FEBRUARY ROOT - Progess Thread

The first month of our 2014 ROOT Challenge was a success! We met the
monthly goal with a little extra, so we know that it can be done.
I have placed a ★ for anyone who reached 1/12th of their goal. If anyone doubled that, they got ★★, and so on. This just signifies that you are on target to reach your goal if you keep up the same pace. Those without a ★ (myself included) need to pickup the pace if we want to reach our goals.
Let's see the new Tickers sparkle with enormous proportions so that we dig deep and weed out those UNREAD BOOKS!




These tickers show the progress toward the group goal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would like to ask for your assistance keeping the totals in 2014.
Please post your personal tickers in the ticker thread or post your monthly
progress here at the end of the month so that I can gather the numbers in
one thread as much as possible.
I try to keep up on the personal threads during the month, so having to
revisit to gather numbers can be a bit time consuming if the system is slow.
Any help is appreciated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are the totals for January. If anybody's number needs adjustment, please let me know.
If your name is not on the list, I couldn't find your ticker or personal thread.

amberfly 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%
Ameise1 2 / 10 ★★ 20.0%
amobogio 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
ananislaw 8 / 50 ★★ 16.0%
Anoplophora 2 / 35 5.7%
ArmyAngel1986 0 / 50 0.0%
arrianarose 4 / 25 ★★ 16.0%
Ashuri 0 / 75 0.0%
AuntieClio 6 / 50 ★ 12.0%
auntmarge64 4 / 30 ★ 13.3%
avanders 2 / 24 ★ 8.3%
Avery_dItkarya 3 / 20 ★ 15.0%
Barefoot 0 / 12 0.0%
bayleaf 1 / 12 ★ 8.3%
becbart 0 / 10 0.0%
benitastrnad 2 / 30 6.7%
billiejean 0 / 15 0.0%
bohemima 5 / 36 ★ 13.9%
bookishmaters 1 / 75 1.3%
bragan 10 / 100 ★ 10.0%
brewergirl 5 / 35 ★ 14.3%
BurntUmberDust 0 / 25 0.0%
Caramellunacy 8 / 50 ★★ 16.0%
christina_reads 6 / 21 ★★ 28.6%
clue 8 / 30 ★★ 26.7%
Conachair 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
connie53 3 / 24 ★ 12.5%
craso 2 / 8 ★★★ 25.0%
crazy4reading 7 / 35 ★★ 20.0%
cyderry 5 / 84 6.0%
damarisT 2 / 14 ★ 14.3%
daughterofheaven 6 / 13 ★★★★★ 46.2%
deep220 3 / 50 6.0%
detailmuse 5 / 30 ★★ 16.7%
dudes22 2 / 60 3.3%
eesti23 2 / 25 ★ 8.0%
elcee 1 / 8 ★ 12.5%
EllsieFind 0 / 14 0.0%
emperatrix 1 / 30 3.3%
emperatrix 1 30 3.3%
Familyhistorian 5 / 35 ★ 14.3%
fuzzi 1 / 40 2.5%
HelenBaker 5 / 35 ★ 14.3%
hemlokgang 3 / 25 ★ 12.0%
Henrik_Madsen 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%
h-mb 0 / 12 0.0%
Infoquest 14 / 75 ★★ 18.7%
inge_87 3 / 36 ★ 8.3%
ipsoivan 1 / 30 3.0%
JackieKirkham 1 / 25 4.0%
JacobsBeloved 0 / 20 0.0%
JacobsBeloved 0 / 20 0.0%
janflora 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%
janflora 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%
jen.e.moore 7 / 30 ★★ 23.3%
jennyifer24 2 / 12 ★★ 16.7%
jessibud2 2 / 20 ★ 10.0%
johanna414 6 / 20 ★★★ 30.0%
jonesli 6 / 75 ★ 8.0%
JustBreathe13 0 / 12 0.0%
kac522 3 / 30 ★ 10.0%
karen_o 4 / 45 ★ 8.9%
karspeak 5 / 20 ★★ 25.0%
Kaydeanne 3 / 50 6.0%
kaylaraeintheway 1 / 15 6.7%
kittym 1 / 12 ★ 8.3%
kkunker 4 / 36 ★ 11.1%
Kwidhalm 1 / 25 4.0%
LadyBookworth 4 / 25 ★ 16.0%
lahochstetler 3 / 50 6.0%
laura_88 3 / 20 ★ 15.0%
laurabrook 1 / 50 2.0%
lauranav 8 / 30 ★★★ 26.7%
laytonwoman3rd 3 / 35 ★ 8.6%
leslie.98 4 / 35 ★ 11.4%
lilywren 3 / 25 ★ 12.0%
lindapanzo 3 / 36 ★ 8.3%
LissaJ 1 / 75 1.3%
Little Taiko 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
lizamichelle 5 / 100 5.0%
lkernagh 2 / 25 ★ 8.0%
lmw44039 0 / 10 0.0%
LongDogMom 4 / 35 ★ 11.4%
LorLe 2 / 50 4.0%
lulaa 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
Maaike15274 0 / 20 0.0%
mabith 2 / 24 ★ 8.3%
majkia 9 / 60 ★ 15.0%
mandymarie20 3 / 100 3.0%
melonbrawl 2 / 50 4.0%
Merryann 16 / 84 ★★ 19.0%
mgnm 0 / 12 0.0%
Michael.Rimmer 1 / 12 ★ 8.3%
MissBrangwen 1 / 113 0.9%
MissWatson 3 / 36 ★ 8.3%
moonshineandrosefire 13 / 120 ★ 10.8%
Nickelini 2 / 50 4.0%
Pigletto 10 / 60 ★★ 16.7%
PolymathicMonkey 7 / 50 ★ 14.0%
punky 3 / 50 6.0%
Quaisior 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
rabbitprincess 7 / 50 ★ 14.0%
raidergirl3 2 / 25 ★ 8.0%
rainpebble 16 / 50 ★★★ 32.0%
ramblingivy 2 / 8 ★★★ 25.0%
ReneeLaVonne 0 / 70 0.0%
riverwillow 1 / 24 4.2%
RobertGreaves 9 / 75 ★ 12.0%
rubyandthetwins 6 / 48 ★ 12.5%
sarahbradshaw 3 / 30 ★ 10.0%
scenik1 0 / 45 0.0%
Seljordroos 0 / 40 0.0%
shearon 0 / 25 0.0%
shinyone 3 / 25 ★ 12.0%
Shutzie 2 / 50 4.0%
skyrad43 4 / 20 ★★ 20.0%
SqueakyChu 0 / 5 0.0%
streamsong 6 / 50 ★ 12.0%
SuziQoregon 2 / 18 ★ 11.1%
Tallulah_Rose 2 / 20 ★ 10.0%
tanager 0 / 25 0.0%
Tanya-dogearedcopy 2 / 50 4.0%
tess_i_am48 0 / 11 0.0%
Threeatlast 0 / 25 0.0%
tloeffler 8 / 50 ★★ 16.0%
torontoc 4 / 30 ★ 13.3%
tottman 1 / 25 4.0%
twiga92 0 / 50 0.0%
tymos 5 / 48 ★ 10.4%
vestafan 4 / 50 ★ 8.0%
VivienneR 11 / 50 ★★ 22.0%
westham89 1 / 26 3.8%
zephyr4 0 / 30 0.0%

448 4940

So, now, Ladies and Gentlemen, BOOK LOVERS, BIBLIOPHILES, BOOK HOARDERS - get out there and read those BOOKS!

