CurrerBell gets out the shovel

Talk 2016 ROOT Challenge - (Read Our Own Tomes)

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CurrerBell gets out the shovel

1CurrerBell
Edited: Dec 18, 2016, 7:56 pm




January (3)
February (14)
March (10)
April (2)
May (8)
June (6)
July (3)
August (7)
September (9)
October (4)
November (8)
December (3)

I'll be working on reducing my Virago backlist, and I'll be choosing my Reading Through Time books off-the-shelf. I'll also take a shot at getting through some of my Library of America.

My big goal is to get through treeware, hence Kindle reading doesn't count (unless it's a case of using my Kindle for convenience on books that I've also got in treeware).

Let's see. My books read in 2015 seem to total 124, with 46 of them being Kindle. So how about I set my goal for 75 ROOTs in treeware. Note that some of these treewares might actually be considered multiple books (Library of America, for example, with several novels included under a single cover), but I'm only going to credit myself for physical volumes.

So, just as one example, the LoA's Willa Cather: Later Novels would count as a single ROOTs credit even though it contains six novels — and gotta read the whole volume too, or else it doesn't count at all. But I'd only require myself to read the five novels that I've never read (I've read Death Comes for the Archbishop) in order to get credit for the LoA volume. And here's a case where I might read some of the novels on Kindle but give myself credit towards completing the LoA volume.

A volume of treeware is eligible for 2016 ROOTs inclusion if owned by me by the end of the calendar year 2015.

2cyderry
Dec 22, 2015, 9:29 am

Sounds like you have a great plan, enjoy your reading and welcome to the group!

3connie53
Dec 22, 2015, 1:22 pm

Good to see you here, Mike

Happy ROOTing!

4rabbitprincess
Dec 22, 2015, 5:18 pm

Great approach! Welcome to the group and have fun!

5MissWatson
Dec 23, 2015, 4:26 am

Happy reading!

6majkia
Dec 23, 2015, 7:36 am

Good luck!

7avanders
Dec 26, 2015, 9:36 pm

Happy 2016 Rooting!

8Tess_W
Dec 31, 2015, 12:13 am

Good plan! Willa Cather, you are a brave woman. I've only read My Antonia and I am not a fan!

9VertOlive
Dec 31, 2015, 10:54 am

Love Willa Cather, enjoy!

10CurrerBell
Dec 31, 2015, 3:43 pm

>8 Tess_W: >9 VertOlive: I've read Alexander's Bridge, the Prairie Trilogy (O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia), and One of Ours (her Pulitzer) along with quite a number of the short stories. Of the later novels, though, I've only read Death Comes for the Archbishop, which is my favorite Cather – but I've only read My Ántonia once and in fairness I think it's a book that requires multiple readings, mainly because of the character of the sometimes unreliable and slightly dim-witted male narrator, and in that regard My Ántonia reminds me of Wuthering Heights. I'd also like to get hold of the new Norton Critical of My Ántonia.

11connie53
Jan 1, 2016, 3:06 am

12Tess_W
Jan 1, 2016, 5:34 am

13lkernagh
Jan 1, 2016, 4:43 pm

Good luck with your ROOT reading!

14Soupdragon
Jan 15, 2016, 5:54 pm

Hi Mike. I'm hoping to take some Virago Modern Classics off the shelf to read too. Though they will be returning to their shelves afterwards. I can never give up the Viragos!

15CurrerBell
Jan 15, 2016, 10:01 pm

>14 Soupdragon: Oh, I'm not giving up the Viragos either. In fact, I hardly ever give any books up, including anthologies from college and grad school and everything else. But I'm currently trying to get everything indexed into boxes (1449 boxed so far, heaven only knows how many to go), and if I don't ROOT then I'll buy more and never get anything accomplished.

There's actually an entire bookcase of Bronte-related material. At some point I'll probably shelve other books out of boxes (mainly Library of America, though, and "better" hardcovers). I've got loads of shelves, but they're mainly piled so high that I can get to anything behind of underneath, so I need to sort into boxes to get some control of the situation.

Once I get all my Viragos sorted, I'll know which ones are duplicates and which ones triplicates, etc., so I can go to the VMC boards and put the dupes and trips up for adoption.

