Sace ROOTs Again in 2017

2017 Covers


Books



ROOTs



I started ROOTing late last year. I'm so excited to be starting on Day 1 this year!

I always set my goals rather low. I'm hoping to read 72 books total and 54 ROOTs.

I am focusing on controlling my urge to "buy with 1-Click". Last year I tried to go the whole year without buying any books (new or used.) That lasted less than 3 months. I've found more success in a month by month book diet. I'll continue that this year. I don't want to buy any books until March.

ROOTs are defined as:

Any book (e-books and audiobooks included) purchased before Dec. 31, 2016.

2017 Intentions
1. I will read 72 books total.
2. I will read 54 ROOTS.
3. I will stay away from Amazon.
4. I will maintain two threads only: My 2017 Category thread and my ROOTS 2017 Thread.
5. I will maintain Books, ROOTS and Book Diet tickers only. (Book Diet on a month by month basis.)
6. I will accept my readerly self for who I am. I like fluff and I don't read quickly.
7. I will try to choose books with more text than pictures on a page (I depend too much on manga to meet my goals.)

January Book Diet-Days without buying books





Finished 1/12 Island of the Blue Dolphins Wow. There were some disturbing "circle of life" type scenes. How did I read this as a child? I don't remember a bit of it so I must have blocked it out. I did have fun looking up the Lost Woman of San Nicolas on the internet...technology that was not available to me when I read this as a child.
Finished 1/11 Fagin the Jew Makes me want to read Oliver Twist...but Eisner is a lot easier to read
Finished 1/10 The Search for Belle Prater I think I liked the first book a little bit better, but it was nice to actually have some closure.
Finished 1/9 Mother Tongue I can never get enough of the history of the English Language. Technically this is a re-read. (Hmm. Maybe I should start a tag for that.)
Finished 1/3 Winter Wedding for the Prince Can't resist those pure, sweet, fluffy romances.

LOL to book diet---I've never heard it called that before--but I've done it--for at least 2 years running. But I'm over that now. It seemed once I tamed my RL shelves, I now load up the Kindle!

Happy Rooting in 2017 and Happy New Year!

Good luck with the book diet! See you around the groups :)

Welcome back! Book diets are hard. I'm contemplating one myself. Good luck!

4. I will maintain two threads only: My 2017 Category thread and my ROOTS 2017 Thread.
Aww, no Club Read? I guess I will have to star your CC thread and try to remember so I can visit you! (I'm bad about checking starred, I mostly just scan the Talk page for them but that doesn't work on ignored groups, booo)

>1 Sace: Happy New ROOTing Year! Oh the demon that is 'Buy with 1-click' ... my fatal weakness!

>3 Tess_W: Taming the shelves explains perfectly my reasons for the book diet! I'm not sure how successful I will be, but I have to make some room! If I can do that, I'll deserve to reward myself.

>4 rabbitprincess: Thank you!

>5 Amberfly: They certainly are hard! If you decide to go on one, we can be strong together. I just got to thinking that the books I already own must feel mighty jealous and unappreciated what with my constantly buying new books!

>6 .Monkey.: :-( I will probably barely manage to manage those two threads! lol

>7 klarusu: Yup. One click is the devil.

General:
My big plan to stay up late and read failed. I was in bed and snoring by 9 :-/

I like your number 6, particularly! I look forward to hearing about your fluff - I too, have a penchant for fluffiness in my books. Nothing wrong with that :)

>9 Caramellunacy: :-) Thank you, @caramllunacy. There's nothing like curling up with a fluffy little book.

Good luck on the book diet and the ROOTing.

Book diets are hard, at least so I have heard. I have never tried one but probably should. Best of luck with your diet and ROOTing in 2017.

Starred, @Sace! Good luck meeting your goals in 2017.

I admire your intentions, especially the book diet. I'm not even trying that. Good luck ROOTing!

>14 MissWatson: haha, me neither! That's way more discipline than I'd ever have!

Happy reading!

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Welcome back, Sace! Happy ROOTing.