Our goal for February is 838.

We can't rest on our laurels. Just because we were ahead of the needed pace for January doesn't mean we can let up. February is a short month, too, with three fewer reading days than January.

We can do it!!

Hi Cheli,

My total for the year is 30, not 50, but yes, I've only read one so far. Head down, plugging away...

Maggie

Finished my first ROOT for February, and my fifth for the year. Tickers updated.

Congrats kkunker! Looks like our first Root of the month is in folks!

Technically, my total was 9 ROOT books for January, as I finished #10 on Feb. 1st.

Thanks Cheli for this masterpiece of a list. I'm impressed. Please could you explain me why I've got one star when I've read 2 books of 10? Thanks a lot :-D

My No. 10 also counts towards February rather than January, so only 9/75 for January I'm afraid.

>7 Ameise1: - Barbara, you have read more than 1/12 of your goal of 10!

> Chèli - You have some dubbles in the list!

These ones:

emperatrix 1 / 30 3.3%
emperatrix 1 30 3.3%

JacobsBeloved 0 / 20 0.0%
JacobsBeloved 0 / 20 0.0%
janflora 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%
janflora 5 / 50 ★ 10.0%

Lots of stars on that list. Good job everyone. Even though it's a short month, I'm hoping to catch up since Jan was not a good month for me. A vacation at the end of the month should help.

I've abandoned my latest, The Recognitions, as I just could not get along with it after the first section of the book. I kept persevering, but found I was reading almost anything but that book.

It's an unrooted ROOT that will free up a good amount of space on my shelves.

Updating all tickers.

I'm actually slightly ahead of schedule. Never thought that would happen!

I just added my first ROOT for February and I am working on a few more now that I have decided to also read the books that I am going to keep as well as the ones that I want to move along.

I started a new ROOT, At the Mouth of the River of Bees. It's possible when I get to the eponymous story there will actually be a river of bees, but I won't get my hopes up. One of my other ROOTs this year, The Glass Bees, actually did have glass bees though, glass bees whose beautifully written description went on for twenty pages.

I've decided to leave Don Quixote for the summer. I'm very happy when I'm reading it, but the length is so intimidating to me I keep avoiding it.

Cheli, I upped my total for the year to 36 from the original 28. Great work on these huge lists!

I've finished my first book for February The Eight by Katherine Neville. Not such a big accomplishment since I started it in Dec, but done and on to others. I'm still reading In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje and have started Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovitch for a little light reading.

My 11th root is done. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny.

I LOVED The Eight. My kind of book, what with puzzles all over the place.

I had a good reading start to February - I finished two ROOTs this weekend!

The first was The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks - a (fairly short) YA graphic novel set at a prestigious private boarding school that reminded me a great deal of The Gilmore Girls' Chilton - but with a way more cruel nemesis.

The second was Tammara Webber's New Adult novel Easy, which I went into knowing next to nothing about and enjoyed far more than I would have expected. I really like college age protagonists (even more so the ones that ACTUALLY go to class and study), but I usually shy away from stories that involve sexual assault (in this case attempted) as they make me jumpy. I found this story very emotionally engaging - though there were bits that were a bit over the top...

***hanging her head in shame***

My abject apologies for all the boo-boos. I will try to do better.
There were several extras ★s that were missing and I have fixed those. I have also taken out the duplicates (can't believe I forgot to check that) and I have adjusted the totals and tickers.

***heads off to fix the main file so those boo-boos don't happen again***

#20 by @cyderry> please don't worry about any errors. we all make them. if we can help make things easier, please let us know!

Errors will happen! No hanging heads will be tolerated here! You are the best and we all love you dearly!

^What they said! I am sure that anyone who points out errors here is not doing so in a "pff how shoddy" manner but a "oopsadaisy something slipped through the cracks in all that work!" sort of way. Everyone knows how much effort you put into things here!

Seconding what my forerunners said! You're doing a great job cheli!

Cheli, you are a hero. Tha't a fantastic job you are doing :-D

Yes, don't worry about anything, we all appreciate you.

I used to participate in a different challenge where the organizer worked herself to the bone. One day, she walked away from it, without giving notice. The updates simply stopped. People continued to post their read books for quite some time, asking why updates were taking so long and where the organizer had gone. Eventually some other people took over.

I feel guilty about that. It hadn't occurred to me that it was a living, breathing person giving up so much of their time for a game. That challenge was way too much work for one person, and it must have ate into their life. I took advantage of them by participating in it.

So the moral of that story is... don't work on this too much! That makes no one happy.

Thank you all for your sweet words. I can feel the smiles that come with the words.

I finished my first ROOT of the month, Susan Hill's marvelous The Risk of Darkness from the Simon Serrailler series. Tickers updated.

Also read my first for February: The Hated Wife. Terrible book; its only redeeming quality is that it's short. My tickers updated.

added my fifth book to the numbers ticker

so... I hate to even point this out...... but my total ROOT goal is wrong ;)
it's supposed to be 24, not 20
(but i still get my star! ;))

But no worries and THANK YOU for all the work you do!!

Cheli, running this is a lot of work. I (and I'm sure we) appreciate it!!

Oh, I certainly appreciate all the work you do for this group, Cheli! It's a mammoth undertaking, and you handle it superbly! :) And I know that I speak for myself, my mom, and everyone else :) Can a reader have co-ROOTs, do you think? I finished reading two ebooks that had been on my TBR pile for about a month - both last night. :)

definition of co-ROOTs?

Yes, I was wondering about that too! What is a co-ROOT?

I finished Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich. Finally starting to get moving this year.

A co-ROOT would be 2 books that I finished reading on the same day, too close together to actually pick which one I finished first! lol :) I just made up that definition, so please don't strain yourselves. Maybe I should call it a square ROOT instead?

#38 Aha, that explains it. I thought perhaps it was a ROOT that you also owned in another format.

Cheli Just a quick note to say thank you for all that you Do. You certainly made my 7.5 year old daughter "daughterofheaven's ' day when she found out she had the most stars {5} on the list. She keeps telling people how she got these stars for reading roots. The looks/confusion is priceless. Especially when she then goes on about librarything.I then have to explain that it's a place where you catalog your own books.Oh course they ask "why? And 'Who would have that many??"
And I think to myself "I do" LOL

Here's to the Joy that reading brings :-}

1st Root for February but now I am starting a library book in an effort to reduce my wishlist and not add to my TBR's. Tickers updated.

Oh well done daughterofheaven! You're certainly setting us grownups a big challenge!

Finished Ready Player One which was a great fun nostalgic romp. Updating tickers.

I know about the curious glances one gets when I try to explain LT to non-readers.

