chemistry: A Novel by Weike Wang.

31. A Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett.

32. Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich.

APRIL 2018

Books read: 9
Books acquired: 5
ROOT books read: 5
ROOT books YTD total: 32/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 2/10
Current TBR total: 938
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -19

Not quite as good this month as last month, but still headed in the right direction!

Good work. If you keep that up you could get below 900 this year!

>87 floremolla: That would be exciting!

Onward into May!

33. The Albuquerque Turkey by John Vorhaus.

34. The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

35. Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind by Kitty Ferguson

36. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith.

37. The Newford Stories by Charles De Lint.

That one took me a while to finish! Mostly because it was an 800-page three-in-one omnibus volume. But it also qualifies as one of my "deep roots"! I don't know exactly how long it'd been on the TBR shelves, but it was a long, long time.

The chunkster deep roots are among the most difficult to motivate yourself to read, aren't they? So kudos to you for ROOTing that one out!

>94 floremolla: They are! I am rather proud of myself for finally getting to that one.

38. Doctor Who: The Doctor's Lives and Times by James Goss & Steve Tribe.

39. The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders.

>96 bragan: I keep seeing that one at the library but haven't yet borrowed it. Thanks for your review; I think I'll check it out :)

>96 bragan: It was fun. Definitely worth checking out of the library, I think!

40. Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich.

41. Snooze: The Lost Art of Sleep by Michael McGirr.

42. Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips.

OK, I really don't think I'm going to finish the book I'm in the middle of today, so I guess that means now is the time for this:

MAY 2018

Books read: 11
Books acquired: 5 (but one is a reference book and doesn't go on the TBR, so it doesn't really count)
ROOT books read: 10
ROOT books YTD total: 42/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 1
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 3/5
Current TBR total: 931
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -26

Wow, look at that beautiful, beautiful negative number in that last line! I'm still doing remarkably well.

Oh, that negative number, I can only dream of that - well done you! Actually, I'm delighted that my equivalent number is +1, that's still really impressive for me, but can I get to a negative number by the end of the year? That's what I'm hoping for!

>103 bragan: Wow! Minus 26! I am impressed :D

>104 Jackie_K:, >105 rabbitprincess: Admittedly, that's a negative number applied to a very large positive number, but I will take it! I'm utterly astonished how well this system is doing at keeping me on track, and how long that's lasted for so far.

I am so impressed by that negative number. Admirable work!

>107 MissWatson: Thank you! I don't mind admitting I'm pretty impressed, myself. :)

43. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.

44. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen.

45. Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse.

46. The Trouble with Testosterone by Robert M. Sapolsky.

After a brief pause to read a few non-ROOTS:

47. Provenance by Ann Leckie.

>113 bragan: Yay! Still have to read the second and third books in the Ancillary trilogy, but I'm glad to have this one to look forward to as well.

>114 rabbitprincess: They're all fun, although I did like the Ancillary books a bit better than this one.

48. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

49. The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy.

And another month down... Let's see where we stand.

JUNE 2018

Books read: 10
Books acquired: 5
ROOT books read: 7
ROOT books YTD total: 49/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 3/5
Current TBR total: 926
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -31

Whoo-hoo! Still going in the right direction. Even if I am, like, one book under where I should be for my ROOT goal for the year.

Whoops, finished this one last night and almost forgot to add it:

50. Final Girls by Riley Sager.

There. Now I'm at the halfway mark!

51. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak.

52. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher.

53. Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang.

54. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014, edited by Deborah Blum.

55. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.

56. The Book of Athyra by Steven Brust.

57. The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman.

58. Find Me by Laura Ven den Berg.

And somehow now it's August. So:

JULY 2018

Books read: 12
Books acquired: 6
ROOT books read: 9
ROOT books YTD total: 58/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 3/5
Current TBR total: 920
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -37 (Wow!)

I hope to start getting back to some of those "deep ROOTs" this month. Otherwise, I'm doing good!

WOW -37 books from the beginning of the year. Amazing.

>129 deep220: I know! I keep thinking there must be some kind of accounting mistake.

59. The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian.

60. Neutrino Hunters by Ray Jayawardhana.

>129 deep220: Ohh, I want to see how much my TBR has gone down in comparison to the beginning of this year too!

Hi Bragan, just popping in to see you have been reading a lot! Good job!

>133 connie53: I'm glad I've been keeping track. The results have been very gratifying!

Also, hi, Connie! *waves*

I'm 22 down! Yeah. I bought a lot of books too, but read 34 ROOTs and 43 new and shiny ones.

