MissWatson ROOTS randomly

Last year some people found a nifty way for randomly choosing books off the TBR. Someone else had a category challenge with 49 books to be read, which I instantly associated with the German official lotto, 6 out of 49. This gave me the idea for my own randomiser. So, after some fiddling, this is what my 2016 ROOTing looks like: On Saturday, the numbers are drawn and decide the categories to be read, which gives me a choice of 1 out of 6. There is also an additional number drawn (by which the jackpot is distributed, it represents the last digit of the ticket number, so they are 0-9). This will be my fallback if none of the six categories appeals to me in a week: The first ten slots will go to those genres which are overrepresented on my shelves. The first draw takes place on 2 January 2016. Watch this space!

The year has 52 weeks, so my target is to read 52 books I owned before January 1st, 2016.

The 49 categories are:

1 a book with more than 400 pages
2 a mystery or thriller Winterkartoffelknödel
3 a book that became a movie Rogue Male
4 a book more than 100 years old Wellen
5 a book by a female author Romans, Celts and Germans
6 a book set in a different country
7 a non-fiction book Vorgeschichte in der Bretagne
8 a book that was originally written in a different language
9 a book you own but have never read Firmin
10 a book from your childhood The prospering, Gritlis Kinder
11 a classic romance
12 a book with a number in the title
13 a book published last year
14 a book written by someone under 30
15 a book with nonhuman characters
16 a funny book
17 a book with a one-word title
18 a book of short stories Les récrés du petit Nicolas
19 a popular author's first book
20 a book from an author you love that you haven't read yet The Small House at Allington, Pauline
21 a book a friend recommended
22 a prize-winning book: Deutscher Buchpreis (winners and shortlist)
23 a book based on a true story
24 a book at the bottom of your to-read list
25 a book your mom/dad loves La casa de los espíritus
26 a book based entirely on its cover
27 a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't Sansibar oder der letzte Grund
28 a memoir Mémoires d'Hadrien
29 a book you can finish in a day De brevitate vitae / Die Kürze des Lebens
30 a book with antonyms in the title
31 a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
32 a book that came out the year you were born
33 a book you bought because of a review
34 a book with a love triangle Der Zauberring
35 a book set in the future
36 a book set in high school
37 a book with a colour in the title
38 a book that made you cry
39 a book with magic
40 a graphic novel
41 a book by an author you've never read before Wir
42 a book that takes place in your hometown
43 a book set during christmas
44 a book written by an author with your same initials
45 a play
46 a banned book
47 a book based on or turned into a TV show Ross Poldark
48 a book you started but never finished
49 a book that scares you

KW 1

KW is German shorthand for Kalenderwoche, the calendar week. So, on January 2nd the numbers are drawn for a book to be read in the first week.

And the numbers are: 1 23 30 35 43 47 with bonus number 8.
The book is: Ross Poldark, number 47: a book based on or turned into a TV show

What a unique way to choose your books - looks like fun! I'm using the AlphaKit challenge where the alphabet has been randomly selected 2 letters per month- either title or author's name can be used. I think everyone has a different method.

Yes, that is the fun of LT, there are so many different approaches to organise your reading!

Good plan. You seem to have spend a lot of time thinking about that! Starred you!

Exciting! Looking forward to seeing what jackpots you hit next year!

Wow! That's some system you have here! With so many fun categories 2016 looks to be a great year!

>3 MissWatson: WooHoo, what a great way to go, Birgit. Wishing you a fabulous reading year 2016.

>10 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara!

Wow, so organized. Great! Good luck.

That looks really organised, and I love the idea of using the lottery to decide it!

What a great idea! Good luck!

>1 MissWatson: wow, you put a lot of thought into that! Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out :)

>3 MissWatson: I almost want to just do that challenge..... ;)

Hi Birgit! Good luck with your ROOT reading!

And a Happy New Year to all of you, too! I'm glad to be back and eager to get ROOTing!

Just dropping by to wish you a


:)

>4 MissWatson: Loved Ross Poldark. It was a root of mine in 2015.

>22 Tess_W: Hi Tess. I started it last night and am eager to get back to it after work!

>23 MissWatson: The BBC also produced a TV mini-series in 2015. I was able to catch only about 3 episodes but it was very good.

>24 Tess_W: I've got the DVD waiting, but I'm the kind of purist who insists on reading the book first.

>24 Tess_W: I was about to say "Wasn't 2015 this year?" and then I realized it is 2016 now. D'oh! I must have some sort of New Year's version of jet lag.

>25 MissWatson: Such a good series! Season 1 covers the first two books in the series, so you may want to have Demelza on hand if you don't have it already.

I like your system! Happy reading!

>26 rabbitprincess: Oh, that's good to know! Thanks for the heads-up!

>27 billiejean: Thanks for visiting!

Just like you, Birgit, I MUST read the book before I can watch the movie!

>25 MissWatson: and >30 Tess_W: yep me too :)

I would generally go for reading the book first (and that has helped me make the decision a few times not to watch a particular film, especially if I absolutely loved the book - most notably Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Nicholas Cage was so spectacularly not like the gorgeous Corelli in my head I couldn't even begin to imagine watching the film!). However I do sometimes make an exception - in particular, I find Charles Dickens quite difficult to get into if I don't know the basics of the story, so I've found watching films or TV adaptations first quite helpful in encouraging me to persevere with the book!