Daugtherofheaven, good job! Getting five stars!

Ah, yes, the wonder of trying to explain bibliophilia to the sadly uninitiated.

Several people, upon seeing the house for the first time, have commented, "Oh, how clever/different/attractive to decorate with books!" Well, what can one say to that? "Um, thanks, but actually they're for reading..." usually brings on a puzzled silence.

Decorate -->>??

I have a feeling I'm going to be a bit low this month, 5 days to read one not-long library book, and next on my plate is Jane Eyre, a ROOT but probably not a very quick one. Agh!

>43 majkia: I LOVED THAT BOOK!!! I couldn't stop thinking about it for days! glad you enjoyed it :)

And I echo all the sentiments to DaughterofHeaven -- Congrats on all your stars!!

>46 connie53: lol awesome. the best room in my house, agree all of my bookish friends, is my book nook :)
- -

And >47 .Monkey.: Hopefully Jane Eyre will go fast for you.. it's one of my all-time favorites!

That's wonderfull, Ava! Really beautiful.

Thanks Connie! It's a really calm and happy place :)

Yes, I can see that.

>48 avanders: Well, 521pgs w/o the notes, 578 with notes, plus another 36pgs of intro, so unless I really really love it, it'll take a minimum of until the 10th/11th, and if I'm less enthusiastic then potentially another 5ish days. Sooo... :P But here's hoping I like it! Haha

>48 avanders::
Ava, now we are all jealous of you. How wonderful to have a specific & lovely little place to go to, to just sit uninterrupted & read. I love that!~!

Am into my first ROOT of February: Hungry Hills by Daphne du Maurier and am quite enjoying it. I'm pretty certain I won't kick it this month like I did last but that's okay. I need some chilling time and chilly it is here in the Pacific NorthWest at the moment. Down to 13 degrees last night here in the Cascade foothills and it is supposed to be in the single digits tonight. Perhaps I will just lay in bed bundled in quilts & read................zzzzzzzzzzzzz................

Yes, Belva, just lay in bed bundled in quilts & read.
The cold days we've had lately, I just sit in front of the fire with my blanket and a book. Believe me, it's great!

48 Oh, what a lovely book nook!

Alas, the layout of our house is such that the bookshelves are scattered all over. But I do have this corner with a hickory rocker where I like to read:



I was up late last night reading, and am halfway through another ROOT.

#45 - A few years ago a man I worked with asked me if had any books his wife might like. I asked him what she liked and he said aren't most old books green or red? She'll take anything as long as they are old. I got it at this point, she had been redecorating their house so I knew she wanted them for decorating which was sort of a trend at the time. Then he said, "and they need to look like they've been used". I deserved an academy award, I just calmly said I didn't think I had any old ones I wanted to get rid of but I'd keep my eyes open for some. Funny thing, I never found her any.

I've read two ROOTs so far this month. Both mysteries by Carola Dunn

#56 Murders have been committed with less provocation.

> 58 Indeed. Also the trend of ordering your books by colour. NOT a useful way to find anything.

When I worked in a book store, customers used to wander in to ask if we still had "the green book that was in the window last summer". We usually managed to be polite about it, but not always.

Oh, that happens with me sometimes. I can see in my mind the exact position the book was in, and the picture and design for the cover, but simply cannot remember the author or the title. I wouldn't expect anyone else to be able to remember it, though.

Oh yes, definitely grounds for murder, with the not-guilty defense of temporary insanity caused by the extreme emotional reaction to such blasphemy!

Now, of course, there's something to be said for having unique fun eye-pleasing bookshelves that make the books part of the "decor" of the room, indeed, it's something quite desirable! But the point is still for the holding & display of books, not trinkets there just to look at as a room design! Argh!!

>55 tymfos: tymfos - a rocking chair is a lovely reading space! plus you've got all those books within arm's reach :)
>57 Anansilaw: Congrats Anansilaw!
>59 ipsoivan: Ipsoivan, perhaps not useful, but very pretty ;) (I had a friend who did that once and I quite enjoyed the effect. He was a reader and not just using his books as decorating devices...)
>61 .Monkey.: agreed Polymathic! I think making the books appealing is part of the fun of it all :)

*effect corrected ;)

I've thought of arranging my books by color, but I don't have enough shelf space to make it worthwhile (I have to double-stack paperbacks in front of hardbacks as it is...) Mostly, to be honest, my books are shelved wherever they'll fit. :D

(I keep thinking of arranging them by original publication date, so that you can start with Gilgamesh on one side of the room and go all the way up through the ARCs on the other. But again, shelf space. Plus all the Common Knowledge data I'd need to fill in even to get the order right!...)

Hah, I just sorted my cubby-shelf of Wordsworth "Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural" (aka Gothic/supernatural thrillers) by their OPDs :P As much fun as it would be to have all books that way, I would hate it. I would do that per genre, except that it'd mean same author works would be separated, and that's a no-no! Hahaha. I suppose if I really wanted to do it, I could just pick either first, last, or mid-point, in their publishing history, to catalog repeat authors by to keep them together. Hmmm... When I have proper shelving space, that might be an idea... ;P

I'm telling this from memory so I hope I have it right...I read an interview with Dorothy Parker where she was asked how she organized her books. She said she was putting the good books on one side of the room and the bad ones (actually I think she said the ones that were shit) on the opposite side but she kept moving them back and forth! I don't think there is a way that will satisfy us forever.

I don't know, I'm pretty content with mine now. Or, I would be, if I had the proper space to put them how how they are now but properly, without the spots of overflow that don't fit, and whatnot. The only resorting I do is to fit in new ones.

Oh, organizing: good grief.

Half a shelf of poetry, other half Victorian novels; one shelf of books on books; half a shelf of Classical Studies, other half Victorian novels; Vidal and Faulkner on one shelf; Woolf, Wharton, Welty, McCullers on one shelf; others more or less sorted according to an idiosyncratic system; two/three full shelves of mysteries...and on and on.

Oh dear. Perhaps this year of reading some of the backlog will help with organizing? Or not.

I'm kind of "OCD" about certain things; I'm not very neat but I'm a bit anal about organization. Books and movies are sorted by genre/subject. DVDs are also sorted by subgenre (horror--vampires, horror--zombies, etc) and actor, but because I don't have the space, books are unable to have that treatment. I practically lose sleep over the conundrum I'm put in when something fits two categories and I don't know which way to go with it! Haha. The only way I have peace of mind over a couple of my shelves now is that they're simply a mix of random bits that have no home and wound up there at various times, since there was/is no space in where they belong. But even those still have a theme, one being "literature" and one being classic/renowned/favored authors, and another holding series pieces that I don't have what comes prior. :P

Organizing! Good grief! That bookshelf within reach of the rocking chair (except for the very top of the case), contains my primary non-fiction section -- poorly organized -- with a large "paranormal" section dominated by spooky folklore from various regions and some references on metaphysics. I have a bookcase elsewhere in the room which is mostly non-fiction in the categories of sports, disasters, maritime (including more disasters) and lighthouses. I have a bookcase in the dining room for my Civil War collection, plus railroad books, and cookbooks. In the living room, I have a case and half of TBR fiction alphabetical by author, and the bottom half being some already-read fiction and some of my son's books. Other already-read fiction is scattered on top of other book-cases. Books about ministry, the Bible, theology, world religions, etc. are spread between a case at the top of the stairs (which has a few other odds and ends thrown in), 2 cases in my husband's study / guest room, and at the church office. Borrowed books are on a shelf under an end-table. There are overflow books on top of the shelved books on all of the shelves.

