JackieKirkham - 1st time ROOTing

Not only a first-time ROOTer, but also first-time posting on the boards here. I'm infinitely better at buying books than reading them, and so have a massive amount of unread books going back years. I'm currently on maternity leave, so am hoping that this means I will have time to make a dent in them. I've got lots more than the 25 I am aiming to read, but I need to be realistic, and even 25 feels like a lot! I'm hoping to manage 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction a month, and added one more to my goal total for an extra challenge.

Too bad I'm not counting baby books, I can get through several of those a day! I'm mainly going to be counting (grown-up!) books bought before 1st Jan 2014, but I do occasionally get free ebooks on subscription so will count them too.

Looking forward to making some progress and seeing everybody else's!

Jackie

Welcome Jackie. Happy reading and congratulations on your pregnancy!

Thank you - my lovely baby was born just over a month ago, so the opportunities for reading are a bit hit-and-miss at the moment. This is just the incentive I needed to actually *make* the time to read a bit!

Ohh, how nice. Boy or Girl?

I know what you mean from way back (my son is 31 and my daughter will turn 28 in about 6 days). Reading at odd times and in odd places. Good luck with this double challenge.

Welcome aboard and good luck!

This is where I will note down the ROOTs I read (hopefully the blanks will make me feel guilty enough to carry on reading!):

1. (non-fiction) Clare Balding "My Animals and Other Family" 4.5/5. Finished 13.1.14.
2. (fiction) William Brodrick "The Sixth Lamentation" 2.5/5. Finished 13.2.14.
3. (fiction) Frances Hodgson Burnett "The Secret Garden" 3.5/5. Finished 17.2.14.
4. (non-fiction) Jeff Deck & Benjamin D Herson "The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time" 3.5/5. Finished 19.3.14.
5. (non-fiction) Patrick Leigh Fermor "A Time to Keep Silence" 4/5. Finished 21.4.14.
6. (fiction/poetry) Kevin MacNeil "Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides" 3.5/5. Finished 22.4.14.
7. (non-fiction) Oliver Sacks "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" 4/5. Finished 26.4.14.
8. (non-fiction) Charles Maclean "Island on the Edge of the World: The Story of St Kilda" 4/5. Finished 28.5.14.
9. (fiction/poetry) John Hegley "Love Cuts" 4/5. Finished 29.5.14.
10. (non-fiction) Spike Milligan "Rommel: Gunner Who?" 4/5. Finished 14.6.14.
11. (fiction) Colm Toibin "The Testament of Mary" 4/5. Finished 25.6.14.
12. (non-fiction) Jen Campbell "More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops" 4/5. Finished 9.7.14.
13. (non-fiction) Stephen Clarke "1000 Years of Annoying the French" 3.5/5. Finished 23.7.14.
14. (fiction) Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev "Mumu". 2.5/5. Finished 4.8.14.
15. (fiction) Alex McCall "Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens". 4/5. Finished 13.8.14.
16. (non-fiction) Ron McMillan "Between Weathers: Travels in 21st century Shetland". 4.5/5. Finished 2.10.14.
17. (non-fiction) Charles Elliott "The Potting Shed Papers: On Gardens, Gardeners and Garden History". 4/5. Finished 11.10.14.
18. (non-fiction) Spike Milligan "Monty: His Part in my Victory" 3.5/5. Finished 18.10.14.
19. (non-fiction) ed. by Roman Kuhar & Judit Takacs "Beyond the Pink Curtain: Everyday Life of LGBT People in Eastern Europe". 3.5/5. Finished 18.11.14.
20. (fiction) Jonas Jonasson "The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared". 3.5/5. Finished 18.12.14.
21. (non-fiction) Frances Wood "Hand-Grenade Practice in Peking: my part in the Cultural Revolution". 4/5. Finished 25.12.14.

A wee girl, with a giant personality. I have just read her Hairy Maclary, trying to get her into books early!

thanks very much rabbitprincess!

>7 Jackie_K:: ahh, a girl! you can never start too early with reading to the kids!

Aw congrats on your new little girl! And indeed, my mom read to me from just about the moment I was born and I've had a lifelong love of books! Keep it up! :))

Thank you very much! :)

Hahaha! I shall have to tell my granddaughter to do that. She had a little girl on the 26th of November. Sigh. I'm too young to be a great grandmother....

