OCTOBER ROOT - Progress Thread

FLOWER OF THE MONTH = YELLOW ROSE









Password is ROOTS

I know that we had roses as the flower of the month in June, however, I am taking the liberty to have a yellow rose for October because they were my Mom's favorite and she would have had her 96th birthday this month.

Yellow brings about a cheery and joyful nature to the rose. Like the sun, it conveys warmth and happiness, so it is no wonder that yellow roses primarily represent friendship. In addition to friendship, yellow roses can send a message of joy, caring, and affection to whoever the recipient may be.

So to all of you here, I send a yellow rose.


I have removed from the calculations those members who have not reached 25% of their goal AND have not posted activity in the last 6 months. The tickers have been adjusted and the group goal modified.

If you feel you have been removed and should remain, please contact me.
I have also marked the totals for the 7 members whose tickers are not working to record the same number as last month. When you get your tickers corrected, please let me know.

Below is the current list of members who have been active for 2020 and how many books they read by the end of September. The percentages are calculated and a star awarded for those on target to reach their goals. More stars for farther toward their goal. If anyone's number is incorrect, please let me know and I will make the necessary adjustments.

alexa_d 81 / 100 ★ 81.0%
Ameise1★ 12 / 12 100.0%
Bcteagirl 7 / 20 35.0%
benitastrnad★ 86 / 60 143.3%
bragan★ 51 / 50 102.0%
brakketh 14 / 30 46.7%
ca_dmv★ 14 / 12 116.7%
clue★ 50 / 50 100.0%
connie53★ 52 / 42 123.8%
crazy4reading 10 / 38 26.3%
curioussquared★ 54 / 50 108.0%
CurrerBell 20 / 40 50.0%
cyderry 73 / 84 ★★ 86.9%
detailmuse 30 / 40 ★ 75.0%
DissamblyOfReason 22 / 100 22.0%
enemyanniemae★ 69 / 50 138.0%
Erratic_Charmer★ 49 / 40 122.5%
Familyhistorian 64 / 65 ★★★ 98.5%
FAMeulstee★ 28 / 24 116.7%
floremolla 21 / 50 42.0%
fuzzi 50 / 100 50.0%
HelenBaker 34 / 48 70.8%
Henrik_Madsen 47 / 50 ★★★ 94.0%
H-mb 12 / 20 60.0%
humouress 27 / 40 67.5%
Jackie_K★ 61 / 60 101.7%
kac522 43 / 45 ★★★ 95.6%
karenmarie 28 / 30 ★★★ 93.3%
Kristelh★ 48 / 45 106.7%
Kwharton 5 / 12 41.7%
LadyBookworth 26 / 30 ★★ 86.7%
lindapanzo 36 / 48 ★ 75.0%
lilisin★ 67 / 50 134.0%
LoraShouse 12 / 15 ★ 80.0%
leslie.98★ 129 / 75 172.0%
madhatter22 21 / 50 42.0%
majkia★ 89 / 60 148.3%
mandymarie20★ 44 / 25 176.0%
martencat 23 / 30 ★ 76.7%
Merryann 40 / 100 40.0%
Miss_Moneypenny★ 71 / 50 142.0%
MissSos 8 / 25 32.0%
MissWatson★ 65 / 50 130.0%
nebula21 27 / 48 56.3%
Nickelini★ 21 / 15 140.0%
rabbitprincess★ 78 / 60 130.0%
rainpebble 29 / 36 ★ 80.6%
readergirliz 12 / 32 37.5%
readingtangent★ 41 / 24 170.8%
Rebeki 21 / 24 ★★ 87.5%
ritacate 19 / 24 ★ 79.2%
Robertgreaves★ 90 / 90 100.0%
rocketjk 22 / 27 ★ 81.5%
rosalita★ 47 / 36 130.6%
Sace★ 32 / 18 177.8%
sallylou61★ 31 / 30 103.3%
si 12 / 20 60.0%
sibylline 18 / 30 60.0%
torontoc★ 31 / 30 103.3%
vestafan★ 62 / 60 103.3%
wandaly 14 / 18 ★ 77.8%




Of the 61 active participants, 28 have reached their goal!

