2019 ROOT - start the new year with a goal!

Well, 2018 is drawing to an end and 2019 is upon us. Most of the members from last year's ROOT Challenge gave a rousing endorsement to try again in 2019 to reduce our unread books.
So if you are interested please

join the group
state your goal,
and please, please
create a ticker on the ticker thread which is only for tickers. Please don't put any discussion on this thread because it just takes that much longer to get through it to gather the numbers. If there is a problem, with your ticker, please contact me and we'll work it out. Don't create more than one message in the ticker thread.

The ticker thread is https://www.librarything.com/topic/300952

LET'S ROOT!!

Much as I would love to visit everyone's thread and welcome them to the 2019 Challenge , I am getting ready for a trip to see my grandchildren as well as trying to finish a few more books for 2018. I hope that everyone knows how much I enjoy the ROOT challenge and the support that we give each other.

I will try to visit in January, but no guarantees!

Thank you for hosting the ROOT challenge again this year. I’ve not yet decided what my goal will be this year, but will create my ticker as soon as I do.

As I am on an extended trip to my parents' I won't be starting my upROOTing programme until the middle of January.

I'm keeping my goal at 40 Roots for 2019, and hoping for more digging than last year. Ticker added to ticker thread.

I am back.

I will be going for 38 books this year. My goal is to read more from my TBR instead of library books.

join the group
state your goal,
and please, please
create a ticker on the ticker thread which is only for tickers.

>6 crazy4reading: I love lists! :D

Although I barely made my goal of 100 ROOTs this year, I’ve decided to repeat my challenge number.

My ROOT thread is here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/300999#6670084

though currently a work-in-progress!

I've increased my goal to 60 for 2019. My ticker's in the ticker thread and I have created a personal thread. Looking forward to the new reading year!

I managed to read 53 ROOTs this year, so I've decided to add one and make my goal 54 for next year.

Of books from my "M" list (books whose titles began with the letter "M" or whose authors' last names began with ""M,") I managed to read only 29 out of approximately 50 in my stacks but it really helped me focus my reading. For 2019, I decided to focus on the letter "S" (the 19th letter of the alphabet) and see if I can't make similar progress with my backlog of books!

I actually read a record number of books in 2018 (215) and don't think I can manage that again so I'm not being super aggressive about upping my goal.

Thanks for putting the 2019 ROOTS group together, once again, Cheli.

For 2019, I plan to count only print books I own and not those on Kindle. I would love to make a big dent in the piles of books. Removing books from my Kindle just doesn't give me the same satisfaction.

Reading 36 print books off the shelves for the year sounds like a reasonable goal to me.

My goal is the same as in 2018, 48. Although I exceeded that by quite a lot, I'm wanting to carve out a bit more time for writing as well as reading, so I don't expect to read as many in 2019. I think 4 a month is still doable though.

Of course I'm in for another year. And I go for 36 ROOTs, leaving room for ROOT-prevention by reading shiny new ones as well. I will try to combine this challenge with the monthly challenges on my online reading club.

Hi everyone! And Cheli, thank you so much for hosting the group again, have a great time with your grandchildren!

I'll keep my goal at 40 in 2019 and will be back to get setup.

Definitely looking forward to joining the ROOTing challenge again for 2019. I plan to set my goal at 20 again. That was doable last year, so I hope it will be again. I have a lot of really big list books that are also ROOTs, so I'm hoping that will let me reach the goal without too much straining. I will shut up and go create a new ticker thread. Oh, and thanks for running the group again Cheli. I know it must be a lot of work.

I increased my goal by 10 this year for a total of 65. I really need to read and move some of the ROOTs out of my house. There is no shelf space left for any more books and yet, they still keep coming in.

I'm definitely back for another round! I fell off the 2018 wagon as far as reporting my reading went, but I did read 32 of my goal of 60 ROOTS so all things considered it wasn't too bad! And I only started the 2018 challenge in July so I think if I had started in January I would have hit the goal or at least close to it.

Mr. M and I went a little crazy with book buying over Black Friday though so the ROOT stack actually increased. This year I'm going to shoot for 50. Thanks for running the group again Cheli! All your hard work is deeply appreciated :)

I think I'll just fall short of my aim of 50 this year, but will go for the same number again in 2019. I have resolved not to buy so many new books next year but it is still 2018 and tomorrow I am going to a local bookshop with an ongoing sale! Still these will count as ROOTs...