>32 Jackie_K: Same here! Sometimes I can be won over (I was very critical of Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe when I first heard about it, but somehow it worked out fine), at other times not. I'm still unhappy with Bean and Wenham in LOTR.

And I have finished my first ROOT! Ross Poldark is a perfect read for this weather, curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a lovely romance.

ETA: In the first chapter of Book Two, when the partners in the mining venture meet, Mr Treneglos uses a phrase in Ancient Greek which I'm unable to track down. It transcribes as "Ares otygei mellontas". There aren't, by any chance, copies around where this gets a footnote?

That's great to hear! I was on a few long flights late last year and managed to watch the TV series, which I really enjoyed. I really ought to pick up the books as well!

KW 2

The numbers are: 10 13 31 34 46 48 bonus number 6
The book is: The prospering, number 10: a book from your childhood

I love this way of picking books! But I would not be able to make up a list beforehand. I'm really going to follow this challenge, Birgit.

Thanks Connie. Do you mean a list of books or a list of categories? I didn't compile the categories, that was somebody else's work. I have recently found out that there are dozens of similar challenges floating around in American readers' and publishers' forums, so there's plenty to choose from. And on Saturday, when the lotto numbers are drawn, I look at my shelves and think, okay, what would fit here? Do I want to read this now? I'm curious how this will work a few months from now...

I mean the categories and of course I made a mistake. I just assumed the list was of books! Stupid!

>36 MissWatson: >37 connie53: me too! ;) So interesting...

A second, unplanned ROOT!
I finished a book that can count towards number 34, a book with a love triangle: Der Zauberring. I downloaded this a couple of years ago and read it during lunch breaks. It is a romance of knights and magics, very oldfashioned, inspired by the romances of the Middle Ages, and has several love triangles. Of course all ends well. The prose was a bit hard to swallow, too quaint, and everyone sighs, weeps and faints with reckless abandon.

>41 MissWatson: Sounds like a good book if one wants a change!

>42 Tess_W: It was certainly different. I have found that browsing sites like Gutenberg throws up lots of intriguing stuff that you never heard of or has fallen out of fashion, but is worthwhile trying.

Hi Birgit. Interesting methodology, and ambitious ROOT! Good luck and I'll be interested in following your progress this year.

Looks fun! I've starred your thread so I can carry on following numbers drawn and books read.

>44 karenmarie: >45 Soupdragon: Welcome visitors!And have a good reading year!

#3 The Prospering (KW 2)

And I have finished it. I owned this in German translation as a girl and all I could remember was that there are Indians in it and people with unusual names, such as electa and Erastus. But when I started reading, it all came back. Strange how memory works. It's a lovely book, but I was surprised to read on the dust jacket that she wrote this for adults. I'm pretty sure it was marketed for teenagers over here. The theological arguments were probably boring, back then, and I can't say that I have any sympathy for predestination.

KW 3

The numbers are: 9 21 23 31 34 39 and bonus number 8
The book is: Firmin number 9

I think I'll go with number 9, though: a book you own but have never read. That is a ROOT in a nutshell.

>48 MissWatson: number 9 will be very appropriate, Birgit.

>47 MissWatson:, Birgit, I'm very familiar with that author and she does write almost exclusively YA books. I have not read the one you did but have read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Sign of the Beaver, and The Bronze Bow. I will say in each book there is a tinge of religious dogma, if you know what to look for; but all in all they are very good reads for YA.

>50 Tess_W: Her protagonist, Elizabeth Williams, does not subscribe to this extreme position, so it could be interesting to look at her other books. Are they pure fiction or based on real characters, like The Prospering?

January is such a dangerous month, with all those remainders bins. I now have 3,250 book in my catalogue. How could I let this happen?

>52 MissWatson: are they all TBRs, or do they include books you've already read? Either way that is a huge number! I bet your house looks glorious with all those books around the place! ;)

>53 Jackie_K: They're all the books I own, plus some I had to part with. I haven't tagged the TBRs because that would probably give me a heart attack. I made a very satisfying dent last year with the ROOTing team, though.

>3 MissWatson:,250 WOW! I think books are also meant to decorate the house, so you have a lot of colourful decoration! Nice.

>52 MissWatson: A house is only a home when it has books. Therefore your house must be very homey indeed.

>55 connie53: >56 Amberfly: Thanks, I agree completely! Though it's not a house, just an apartment. :-)

>57 MissWatson: Who cares, as long as there are books.

>58 connie53: Well said!

#4 Firmin (KW 3)

I picked this slim volume from the shelf because it also worked for my Category Challenge. For some reason I had tagged it as Young Adult, which it definitely is not. Must have been very misleading marketing at the time it was published in German. All in all, I was underwhelmed, not enough reading and book talk. Off it goes to the charity bookstore.

My current ROOT is La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende which is off to a very good start, but I don't think I'll finish it this week.

