Anisha's Rooting 2026

                                                     

Last year I shaved a little from my own library, it would have been more if I didn't add anymore books through the year, and the year hasn't even started and already it is double numbers -- ooops.

It's a good thing I love reading.

(Looking through the other rooting threads, I am inspired to improve this message.)

I'm going for 65 for the year, I am doing in the different challenges where there is another 30 but it's not from my library. This sounds quite daunting.

I read contemporary and classic fiction, but I have been wanting to read more poetry, more short stories and more nonfiction, on the nonfiction I have made a start and this year I working towards of the things that interest me: history of science.

I am not a very fast reader, and for a few years now I have been lining up books that are challenging for me and have been enjoying this and so continue.

Initially I listed some books I was going to read - but it was just more than that could be formatted in this post easily. So, I've removed that and will add the books as I go along, and liking how @CurrerBell gives a tally in the top message to keep a track of books rooted, will do it similarly here.

Rooting 2026, a quick tally

 - MONTH - | -ROOTS- | - TOTAL -| - REREAD -
 Jan Roots | -- 7 -- | -- 07 -- | -- 3 -- 
 Feb Roots | -- 7 -- | -- 14 -- | -- 1 -- 
 Mar Roots | -- 7 -- | -- 21 -- | -- 3 -- 
 Apr Roots | -- 6 -- | -- 27 -- | -- 1 -- 
 May Roots | -- 8 -- | -- 35 -- | -- 3 -- 

Added

Temp Board:

May Roots
A Briefer History in Time by Stephen Hawking📗✔️read 1st May, see message 1 onwards on LibraryThing in Journey In Books
Faust Part Two 📗✔️read 3rd May
Bartleby 📗✔️read 11th May
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison 📗✔️read 15th May, see message 5 - 10 on LibraryThing in Journey In Books
Ajax (Aias) Sophocles; Richard Pevear 📗✔️read 7th May
The Trial by Franz Kafka 📗✔️read 29th May
I Am Heathcliff compiled by Kate Mosse 📗✔️read 23rd May
Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark
African Myths of Origin Stephen Belcher
Chess Story



I'm counting rereads and also reading parts of books.

For May the total of the following will be 1 root (xx pages) 📗✔️read 31st May

Read for 26Short2026 book challenge on LibraryThing:

• The Use of Force by William Carlos Williams (3 pages) 📗✔️ read 5th May, see message 67
  
• The Piazza by Herman Melville (15 pages) 📗✔️ read 4th May, see message 66
  
• Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury (10 pages) 📗✔️ read 1st May, see message 65
  
• What is POSAT? by Phyllis Sterling-Smith (20 pages) 📗✔️read 02nd May, see message 64
  
• Heavy-Set by Ray Bradbury (8 pages) 📗✔️ read 1st May, see message 63
  
• The Celestial Hammerlock by Donald Colvin (14 pages) 📗✔️read 8th May, message 68
  
• One Martian Afternoon by Tom Leahy (8 pages) 📗✔️read 8th May, see message 69
  
• Blind Spot by Bascom Jones (8 pages) 📗✔️read 9th May, see message 70
  
• Show Business by Boyd Ellanby (9 pages)📗✔️read 11th May, see message 71
  
• Vital Ingredient by Charles De Vet (11 pages) 📗✔️read 11th May, see message 72
  
• The Apple-Tree Table by Herman Melville (22 pages) read from The Apple-Tree Table, and Other Sketches📗✔️read 13th May, see message 74
  
• The Executor by Muriel Spark (9 pages)📗✔️read 14th May, see message 75
  
• The Fly by Katherine Mansfield (15 pages) 📗✔️ read 17th May, see message 76
  
• The Old Manse by Nathaliel Hawthorne (25 pages) 📗✔️ 18th May 2026, see message 77
  
• The Old Apple Dealer by Nathaliel Hawthorne (6 pages) 📗✔️ 18th May 2026, see message 77
  
• File: The Death of Designer D. by Christian Kirtchev (4 pages) 📗✔️read 18th May
  

I have more to add to this list of the short books parts of books I've read

(total so far: 197 pages + apprx 150)

more to add

Hi Anisha, Good to see you back for another year of ROOTing. Ambitious goal, but you can always try to reach it. Go get those ROOTs.