>11 Henrik_Madsen: >12 Familyhistorian: >13 karenmarie: >14 MissWatson: >15 Jackie_K: >16 avanders: >17 connie53: Thanks everyone! I'll be traveling over the weekend and next week. I hope it means lots of time to ROOT.

Good luck with your goals! I don't think they're set low at all - it's all relative anyway. :)

>2 Sace: Woot. First update of 2017 is done.

It has been a long time since I last read Island of the Blue Dolphins, but I remember being very upset with the book around her dog?

Note to self: remind my mother to hurry up and finish Mother Tongue so that I can read it! It sounds great. :)

>21 Caramellunacy: Her dog, the pack of wild dogs... a lot of animals really. Lol.

>22 rabbitprincess: Yes! It's very readable. I'm reading another history of English right now that is a little dry. Caveat- there were a couple of things in the Bryson book that I took with a grain of salt/questioned, but it was still good and laugh out loud funny at times.

My food and book diets are identical.

Eat and read anything that's not moving!

But best of luck in accomplishing all your goals in 2017 -- they're ambitious!

Wow, you're making great progress!

5 ROOTs already, fantastic progress! I'm really impressed!

Good morning @Sace!

Congrats on 5 ROOTs. I just (now) noticed that you read Mother Tongue by Bryson. I love his books.

Have you ever read any books about language by John McWhorter? I have never read any, but listened to him on audiobook once and was absolutely fascinated.

>24 Limelite: Thanks! Love your "diet" descriptions.

>25 MissWatson: I think a week of vacation did wonders for my vacation...and choosing graphic novels and children's books. ;-)

>26 Jackie_K: Aw! Thanks! But there's about to be a massive slow-down in my progress.

>27 karenmarie: John McWhorter is one of my favorites!! I've read his The Power of Babel and I've got several more of his books in the "Read Soon" lineup: Word on the Street and Words on the Move being among them.

woo hoo congrats on 5 ROOTs pulled already!

February Book Diet-Days without buying books



February Books and ROOTs Read


Finished 2/28 Mangaman Remember that A-ha music video from the 80s? This graphic novel reminded me a lot of that. Highly entertanining. *Not a ROOT*

Finished 2/25 Food Wars Vol. 16 I really liked this. So far Food Wars holds my attention more often than not. Normally by the 16th volume of any manga I am getting bored. I finished this one and wished the next one was already out. *Note: While I preordered the book in 2016, I am not considering this a ROOT*

Finished 2/23 Food Wars Vol. 15 I had a harder time getting into this one, but I think it's because I had a lot of interruptions while reading. Why do people insist on starting a conversation with me when I have an open book in front of me? Rude. *Note: While I preordered the book in 2016, I am not considering this a ROOT*

Finished 2/11 Among Schoolchildren This is actually a re-read. I read it long, long ago while I was in college working on my degree in elementary education.

So 14 days w/o buying a book? That's great! And finishing one book is better than none--besides we all have lives and sometimes my books are BIG and I can only finish one.

>31 Tess_W: Thanks for the encouragement, tess! It's just that time in the school year when I think I am so behind and I spend most of my time "catching up". I always seem to hit a reading slump around this time. It probably doesn't help that I've been watching a lot of TV.

>32 Sace: I think it's not just that it's that point in the school year, but also in the *actual* year, when spring and summer still feel like distant dreams! I find it so hard to concentrate when the days are all so dreary. It's amazing how the little detail of it not being completely pitch-black when I leave work gives me a lift and a bit of motivation. Try not to beat yourself up - real life happens to all of us :)

I'm impressed with 15 days without buying a book - it just doesn't work that way at my house. Ever.

>30 Sace: it's okay, it happens ;)
And congrats on your book diet success!

>33 Jackie_K: I have to agree with you. This is not my favorite time of year. "Dreary" is the perfect word. It makes it hard for me to concentrate, actually. I just sort of sit around and sigh. I pick up a book and read a page. I sigh and stare out the window at the gray sky. I sigh and try another page in my book. Clearly my progress is impeded with such a method.