Hi everyone, I look forward to following everyone's ROOT reading again in 2019.

I'm keeping my goal at 30 this year because that gives me some room to work in some big guys.

Hi all, new member both to this group and LibraryThing.

I used to be a voracious reader years ago, but life happened and books sort of spun off to the side as more demands on my time came about. I've still managed to amass a small library of books that need reading though, and so here I am.

My (admittedly pitiful) goal is to finish one book a month for 2019, so 12. All books that I finish will be immediately donated to my local Little Free Library, so hopefully I'll manage a little more than that. :)

Welcome traveler! I hope you can meet your goal of 12 books. That's a good start to get back into reading.

Welcome, @the_traveler. Your story sounds very like mine a few years ago (big reader, life stuff, stopped reading, didn't stop buying). Since joining this group in 2014 I have rediscovered the joy of reading, I hope it has the same effect for you!

>19 the_traveler: Welcome, welcome! Every goal is a good goal. Good luck with your reading :)

Thanks kindly, connie53. I'm pretty excited to have a more structured reading plan in place!

Oh that's an inspiration, Jackie_K, to know you've also been there and managed to get back into having regular reading in your life. Thanks!

Thanks, rabbitprincess! Every goal is a stepping stone and I appreciate you all being my digital guides!

Definitely!! I am in! I'll get my ticker done but I still need to figure out my goal for '19. I love reading everyone's threads- you guys give me motivation and lots of 'maybe-I-should-check-this-book-out' moments. Can't wait to begin again.

And Cheli, good heavens, you are amazing- I could never keep up with all the work you do on this group. You are welcoming just by running the whole shebang.

Third consecutive year of ROOTs for me :) This group has been a terrific motivator in curbing my book hoarding habits and helping me to appreciate books that I already have. It's also taught me some painful lessons with regard to books that languish on my shelves for ages - if I don't read a book within the first few months of acquiring it, I'll often lose interest and not be motivated to finish it once I do start! This year I hope to finish nearly all of the books that I've bought and borrowed but not yet read. It's around 50-60 altogether, but I've set a relatively modest goal of 30 in the hopes that I can meet and exceed my goal even if life gets busy.

>26 enemyanniemae: figure how many you read in 2018, then add 10% for your 2019 goal.

>27 Erratic_Charmer: glad ROOTing has helped you. Don’t worry about your goal, you can always exceed it...

I wasn't feeling much sizzle after deciding to maintain my same ROOT goal (>13 detailmuse:) and was wavering about how much to increase.

*Presto* >28 fuzzi: appears ... new goal, 44! thank you :)

>29 detailmuse: you’re welcome! Someone gave me that formula a year or so ago, and it worked for me.

>19 the_traveler: Before I retired I struggled to find time to read so understand. Reading should be fun, not something to makes you yet more stress! Hope you find some relief and enjoyment between the pages!

Because of two very succesful ROOTing years, I am going to lower my goal to 150.
I have been working succesfully on my childrens/YA collection and of the 608 books that were on the shelves in 2016 only 111 ROOTs are left to read.

I agree majkia, reading for pleasure should definitely be a solace from the craziness of life. :)

I'm back for another year of ROOTing, this time going for a goal of 24 ROOTs.

Everybody sounds so excited to start 2019. I still have 2 ROOTs I want to finish for 2018. I have about 50 pages for one and an 8 hr audiobook. Plus another book I started last week!

I'm back, and I've got my 2019 thread posted now.

I'm lowering my goal this year to 80 ROOTs. I'm also keeping my secondary goal of reading at least 5 "deep ROOTs" -- books I've had since before I first joined LT in 2007.

I'm starting the year with a chunkster, though, so it might be a little while before I get to move that first space on the ticker...

Happy ROOTing, everybody!

Hello! I'm Natalie -- I'm new to this group, though I did track my books read off my shelves last year and got to 40. This year, I'm going for 50, as I'd like to actually make a dent in the TBR pile -- last time they seemed to pile up as quickly as I could read them!

>37 curioussquared: welcome, glad to have you!

I stopped counting how many books I buy every year, and just concentrate on getting rid of the older ones.

Many thanks to you for hosting the group again, Chèli!