>2 connie53: Hi Connie, thank you, yes, I have no idea how the year will go, I'm just going to enjoy it.

Wishing you a happy new year, Anisha! It really does look like you have set an ambitious goal. Good luck reaching it, and I hope you find lots of good reads this year!

Welcome back, Anisha! Have fun reading through your shelves :)

Happy ROOTING in 2026, Anisha

>4 atozgrl:, >5 rabbitprincess: and >6 Robertgreaves: hello and thank you, it's brilliant to be back, I really like this challenge, it always makes me feel better when I am buying new books to add to my library.

Welcome back, Anisha, and good luck with your ROOTing.

>8 MissWatson: hi and thank you

Jan Roots

Kew Garden ✔️read 2nd Jan 2026
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas ✔️read 13th Jan 2026
Antarctica ✔️read 15th Jan 2026
Prometheus Bound ✔️read 17th Jan 2026
War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad ✔️read 18th Jan 2026
Games at Twilight and Other Stories by Anita Desai ✔️read 28th Jan

From: Complete Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway ✔️read 29th Jan
17 stories, total: 124 pages
read so far: 100%

Up in Michigan ✔️read 12th Jan 2026
On the Quai at Smyrna ✔️read 12th Jan 2026
Indian Camp ✔️read 13th Jan 2026
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife ✔️read 13th Jan 2026
The End of Something ✔️read 13th Jan 2026
The Three-Day Blow ✔️read 14th Jan 2026
The Battler ✔️read 25th Jan 2026
A Very Short Story ✔️read 25th Jan 2026
Soldier’s Home ✔️read 25th Jan 2026
The Revolutionist ✔️read 26th Jan 2026
Mr. and Mrs. Elliot ✔️read 27th Jan 2026
Cat in the Rain ✔️read 28th Jan 2026
Out of Season ✔️read 28th Jan 2026
Cross-Country Snow ✔️read 29th Jan 2026
My Old Man ✔️read 29th Jan 2026
Big Two-Hearted River: Part I ✔️read 29th Jan 2026
Big Two-Hearted River: Part II ✔️read 29th Jan 2026

Argonautika
Hannibal Rising

Feb Roots

Feb Reads:

Hannibal Rising 📗✔️read 3rd Feb
Doctor Faustus 📗✔️read 4th Feb
Coriolanus 📗✔️read 16th Feb
Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life 📗✔️read 20th Feb
The Argonautika 📗✔️read 23rd Feb
Big Mama's Funeral 📗✔️read 28th Feb

For Febuary the total of the following will be 1 root 📗✔️read 19th Feb 2026

From: The Story: The Love, Loss and Lives of Women From: The Story: The Love, Loss and Lives of Women total pages: 58, read so far: 100% 📗✔️read 11th Feb

1. The Life You Save Maybe Your Own by Flannery O’Connor 📗✔️read 15th Jan, message 27
   
2. The Waltz by Dorothy Parker 📗✔️read 6th Feb
   
3. A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker 📗✔️read 16th Jan, message 28
   
4. Sentiment by Dorothy Parker 📗✔️read 6th Feb
   
5. Love in the Marketplace by Yiyun Li 📗✔️read 10th Feb
   
6. After A Life by Yiyun Li 📗✔️read 11th Feb
   
7. A Visit by Anna Kavan 📗✔️read 1st Feb, message 36
   
8. Obsession by Anna Kavan 📗✔️read 1st Feb, message 36
   

From: Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath total pages: 40, read so far: 100% 📗✔️read 5th Feb