This whole chaotic mess drives me crazy.
67 Perhaps this year of reading some of the backlog will help with organizing? Or not.
Exactly!

Fiction is easily organised by author. Every so often I think about getting the non fiction organised by broad subject matter and then by author but then I pick up some books to start organising them and before I know it I've started reading one of them.

Before we moved in 2000, we had the fiction divided into Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mysteries, Juvenile Fiction, Georgette Heyer, and Thrillers (spy stories, adventure stories). (Yes, GH got her own section, since we're both fans, but neither of us reads other romance authors.) When we moved, since the house was a different shape and we had new bookcases, the fiction groups just got folded together, so now the only division is paperback vs. hardback. It does make things simpler.

but then I pick up some books to start organising them and before I know it I've started reading one of them.

LOL! Been there, done that!

@ 71 -- A section just for Georgette Heyer is amazing!

Fiction is easily organised by author.

Completely totally vehemently disagree. I do not want my horror mixed with my classics mixed with my literature mixed with my thrillers. No no no no no!! If you want to mix yours, that is perfectly acceptable. But what works for one certainly does not have to work for another, and definitely not "easily."

I seperate my books into Fantasy and Non-fantasy, and those categories are seperated into 'read' and 'to be read'. And those are organised by author!

I had mine separated by genre (before I moved), by author (except for historicals which I sorted by time-period) and within author by series. But it took a long time to put together and it wasn't exactly easy to plan for (or shelve) new acquisitions since I had to double-stack all my shelves...

I keep thinking I want to re-organize my bookshelves at least loosely by genre, but it's such a massive undertaking. Plus, it would require if not assistance, at least consent of the spouse-creature to take over the living room and bedroom with bookpiles for a day or so...

The last thing might be the most difficult (in my case)

I shelve my books by size. That way they look pretty on the shelves.

I finished my first ROOT for February yesterday - The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe.

>78 benitastrnad: Lol mine are done by size within their genre and cubby-shelves, though sometimes it'll get thrown off by a different publication of the same author, irritating! lol.

Finished my 3rd ROOT for the month. In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer Fleming.

WRT organizing, I'm proud of y'all. But as for me, I'm 'chaotic neutral' *

* see Ready Player One :)

Here's the way that mine are organized which will make most of you shudder. I started with one book case in the bedroom which had five shelves double stacked by author; a-e on shelf one but in no order, f-l shelf two still no order, etc. (well big books in the back and smaller in the front) Then I started to put them on the bedroom and den closet shelves, then into bags on the closet floors. I do have a tag on the book here in LT to tell me the book's in bag 7, or shelf 4, but that's as close to organized as I can get right now. I don't even have series all in the same place. I'd like to redo but it is rather daunting. Most books don't stay after they're read anyway or I wouldn't be able to bring more in.

Our books are firstly divided into 'husband' and 'mine'. After that they are loosely sorted by genre (classics, mysteries, general fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, fairy tales.) I'm strictly forbidden to either sort by colour or size. In my teens I used to sort books by colour and size, it looked nice, but it definitely was not a very useful way of sorting. Now I can go to my shelves and look at the section that interests me most. Uh and authors and series are put together. Thankfully, most authors stay in the same genre.

Finished my second ROOT for February, 6th for the year. Tickers updated.

>83 Tallulah_Rose: Since I don't alphabetize them, and since I have the dumb IKEA shelves that are cubbies rather than one long shelf, it's no trouble for me to do each individual one by height while still keeping them properly sorted. Though if two topics meet in it, I will go from short to tall back to short again (or opposite), haha.

Finished third this month late last night.

Organized - nope, just read in one bookcase, unread everywhere else!

Finished my third ROOT of the month. Five over all. Not sure if I'll reach my target at this point but there are shorter books coming up. I just have to keep reminding myself as I gasp at the length of some of the books I have to come before those ones.

Good job, Kaydeanne and Chèli.

I took a break from A Fine Balance, in part because I've been laid up with the flu, and in part because I needed a break from so much sadness. I consoled myself with some Simon Serrailler mysteries by Susan Hill--maybe not the best choice because they are both compulsively readable, and because they are so sad. I'm glad I've discovered them.

Tickers have been updated.

#82--I have several bookshelves that are doublestacked (2 deep). Hence, this group! However, mine are not organized in any fashion, except size, so they will double-stack. For this year's root I decided to choose 12 very odd size books--they are are large, not necessarily thick, but big and bulky, not easy to handle.

Everyone is doing such great reading!

I went to Florida on an adventure with my best friend and so have just now caught back up on reading the threads. I tell you, it's easy to stay committed to ROOTING with so many enthusiastic readers all around me.

I am going to stop tracking the number of books I bring into the house on my thread. The tracking has served its purpose. I'm now REALLY thinking about it before I buy a book. I'm asking myself, "Will I actually read this? Really? What if it became the next book on the TBR pile? Would I be excited or disappointed?" A lot of books are NOT getting bought because they can't pass that test.

And a lot of books are still getting bought. There' s a great bookstore close to the Florida/Georgia border and I hit the jackpot on nonfiction. I was glowingly enthusing about that, but the post got too long feeling, so I'm stopping here and going to enthuse on my own thread, lol.

OK, I finished another ROOT! Blood is the Sky from Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight series was a dark, action-packed mystery with lots of twists and turns. Updating tickers.

Finally finished my first Feb ROOT last night, woo! Unless I decide to try and make up for this excess time spent on my first two books this month by reading some quick thrillers, I am going to wind up getting behind on my ROOTS!

I tripped myself up with an extremely hefty tome (674 pages, what was I thinking?) for my last ROOT and have decided to cut myself some slack with something totally different. Maybe one of the new acquisitions? There are far too many already this year, but they looked so very interesting!

Lol, I could never call something under 800 pages "extremely" long. Bigger than average, sure, but it's not extreme until it gets near the thousand mark! :P

Lol! You should see my Book Bingo card, PM. Big round dots on many spaces...but the one that probably will NOT get marked is the 'Books Over 500 Pages' category. You and MissWatson can take care of the super-biggies for me...I'll read Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid for you. :)

Hahaha. The one I just finished was 604, and even reading slow at only ~60pgs for the first four days, I still finished on day 6.

my fifth ROOT for the month, 15th so far, The English Assassin. Updating tickers

I finally finished another ROOT for February and updated my ticker.

I finished ROOT # 4 Tong van de draak by Naomi Novik
Going to update both grouptickers

Good work Connie!

I finally finished my first ROOT of the month: Der Fall Collini by Ferdinand von Schirach. Tickers will be updated!