Great grandmother? WOW, I am not even a grandmother yet :-)

<12 definitely! My daughter was born on 26th Nov too, so maybe they can be little reading buddies :D

Hello, welcome & congratulations Jackie from this mother of 3, grandmother of 6 & great grandmother of 3. Ahhhh, life is good.
Good luck with your challenge Jackie.

Congratulations---mother of 2 and grandmother to 5. Lots of my spare $ is spent on ebooks....for the grandkids...they all have Kindles or tablets....it's almost a fulltime job keeping titles rotating between all of them. Read to you baby often. I did and both of my children were light years ahead of others in school and so are the grandchildren. Good luck on your list; a new baby may have other ideas!

Congrats on your little girl. I never thought of reading to anew born, if ever I have one, but it does makes sense. I hope you'll find some lovely books for you and your little star.

Thank you everybody, I am really enjoying reading with her (well, *to* her rather than *with* her, if I'm honest, but hopefully this will become precious time for her too). Also making progress with ROOT #1, so it seems this challenge was just what I needed!

Hi JackieKirkham. This is my first year participating also, and I know I enjoy it when I log in and have a message, so I thought you might also. :) I hope you're liking your first book of the year!

Thank you Merryann, yes I am enjoying it very much and I'm hoping I can finish it in the next day or two and start on the next one! Thanks for popping by, I'm glad I joined the ROOT challenge as it is (so far) motivating me to read more than I would have otherwise :)

Just a quick fly-by-Hi!

Me too! I've found a group where nobody thinks it odd that I have a book with me everywhere I go!

Edited to say: well, not that any of you would know I have a book with me, but if you did, it would make sense to you, right?

>22 Merryann: LOL. Yes, I think most LTers understand the nature of always wanting a book close at hand. :))

Hi rainpebble, thanks for stopping by :)

I think I'm a bit of a freak in this group, in that I can go ages without reading a book (I'm much better at buying them!). I'm actually using this challenge to help me get into reading more as much as it is for reducing the TBR piles.

How is ROOT # 1 doing, Jackie? We have to encourage you to keep on reading, I gather from post 24!

So, gogogogogogogo!! I mean: readreadreadreadreadreadread

Jackie, I understand. I will almost always go through a period of the year where I barely pick up anything. Last year was a terrible one for that, for like five months I hardly read a thing! LT definitely helps one to keep up motivation, though :)

Hooray, first ROOT has been completed! Although I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it I'd never have read it this quickly without having this challenge in the back of my mind. It was the autobiography by UK 'national treasure' Clare Balding, "My Animals and Other Family". She talks about her early life not exactly chronologically, but using various animals in her life as the 'frame' for the various stories and events. And what an eventful life - her father was a champion horse trainer, the Queen came to tea twice a year and they moved in much loftier circles than most of us would dream of. She was an amateur champion rider (including beating Princess Anne in a controversial race), before ending up in her career as a sports commentator and TV presenter (firstly racing then sport more generally). I really liked the use of the animals as a focus for each chapter, and each story was told with such affection and emotion and humour. Definitely recommended. 4.5/5.

Good Job, Jackie!! See, you can do it ;-))

Jackie, that sounds really fun, I'm putting it on my wishlist now... :)

Glad you are seeing the benefit of ROOTs and welcome aboard!

Congrats, Jackie!

Life with the baby has caught up with me, and meant that I haven't yet finished ROOT #2 (I was aiming for 2 a month, plus one extra at some point in the year). I'm keeping going with it and will hopefully finish in the next few days, then I think I'll aim for a short book next to try and catch up.

Sounds like a smart plan. :)

At the very least, I hope the book is enjoyable :)

It will get easier to combine reading with live with a baby, Jackie! Just keep reading a few pages a day.

>33 Merryann: thank you for stopping by, Merryann!

>34 rabbitprincess: yes rabbitprincess, I am enjoying it, but it's not one of those un-put-down-able books (which is why it's taking me ages!). Hopefully the next ones will be a bit more gripping.

>35 connie53: connie I have read a few baby books (I liked Wibbly Pig!) but sadly they aren't counting for my ROOT challenge :D

No, I did not expect that, Jackie. Those are brandnew books, I could imagine.

Connie, they're brand new to us but apart from some gifts most of the baby books are 'pre-loved'! Either handed down from friends/family, or charity purchases.