I have The House of the spirits on my challenge list this year. I love Allende's writing so I'll be looking forward to your thoughts

>58 connie53: lol I agree ;) As long as there are piles (or bookshelves) of unread books around, nothing else is necessary ;)

>60 MissWatson: That was the only book I didn't read for my Latin American Literature class way back when... I read (and really enjoyed) everything else on the list, but that one slipped through. I've read other Allende, though, and I have that on the shelves, so one of these days I'll actually finish the syllabus ;)

I've not read any of Allende's fiction, but I read Paula which is wonderful but heartbreaking (about her daughter who had severe porphyria).

>60 MissWatson: Allende has been on my radar list for quite a while.

Wow, what an awesome way to organize your ROOTing! I'm envious and impressed! I've just started reading Ross Poldark myself, and I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much! The only other person who's read it that I know is my Mom, and she read most of the series back in the 1970's, so all she remembers is that they were good. :-/

Good luck this year!

>63 Jackie_K: I never read anything by Allende!

I think Ross Poldark was one of the first grown up books that I read when I was about 12 alongside a load of Agatha Christies. I borrowed it and the second one in the series (Demelza?) from my mum's box set.

Welcome Visitors!
La casa de los espíritus is my first Allende and I keep thinking I should have picked this off the shelf a long time ago, it's lovely!

I remember the first Poldark TV series from the 70ies and keep seeing Angharad Rees in my mind whenever Demelza is mentioned.

I had a friend staying for the weekend and didn't get any reading done. We went to see a transmission from the Bolshoi, the Taming of the Shrew as choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Gorgeous!

KW 4

The numbers are: 2 16 25 26 27 40; bonus number 0
The book is: La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende, number 25

You could go for number 25 and you mums book, Birgit.

#5 La casa de los espíritus
I finished just in time to count for the week. I had to look up quite a lot of the American Spanish words, and the typos didn't help, but all in all it went much better than expected. This has been sitting on my shelves for thirty years, shame on me!

KW 5

The numbers are: 18 23 33 34 40 48, bonus number 9
The book is: Les récrés du petit Nicolas, number 18: a book with short stories

Glad you finished it in time, Birgit!

And curious to see what book you will be choosing next.

#6 Schweinskopf al dente

I didn't get much sleep during the last days and my eyes feel it, so I listened to an audiobook my sister lent to me. I also own a printed copy, so I'm counting it as a ROOT. It doesn't fit any of the lottery numbers, though, so I'm still prowling the shelves...

I hope you have a good night, Birgit. I would fall asleep listening to an audiobook.

Yes, I would too - in fact, although I don't 'do' audiobooks, when I sleep I often listen to podcasts, and I generally fall asleep to them. It's a nice gentle way to fall asleep again, I find. I listen either to comedy (favourite stuff I've listened to again and again, so it doesn't have the same effect as new comedy which would keep me awake), or documentary type things.

>75 connie53: >76 Jackie_K: I'm not a keen listener, either, but this time I had some knitting to keep me awake. And for these books the narrator is an unexpected bonus, because they are set in Lower Bavaria, and he has the accent down to perfection.

#7 Les récrés du petit Nicolas

Well, this was fast. I was looking through the piles looking for my copy of Dshamilja, which is still AWOL, by the way, and came across an acquisition from last year and thought, this fits perfectly for number 18! And since it is so short, I finished it in January. Yay me!
Now, where can that other book have gotten to?

>78 MissWatson: 18 ROOTs, wow Birgit!

I only listen to audiobooks in the car, although since I JUST retired, today being my first day of retirement, I may start listening to them in the house. Fortunately they don't make me fall asleep, so driving and listening works for me.

Now, where can that other book have gotten to?

I lost track of where everything was several years, and have started using tags for locations...... I have several that are AWOL, but probably less than .5%.

Very good ROOTing.

Now I'm really curious as to where that book went, Karen.

Maybe I will find a lost book too. I need to go over my boxes with books I'm not really interested in any more.

I'm convinced that my books sometimes wander off on their own. Perhaps they go visiting other people's libraries.

>79 connie53: It fits lottery number 18, a book with short stories. Sadly, I'm not yet in double digit ROOT numbers yet. But close!

#8 Dshamilja

It turned up again, maybe it got homesick? Anyway, this was another short read at 123 pages, and fifteen of those were the introduction by Louis Aragon (who translated the book into French, by the way). He gave some information about the author, and it did help a little to place the time and the people. it is a love story from the Kirgiz steppe, and I have seldom read anything more beautiful.

I'm also wondering if I should change category 33: a book with bad reviews. They might be bad for a reason and I really don't want to waste my time on bad books...

>84 MissWatson: Yes, change it! You don't want to read bad books!

Where did the missing book go?

I found it in a pile of books I had moved from the floor to the top of a shelf. And I'm going to replace it with another copy, because the one i read I salvaged from my parents' apartment on Tenerife, and it is seriously water-damaged. Plus, the cover is totally wrong for the story, it shows a Russian couple lounging on the banks of the Volga.

>84 MissWatson: That sounds lovely. A BB in fact, except that (unless I'm missing something) the UK amazon site only seem to have the German translation. I've added it to my wishlist, but with a note saying not to buy it, it's a reminder to check every so often for an English translation!

>87 Jackie_K: It was published in 1959, so maybe some university with a Russian/Slavic/Soviet studies department keeps it in the library dungeons?

