Elizabeth (readingtangent)'s 2023 ROOTs

Hello, Elizabeth M. here, back for more ROOTing. I live in Texas, USA, with my husband of nearly 19 years, and aside from reading, I also like to run, go to concerts, cook, bake, and do jigsaw puzzles.

My favorite genres are historical romance, YA, horror, sci-fi, and comics/graphic novels, but I will try just about anything that sounds interesting.

2021 was a relatively restrained book-buying year for me, but 2022 was decidedly NOT. So I have a lot of new ROOTs to choose from now. Yay? :)

My ROOT goal this year is 50, and as usual I will count anything that I acquired prior to January 1st, 2023 as a ROOT.

Happy New Year, and good luck with your goals, everybody!!

Here are my stats as of January 1st, 2023. The first number is how many books I acquired that year (beginning in 2014, which is when I started my spreadsheet) and the second is how many are still waiting TBR. The goal is to "zero out" 2015 and 2017 and make big dents in all the other years, especially 2018.

2014: 54 --> 0

2015: 69 --> 4

2016: 53 --> 0

2017: 54 --> 6

2018: 101 --> 40

2019: 111 --> 66

2020: 151 --> 89

2021: 91 --> 54

2022: 143 -- > 111

ROOTs read in 2023

JANUARY
1) The Princess and the Scoundrel - Beth Revis (acquired in 2022) (Christmas present)
2) Smuggler's Moon - Cynthia Wright (acquired in 2018)
3) The Secret of Love - Cynthia Wright (acquired in 2020)
4) You'll Never Know, Dear - Hallie Ephron (acquired in 2018)
5) Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion (acquired in 2020)
6) The White Album - Joan Didion (acquired in 2020)

FEBRUARY
7) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino (acquired in 2022) (Christmas present)
8) A Pretty Deceit - Anna Lee Huber (acquired in 2022)
9) The Distance Between Us - Kasie West (acquired in 2015)
10) No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (acquired in 2021)
11) In the Valley of the Sun - Andy Davidson (acquired in 2019)
12) No One Knows Us Here - Rebecca Kelley (acquired in 2022)
13) Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)
14) The Bride - Julie Garwood (acquired in 2020)
15) Beauty and the Duke - Nadine Millard (acquired in 2018)
16) Supernatural: Mythmaker - Tim Waggoner (acquired in 2021)

MARCH
17) A Wild Sheep Chase – Haruki Murakami (acquired in 2022)
18) In the Pleasure Groove – John Taylor (acquired in 2021)
19) The World Jones Made – Philip K. Dick (acquired in 2022)
20) Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut (acquired in 2022)
21) The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway (acquired in 2021)
22) Cumulus – Eliot Peper (acquired in 2019)
23) Unnatural Acts – Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
24) The Fold – Peter Clines (acquired in 2020)
25) From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)
26) Star Wars: Thrawn – Timothy Zahn (acquired in 2017)

APRIL
27) One Dance With a Duke - Tessa Dare (acquired in 2017)
28) The Dare - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)
29) The Bet - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)
30) The Gamble - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)

MAY
31) The Doll: The Lost Short Stories - Daphne DuMaurier (acquired in 2021)
32) Keeping Faith - Beverley Oakley (acquired in 2021)
33) Dark Moonlighting - Scott Haworth (acquired in 2015)
34) Warped Passages - Lisa Randall (acquired in 2015)
35) Time's Edge - Rysa Walker (acquired in 2015)
36) Dr. No - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)

JUNE
37) Lord Dearborn's Destiny - Brenda Hiatt (acquired in 2022)
38) Azalea - Brenda Hiatt (acquired in 2020)
39) Clean My Space - Melissa Maker (acquired in 2018)
40) The Wicked Baron - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
41) The Wicked Lady - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)

JULY
42) The Wicked Rebel - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
43) The Wicked Husband - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
44) Hair-Raising - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
45) Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now - Jaron Lanier (acquired in 2021)

AUGUST
46) Slimy Underbelly - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
47) Working Stiff - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
48) Only Scandal Will Do - Jenna Jaxon (acquired in 2019)
49) Only Marriage Will Do - Jenna Jaxon (acquired in 2019)
50) The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick (acquired in 2020)
51) An Equal Justice - Chad Zunker (acquired in 2022)
52) The Party - Elizabeth Day (acquired in 2020)
53) Deadpool: Paws - Stefan Petrucha (acquired in 2019)