>128 bragan: >129 deep220: I'm so impressed with the -37! I'm really hoping that I can end the year at 0 or - something, for the first time ever! Currently I'm at +10, which is actually pretty impressive for me (50 ROOTs read, 60 new books acquired) - my rate of acquisitions compared to ROOTs has slowed down a fair bit compared to the last couple of years (when I pretty much acquired double the number of ROOTs I'd read).

>136 Jackie_K: At least you are moving in the right direction , Jackie

>135 connie53: Whoo-hoo! That is a great number.

>136 Jackie_K: I'm telling ya, the two-in-one-out system works amazingly well. Well, it is for me, anyway. It seems to be the first TBR-limiting system I actually find it not too hideously painful to follow. Although, admittedly, avoiding the library sales (mostly) is helping, too. Usually I'm ending the year at, well, a lot more than +10. There's a reason I managed to accumulate nearly 1000 unread books in the first place.

>137 connie53: Absolutely! Any move in the right direction is a good move.

61. The Gunslinger by Stephen King.

And that one has been on the TBR shelves approximately forever, meaning that I also get to move the "deep ROOTs" slider ahead, too! Meaning I'm at 4/5 on that goal now. Feels good to be getting back to that, finally.

And De scherpschutter is the beginning of a good series of books. So there are probably more 'deep ROOTs on your shelves.

>140 connie53: yes, I have the next three books in the series, and I'm pretty sure all of them count.

I've a total of 7 Dark Tower books on my shelves? All read.

>142 connie53: I was surprised to realize there were that many of them!

62. No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal.

63. The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin.

64. Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich.

65. Just Kids by Patti Smith.

OK, I am definitely not going to finish another book today, so it's time for the August summary

AUGUST 2018

Books read: 8
Books acquired: 5
ROOT books read: 7
ROOT books YTD total: 64/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 1
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 4/5
Current TBR total: 917
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -40

Kind of a slow month for me, really. For some reason everything seemed to take longer to read than I expected it to. But I'm still on track for my ROOTs goal, and I'm very close to the "deep ROOTs" secondary goal. So that's nice.

But it's that last number that's really impressive. Forty books less on my TBR pile than at the beginning of the year! Forty! I never would have thought it.

>148 bragan: WHAAAT that is amazing! Congratulations!

I keep thinking I must have made a mistake somewhere, but nope! It really is forty books. :)

Onward into September!

66. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez.

67. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke.

68. M.C. Escher: The Graphic Work by M.C. Escher

69. This Side of Home by Renee Watson.

70. Company by Max Barry.

Just got back from a short trip to visit my mom, and I finished two ROOTs while I was gone:

71. The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King.

And that was one of my "deep ROOTS," meaning that my goal of reading five of those this year has been reached. Yay!

72. Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard.

This would seem like good progress, if my mother hadn't also given me kind of a lot of free books while I was there. Oops. :)

Congrats on the deep ROOTs. And as for the newly acquired ones: well, accidents do happen.

>157 MissWatson: Yes, some days you just slip and fall on some books. :)

Hurray for finishing the deep ROOTS! Also, you can never have too many books to choose from ;)

>159 rabbitprincess: If it is possible, I think I have managed it. But my mother kept saying, "But they're free books! You can't turn down free books. That's just wrong." And I could not argue with her. At all. :)

73. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis.

74. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

So, my report for September:

SEPTEMBER 2018

Books read: 11
Books acquired: 23
ROOT books read: 9
ROOT books YTD total: 74/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 1
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 5/5
Current TBR total: 929
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -28

Well, I was doing really, fantastically well on whittling down the TBR shelves by using the one-in/two-out system. And then I went to visit my mother, who waved at her bookshelves and said, idly, "You want any of these? You can have anything you want from these shelves; I'm not going to re-read them."

I went home with so many books that I had to check an extra bag. (Good thing I was flying Southwest! I think they're the only ones left who don't charge you for that.)

I then exploited a loophole in the one-in/two-out system that says books that are gifts don't count. I even made her explicitly say "These are a gift." But I know I'm not really fooling anyone, least of all me. Ah, well. Despite that, the TBR is still down quite a bit from the beginning of the year.

ROOT-wise, I'm almost on track, but I keep coming in just the slightest hair shy of where I should be. Theoretically, I should have 75 books by now, and I'm at 74. Close enough, right? And I did already meet my secondary goal of reading five of the "deep roots" before the end of the year.