16connie53
Jan 16, 2016, 3:05 am

>15 CurrerBell: That's a real job, Mike! Don't you love it! I love doing things with books, including dusting them ;-)

17Soupdragon
Jan 16, 2016, 3:11 am

>15 CurrerBell: >16 connie53: I love how reading and organising books are so intwined in this group. I hope you're successful with that this year, Mike.

18CurrerBell
Edited: Feb 21, 2016, 5:09 pm

January:

9 ... Norman Mailer, Harlot's Ghost (4****)
20 ... Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon (4½****)
25 ... Nicola Griffith, Hild (2** review)

19CurrerBell
Edited: Mar 18, 2016, 3:22 pm

February:

1 ... Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Corner That Held Them (5*****)
8 ... Kiran Desai, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (3½***)
9 ... Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse (4****)
10 ... Jules Feiffer, A Room with a Zoo (5***** review)
15 ... Jean Rhys: The Complete Novels (4****)
16 ... Leona Francombe, The Sage of Waterloo (3*** review)
19 ... Lilian Pizzichini, The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys (2½** review)
20 ... Jean Rhys, Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography (3½***)
21 ... Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Editions) (3½*** review)
22 ... Russell Potter, Pyg (3***)
22 ... Horace McCoy & Robert E. Thompson, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Novel and Screenplay) (5***** review)
24 ... Jewell Parker Rhodes, Voodoo Dreams (4****)
26 ... Jennifer McMahon, My Tiki Girl (4½**** review)
29 ... Mary Taylor, Friend of Charlotte Bronte: Letters from New Zealand and Elsewhere (3½***)

20CurrerBell
Edited: May 24, 2016, 1:33 pm

March:

1 ... Ursula Le Guin, Four Ways to Forgiveness (4****)
6 ... Peter Russell, Prince Henry 'the Navigator' (3½*** review)
7... Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (3½*** review)
8 ... Madeleine L'Engle, The Time Quartet (3***)
9 ... Charlotte Brontë, The Foundling (2½**)
17 ... Charlotte Brontë, The Green Dwarf (3***)
20 ... P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins: 80th Anniversary Collection (3½***)
23 ... Lawrence Durrell, Nunquam (3½***)
24 ... Charlotte Brontë, The Secret (Hesperus Classics) (3***)
30 ... The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories (3½***)

21CurrerBell
Edited: Apr 27, 2016, 5:37 pm

April:

15 ... Robert Graves, Claudius the God (3***)
27 ... Elizabeth Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers (4½****)

22CurrerBell
Edited: Nov 25, 2016, 4:35 pm

May:

6 ... Donna Jo Napoli, Alligator Bayou (5*****)
13 ... Charles Dickens, Hard Times (New Oxford Illustrated Dickens) (3***, reread) and Hard Times (Norton Critical) (ed 1987) (3½*** for supplementary materials, read) and treated as one
18 ... Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest (5*****)
20 ... Charlotte Brontë, The Professor (3½***), reread
24 ... Armistead Maupin, Mary Ann in Autumn (4****)
26 ... Armistead Maupin, The Days of Anna Madrigal (4****)
29 ... The Landmark Thucydides (5***** review)
31 ... Penelope Fitzgerald, The Golden Child (4½**** review)

23CurrerBell
Edited: Jun 28, 2016, 6:06 pm

June:

3 ... Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford, The Brontës' Web of Childhood (5*****)
7 ... Nancy Spain, Poison for Teacher (3***)
8 ... Henry Handel Richardson, The Getting of Wisdom (4****)
20 ... Rachel Klein, The Moth Diaries (4****)
22 ... Phillis Garrard, Hilda at School (2** review)
28 ... Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics (1½* review)

30Tess_W
Feb 21, 2016, 11:52 pm

Some really great reading thus far!

31avanders
Feb 25, 2016, 10:37 am

Wow there are a lot of highly rated books in your lists! Congrats on already pulling 15 ROOTs!

32CurrerBell
Feb 25, 2016, 11:04 am

>30 Tess_W: >31 avanders: Note that my February reading has tended toward shorter books, including YA and middle reader. But two of my January completions are doorstoppers, and Hild was a rather tedious read.

I do plan on getting into some of my Library of America mountains, and I just might give a shot at Les Miserables in the relatively new, unabridged translation by Julie Rose. I read French, but Les Miserables is just too long a book to undertake other than in translation.

33avanders
Feb 25, 2016, 12:30 pm

>32 CurrerBell: no worries! They're all ROOTs :) And doorstoppers and tedious reads need to be counter-balanced!