And I have tweaked category 33 into something I might actually be able to find on my shelves: a book you bought because of the review.

>89 MissWatson: Haha, very good, Birgit.

#89 - clever.

I was going to suggest that you could find a book that had a bad review that was clearly ridiculous since the book went on to win awards. But your tweak is good.

Hi! just dropping by to say hi :)
Congrats on 8 ROOTs read in just 1 month! Way ahead of schedule!
Looks like you're reading some fun ones :)

>91 karenmarie: I was thinking along such terms, but I was afraid of wasting far too much time reading reviews when I actually want to read ROOTs.

>92 avanders: Hi! Nice to see you! It's been a good year, so far.

It has been :)

Good point!! I never read reviews prior to reading a book, and by the time I've read a book I already have my opinion, regardless of what anybody else might think. (the only reviews I read are LT reviews, after I've reviewed a book on LT. It's still just for information, though.)

>78 MissWatson: I love Les récrés du petit Nicolas, Birgit. I've read all books of this series. When others were watching me when I read them they must have thought that I'm crazy. I had to giggle nonstop.

>88 MissWatson: Hmm interesting. As it happens I did my PhD in just such a department (no, really!), maybe I should make some enquiries... Thanks for the BB anyway :)

>97 Ameise1: I know, so do I.

>98 Jackie_K: My pleasure.

>84 MissWatson: Oh oh, a BB I can't dodge! On Amazon it's only 94 cents! (Plus shipping)

#9 Lilienbanner und Preußenaar

This is a historical novel about two brothers who leave their native Augsburg, one to join the fur trading company of a distant relative in Canada, the other to join a merchant house in Frankfurt, but he falls into the clutches of a recruiting officer for the Prussian army. So the two end up fighting thousands of miles apart in the same war, the Seven Years' War.

Not bad, but not brilliant either, and I can safely part with it. Which leaves a gap of five centimeters on the shelf! To be filled up immediately, of course, with one of my many recent acquisitions.

KW 6

The numbers are: 10 16 25 28 34 49, bonus number 5
The book is: Gritlis Kinder, number 10: a book from your childhood

#10 Trenck

This was a direct follow-up to number 9. Our hero on the Prussian side of the tale gets to meet one of Frederick's most famous prisoners, whom he chained up in a dungeon for allegedly having an affair with his sister, and I had this slim novel on my shelves for ages. Friedrich Freiherr von der Trenck started his career as an adjutant to Frederick, fights in his many wars and finally messes around both with the king's sister and one of his own cousins who fights for the other side in the conflict, the Empress Maria Theresia, so high treason also enters into the account.
It's an incredible life in times both great and unbelievably cruel, and amazingly enough Trenck lived to tell his tale – only to have his head cut off by Robespierre.

ETC

#11 Gritlis Kinder

This was another fast read, and one where I wept buckets, just couldn't help myself. Spyri's stories are all so very sad, there are always consumptive children and grown-ups, grinding poverty and self-sacrifice. I owned this as a girl, part of an omnibus edition, and I suspect I quit after finishing Heidi.

>104 MissWatson: and>105 MissWatson: are both BB's for me! Sadly, Trenck is not in English translation. I, too, read Heidi and cried like a baby when I was younger.

>106 Tess_W: That's too bad, I noticed some of his other books are available in English. I'm definitely on the lookout for more, but right now I need something a bit lighter. I felt a bit drained after reading about Elsli...

>105 MissWatson: wow sounds very interesting... perhaps a BB :)

yep, added to kindle. Free! :)

>108 avanders: Let me know what you think of it, when you get round to it. Is it a translation? I wondered how they would deal with the rather curious fact that any girl whose name ends in -li in Swiss German is an "it", not a "she". I found this very odd and slightly disturbing from a modern point of view.

>109 MissWatson: ok :) Yes, it's translated into English by Louise Brooks.. I don't have my kindle w/ me, so can't answer the question, but I'll let you know :)

>34 MissWatson:

Do you have the Greek phrase in the original, un-transcribed form? I can't find words 2 and 3 in an ancient Greek dictionary, even with a broad search.

It might be possible to solve your puzzle from the way the phrase appears as written in the Geek alphabet. I'd like to give that a try.

>109 MissWatson: - that's not just a "li" point, but a number of suffixes (generally diminutives) like "lein" ("li" is a dialect/short form as is the "el" in Hansel and Gretel) and "chen". Which means, ultimately that when you are talking about a girl "Maedchen" or a young lady "Fraulein", the "correct" pronoun is "it"... which is very strange as a non-native speaker. But it is also true that the "correct" pronoun for a boy whose name (or nickname) ends with "lein" or "chen" (such as Hansel) would be it, as well...

Annnnd I'll stop being pedantic now...

>111 Limelite: Thank you, Limelite, that would be great! I'll try my hand at it tonight.

>112 Caramellunacy: As a native speaker of North German German I can safely say that things are not quite as clear-cut as that when it comes to diminutives of personal names. Spyri herself always uses "der" for the boys, it's der Hanseli and der Heirli, which is why it struck me so vividly.
In the 1812 version of Hänsel und Gretel the Grimms use der Hänsel, but both die and das Gretel. -li/-el are the only wayward suffixes, though. Hänschen is indeed always das.