My challenge now is to only buy kids' books from charity shops and avoid the grown-ups' section till I've cleared a few more ROOTS!

Good luck with that, Jackie. That sounds almost impossible. But 'a challenge would not be a challenge if it wasn't a challenge'.

At long long last I have finished my second ROOT of the year. It was "The Sixth Lamentation" by William Brodrick, and I give it 2.5/5. It is the first of the 'Father Anselm mysteries' - Father Anselm being an ex-barrister, now monk, investigating the case of a German man accused of Nazi war crimes in Paris in WW2, who seeks sanctuary at his monastery. Interwoven is the story of a dying woman who had been part of a network called the Round Table which had tried to smuggle Jewish children out of France to escape the Holocaust, which was broken up by the man now seeking sanctuary.

This book had lots of promise, but ultimately I didn't find it very satisfying. It was really over-written (they could have lost 50 pages if they'd got rid of all the superfluous description) and there were so many coincidences which all neatly tied up at the end that I just found myself losing patience with it. There were also a couple of plot lines which just didn't work for me, way too far-fetched - particularly an episode with a WW2 gun towards the end. The first third of the book there was a lot of scene-setting, and it was only in the last third where it really held my interest and I wanted to know who did what. Having said all that, I didn't hate it (though I doubt I'll read it again) and it's the kind of book which would be good for a long train or plane journey. I could also see it working well as a TV movie.

I've spent way too long ploughing through this one, I'm going to go for a couple of half-read-already-then-abandoned books next to try and get back close to my ROOT target for the end of the month.

Just give it your best, Jackie!!

That's a shame that the book didn't live up to its promise. Hope the next one's better!

It really is a shame. It sounds like a really interesting premise. Overwriting. Sheesh. I hate it when I'm reading a book and start wondering whether the writer got paid by the word.

Yes, there were a few themes in the book which I would love to have been explored in more depth, and quite a few plot devices which I just found unnecessary. As I said, i didn't hate it, and wouldn't object to trying another of the series if I am ever on a long flight or train journey, but I won't be making it a priority to look them up!

The 3rd ROOT is a children's classic, and is very much 'of its time', so I'm having to keep reminding myself of that at times! But I'm getting through it, and hopeful I'll finish it today or tomorrow.

I actually read that a couple years ago, had bought it from B&N's big clearance sale online for real cheap, and I thought it was pretty good.

A friend at my book group had recommended it and I normally like her recommendations! It's funny isn't it, how we 'click' with some books and just don't with others? And there's no way of predicting which way it will go. A couple of years ago I started trying to read "Shadow of the Wind" which I've heard people rave about and is regularly on those '100 books you must read before you die' lists, and I gave up at the first chapter. Then I mentioned online I hadn't liked it, and got dog's abuse from fans! I will give it another try sometime, maybe I was in a funny mood when I started it, but it's not on my ROOT list this year - maybe 2015 I'll finally get through it...!

Yup, it happens. :)

I've just finished my 3rd ROOT of the year (second for the month). It was the children's classic, "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I started it last year, but didn't really enjoy it so left it half-way through. When I was a kid I read and reread her "A Little Princess" and I'm not sure why I never read "The Secret Garden" then too.

I'll be honest, I picked it up again to finish as I took so long with my last ROOT that I wanted something that wouldn't take too long to finish so I could catch up. And I think that, having had my baby since I last picked it up, I was more open to reading it at face value as a child would, rather than getting wound up by the regional stereotypes, corny characterisation and overthinking the issue of neglect. Basically, spoilt (and neglected) rich kid Mary is sent from India to live with her widowed uncle in the Yorkshire moors when her parents die. She's left to her own devices, discovers a locked 'secret garden' in the grounds of the house, befriends a local boy who helps her tend the garden unbeknown to everyone in the house, and then discovers she has a cousin who is locked up in the house, neglected by his father, and is convinced he's so sickly he's going to die. Gradually he too is entranced by the garden, gets well and stronger, and is eventually accepted by his father. It's a sweet story and I'm sure that the 10 year old me who loved "A Little Princess" would have loved this too. Adult me gives it 3.5/5, and will try and remember to not be so cynical and overthinking! :)

And talking of children's books, I enrolled my daughter in the library recently and have loved reading with her. I've noticed though how much more colourful and dynamic and imaginative kids' books are now though, compared to when I was little (we won't talk about how long ago that was!!).