Catching up on some ROOTs I've finished.

I finished Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan - this is the second in the Percy Jackson series. These are fun.

I also finished While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell. It's a wonderful retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story as historical fiction. Imagine if the Sleeping Beauty story was true but without any magic involved. Blackwell did a marvelous job with this one and I highly recommend it.

I've updated my ticker but not the ones here.

Hey! I got a star for January ;-)

Love it.

The internet crashed yesterday between posting on my thread and posting here, apologies for the delay in updating this thread. I finally finished my second ROOT (The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick) yesterday - my ticker has been updated, I've not touched the group ticker on this thread though in order to not mess it up!

Review is on my thread - the short version: Nazi war criminal seeks sanctuary at a monastery; ex-barrister-turned-monk investigates; meanwhile a dying woman's story holds the keys to what happened. Over-written, too long and too many coincidences, but would make a good TV movie. 2.5/5.

I got quite behind so am now finishing a book which was already half read but then abandoned. I’m hopeful I can finish it today or tomorrow, and will then just about have caught up.

edited: I should add that is my second ROOT of the year, not of the month. Not sure if that makes a difference to how things are being totted up!

I'm not back yet.. A cpl more days in paradise ;) but just checking in... I've read 2 ROOTS while on vacation... Met quota for the month! Also finished Wild and am reading Root #3 .. Slightly more info on my thread ;). But I will say, Night Film has made it into my favorites list! I will shortly update my ticker, but not the group ticker,as usual :)

Latest ROOT finished, Hammered by Kevin Hearne. All tickers updated.

I've finished my first ROOT for February, So Bright and Delicate: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne. So now it's onto the next one, The Belief of Catholics, which I've had on the shelves since June 2008.

I finished my second ROOT for February yesterday! :) My personal tickers are all updated

I finished my first ROOT for February, a MysteryCAT and AlphaCAT as well, with Hamlet, Revenge!. I updated my ticker but not the group ones...

I finished my fourth ROOT for February on Monday, February 10th - my personal tickers are updated! :)

I've finished a couple since the last time I posted here - The Pyramid by Ismail Kadare and The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith.

Just finished number seven this year: Wolfgang Herrndorf: Tschick. It's a brilliant book, so you should absolutely read it, if you get a chance to do so!

I just finished my third ROOT for February yesterday! :) Off to update my personal tickers. Here's the link to my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/163437

My Family for the War was a stunning book. It's realistic fiction, telling the story of a girl growing up during WWII. At the beginning of the book she is a child who leaves Germany on the Kindertransport. At the end of the book she is a young woman.

I am so glad I read this book.

I am so glad I never have to read it again.

I recommend it as the best work of fiction I have ever read pertaining to World War II and its effects on civilians. (This is not to say I am an authority on World War II reading. I'm not. It's just that this book covered, for me, what it felt like to be a child, an adult, a mother, a foster mother, German, Jewish, a friend, a soldier, saved, dying, surviving well, surviving not so well, loved, abandoned, frightened, oh the list just goes on and on. It was a good book.)

Finally finished a second ROOT for the month, yay!

Wow Merryann, that sounds an amazing book (but very harrowing).

I feel like i'm hit by a BB!

I finally finished The Tiger Warrior by David Gibbins. It's kind of a Clive Cussler style adventure story (ish) but the style is really info-dump-y with characters turning to one another and giving one another history lessons. It's completely unbelievable, but luckily for Gibbins, I found those history lessons fascinating. It was only once the background had been established and the present-day characters were flailing about trying to put the pieces together and having boring(!) adventures that it started to drag for me and I had a hard time finishing it...

I've turned to something hopefully lighter (and frothier) and have started Smart Girls Get What They Want on the commute in to work today! Hopefully this one will go faster.

>118 Caramellunacy: I know people say that about Gibbins, that he's too much with the info, but the one of his I read I really enjoyed.

PolymathicMonkey - My complaint isn't necessarily too much info - I enjoyed the info included very much. It's just (to me) it's inclusion is so clumsy.

Jack Howard just seems to spend all of his time lecturing his friends/co-workers/daughter about historical stuff that he just knows in perfect detail off the top of his head. It's not that the lectures aren't chock-full of useful and interesting information, it's that the characters don't have actual conversations, they just nod sagely as Jack textbooks.

That said, I wouldn't be averse to picking up another one (eventually) - which did you read?

The first one in the series (I hate hate hate to read out of order and the only time it happens is if I'm caught unaware), Atlantis. The reviews all whine about the "dissertations" of history. Personally I thought it was quite interesting (like you say), and I thought the action-adventure parts were entertaining. I don't expect all books to be award-winners, I learned stuff and was entertained, in an adventure book that's pretty much par for the course. :)

I finished another ROOT last night. I'm still behind. :-(

It's early, you've still got most of the year for catching up! :))

And you finished one! That's good. Was it a good book?

My numbers are wrong on your list. I'm 2 for 6. I updated all the tickers.

I have actually come to like the stars. My apologies to PolyMathicMonkey with whom I argued against the stars earlier this year. :)

There are three specific things that are keeping me on track for this year.
1. I lowered my goal to just six books. Ha!
2. I'm participating in a this BookCrossing reading challenge
3. I lost my job. :(

I will meet my ROOTS goal this year.

Sorry to hear about your job SqueakyChu - I hope something turns up soon for you.

I finished my 2nd ROOT for February (3rd ROOT of the year) today - children's classic "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Review/reflections on my thread (post #48). I gave it 3.5/5. I've updated my ticker but not the group one.

edited: I've just read the instructions in the first post; Cheli I will (if I've understood correctly) say on this thread at the end of the month what my progress was

> 126

Sorry to hear about your job SqueakyChu - I hope something turns up soon for you.

It won't, Jackie. I'm of retirement age and hard of hearing. I wouldn't even know where to begin searching for a new job. I'm just trying to get all of my ducks in a row now to be sure I don't outlive my savings. I guess I should be reading some financial planning books, eh? They wouldn't fit into our ROOTS challenge, though! :)

I remember reading The Secret Garden to my kids at bedtime as a chapter book. It was so good. I took that time to read classic books that I never read as a child. I read quite a few of them, but my favorite one, though sad, was The Yearling. I actually burst out crying while reading that book to my kids (one of who is a dad himself now). I'm back into reading kids' books again...but now they're board books which I'm reading to my 8-month-old grandson.

#114
One of the students who worked for me read that book My Family For the War several years ago and she said that it was an excellent book on World War II and its effect on families. Glad to hear that somebody else has read it.

OK, I finished my second ROOT of the month, Faith Under Fire: An Army Chaplain's Memoir by Roger Benimoff with Eve Conant. Once I finally got it started, I sped through it -- very good. Updating tickers.

Sorry to hear about the job, Madeline!

Me too, Madeline, but I hope you find being at home as enjoyable as I am discovering it to be!

You are all cordially invited to visit my Library-in-Progress. These ---- o o OO o o O are little snack type refreshments, and here's some refreshing drinks ---- u u u u u .