Interesting - I grew up in the south (Schwaben) near Switzerland, and agreed that it's not always clear-cut (of course, language never is). I grew up hearing it with "das" for the littl'uns of either gender (preferred diminutive being "-ele" - which made school interesting for me (Laenele)) though by the time we hit primary school gendered pronouns tended to be used and it was really only in school readings that the "es" for girls still turned up. I have to admit I haven't read much Spyri, but I can certainly see why it would strike you.

I spent some time in Württemberg myself and remember some very odd articles, as in "der Butter". My best friend's cousins all had male pet names, in spite of being girls. I suppose nowadays the trend is to align grammatical gender with the natural gender. It's fascinating to see the language change in the course of one's own life, and of course it always irritates me when people now use the imperative "les das" instead of "lies das".

I certainly know how you feel. I got quite irritated with the entire spelling reform and its insistence on extra consonants (Balletttaenzerin)...ick.

Let's not get started on that...I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Not when I am reminded of it every time I look at digitised books from the early 19th century and see how much of that spelling they re-introduced with their so-called reform.

#12
Mord nach jeder Fasson is a historical mystery set in 1740 in Berlin. Frederick II has just succeeded to the throne, and Honoré Langustier arrives in town to take up a post as second cook to the King, on the very same day that one of the royal adjutants is killed in the Tiergarten. Langustier is assigned to support the chief of police in the investigation and uncovers an involved plot about a corrupt courtier and high diplomacy as conducted by the previous king. The concept is intriguing, the execution less so. The author tells his tale chronologically, so we are left repeatedly with some obscure new characters and no idea how they fit into the tale until the very end. The language never gets a grip on the times, and modern German spelling sits very awkwardly with 18th century dialogue, which is a constant irritation. Bruno Frank did this so much better.

>111 Limelite: Well, this is what it looks like in my copy:   . Only problem is, I can't see Greek characters here, something about the coding when copying and pasting from Word?

I could spell it: alpha rho eta sigma // omega tau ypsilon gamma epsilon iota // my epsilon lambda lambda omega ny tau alpha sigma.

Does this mean anything to you?

KW7

The numbers are: 18 20 30 32 43 45, bonus number 8
The book is: The small house at Allington, number 20, a book by an author you love that you haven't read yet

#13
And I have finished The Small House at Allington. By some lucky coincidence I was already halfway through when I checked the lottery numbers and it fit perfectly. I couldn't have hoped to read 665 pages over a weekend. But for all that, Trollope is a quick and pleasant read, and I really like his women.

Tomorrow is my fourth Thingaversary, and in keeping with the tradition I bought some books in honour of the day:
Leviathan wakes
Les demoiselles de Provence
Friedrich der Große
Wolf Winter

and one to grow on: http://www.librarything.com/work/10936698/book/126896971 The king by Kader Abdolah.

Happy Thingaversary!

>124 Tess_W: Thanks!

Happy Thingaversary!
& Congrats on 13 ROOTs read! You're doing great!

Happy Thingaversary, Birgit

Happy Thingaversary, Birgit!

Happy Thingaversary, Birgit.

Woo hoo, Happy Thingaversary! Enjoy your new ROOTs ;)

Something was wrong with LT yesterday, for me at least. I could not post any more, so I tried a couple of times. And I saw my three posts this morning. Sorry, Birgit! :-))

Thanks for stopping by! The ROOTing is going amazingly well, so far.
>133 connie53: It's just a glitch, nothing serious, so no worries, Connie.

#14 Shovel ready
Something completely different caught my eye, a SF novel set in a post-nuclear New York City, a first-person narrative from a hitman. Not nearly as dark or novel as it wants to be. Off to a new home.

KW8

The numbers are: 1 13 16 29 30 31, bonus number 6
The book is: De brevitate vitae / Die Kürze des Lebens, number 29: a book you can finish in a day

I spent the weekend at my sister's, no internet, just a little knitting and talking. The train ride back took a lot longer than planned, though. The train couldn't leave Hamburg because, first, of people walking on the tracks, and then "bodily injury" which is a euphemism for suicides. The track between Hamburg and Neumünster was closed and we had to go via Lübeck, and of course it took them an hour to make that decision. I got home at midnight, four hours late, and I haven't had leisure yet to pick a book. Well, at least I finished one, a mystery my sister lent to me, and I got ahead with another. None of them ROOTs, though.

>137 MissWatson: Always such a bother when trains are late or tracks are closed. It's very sad for the victims of course. 4 hours is a lot of delay!

>138 connie53: So it is, Connie. And it seems to happen more often, or mabye the train company is more open about the causes of delay. It must be horrific for the train drivers.

>137 MissWatson: Oh my goodness! How awful. It's unfortunate that it took the train company so long to decide how to continue your journey.

>140 rabbitprincess: I often think in this day and age, with cellphones ubiquitous, chains of command should be shorter. But they probably have to enter all the events and decisions into some kind of log, and the delays build up quickly.

#15 De brevitate vitae / Die Kürze des Lebens

And I have found a book for lotto number 29, a book you can finish in a day. It has 72 pages in my bilingual edition, copious notes and was a surprisingly easy read, the translation was very accessible. A book you can re-read several times, and it will still strike you as amazingly fresh and relevant to our times.