The Secret Garden is on my list to read....haven't got the book, but have always wanted to read it!

It's worth a read, although of course (as is usually the case with these things) you need to remember it is of its time! What I did like about it was that there was a certain idealism and innocence about it that I'm not sure is still there in contemporary fiction for children.

I think what makes The Secret Garden and enduring classic for children who read it is that it addresses emotions that children in all time eras feel: loneliness, curiosity, the desire to have and be friends, a need for safety and security, and that ability children seem to have to be able to play even when really stressed. Adults see the outdated ideas and have eye-rolling moments, rightfully so in some cases, but kids are less likely to judge it by adult standards. That may be good, or bad, I don't know.

I also think it's the kind of book that won't get picked up and read by children as much these days. No television tie-in, no series, no link to an on-line game. But when the voracious young readers, who have gone through everything else in the library get to it, I think most will still find it worthwhile.

Ooh, agreed! it's one of those books I've been meaning to read forever :)
Do have it (again), and will try to remember the intended age of the reader and the time!

When I read The Secret Garden, I most loved the idea of finding a secret place and working to fix it up and make it beautiful again (the same reason Julie Andrews' Mandy appealed to me)... plus, I may have had a tiny crush on Dickon growing up...

Merryann, yes you're right, reading it as an adult I saw all the politically incorrect/stereotypical characters etc and wanted to roll my eyes, but on returning to it I made myself read it as though I were the intended age and judge it in that context instead. I'm quite sure I'd have not noticed any of the things adult me rolled my eyes at when I was 10-11 but would have just enjoyed it as a great story, and I will love it if my daughter picks it up and immerses herself in that world when she's a bit bigger.

Avanders, I hope you enjoy it! I'd like to reread "A Little Princess" now, I do remember absolutely loving that as a child.

Caramellunacy, yes the idea of the secret place is really appealing isn't it? And I *totally* know what you mean about literary crushes! :)

Ohh, On my Dutch booksite we recently talked about giving you child (grandchild) an LT membership. I would love to know which books were read to me when I was young or which books I read on my own when I was 7 and up.
So I will keep that in mind when I will be a grandmother!

But you can create one now, Jackie!

What a good idea! I remember Muggins Mouse and The Dog Frog Book but nothing before that. The grandchildren will probably treasure such a list, someday.

On the subject of reading very old children's books, I'm now reading A Girl of the Limberlost, originally published in the very early 1900s. No politically-incorrect things are jumping out at me, but I am fascinated by the way I see the tension between the adult characters in the book. I have never read this book before, but I can't imagine I would have picked up on that as a child. It makes me wish I'd read this one as a child, just to see if I would now be reading it differently.

That's strange for a children's book, to have an adult angle!

That is a good idea. I have taken to photographing the covers of library books I particularly like, with a view to buying them for her.

I'm making heavy weather of my current ROOT, so I think I'm going to try and find a thin book to race through to reach this month's target, and go back to the current one in March! Possibly cheating, but a ROOT's a ROOT, so I'll take it :)

Agreed Jackie!! A ROOT's a ROOT! I have already prepared a list of proposed ROOT reads for 2015 (yes, a bit of an eager beaver ;)) and when I noticed that my list was getting a little full of heavy books (like Crime and Punishment and Goldfinch by Donna Tartt), I decided it was time to throw a few YA reads and other light reads (e.g., Bridge Jones' Diary, which I've not yet read!) into the list. ;)

It's good to recharge with a thin book when you have a thick book on the go as well!

I don't think it's cheating. I don't even have a month's target. I know I read more in the summer (7 weeks summerbreak) so I will pick up then for what is missing now.

I didn't get to a thin book sadly, but will try and catch up in March. And annoyingly, I have managed to mislay my eReader - which will teach me to tidy up, I can't find anything now! All but one of my planned ROOTs are paper books so I've plenty of other things I can read, but it is a pain and I hope it appears again soon :(

avanders, I really enjoyed Bridget Jones' Diary, but then really struggled with the sequel which I couldn't get into at all. Maybe another one to try again sometime.

Mislayed your reader? How do you do that? Mine is always within reach! I hope you find it soon.

Good luck on finding that ereader! I would be in a panic and not able to sleep if I couldn't find mine! Although, I did lose my Ipod with over 1800 songs on it for about 6 months. It was in the car, under the seat!