>163 bragan: Great progress, and phew that gifts don't count! It would have been awfully rude of you not to take the books :)

>164 Jackie_K: Yes, she got a kick out of how excited I got about it, too. I was just doing something nice for my mother. :)

>163 bragan: I 100% endorse the exploiting of loopholes in the 2-for-1 system :D I don't count freebies, so anything from Project Gutenberg helps me rather than hinders me.

>166 rabbitprincess: I do count some freebies. I count Early Reviewer books, because, well, the reason I get those is because I asked for them, so it's on me. But, hey, did I ask for the contents of my mother's bookshelves? I did not. :)

75. The Best American Essays 2011 edited by Edwinge Danticat.

76. Lori by Robert Bloch.

77. The Cult TV Book edited by Stacey Abbott.

78. The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters: The Jolly Regina by Kara LaReau.

79. The Annie Year by Stephanie Wilbur Ash.

80. The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen

81. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.

Somehow it's Halloween already, which means it's time for the October sum-up:

OCTOBER 2018

Books read: 10
Books acquired: 7
ROOT books read: 7
ROOT books YTD total: 81/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 5/5
Current TBR total: 926
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -31

ROOT total is still slightly below where it theoretically should be, but reaching the goal in the next couple of months should still be totally doable. Especially as I have some time off in the next week or so. I think I may need to indulge in an all-day read-in somewhere in there.

82. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

83. Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris.

84. Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood.

85. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.

86. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens.

87. Lock In by John Scalzi.

88. Norse Mythology by Nail Gaiman.

89. Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

Doggone it, I thought the book I just finished counted as a ROOT, but it turns out I've only had it since January. It really is going to come down to the wire whether I'll make my goal this year...

90. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach.

91. Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu.

NOVEMBER 2018

Books read: 12
Books acquired: 2 (Woo, look at me being all restrained!)
ROOT books read: 10
ROOT books YTD total: 91/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 5/5
Current TBR total: 916
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -41 (Wow.)

November was a really good month of reading for me, too, all things considered. Here's hoping for more of the same in December!

92. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

93. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy by Michael Tettelbaum.

94. Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak.

95. The Daughters by Adrienne Celt.

96. The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas.

Just skimming through the threads and trying to say Hi to everyone.

>193 connie53: Hi, Connie!

97. Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown.

98. The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks.

Only two more!

>197 connie53: Yes, I am so close! And I was worried there for a while that I might not make it...

>197 connie53: Nothing to worry about now.

>199 connie53: Yes, unless something truly unexpected happens, I should be good!

99. But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman.

100. My Real Children by Jo Walton.

And with that... I did it! Yay! That is my ROOT goal for the year reached!

I've got a couple of non-ROOTs lined up to read next, so I'm dubious about reading any more qualifying books before the year is over, but it's not impossible. Even if I don't, though, I will bask in the feeling of accomplishment for another year. :)

Excellent work!

>203 rabbitprincess: I don't know if "work" is quite the right word for it, but I will take the compliment, regardless. :)

Hooray, well done! 100 is super-impressive!

>205 Jackie_K: I think I'm going to lower it for next year, to be honest.

Very good job, Bragan!

>207 connie53: Thanks, Connie! Feels pretty good.

And, OK, that's it for my reading in 2018! Let's see how December has left me:

DECEMBER 2018

Books read: 10
Books acquired: 18
ROOT books read: 9
ROOT books YTD total: 100/100
"Deep ROOTs" read: 0
"Deep ROOTs" YTD total: 5/5
Current TBR total: 923
TBR change from the beginning of the year: -34

So, I didn't exceed my ROOT goals this year, but I did meet them, which is good enough for me. And even though December brought a not-unexpected influx of books (between Christmas gifts, SantaThing and some end-of-the-year splurging), the one-in/two-out system is still working amazingly well, as even with me shamelessly abusing the "gift books don't count" loophole, the TBR is still down thirty-plus books from the beginning of the year. Now, if I can just keep this up, it'll be down to nothing in, um... about twenty-seven years? Well, hey, I'm only 47, so that's maybe doable. Not that I want to eliminate it completely. You have to have some books to choose from!

Anyway. I see the 2019 group is up and running, so I'll trundle along there soon and set up my new thread for the new year. I will see you guys there. And, until then, have a very, very happy New Year!

Happy new year! Well done on keeping that TBR change going in the right direction! :)

>210 rabbitprincess: Here's hoping i can keep it going through the new year!

>209 bragan: Happy new year! I'm going to try the 2 for 1 thing this year too (and gifts totally don't count!).

>212 Jackie_K: I hope it works as well for you as it did for me!