I'm starting to really move along with labeling and listing my books in Library Thing, and I've put pictures of my library up on my profile page. These are in the nature of 'Before' pictures! Anyone interested in seeing them is welcome!

>132 Merryann: Hah, how fun, I love your little "tour" :)) And it looks like your index cards are working out great!

>118 Caramellunacy:-121: I have both of those books in my TBR. At least I'm now prepared for his style of writing.

Madeline - I too am getting ready to leave the work force - Fri is my last day- and it's exciting but scary at the same time.

#132 by @Merryann> wow, you've got a job ahead of you. Hope it works out well!

On another note - I've just finished The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini, the 4th book in the Elm Creek Quilters series and my favorite so far.

>126 Jackie_K: Sorry to hear about your job loss. I hope you'll be able to enjoy the time out of work. Maybe you can safe a bit of money by not buying any more books? ;-)

>132 Merryann: Great tour through your library! Where to you store all those shelves and books?
Looking forward to see your progress!

Merryann. I'm just so curious. So as soon as I'm home and have started the laptop up, I will gladly take the tour and some tea.

> 130, 131

Thanks! The adjustment has been traumatic for me, but I hope my situation becomes better as time goes by.

> 137

Maybe you can safe a bit of money by not buying any more books?

I hardly ever buy books any more...at least those at full price. BookCrossing, Little Free Library, BookMooch, and the public library supply with me with many more books than I could ever read in a lifetime! :)

> 134

Good luck on your retirement!

>134 by @dudes22, I honestly think they're worthwhile reading, so long as you like history and action-adventure. They're like Indiana Jones with more reading from the diary/lessons to the cast about what it is they're in it for, lol. As long as you like history with some Indy-style "archeology" (ie, crazy unrealistic entertaining adventure), then they're fun reads.

Thanks Poly - I don't know when I'll get to them. I think when I got them I was thinking they were going to be a "Clive Cussler" type of book, but Indiana Jones is ok too.

Merryann, I am SO JEALOUS of your library shelving and card catalog cabinet! (Even if it's not the gorgeous old wood card catalog cabinets of my childhood.) I'd love to have the time and space for something like that.

#132 - Thanks for the tour! That's a lot of work but you're making great progress and I know you will love having it all organized. It took me about 4 years to get all of my books on LT. Not because I had so many books but because I had so little time. I retired at the end of August and that was one of the first projects I jumped in to. I may have a few stragglers, but for the most part I've got them all listed now. I also did some serious purging as I worked and I'm really satisfied with the results.

That's way cool, Mary Ann!

#132 - I just took a quick glance at your pictures, Merryann, and I just want to say, oh my goodness! :)

I finished my fourth ROOT last night, and here is my link: http://www.librarything.com/topic/163437

merryann - are you sure you don't live in a public library? LOL

>147 cyderry: LOL I know! All I've got space for is one measly little wall! Jealous!!

I think Merryann is a librarian and that IS a library that she is moving. Metal shelving like that is not made for home use.

I'm so pleased that you visited my library. Thank you!

>133 .Monkey.:, Yes, PM, the cards work perfectly. I worried they would slip into the books but so far they all stand proud and do their job. I need to get back to the 'Welcome' group and thank all the people there who helped me develop this method of labeling the books.

>135 majkia: and 145, Thanks majkia and Terri. It's a quite a job, indeed, but definitely an enjoyable one. :)

>138 Tallulah_Rose: and 149 Tallulah_Rose and benitastrnad, I'll show my kids your comments and I bet they'll laugh. The pictures are of the downstairs library, in the basement. Nonfiction and youth books live there. Upstairs is adult fiction and book sets. We bought this house with the expectation of three more people in our family living here than ended up being the case (so far). So right now I have a glorious amount of room for books. Still, I can tell you, there's never ENOUGH room. I still am out of bookshelf space!

You're right about the metal shelves. They were given to me during a library relocation (sold with the fixtures and the purchasers passed them on to me. I can be quite lucky that way.) As you can imagine, I love these double-sided adjustable shelves.

>143 jen.e.moore: Jen, I know what you mean - I still want an old brown wood official card catalog! My Mysterious Cabinet is a treasure and can so easily be used to store many other things, so its feelings won't be hurt if I'm lucky enough to be able to find and buy a card catalog. So far, all the ones I've come across have been WAY too expensive, but I'm still hunting.

>144 clue: Clue, I bet it does feel fantastic to know most of the books are in the system! I look forward to that feeling. I hadn't thought about it until I read your post, but I can see that it is easier letting some books go now. Sometimes I pick up a book and just know I don't need to put it in the 'official' catalog. This is a good time to weed, isn't it?

>139 connie53: and 146, thanks for looking! Congrats on finishing another ROOT, moonshineandrosefire, and Connie, I hope the tea was to your satisfaction. :)

>147 cyderry: Chèli, nope, it's my own home library. :) I have vague plans of linking it up to our community's Little Free Library...but when I started the details of planning that, I got overwhelmed, so for now I'm just going to enjoy it and get it listed and organized for myself and my family and friends.

>148 .Monkey.: PM, Yes, my heart hurts for your books stuck overseas while you are far from them. At least they can know you are gathering new friends for them, lol.

Making my library is a lot of fun. I can't tell you how much MORE fun it is being able to share it with you! I was scared when I first joined Library Thing...I'm not always a fan of 'new and different'. Now, I'm so glad to be here.

Thank you all so much for sharing in his happy time with me!

Awesome -- you sure are lucky that way! Can't believe you got those shelves from the library... jealous! ;)

@ 150: Tea was just great, Mary Ann!

Thank you, avanders. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed the tea, Connie. Did you know there is an Early Reviewer book this month that is not in English? I'm probably about to really embarrass myself, because I have no idea what language it is or what the book is about, but here's part of the description in case it's something you'd be interested in:

Eva Dillner förespår en framtid där meditationsrum är lika självklara på ett företag som en konferenslokal, där behandlingsrum hemma är lika naturligt som en bastu eller datahörna.

Edited to say, yes, here comes the embarrassment, because now I'm not sure if you said you don't do Early Reviewers because they're usually all in English, or if you just can't participate because you're not in the U.S. But the book is 'not available' to me in the U.S., so presumably it's available in some other country...

>153 Merryann: Merryann, you don't embarass yourself. That's probably swedish (as far as I can tell), but so far I am at a loss what it's about as well. It seems to be about a conference or meditation rom, but I'm not getting the story aspect (if it's supoosed to have one).

I showed your library pictures to my husband. He was curious what all the old books (the brownish, same looking ones) at the very end of your foto gallery were.

Finished The Constant Suicides and Just Checking! each. Personal Tickers updated.
That's 7 ROOTS to date!
Now onto first of 3 ARCs...

Two more ROOTS! Congratulations, avanders! :)

>154 Tallulah_Rose: Thanks Tallulah_Rose. And the brown books are The Southern Reporter 2d Series, law books from 1941 until 1977, and The Alabama Reporter, from 1977 through 1998. I bought all of them, plus two shelves of federal law books for a total of $25.00.