SEPTEMBER
54) Greta and the Glass Kingdom - Chloe Jacobs (acquired in 2022)
55) Greta and the Lost Army - Chloe Jacobs (acquired in 2022)
56) Straight Outta Fangton - C.T. Phipps (acquired in 2019)
57) 100 Miles and Vampin' - C.T. Phipps (acquired in 2022)
58) The Lost Lord of Castle Black - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2021)
59) The Vanishing of Lord Vale - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2020)
60) The Missing Marquess of Althorn - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2020)

OCTOBER
61) Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula - Bram Stoker, Valdimar Asmundsson, Hans De Roos (acquired in 2022)
62) Tastes Like Chicken - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
63) Services Rendered - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
64) We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (acquired in 2019)
65) Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker - Syrie James (acquired in 2021)

NOVEMBER
66) Tea for Two at the Little Cornish Kitchen - Jane Linfoot (acquired in 2022)
67) Goldfinger - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)
68) Wolfsgate - Cat Porter (acquired in 2022)
69) Jamaica Inn - Daphne DuMaurier (acquired in 2020)

DECEMBER

First 2 ROOTs of the year:

1) The Princess and the Scoundrel - Beth Revis (acquired in 2022) (Christmas present)



2) Smuggler's Moon - Cynthia Wright (acquired in 2018)

Welcome back and have a great year! Glad you have lots of new ROOTs to choose from :D

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

Welcome back and good luck with your goals!

Happy New Year to you and your family, Elizabeth. Glad you joined the ROOT-ers for another year.

Welcome back and happy new year! I love your year-based goals, what a great way of prioritising the older ROOTs!

>5 rabbitprincess:,>6 enemyanniemae:>,>7 MissWatson:,>8 connie53:,>9 Jackie_K: Thanks! :) I'm glad to be ROOTing again.

I've challenged myself not to add anything to the TBR list for at least 90 days, and so far, 59 days in, I'm managing. This accounts for my having read so many ROOTs already. It's all I have to choose from.

February's ROOTs:

7) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino (acquired in 2022) (Christmas present) (started this one in January)



8) A Pretty Deceit - Anna Lee Huber (acquired in 2022)



9) The Distance Between Us - Kasie West (acquired in 2015)



10) No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (acquired in 2021)



11) In the Valley of the Sun - Andy Davidson (acquired in 2019)



12) No One Knows Us Here - Rebecca Kelley (acquired in 2022)



13) Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)



14) The Bride - Julie Garwood (acquired in 2020)



15) Beauty and the Duke - Nadine Millard (acquired in 2018)



16) Supernatural: Mythmaker - Tim Waggoner (acquired in 2021) (not quite done with it yet, but very close, so I'm counting it for the month :))

Great progress!

You're doing well! And congrats on sticking with the "no new books" resolution!

I second that! Nice job.

>11 rabbitprincess:,>12 MissWatson:,>13 connie53: Thanks! I made it through all 90 days. Now I'm going to see how much longer I can keep it going :).

These were my ROOTs for March:

17) A Wild Sheep Chase – Haruki Murakami (acquired in 2022)



18) In the Pleasure Groove – John Taylor (acquired in 2021)



19) The World Jones Made – Philip K. Dick (acquired in 2022)



20) Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut (acquired in 2022)



21) The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway (acquired in 2021)

22) Cumulus – Eliot Peper (acquired in 2019)

23) Unnatural Acts – Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)

24) The Fold – Peter Clines (acquired in 2020)

25) From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)

My cover pix weren't showing up correctly anymore unless I posted each one seperately, for some reason...

Anyway, I didn't read this. My husband let me know there's a comic/graphic novel version of the book (same story--he's read both), so I read that instead. I'm going to count it as a ROOT, though, because I'm removing it from the 2017 list, and this way my stats will still make sense to me at the end of the year :).

26) Star Wars: Thrawn – Timothy Zahn (acquired in 2017)

Hi Elizabeth! I've been neglecting all other ROOTers and just kept my own thread up to date. Sorry It took me so long to get to yours. Nice reading and I hope you did stick to your NON buying books intention.

>20 connie53: Thanks, Connie! Sorry it's taken me forever to reply, but I appreciate you dropping by my thread :). I will catch up with yours in a moment.

So...evidently, I have not updated my thread since April 1st! I knew it had been a long time, but I hadn't realized it was THAT long! I spent a large part of the year moving, so that took up a lot of my time. I also had trouble with my ticker and didn't put aside time to fix it until now.