We had some avid readers that reached their goals this month - Robertgreaves, Erratic_Charmer, bragan, vestafan, Jackie_K,ca_dmv, clue, and torontoc

They joined Ameise1, mmandymarie20, Miss_Moneypenny, readingtangent, leslie.98 benitastrnad, FAMeulstee, majkia, MissWatson, Nickelini, connie53, rabbitprincess, Saceby, sallylou61, rosalita, enemyanniemae, Kristelh, curioussquared,Erratic_Charmer, and lilisin reaching their goal!

Our ★★★ readers or those closest to reaching their goals, are:

Familyhistorian 98.5%
kac522 95.6%
Henrik_Madsen 94.0%
karenmarie 93.3%

We're back ahead of schedule but still have ROOTs to dig!!

The goal for October was 2,198.
There are still 238 ROOTS left until we reach our goal.
For 61 of us, that's about 4 each. We can do this!
Let's have some fall gardening and DIG THOSE ROOTS!

I've added my first ROOT for the month (#62 for the year) to all tickers.

I also added my first ROOT of October. I finished Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon. this was book number 20 in the Guido Brunetti series and they just keep getting better. I have to admit that I was only lukewarm about this series in the beginning, but now I am invested in Guido and his wife, Paola. Guido's struggles to work according to his principles provide comedy and contemplation at the same time.

Woo HOO! We're on a roll! Thanks for crunching the numbers as always, Chèli.

Yellow roses are beautiful :)

Yellow roses are also my favorite flower, and I think it's lovely that you chose to feature them this month in memory of your mom. Thank you for all the work you do to keep all of the stats updated!

Congrats to all those who have reached their goals, and best of luck to those who are still on the way.

I love yellow roses. Good to see that we are back on track.

I'm so glad we are back on track. Let's keep it that way.

Just added my first ROOT of October to all tickers: Parting Shot, by Linwood Barclay.

Hi Cheli, you missed me on the list of those who met goal this month. I'll keep reading ROOTS though.

Thanks for the yellow rose! They are my favorite too and I have a yellow running rose still blooming although I don't think it will for much longer. I planted it about 25 years ago and as long as it gets fed it blooms on and it certainly does make me happy!

I actually hit 51 by the end of the month. I just forgot to update my ticker on time. (Go, me! :))

And the yellow roses are lovely.

>10 clue: sorry Luanne, I've corrected it!

Love the roses. Mine are just starting to flower as we are in spring here. My daughter had yellow roses for her October wedding. so always special.

I missed finalizing my tally last month and made it to #35 with, No More Boats by Felicity Castagna.
A very poor reading month as my youngest daughter has hyperemesis gravidarum, extreme nausea in pregnancy and they are having a new bathroom installed, so staying with us. Not much reading with an 8 year old and 16 month old and nursing duties, plus cooking and washing. I need to pick up my pace.

I managed to complete The Widow and her Hero by Thomas Keneally for this month.

Added my second ROOT of October to all tickers: Dalek Empire 2.4: Dalek War, Chapter 4, a Big Finish audio drama.

First ROOT of October- and 32 for the year- no tickers updates but review is on my thread

Reporting ROOT # 53 for the year, # 1 for October

Als laatste het hart by Margaret Atwood

All tickers updated

Yay for being back on track! Good luck to everyone heading into the final quarter :).

The roses are lovely, thank you, Chèli.

I've just added ROOT #2 for October (#63 for the year) to all tickers.

Finished reading People who eat Darkness last night about the disappearance of a British girl in Tokyo and what happened to her. I was absorbed for three days reading this and just had to read till the last page yesterday. Have been on a huge nonfiction kick lately.

I have finished my first ROOT of October. My thread and all tickers have been updated. The Tickerfactory website has changed and I think that I may have inadvertantly changed the appearance of the group tickers... if so, mea culpa!