>137 MissWatson: Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend with your sister!
Except for the train ride back - how awful! and >139 MissWatson: yes, what a sad day for those drivers :(

KW9

The numbers are: 7 10 15 25 37 49, bonus number 7
The book is: Vorgeschichte in der Bretagne, number 7, a non-fiction book

#16 Vorgeschichte in der Bretagne

Another short one. I picked this up when we visited Carnac several years ago. It describes the various kinds of pre-historic stone monuments, menhirs, dolmens etc. A little too scholarly for raw beginners, not detailed enough for others, but I'm keeping it for now.

Happy belated Thingaversary!

>146 LauraBrook: Thank you!

I'm enjoying your random-book-chooser scheme! There are so many books I want to read next that it's hard to choose and this would be fun. The Powerball lottery recently increased the number of regular balls to 69 so I'd have some categories to add...

>148 detailmuse: I'm enjoying it, too, but I find that I tend to choose short books that can be finished in a week. I've got lots of those, though, so no shortage of ROOTs.

>149 MissWatson: nothing wrong with that... sometimes I do that when I don't want to get tied down for any extended period of time... sometimes it backfires, when a "short" book is rather dense (... or boring!). Glad you're enjoying your lottery picking!

KW10

The numbers are: 7 10 33 37 43 46, bonus number 3
The book is: Rogue Male, number 3, a book that became a movie. Directed by Fritz Lang, no less!

>151 MissWatson: Hey, I'm reading that right now! It is proving a very fast read. :)

>152 rabbitprincess: Yes, I noticed several people reading it on the Category Challenge, so I thought I'd tag along. So far it's not at all what I expected!

#17 The last chronicle of Barset

But first I can report that I finished a very fat book at 771 pages, the last instalment in the Barsetshire Chronicles. We meet some favourite characters again, someone less liked gets her (well-deserved and longed-for) come-uppance and we part, teary-eyed, with Septimus Harding. My only regret is that he did not get to meet his grandson's fiancée.

>154 MissWatson: I just d/l the Barsetshire Chronicles on my Kindle. Need to finish up a couple more books I've already started then I will read.

>154 MissWatson: >155 Tess_W: I keep meaning to download them too, as I'm sure they must be on Project Gutenberg. But I am resisting as I already have so many other TBRs! When the jar is less full I will do it! :)

>155 Tess_W: I hope you enjoy them!

>156 Jackie_K: Yes, they are on Gutenberg, they even have illustrations! I bought the Oxford paperbacks because of the nice covers, and because I like to have notes for the more obscure words, or translations for the occasional Latin quotes. For the ecclesiastical matters in The warden and Barchester Towers they proved very helpful.

#18 Rogue Male

This was a very fast read full of suspense, and not at all what I expected. There is so much left unsaid, which for his contemporaries must have been glaringly obvious. I wonder if he had a real person in mind for the narrator? Some famous big game hunter?

>154 MissWatson: congrats on pulling that chunky ROOT!

#19 Der Verrückte des Zaren

A historical novel translated from Estonian, set in 19th century Livonia which belonged to the Russian Empire at the time. It is written as a diary and tells the story of Timotheus von Bock through the eyes of his brother-in-law. Bock was imprisoned under Alexander I and released under Nicholas I, but had to remain on his own estate under supervision. The story is fascinating and the fact that most of the protagonists are real persons makes it even more fascinating. Timo was adjutant to the Czar, fought in the campaigns against Napoleon and was smitten with the ideas of the French revolution. He was a member of the German-speaking aristocracy descended from the Teutonic Knights who ruled the country in the Middle Ages, he chose his wife from the ranks of the Estonian peasants and had to buy her and her family from serfdom first. He provided a first-rate education for her and her brother Jakob, the diarist. They had to convert to Russian Orthodoxy before they could be married, and Eeva had to change her name. And barely a year after the marriage Timo is arrested and vanishes into one of the Czar's dungeons. Eeva/Katharina never stops trying to find him and finally, the new Czar Nicholas agrees to release him.
The book is full of little details that bring the country and its history to life: the snobbishness of the other aristocrats, the intellectual life (Heinrich Heine's poems arrive in Livonia a year after publication), the harsh winters, the first attempts at manufacturing. People are defined by their language, Estonian is "peasant speak", the native language of the aristocracy is German, but at court and among themselves they speak French, and of course the language of the state and of power is Russian.
The translation is excellent, as far as I can tell. It provides translations for the many French and Russian phrases scattered throughout the book, and also gives brief descriptions of the many historical persons mentioned.
This is a keeper and I'm going to look for his other books.

>160 MissWatson: Oh my--it's translated into English and right up my alley! Off to Amazon I go!

KW11

The numbers are: 20 26 30 39 47 49, bonus number 4
The book is: Pauline, number 20: a book by an author you love that you haven't read yet

A friend stayed for the weekend and we didn't get around to watch TV or check the numbers, so I'm putting off the selection until tomorrow.

Well, I finished a non-ROOT last night and then I pondered my options and my eye fell on the stack of unread books by Alexandre Dumas. Pauline it is, it is short enough that I can finish it until Saturday, even in French.