>34 karenmarie: >35 avanders: I actually haven't bought a book since NOVEMBER!! (I'm so proud of me.) But I only do month by month book diets because telling myself that I will not buy books for any longer period seems to set me up for failure. So I say I won't buy books for a month knowing that if I want, I can just buy something next month. Now, my birhday *is* coming up soon and I may have to get myself a little something. :-)

I have so many ROOTs on the shelves that I am hardly wanting for books. I do enjoy the feeling of tackling a ROOT.

ROOTs are fun, for sure. But so are new books, and buying a little something for your birthday sounds super.

>36 Sace: You might have seasonal Affective disorder caused by a lack of sunlight. I have it, I'm not treating for it (except for a small "sun" lamp on my school desk which I turn on during free periods if I'm going to be sitting there the entire time grading papers. You get the kind that emits no UV and I don't know if it really works or not; this winter hasn't been that "bad" or cold, here.

>38 Tess_W: you're probably right. This does happen every year. And recently they told our students that they couldn't eat in the courtyard. I used to sit out there even in the winter (they're pretty mild here for the most part) so I would still get some sun. I can tell the difference since having to spend the lunch break in the cafeteria.

Welp, the book diet is done.

I was already looking at my amazon wishlist and putting things in my birthday basket when I got a special promo offer from amazon this morning. My birthday week is going to be filled with amazon deliveries! Yay! (This doesn't include the kindle books I'm going to get on the "official" day.

Oooh, birthday preparations! Have fun!

>40 Sace: It's nice to splurge sometimes, and birthday splurges are the best of all.

Woo hoo for birthday splurges! Enjoy!

>41 MissWatson: >42 karenmarie: >43 rabbitprincess: Thanks everyone! I hope it jumpstarts my reading! I'm spending way too much time in front of the TV!

I try not to splurge too often, but a birthday is absolutely the time when I think you should!

>45 Jackie_K: Unfortunately I splurge waaay too often. I'm trying to get a handle on that. ;-)

A little reading update. I'm trying a jumpstart with manga. I had preordered the 15th and 16th volumes of Food Wars! (sorry, I only hotlinked to the first volume) and they arrived a couple of weeks ago. I forgot how much I liked this series. Normally I read them in one sitting, but I've been busy and unable to concentrate lately so it's taking me forever to get through them. Really it's embarrassing how long it's taking me. I'm hoping to at least get them both done this weekend.

Even though I pre-ordered them in 2016, I'm not calling them ROOTs. But I sure want to! Luckily I'm working on Anne of Green Gables too. It's such a lovely book. It definitely puts me in a happy place.

>46 Sace: I read Anne of Green Gables last year and I like it; didn't love it, but liked it. There are about 8-10 books in the series and they are all free on Amazon Kindle, but I don't know if I will read anymore of them or not.

>47 Tess_W: I must be in the mood for Anne becuase I am really liking it. Not loving it, but really liking it. It's like Willa Cather for children. :-) I don't think I will read beyond the first book though.

I have pored over wishlists, culled, rearranged, sorted and made decisions. The birthday shopping spree is done. The future ROOTs will be arriving this week (some are already on my kindle.) It's back to book dieting on March 1st.

I better get reading! I am still bringing in more books than I read!

> 49 So do I. They are so enticing! Also, Happy Birthday!

Congrats on getting your birthday books! And Happy Birthday - exactly what day is it?

>50 MissWatson: So enticing!

>50 MissWatson: >51 karenmarie: Thanks for the birthday wishes. It's actually not until Thursday. I share with Dr. Seuss :-)

Ok. *now* I'm done shopping.

I wish Spring Break would hurry up and get here. I'm ready for a week to do nothing but read.

>53 Sace: Spring break is very late for us this year, April 7-14.

>54 Tess_W: Ours starts March 20. I'm never sure how I feel about when we have Spring Break (ALWAYS the third week of March.) I never quite feel like I'm ready for it. It always feels like it's too early. I'd almost rather skip it and be done wih the year a week early.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!