1. A May Morning
   
2. A Morning in the Agora
   
3. Aunt Rennie and the Elves
   
4. From the Memoirs of a Babysitter
   
5. Mary Jane's Passport
   
6. On the Penthouse Roof
   
7. Spring Song
   
8. The Bookland Carpet
   
9. The Miraculous End of Miss Minton
   
10. The Mummy's Tomb
    
11. The Pond in Spring
    
12. The Thrilling Journeys of a Penny
    
13. Trixie and the Balloon
    
14. Victory
    
15. Winter and Magic

Reading 8 stories from Andrew Lang's The Rainbow Fairy Book 📗✔️read 19th Feb 2026
Total – 70 pages
read so far: 100%

1. Fairy Gifts
   
2. The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou
   
3. Fairer-than-a-Fairy
   
4. A Fairy's Blunder
   
5. The Fairy of the Dawn
   
6. The Frog and the Lion Fairy
   
7. The Punishment of the Fairy Gangana
   
8. The Fairy Nurse

March Roots

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens ✔️read 1st March 2026
Cinema is 100 Years Old ✔️read 10th March 2026
Rhesos by Euripides (I read 2 transaltions but counting as 1 root) ✔️read 10th March 2026
Iliad translation by Caroline Alexander ✔️read 25th March 2026
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ✔️read 29th March 2026
Hedda Gabbler Ibsen ✔️read 31st March 2026

For March the total of the following will be 1 root ✔️read 31stMarch

From: Mammoth Book of Perfect Crime and Impossible Mysteries total pages read: 47 📗✔️read 20th March , review on on my 26Shorts2026 challenge page LibraryThing

1. Wingless Pegasus by Gillian Linscott
   
2. Shower of daggers by Edward D. Hoch
   
3. On the rocks by J.A. Konrath

From: The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes & Impossible Mysteries, compiled by Mike Ashley, total pages read: 95 📗✔️read 31stMarch, review on on my 26Shorts2026 challenge page LibraryThing

1. On the Rocks by J A Konrath
   
2. Wingless Pegasus by Gillian Linscott
   
3. Shower of daggers by Edward D. Hoch
   
4. X Street murders by Joseph Commings
   
5. Impossible murder of Dr. Satanus by William Krohn
   
6. Slaughterhouse by Barry Longyear

April Roots

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino 📗✔️read 6th April
Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe by Patrick Moore, Brian May and Chris Lintott 📗✔️read 16th April
The Outsider (AKA The Stranger) by Albert Camus 📗✔️read 18th April
Heat 2 by Meg Gardiner & Michael Mann 📗✔️read 28th April
Faust part One 📗✔️read 29th April




For April the total of the following will be 1 root (243 pages) 📗✔️read 16th April

• 3:10 to Yuma by Elmore Leonard (18 pages) 📗✔️read 4th April, see 26Short2026 Log* message 47
  
• A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury (5 pages) 📗✔️read 6th April, see 26Short2026* Log message 48
  
  
• five stories (46 pages) from The Big Book of Cyberpunk vol 1, compiled by Jared Shurin 📗✔️read 11th April
  
  1. The Gernsback Continuum by William Gibson
     
  2. Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones
     
  3. Surfing the Khumbu by Richard Kadrey
     
  4. The Girl Hero’s Mirror Says He’s Not the One by Justina Robson
     
  5. Better Than by Jean Rabe

• reading three stories (126 pages) from Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood 📗✔️read 3rd April, see 26Short2026 Log* message 46
  
  1. Alphinland 📗✔️read 1st April
     
  2. Revenant 📗✔️read 2nd April
     
  3. Dark Lady 📗✔️read 3rd April

• two stories (48 pages) from Give Me Your Heart by Joyce Carol Oates
  
  1. Split/Brain 📗✔️read 14th April, see 26Short2026* message 52
     
  2. The Spill 📗✔️read 16th April, see 26Short2026* message 53

* 26Short2026 Log is my reading log on LibraryThing that lists all the short stories I've read in 2026 for the 26 Short Stories for 2026 book challenge.

Hi Anisha. So sorry that I did not visit your thread earlier. I hope to do better in the future. Happy ROOTing!