>164 MissWatson: I love it when my eyes just light upon some stray tome just waiting/wanting to be read!

>165 Tess_W: So many lucky discoveries waiting to happen!

>165 Tess_W: >166 MissWatson: yes, I love that too! I love that our own shelves offer that!

#20 Pauline

Pauline is one of Dumas' earlier books, it is short, contemporary and written in a very complex structure: Dumas is the narrator who meets a friend, Alfred de Nerval, who tells him the story of his great love recently dead, and within this narrative we have another first-person narrative, when Pauline tells her story to Alfred. So, lots of imparfait, passé simple and the corresponding conditionnels, a great opportunity to practise conjugation. The plot has a few Gothic elements in a ruined abbey and a very Byronesque villain, Pauline's husband. The heroine is a bit too meek for my taste, but it was an entertaining read.

The notes had a chronology of his life and work, and this gave me the idea that it might be interesting to read his novels in publishing order.

>168 MissWatson: I have so much Dumas on my TBR that I almost hate to add this one----but I will!..........After searching, will hold off on that one! A quick cursory glance shows only 1 copy of said book in English, hardback $50! I don't even know if I really like Dumas that much, yet!

>169 Tess_W: Well, it is a nice little story, but not worth spending 50 dollars on.

KW12

The numbers are: 4 10 15 37 44 49, bonus number 5
The books is: Wellen, number 4: a book more than 100 years old

I have just realised that number 44, an author with your same initials, won't work because I've got no ROOTs that fit this. Unless I reverse initals or use them for words in the title...
And my head is still full with information I learned about the history of the Baltic countries in Geschichte des Baltikums, a non-ROOT. I would like to explore this further, but have no ROOTs to fit this theme.

>172 MissWatson: I hope your ROOT conundrum resolves itself soon!

>172 MissWatson: With my RL bookclub we did an initials challenge this month and some of us had to reverse them. We did count them as challenge books.

>173 Jackie_K: >174 connie53: My Kobo has saved me. I found that I downloaded Wellen last year. It was originally published in 1911, and the author was born in Kurland, a region in Latvia, so he was on my radar.

ETA: I've decided to be liberal with the initials and to reverse them if necessary.

#172 Sounds like a perfect excuse to head for the bookstore...

>176 Henrik_Madsen: Yeeees, but I decided to count only books bought before 2016 as ROOTs. I have to draw the line somewhere.

#21 Wellen

This is a very short novel, set on the Baltic shore during the summer holidays, when the aristocracy take their annual "Sommerfrische", and it focuses on Doralice who has left her aged husband for a young painter. She is now ostracised by her circles, as represented by an elderly lady and her extended family. There's much lyrical description of the sea which mirrors Doralice's inner life. Beautifully written, and a story that could have happened anywhere else in Europe at that time.

KW13

The numbers are: 1 3 30 33 40 41, bonus number 5
The book is: Wir, number 41: a book by an author you haven't read before

(touchstone not working)

#22 Wir

Another short one, written a few years after the Russian Revolution when it became obvious to him where the Communist party was going. He could not publish it in the Soviet Union and was hounded out of the country. A rather depressing read.

>180 MissWatson: Despite the depressing review, I've taken a(nother!) BB on that one! At least it was short!

>181 Jackie_K: I've got a few Soviet era authors lingering on my shelves unread, and I'm thinking about devoting a month or two to them, sometime. I think it would help to read them in context.

>182 MissWatson: Birgit, I'm also thinking about grouping some books by author ethnicity and/or time period.

>183 Tess_W: Hi Tess! I think it would be rewarding to cover a time or a region or an author in more detail, especially when I have little or no previous acquaintance with them.

I think so too, which led me to the Reading Globally group a couple of years ago. I had to quit, though, because I wasn't able to withstand so many book bullets. Reading extensively from an area's literature seems an amazing way to expand yor horizons.

>185 ipsoivan: I can understand that! I have already lined up quite a few ROOTs for next year resulting from the book-buying sprees inspired by this year's reading.

>180 MissWatson: I have that one on my shelve. Probably will read it this year.

KW14

The numbers are: 1 10 17 23 28 38, bonus number 6
The book is: Mémoires d'Hadrien, number 28: a memoir

Just passing and waving, Birgit!

Brigit, I just love most of your book topics/titles! I think we are both historical/like minded.

>189 connie53: Just waving back, Connie!

>190 Tess_W: Hi Tess! History was my favourite subject at school (except for one year where I didn't get along with the teacher) and it still is. And Mémoires d'Hadrien is turning out to be another great read.

>188 MissWatson: I read Memoirs of Hadrian many years ago and loved it; I raved about it to my then brother-in-law and it became his favourite book. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! I think I should reread it soon. This year is turning into a big year for rereading old favourites, as I also think I'll be rereading Clarissa after another member of the group commented on it, and that is going to take a loooong time!

>193 ipsoivan: I'm enjoying it very much, thanks! And I made quite a few notes on things I want to look up. As for Clarissa, I have watched the BBC miniseries years ago and made an attempt at reading the book, but gave up at the time. Maybe I should give it another chance...

I love your idea. I just joined the group today, so if you don't mind, I'm going to borrow this concept. Of course, I'm a couple of months behind, but I love a challenge! Thank you!