For me, this was the Book Version of going to the shelter and adopting a cat, not because you need or want a cat but because you don't want to think of the cat being killed and you know you'll give it a good enough home. And then of course you fall in love with the cat and can't imagine life without him/her.

I 'adopted' these books and have been quite pleased to find how readable and interesting they are. I love browsing through them and sampling a case or two (or three). Also, I don't mind at all that they're beautiful, and there's so many of them (498) that their area always has that wonderful 'old book' smell. :)

#153 Yes that is Swedish. This is the way I would translate it: Eva Dillner forecasts a future when meditationroom is as common as an conferensplace for a company, where a treatmentroom at home is as natural as a sauna or a datacorner.

Thanks Mary Ann!

That's so cool re the law reporters... I'd love to get my hands on some of our earlier years... They're sooo expensive to buy new!

Mary Ann, I really am moved that you thought of me. But I think it's more scandinavian, so it's for Henrik!!

Just finished my second ROOT of the month, seventh overall. Tickers updated.

Just finished my 6th ROOT and I am pleased with myself for being on track.

I've working my way through Carolly Erickson's The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots - which I knew was going to be a more frivolous rather than accurate approach to the story. She even refers to it as a "historical entertainment" rather than as a historical novel and the blurb compares it to Phillippa Gregory.

So I knew what I was letting myself in for, but I clearly underestimated how problematic I would find it since I don't know enough about Mary Queen of Scots and the actual history to work out where liberties are being taken. Not to mention I'm completely perplexed as to what just happened with David Riccio...

Does anyone have a recommendation of a better Mary Queen of Scots book to set me straight?

3/4 of the way through the month and we are still a bit behind our monthly goal, so lets snuggle down with those ROOTs this weekend and catch up!

@ 162 -- A few years ago I read Queen of Scots by John Guy, which I thought was a good (informative, but not too dry) scholarly biography.

Well I've got two in the works at the moment. One will for sure be finished in a couple days, the other hopefully by the end of the month.

I just finished A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Very beautiful, but oh so sad.

Tickers updated.

Ooh - that's one of my best friend's favorite books.... I'm hoping to add it to my ROOTS list one of these years!

I finished ROOT number 8 for the year. Tickers will be updated!

Cheli, I'll have one finished this weekend. But that may be it -- I'm otherwise mired in library books.

My second ROOT for Feb. is completed with From Russia With Love. My ticker is updated but not the group ones...

I'm still reading a ROOT and a non ROOT, making steady but slow progress. Each day a few pages in both books.

I've just finished another ROOT which gives me a total of 4 for the year which means that I've caught up with myself. My next read isn't a ROOT because its a bookgroup read and that may take me to the end of the month.

I've updated my personal ticker, but not the group tickers.

One quickie finished, The Meat Fix, a kind of blokeish Nina Planck.

Tickers updated.

Just finished my fifth ROOT of the year. I'm starting another one which, if I finish by month's end, will leave me right on pace.

Another ROOT for me (from 2013) Bone River - Megan Chance.

Updating all tickers.

I just finished two, Head of the House by Grace Livingston Hill and The Male Factor by Shaunti Feldhahn. About to leave the house now, but I will update my tickers and the group ticker tonight for sure.

You all are doing great! I'm hoping to finish two more before the end of the month!

Well, I just recently finished my 5th and 6th ROOTs for February - which for me, is four more than I read last February! :) lol Here is the link to my list: https://www.librarything.com/topic/163513

I finished another ROOT, this one in honor of tomorrow's Daytona 500 -- Real Men Work in the Pits: A Life in NASCAR Racing by Jeff Hammond. Tickers are all updated.

ETA to add I'm actually working on 2 ROOTs that I may finish this week.

Finished ROOT 3 of 10 and updated all tickers :-D

Hello everyone! I just finished my 6th ROOT on Friday, February 21st! Here is my link: https://www.librarything.com/topic/163437! Off to update personal tickers! :)

I finished my 2nd ROOT of February, Ronald Knox's classic The Belief of Catholics. I've now started on my third book to meet my monthly goal: Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan.

I just finished Quartet in Autumn. All tickers updated.

I finished my 8th ROOT and updated my ticker. I should be able to make my 35 at this rate.

Congrats everyone!

Has anyone else encountered this problem... After however many edits to update my lists, I can no longer edit my Post No. 2 on my page! My thread is here ... When I try to "edit" the post now, the browser (Chrome) freezes and then after a while it says it cannot respond. :(

I have to figure out how to get that data into another post now (preferably w/o having to retype all the html!), and hopefully this doesn't happen again w/ the substitute post! (and fortunately I can use post no. 1, which sort of operated as a post-holder :))

Have you tried it with another browser? Maybe it's just chrome having some pblem?

I've never had that problem and I use Chrome all the time and I edit my messages over and over again.

Maybe there's an issue with the message here at LT?

>186 avanders: Try it on another browser, and if that doesn't work on another computer if possible. If neither works then I'd bug it and see if Tim et al can edit it as you, or as them, and see what exactly is going on with it.

> 186 - I encountered that same problem yesterday when I posted a comment on someone's thread and wanted to make an edit to my post - system wouldn't let me edit my own post. I use Firefox as a browser. I think Cheli is right - maybe the issue is with the message here at LT.

Maybe it was something temporarily?

I go and check my threads now. (I'm using Firefox at home)

Yes, there is something wrong: I can edit but I can't save my edited posts in the top of my thread!

Here it does just fine, as you can see!

Same thing just happened to me, I can't edit my list of books read at the top of my thread :(

Edited to add that touchstones aren't working on my thread either...

Seems to be kind of working now? I hadn't yet tried Firefox.. thought I'd just check Chrome again right away. It worked'ish. The edit screen looked different, but that's ok. It DID edit the first time. The 2nd time it froze. The 3rd time it edited...
so maybe there are just some hangups at LT that will get worked out?

I know they've been messing with some stuff recently and I think it's still being worked on, so it's probably related.

I just edited my two threads to add my new book. It all went well, I didn't think of the problem, but I just now remembered reading this thread.

I've finished and reviewed Cosmas, or the Love of God, my third ROOT for February. I've now met my monthly goal and still have time to get ready for March.

I managed ROOTs 17 through 25 this month:

17. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier; {acquired 10/06/2009}; (4*)
18. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray; {acquired 11/11/2009};
(3 1/2*)
19. Margaret From Maine by Joseph Monninger; {acquired 12/12/2012}; (2 1/2*)
20. Hens and Chickens by Jennifer Wixson; {acquired 9/06/2012}; (3*)
21. The Forgiveness Solution by Philip H. Friedman;
{acquired 11/15/2012}; (3 1/2*)
22. Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins; {acquired 10/30/2012};
an ARC/ER; (4*)
23. Consequences by Penelope Lively; {acquired 4/15/2010}; (4 1/2*)
24. Harriet Hume by Rebecca West; {acquired 8/05/2009}; (2*)
25. The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier; {acquired 1/05/2011; (4*)

As I am currently reading non-ROOTs I doubt that I will get another one in this month. So I will go ahead and update my ticker but will leave the group tickers alone as usual.