I have read two ROOTs, After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth and Maigret Hesitates by Simenon.

Finished my first ROOT for October, started in September.


The Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters

My personal ticker should be at 51 but is NOT updated because the ticker site looks strange...not sure if it's in the middle of an upgrade or truly broken.

First ROOT for this month duly logged on my own ticker. The new look of the site is disorienting, but we'll get used to it, I suppose.

Reporting ROOT # 54 for the year, # 2 for October

Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton

All tickers updated

>22 clue: I think that the ticker site has been "upgraded" -- but as >24 MissWatson: says, we'll probably get used to it. It seems much less intuitive than the old way to me.

And that's #3 for October (#64 for the year) added to all tickers.

I'm not loving the new ticker site either, but it does strike me that as the text is much bigger it is probably better for people with a level of visual impairment.

OH NO! The new ticker site changed my tickers! They all look the same now...

>28 fuzzi: said: "OH NO! The new ticker site changed my tickers! They all look the same now..."

That is the problem that I think I had with the group tickers (mentioned in post 21)! I afterwards played around with my own tickers and finally figured out how to change the 'ruler' (what I think of as the background) and 'slider' (what I think of as the pointer). One thing I noticed is that even when I changed the 'ruler', it showed up on the 'update data' page where you save as the old one - ignore that and save anyway! Go to your thread and refresh the display - the new background 'ruler' should show up.

I finally posted my 65th ROOT and with that I made my goal! Off to check out the tickers.

Second ROOT of October- and 33 for the year- no tickers updates but review is on my thread

I updated all tickers with my latest ROOT: Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell. However, it appears to have made both group tickers look the same. Oops! Strangely, I didn't have this problem with my personal tickers :S

Reporting ROOT # 55 for the year, # 3 for October

Terug naar Bear Mountain by Deborah Smith

All tickers updated

>30 Familyhistorian: Congratulations to FamilyHistorian. Well done.

Not liking the new Ticker Factory tickers one bit and don't plan on adding to our main ticker as I always do. I can do my own but would hate to mess up our ROOTS ticker.

>34 Robertgreaves: Thanks Robert!

I fixed the tickers. For the time being, I'll take care of updating them so we have no issues, okay?

>37 cyderry: Sounds good! Thanks, Chèli :)

>30 Familyhistorian: Well done!

>37 cyderry: OK with me :)

>37 cyderry: That sounds good, Cheli. Thanks

So no more updating for any one else? Good idea.

I've updated just my tickers with #4 for October (#65 for the year), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has taken me, on and off, 2 or 3 years to complete!

Updated my personal ticker with my latest ROOT: Death Under Sail, by C. P. Snow.

>39 leslie.98: Thanks, Leslie!

And now I've added #5 for October (#66 for the year) to my own ticker - have left the group ticker untouched.

I'm on a roll - that's #6 for October (#67 for the year) added to my ticker. Group ticker left alone.

Updated my personal ticker with my latest ROOT, a Doctor Who Big Finish audio drama called Jago & Litefoot & Strax: The Haunting.

I've just added #7 for October (#68 for the year) to my own ticker. It was completely brilliant, one of my books of the year: Ring the Hill by Tom Cox.

And that's #8 for October (#69 for the year) added to my ticker. It was another good one - Close to Where the Heart Gives Out by Dr Malcolm Alexander, a memoir of a year as an Orkney GP.

Since I'm doing the tickers for awhile, preliminary update shows us only 185 from our goal!

Another root at last, The Song Collector by Natasha Solomons. After an extremely busy 2 months, life is finally settling down so hopefully I can catch up on my reading.

>50 cyderry: Brilliant! Go team! :D

I just added the third ROOT of October to my ticker. I'm hoping for at least one more!

After an extended absence from ROOTing, I'm reporting 1 ROOT for October (5 total for 2020). My personal ticker has been updated but left the group ticker untouched. I listened to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow narrated by Tom Mison and very much enjoyed the autumnal short story.