March Reads

Finished 3/1 The Plot It was ok. Not my favorite. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. I'm proud to report that it *is* a ROOT!
Finished 3/3 Green Manor Part I I liked this. Loved the art and the Victorian gothiness of it. It's a ROOT! Yay!
Finished 3/4 Anne of Green Gables I love Anne. Such a funny character. Another ROOT!
Finished 3/6 Freakonomics I think I was hoping this would be like James Burke's Connections. I don't think it was. I still enjoyed it. It's an incredibly fast read. ROOT
Finished 3/9 The Death and Life of the Great American School System I don't know why I read books about education reform. It just pisses me off that some people seem to get what needs to be done, but no one listens to them. It also frustrates the hell out of me that school systems seem to do the exact opposite of what needs to be done. Meanwhile, the folks in the trenches (that would be the teachers) get the most abuse heaped on them. ROOT
Finished 3/11 Ruby Red Read for the Category Challenge. I'm glad I bought the series all at once (based entirely on the gorgeous covers) because I'm ready to jump into the second book. ROOT
Finished 3/11 The Rabbi's Cat Very enjoyable, rambling story. Can't wait to read the second one. ROOT
Finished 3/13 The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction 5 stars. ROOT
Finished 3/18 All Over But the Shoutin' Another 5-star read. Non-ROOT (Library)
Finished 3/19 Royally Screwed Not a clean romance, but a good one. Hilariously sweary. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/19 Big Happy Mushy Lump Could not stop laughing. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/21 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century A quick read that is giving me anxiety. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/22 South and West I've never read Joan Didion. I did not enjoy this one very much. It might not be the right Didion for me. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/23 Sapphire Blue I continue to enjoy this series. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/23 Adulthood is a Myth Sarah Andersen is hilarious! Non-ROOT
Finished 3/24 The Stranger in the Woods A 5-star read for me. I especially liked the psychological and historical perspectives on solitude. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/25 Fire from the Rock Slow start, but it gets better. I liked Copper Sun a little more. Non-ROOT
Finished 3/25 March Book One Very hard read. Non-ROOT

Happy birthday @Sace and Dr Seuss! Perhaps you should rename yourself Dr Sace for the day :)

>57 Jackie_K: *applause* :D

>57 Jackie_K: If only I were worthy! :-P

Happy Birthday on your birthday! I hope you have a lovely one.

Joing the Happy Birthday chorus!

>58 rabbitprincess: *bows* :D

May your birthday be blessed!

Happy birthday, Sace, hope it involves cake. And books of course :)

>60 karenmarie: >61 MissWatson: >62 Jackie_K: >63 Tess_W: >64 floremolla: thank you everyone!

>56 Sace: Another ROOT down. I'm still a little behind schedule, but I'm pretty sure I can catch up.

Is anyone else on Litsy? I just installed the app this week. I'm kind of liking it. It satisifies my need to scroll through soical media posts...and I don't do FB and twitter anymore. It's nothing but books.

>67 Sace: Yes, I'm rabbitprincess there as well :D

>67 Sace: Cool! I'm following you now. :-)

>67 Sace: >68 rabbitprincess: Am I right in thinking Litsy is just an app? I am a total Luddite when it comes to phones - I do have a smartphone but only got it for the camera, I do look at the internet on it sometimes but I hardly use any of the other apps that came with it and haven't downloaded any others! I think when it gets a bit tired I'm going to go back to a half-brick Nokia or somesuch and just get a cheap compact camera to keep in my bag. I think I'm connected enough as it is! I like the idea of Litsy though, just would prefer it on a normal website!

>70 Jackie_K: You are correct, it is an app. A fun and sometimes compulsion-inducing app ;) I find I use it more for my random thoughts as I read, whereas LT and Goodreads still form the backbone of my proper library catalogue.

>69 Sace: Yay found you! :D

>70 Jackie_K: >71 rabbitprincess: Ditto what rabbitprincess said. It's also nice for me becuase I'm a nosy book voyeur and I can't always get to a computer to scope out LT. Participating on LT using my smartphone is hard on my eyes. With Litsy I can scroll and look at pretty book covers. Litsy has been described as Goodreads meets Instagram. I still use LT extensively for stats and keeping up with what I read.