>195 indielamb: You are very welcome to the idea! Enjoy your challenge!

I had a friend staying for the weekend, so I got no reading done, but we had a wonderful time and went to see a live transmission from the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Don Quichotte. Wonderful! And now I have some catch-up to do with everybody else's threads!

ETC

KW15

The numbers are: 1 4 38 39 46 47, bonus number 2
The book is: Winterkartoffelknödel, number 2: a mystery or thriller

>197 MissWatson: sounds lovely! I'm a ballet fan, also and have season tickets to our local ballet. This year I've seen Dracula, Carmen, and The Great Gatsby. Next month I will see Sleeping Beauty. I like the classics, while my girlfriend likes the "newer" works.

>199 Tess_W: That's an interesting repertoire. Is it a large company, so that they can stage lots of different shows? My friend is the long-standing ballet fan among us, and no cinema in her town shows the transmission, so it's a nice excuse for a short getaway for her.

Work is pretty busy these days, and it's cutting into my reading. But I have finally reached the final 50 pages of Mémoires d'Hadrien!

>200 MissWatson: Brigit, our ballet troupe is quite large; their literature says it is in the top 20 in the U.S. in size. I know that often they also bring guest dancers in. I also know that 2-3 years ago (maybe longer) Ballet Met (our troupe) went to Russia to spend 2-3 weeks with the Bolshoi. Our ballet also has a school for young dancers for which there is a waiting list. Sadly, here, as in all of America, the arts are on the decline and attendance is dwindling. What type of work do you do?

>201 Tess_W: That is an impressive size!
I work in a library. We are organising two conferences this month and I do most of the stuff that must be printed: the program, name badges, lists of participants, certificates of attendance and whatever else comes up. Our annual report is also in the works, I'm proofreading the lists that go into the appendix, which is quite fiddly. That means checking that people wrote the correct titles of the journals they published in, or that the names of the conferences they attended are correct.

>202 MissWatson: Not a better place for a book lover to work!

#23 Mémoires d'Hadrien

Strictly speaking it does not qualify as a memoir, since Marguerite Yourcenar wrote it, but it is very interesting. I hadn't realised before how much time he spent travelling across the empire, and I took quite a lot of notes for things to look up. Unfortunately, my copy fell apart while I read it, so it went into the bin.

#24 Winterkartoffelknödel

This was quick and easy, the first in a series, and if I had started with this book I probably wouldn't have continued with the series. It is a first person narrative, in the voice of a Bavarian cop trying to speak (or write) Hochdeutsch, and doesn't quite succeed, and I can't make up my mind whether it is intended or not. The later instalments read much more genuine. And they're funnier.

#25 How I live now

Meg Rosoff has just been awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize, so it seemed like a good time to pick this off the shelf. Quite an intense read, and a rather scary scenario for a war.

>206 MissWatson: I just read that last week and really enjoyed it. Yes, it is grim.

Hi Birgit, just catching up on your thread! Good luck whit all the organizing! Can I switch jobs with you? I would love to work in a library.

>207 ipsoivan: Yes, it is.
>208 connie53: Hi Connie! It's a library specialising in economics, so we have mostly rather boring stuff. But there are some good finds possible in economic history.

KW16

The numbers are: 5 14 15 20 22 38, bonus numer 9
The book is: Romans, Celts and Germans, number 5: a book by a female author

>208 connie53: lol I was thinking the same thing ;)

& yes, Birgit - congrats on almost hitting the halfway mark already!

>211 avanders: Thanks!

#26 Romans, Celts and Germans

Half-time! This is a non-fiction book about the Germanic provinces of the Roman Empire, relying mostly on archeological evidence. Very succinct and precise, a real pleasure to read and a great overview of the subject.

ETC

KW17

The numbers are: 8 15 16 17 27 35, bonus number 4
The book is: Sansibar oder der letzte Grund, number 27: a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't

#27 Sansibar oder der letzte Grund

This is a book that appears on most school curricula in Germany, which means I have pointedly ignored it. My loss.
It's not obligatory to work through the entire curriculum, there were several options back then, and I think we went for German drama instead in that term. I can see why it is a favourite choice for teachers, though: it is short, always a plus, and it lends itself very well to textual analysis: there are five points of view, detailed descriptions, a clever use of colours, and a slow, deliberately revealing of who people are. It is set in a sleepy town on the Baltic shore in Mecklenburg, which reminded me very much of Wismar. The time is 1938, and all these five people are desperate to leave the country, for different reasons. It is very understated in its prose, and I really liked that you had to work out some of the clues for yourself.
Definitely a keeper, and I will read more of Alfred Andersch at some time.

Past the halfwaypoint, Birgit! Good job.

>215 MissWatson: That sounds really interesting. Forgive the dim question, but what is the English title? (my German is almost non-existent, sadly).

>217 Jackie_K: I think it has been translated as Flight to afar which is more in tune with the content. From the title I always expected a tale set in exotic places, not Sansibar as the location the youngster dreams of.

That sounds like an amazing book. I'm going to have to learn German!

>219 indielamb: It's translated into English, if that's the language you read in!

Thank you, I'll go searching for it!

The thread is getting long, so I think it's time to set up a new one.