I am picking up the pace again. Another root taking me to #38, Drylands by Thea Astley. I am tending to chose shorter books to achieve my goal by years end and trying to stay away from the library.

I've now added #9 for October (#70 for the year) to my ticker. I should have at least one more finished by month end (I'm hoping for 2, but I know what I'm like, I always over-estimate my ability to finish things when I'm closing in on the end of the month!).

Third ROOT of October- and 34 for the year- no tickers updates but review is on my thread

Added another ROOT to my personal ticker: a Doctor Who audio short, Destiny of the Doctor #11: The Time Machine, by Matt Fitton. Just what the Doctor ordered for an oncoming reading slump.

Another quick read, Oracle Night by Paul Auster, but I have too read a couple of library books next to fulfil book group challenges. So my tally for the month is 39/48.

Fourth ROOT of October and 35 for the year.

finishing 11 for the month, total of 80 for the year.

Added another ROOT to my personal ticker: a re-read that was almost like a first read of jPod, by Douglas Coupland.

I needed a quick read for some longer train rides so read Amelie Nothomb's Riquet a la houppe, one of her better ones sitting at a middle grade of 3/5.

Adding one more book for the month (2 total) for October. Personal ticker updated.
Frankenstein ★★★
The narration by Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast) was awesome. The novel itself was a reread, thus my same 3 star rating.

I finished my second ROOT last night, Prince Valiant Volume 9:, but also have Robert A. Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon over halfway read, so I might get 3 ROOTs this month.

I know I'm woefully behind this year...

Reporting one ROOT for October, total is now 29 (of 24 planned).
Only updated my personal ticker.

Added a short ROOT to my ticker, a Doctor Who comic book: The Twelfth Doctor Vol. 6: Sonic Boom. This brings me to 86 ROOTS for the year. Will I be able to read another one tomorrow? We'll see.

Here is my report for October 2020:

UpROOTED books: 14
ROOTless books: 9
Added to the treebook TBR shelves: 2

The ROOTs were:

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Galileo: A Very Short Introduction by Stillman Drake
Doubt by C. E. Tobisman
Pamela or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith
A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith
The Sandman Volume 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Volume 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks
The Supplicating Voice by Samuel Johnson
Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

ROOTs in YTD: 104

As requested, I have only updated my personal ticker and have left the group tickers alone.

I've added #10 for October (#71 for the year) to my ticker. I won't be finishing any more this month.

Wow, how is it Halloween already? Time is flying by! Here's my October ROOT update (all books have been logged on my ticker, but not the group one).

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 1 by Naoko Takeuchi
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 2 by Naoko Takeuchi
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 3 by Naoko Takeuchi
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 4 by Naoko Takeuchi

These bring my personal ROOT count up to 78, a full 28 more than I had originally planned for!

I had 7 ROOT's for the month. No tickers updated.

Here are my tallies for the month.

I read three mystery novels that have been on my shelves for awhile.
Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon
Beastly Things by Donna Leon
Girl in the Woods by Camilla Lackberg

I read one nonfiction book for the Nonfiction Challenge. Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth was one of the first books I entered here on LT back when I joined in 2008.

I had three recorded books that were ROOT's. Two YA dystopian novels and one memoir.
Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson
All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Finished the exhaustive history of China's revolutions in Jonathan Spence's The Gate of Heavenly Peace. What a wonderful history that I know I'll have to visit again as there is just so much in there. I knew China went through a chaotic period but wow!

I finished my sixth ROOT a few minutes before midnight, personal ticker is up-to-date.

Only three for me this month. At least I've already met my goal. I've updated my ticker in the ticker thread.

Met my goal last night, so all my Roots beginning today will be icing on the cake!

>75 kac522: Congratulations! :D

https://www.librarything.com/topic/325939

NOVEMBER THREAD IS UP!

My total was 29 as of 31 October.

>77 cyderry: I just finished one of my planned October ROOTs, so over to the new thread I'll go!