Looking forward to what March brings.
Cheers,

Please update my numbers. Thanks!

I'm 3 for 6 ...and determined to complete my ROOT* challenge this year.

Tickers updated.

*All of my ROOT books I'm using for this challenge are those books which I acquired before 2010.

Madeline, I have faith in you!

Wow Squeak! You are really ROOTing deep. I consider all but the current year & the previous year to be ROOTs. Good for you!

Hello everyone! Well, I just finished my 7th ROOT for February, yesterday :) I'm off to update my tickers! Here is the link to my thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/163513. For me, all books that I receive are fair game to be classified as ROOTs! :)

Congrats Ruby!

As I've been told... your rules are your own -- whatever works for you is great!
For me.. I count as ROOTS all books I received in 2013 or earlier

For next year, though, I think I'm going to go w/ the point system... see if that motivates me differently ;)
(my system will be:
books received in ____ will receive ____ points:
2015: 0 points
2014: 1/2 point
2013: 1 point
2012: 2 points
2011: 3 points
2010: 4 points
2009: 5 points
2008: 6 points
2007 and earlier: 7 points)

It's close enough to the end of the month, and my current and next 4 books are all ERs/ARCs (i.e., the opposite of ROOTs!), so I will post my February numbers here now:

February ROOTS read: 5, of a total 7 for the year
(Goal = 24)

Personal tickers updated. I will continue to leave the group ticker alone... :)
Thanks Cheli!

> 200

I need to ROOT deeply because I have so many older books from fellow Bookcrossers that I've never even looked at. That does make me feel guilty.

Congrats to everyone who finished some ROOTs again in February! I have been only slowly reading this month, wigh leaving the old job and taking up a new, but I hope to do better again next month. I'll definitely not finish any ROOT this month, so I'm gonna loose my star :-( .
Since only so few seem to update the groupticker themselves, it's going to be really exciging to see the numbers on the March thread!

I'm currently reading a non-ROOT, so won't be adding to my personal ticker this month. It's updated: 9 ROOTs finished.

Finished book 4 of 10 and have updated all tickers.

My 20th ROOT so far this year: Revelation Space bought in 2010. Updating all tickers.

It's so much fun to check in here near the end of each month and see how wonderfully all of us have done with our ROOTs. I think that this is going to be a stupendous year for our group.
Thank you so much Cheli, for all of your efforts & your hard work. It is appreciated.

I won't finish another ROOT this month so my totals are:
3 for February for a total of 11 against a goal of 30.

I'm hoping to get a bit more reading in, so I'll update my tickers and the February one toward the end of today. Another cold spell has swept in, making it nice to snuggle inside. But now that Spring is within sight, I don't mind giving Winter one more smile.

I am trying to finish my fourth ROOT for the month but with more than a hundred pages left of a non-fiction book I'm not sure I'll make it unless I use a different timezone from my own. In my head is a little voice saying 'that's cheating'.

My report for February 2014:

UpROOTED books: 5
ROOTless books: 3
Added to the TBR pile: 3

My ROOTS were:
S.J. Parris's Heresy
Ben Aaronvitch's The Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho, and Whispers Under Ground
Jason Goodwin's The Janissary Tree

ROOTS in YTD: 14

No tickers were harmed in the compilation of this report.

3 more for me this month, ATU.

Gathering numbers today so if you change your ticker let me know, please.

Just finished my last ROOT for the month. I've updated my individual ticker. 7 ROOTs for February.

I think the snowy weather helped!

I haven't touched the group tickers so far and I don't intend to, but I'm keeping up on mine - since I hit 15 ROOTs read this morning, and my goal for the year was only 30, I upped my goal to 50. Gotta keep pushing myself. :)

(Also, if I read 50 ROOTs, presuming at least some of them are books of reasonable length, I'll be able to fit all my ROOTs onto one bookcase without stacking them on top of one another...)

Updating with the rest of my February reads.

I finished The Expats by Chris Pavone a fun and interesting thriller with a touch of spy novel. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading his next book.

I also read Persuader by Lee Child. I've enjoyed the Jack Reacher series from the beginning but for some reason it's been almost 4 years since I read one. I grabbed Persuader off my shelf to take on vacation and enjoyed the heck out of it. I do love me some Jack Reacher and Tom Cruise was all kinds of wrong to play him in the movie which is why I refuse to watch it. Anyway - Persuader was great.

Two more ROOTs for me.

I've updated my ticker but not the ones here.

My ticker is up to date with 12 ROOTS. I haven't touched the group ticker.

I finished another ROOT today so my total for February is 4. I am slowing down a bit - somehow library books keep coming into my home and interfering with my ROOT reading. My total now is 9 and I have updated my own ticker only.

Hello everyone! My February was pretty good - I read one less than last February, but still very good! So, in keeping with the group theme, here are my totals for this month:

Ancient Oaks Pruned: stands for older books read from my TBR pile: 1
Young Saplings Pruned: stands for newer books read from my TBR pile: 6
Trees Replanted: stands for rereads from my TBR pile: 1
New Seeds Planted: stands for additions to my TBR pile: 11
Trees Transplanted: stands for books that were donated: 13

I started reading Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma: A Salty Tale of a Young Man's Musical Dreams and Struggles in 1970's Ireland by Cahal Dunne yesterday afternoon. Cahal Dunne is an Irish singer and songwriter whose music Mareena and I play on the radio program constantly. This is is his debut novel! :)

All of my personal tickers are updated :) Thanks so much, Cheli!

I read 4 ROOTS in February for a total of 10. My ticker is updated, but I haven't touched group tickers.

My personal ticker is up-to-date and I did not update the main ticker with my last two reads of February. Thanks, Chèli! :)

I didn't manage to finish another ROOT this month so my total remains the same, 3 this year (2 of which were completed in Feb) out of a target of 25. Thinking about reducing my target to 20, but I'll see how I go the next couple of months. I didn't update the group ticker but mine is up to date.

My personal ticker is up to date - its been a busy 10 days or so I've not managed to finish reading anything.

I have now finished 4 ROOTs this year.

March is ready!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/170971#

Hello everyone! I'm a little behind in posting my totals - computer problems - but my February was really good! Six more than last year. So, in keeping with the group theme, here are my totals for this month:

Ancient Oaks Pruned: stands for older books read from my TBR pile: 0
Young Saplings Pruned: stands for newer books read from my TBR pile: 8
Trees Replanted: stands for rereads from my TBR pile: 0
New Seeds Planted: stands for additions to my TBR pile: 34 (ookay, this is slightly embarrassing!)
Leaves Swept Up: stands for books that were purged: 6

All of my personal tickers are updated :) Thanks so much, Cheli!

Finally made it to update my February ticker. 2 more taking my total to 8 for the month. It has been hard finding quiet time for the computer with 2 granddaughters staying while Mum and Dad on honeymoon. :-). I will update tickers.

I finished 6 ROOTS in February. That's a bunch of reading for me. Actually - listening - as most of these were recorded books. Tickers not updated.

Congrats all on your February ROOTS!!