I did surpass my goal of 50 back in August, so that's cool. And I have only acquired 32 new titles this year! For me that is practically nothing. Last year, it was like 140! And I have read 17 of these new acquisitions so far, and plan to read at least two more soon, which means I will likely only add about 12 or 13 books to my TBR this year. This is essentially a miracle, and I'm still shocked it happened, but it feels pretty awesome :). Hopefully I can do as well or better next year!

Anyway...here are the rest of my ROOTs for this year, as of April.

APRIL
27) One Dance With a Duke - Tessa Dare (acquired in 2017)
28) The Dare - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)
29) The Bet - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)
30) The Gamble - Dayo Benson (acquired in 2020)

MAY
31) The Doll: The Lost Short Stories - Daphne DuMaurier (acquired in 2021)
32) Keeping Faith - Beverley Oakley (acquired in 2021)
33) Dark Moonlighting - Scott Haworth (acquired in 2015)
34) Warped Passages - Lisa Randall (acquired in 2015)
35) Time's Edge - Rysa Walker (acquired in 2015)
36) Dr. No - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)

JUNE
37) Lord Dearborn's Destiny - Brenda Hiatt (acquired in 2022)
38) Azalea - Brenda Hiatt (acquired in 2020)
39) Clean My Space - Melissa Maker (acquired in 2018)
40) The Wicked Baron - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
41) The Wicked Lady - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)

JULY
42) The Wicked Rebel - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
43) The Wicked Husband - Mary Lancaster (acquired in 2018)
44) Hair-Raising - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
45) Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now - Jaron Lanier (acquired in 2021)

AUGUST
46) Slimy Underbelly - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
47) Working Stiff - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
48) Only Scandal Will Do - Jenna Jaxon (acquired in 2019)
49) Only Marriage Will Do - Jenna Jaxon (acquired in 2019)
50) The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick (acquired in 2020)
51) An Equal Justice - Chad Zunker (acquired in 2022)
52) The Party - Elizabeth Day (acquired in 2020)
53) Deadpool: Paws - Stefan Petrucha (acquired in 2019)

SEPTEMBER
54) Greta and the Glass Kingdom - Chloe Jacobs (acquired in 2022)
55) Greta and the Lost Army - Chloe Jacobs (acquired in 2022)
56) Straight Outta Fangton - C.T. Phipps (acquired in 2019)
57) 100 Miles and Vampin' - C.T. Phipps (acquired in 2022)
58) The Lost Lord of Castle Black - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2021)
59) The Vanishing of Lord Vale - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2020)
60) The Missing Marquess of Althorn - Chasity Bowlin (acquired in 2020)

OCTOBER
61) Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula - Bram Stoker, Valdimar Asmundsson, Hans De Roos (acquired in 2022)
62) Tastes Like Chicken - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
63) Services Rendered - Kevin J. Anderson (acquired in 2022)
64) We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (acquired in 2019)
65) Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker - Syrie James (acquired in 2021)

NOVEMBER
66) Tea for Two at the Little Cornish Kitchen - Jane Linfoot (acquired in 2022)
67) Goldfinger - Ian Fleming (acquired in 2022)
68) Wolfsgate - Cat Porter (acquired in 2022)
69) Jamaica Inn - Daphne DuMaurier (acquired in 2020)

Congrats! You've had a very successful reading year!

>23 MissWatson: Thanks :)

My ROOTs for December:

70) A Winter Warmer at the Little Cornish Kitchen - Jane Linfoot (acquired in 2022)
71) Krampus: The Yule Lord - Brom (acquired in 2022)
72) Christmas Kisses - Various (acquired in 2021)

Here are my stats for the end of 2023. The first number is how many books I acquired that year (beginning in 2014, which is when I started my spreadsheet), the second number is how many were waiting TBR at the beginning of the year, and the third is how many there are now (plus this year's at the bottom) :).

2014: 54 --> 0 --> 0

2015: 69 --> 4 --> 0

2016: 53 --> 0 --> 0

2017: 54 --> 6 --> 4

2018: 101 --> 40 --> 34

2019: 111 --> 66 --> 58

2020: 151 --> 89 --> 79

2021: 91 --> 54 --> 45

2022: 143 -- > 111 --> 89

2023: 33 --> 15

>26 readingtangent: Excellent work finishing all the 2015 reads!