>71 rabbitprincess: Now I really should have told you who I was shouldnt I? Sorry 'bout that. :-/

>72 Sace: No worries! You found me first :)

I have decided to adjust my goals for the rest of the year. Instead of 72 books, I am shooting for 54 and instead of 54 ROOTs I'm shooting for 36. I am probably capable of hitting 72, but I made a promise to myself to avoid "fluffing" my totals with manga and graphic novels. The goal of 54 is more for books with lots o' words on a page. :-)

But now I'm in a quandry because I have already sort of counted some manga and graphic novels. Meh. I guess I'll just let this me a "going forward" goal.

Hmm. Or maybe I should keep my goal of 72 and just lower my ROOT goal.

Pardon me while I ponder and ramble...

>74 Sace: Last year I read the Griffin and Sabine series, 4 books worth of only 48 pages each. I counted those books. Having said that, I also count pages read (including abandoned book pages) so that I can use longish books to offset the short ones, and then can see the average pages per book. It's usually right up there in the 300s somewhere, so it's all good, IMO.

I've started counting manga this year; I never did in the past. The Wish manga I read last week I counted as one Root even though it is four volumes. I also count slender little poetry volumes and books in the Penguin 60s line (60 pages each; I collect them). Sometimes we need a short Root to balance out long and ponderous ones.

I count manga as ROOTs since BookOff is a huge temptation and I buy much faster than I read. I need to see via my ticker that I am actually finally reading all these series I've purchased. But at the same time, I would like to focus more on books this year as last year I stopped reading books in May and just read manga the rest of the year. (Which was fun, don't get me wrong.)

>75 karenmarie: Now that is a worthy goal for myself. My average length is more in the low (really low) 200s. I should shoot for something higher. I really love the stats available to me on LT. Unfortunately I also have that kind of personality where I get obsessive about numbers, which is odd considereing I'm not a math person. I end up focusing more on numbers (books read, pages read etc.) rather than just reading.

>76 Amberfly: I have so many ROOTs that are manga so I really should count them. I probably will. "Sometimes we need a short Root to balance out long and ponderous ones." Except I'm not reading the long and ponderous books. LOL.

>77 lilisin: "...and I buy much faster than I read. " THIS! And I start getting anxious about it. It really shouldn't matter. Either I'll catch up or Offspring will inherit an amazing library. It's a win win!

I have to sit down this weekend and try to get all these thoughts down. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction has really got me thinking about who I am as a reader. I'm even questioning if I can even call myself a reader! I mean, I *can* I guess but I am not a very critical reader at all. I like it all. I am not a literary reader that's for sure.

>78 Sace: I've just added The Pleasures of Reading... to my wishlist, it does sound interesting. I've decided not to get too hung up about what I'm reading, and what 'quality it is or isn't - I've counted War & Peace as a ROOT, which took me the best part of a year to finish, and also Captain Underpants books that take me about 30 minutes.

>79 Jackie_K: I've always been overly worried about how I stack up to others. At my age you would think I'd be over it. Apparently not.

Just ran across some articles about buying books and never reading them:
http://bookriot.com/2017/03/16/the-crime-buying-books-without-reading-them/?utm_...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/new-generation-buying-books-to-expres...

>79 Jackie_K: I'm the same way, read some chunksters this year and then when I read a novella I almost feel guilty, but then I think that it all evens out in the end, anyway!

I just finished reading All Over But the Shoutin' and I enjoyed it. It's an honest account of Southern life (that is fading.)

I also did a little spring cleaning on this thread. I was too lazy to do an updated screen shot for the March reads, so I've decided just to do away with them from now on. I'm still going to update the 2017 covers in the first post though.

... I will definitely not be able to "catch up" on threads.. so I'm just dropping in to say Hi!! :)

Hi Sace, just waving hello!

Hi Sace (Karen?), just popping by to say Hi!

I hope you have a lovely weekend reading!

Now that school's out, hoping to see you more!