>63 Jackie_K: my friend said the same things! She just gave me her read copy of Bridge Jones: The Edge of Reason... let's see if I end up reading it ;)

I wasn't nearly as big a fan of The Edge of Reason, but there is a scene where Bridget ends up interviewing Colin Firth (so meta!) and falls in a fountain (I think) that had me snort-laughing...

I have been really rubbish at ROOTing this month (although in my defense, we have had a lot of visitors so less time for reading). I am a chapter away though from finishing #4, so posting here to encourage me to actually get on with it. I have also changed my yearly goal down from 25 (2 a month plus one for luck) to 18 (1.5 per month). I'll still keep 25 in my head as an ultimate aim, but 18 is probably more realistic, and I am less likely to scupper the group totals if I aim a bit lower :)

Each book is progress! Life often does get in the way, doesn't it.. :)

Indeed, avanders! Just updating before my daughter wakes up (she's making those wriggly noises so it won't be long now!).

ROOT #4 for the year (#1 for March) was "The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time" by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D Herson. I loved the premise of this - the guys go on a road trip round America to correct typos on signs. What surprised me was how I related to Jeff's inner struggle to articulate what he wanted to achieve and his discomfort with aspects of their mission - along with musings on why language and grammar and spelling etc are important, there were discussions on whether it is even appropriate to correct where the typos may have come about through poor education/opportunity/English not as a first language/etc, as well as interesting musings on the various reactions that their efforts prompted. Their mission was further complicated by their inadvertently correcting what turned out to be a historic sign at the Grand Canyon, leading to a court appearance, $10K fine and a year's ban from US National Parks. Sometimes it was a bit wordy, but mostly as a bit of a grammar nerd I enjoyed this (although as someone who is pretty introverted I was glad that someone else was pointing out the mistakes, not me!). 3.5/5.

That book sounds great. I'm always running through the city and seeing all the typos and grammar mistakes. I always have twofolded thoughts about them. If they don't get across the wrong message, I usually don't care too much.

But I once wrote an e-mail to a colleague about how she typed an abbreviation wrong. She took it with a laugh :-)

I have found I get less tolerant of errors as I get older! Typos aren't so bad I guess, but things like 'less/fewer' mixups always really wind me up!

(And what's the betting this post is full of typos?!!)

Agreed - sounds like a fun book!

You might like the book that is on my TBR pile The Great Typo Hunt Two Friends changing the world, once correction at a time.

>74 Tess_W: That one's on my to-read list! As a reflexive proofreader, I approve ;)

>74 Tess_W: tess_i_am48: that's the one I just read/reviewed! :D

>71 Tallulah_Rose: I do the same thing here. We are all crazy like that, I think.

Jackie, maybe it's a good idea to mention your new goal in the March progress thread. Chèli will probably see the change sooner if it's mentioned in there.

Hi Jackie!
I am a first timer too. My goal is really modest, because I know I'll read a lot of 'light' series books in between. They are my comfort food. My ROOT challenge is not only trying to reduce the mounds of to-be-read, but to encourage me to read more non-fiction or at least serious fiction.
I totally fell down in March, though. I read 2 rather short novels. One was probably not even young adult, more like middle school level. (on well, it had been on the shelf f o r e v e r.)

Keep on trying! I think you are doing well! Kitty

>77 connie53: thanks Connie - I had already mentioned the goal change in the March thread, for that very reason. Quite impressed with myself for remembering :)

>78 kittytm: Thanks kittytm, nice to see you here. I'm still looking out for the short books on my shelves, to try and make sure I keep up! (though I'll have to be careful, if I read them all then I'll have to be much more disciplined next year as I won't have short books to help me out!) :)

As posted in the March update thread, I will be about half way through my next ROOT come the end of the month, so will be on target now that I am down to 1.5 books per month. It's such a shame I can't count .5 of a ROOT in the totals!

>79 Jackie_K: Very good! '-))

>80 Jackie_K: Can you only put in whole numbers into the tickers?

Congrats either way - you know you're on target!

I haven't got any further with my half-ROOT from last month, but have to confess I've just bought a heap more books. I was just going through my amazon basket of 'saved for later' books, and my wishlist, and before I knew it I'd ordered several books I fancied. I suppose I should be pleased it's taken me this far into the year to succumb, but *sigh* when am I ever going to read them?

Relatedly, I enjoyed this article yesterday: http://bookriot.com/2014/03/24/owning-books-good-reading/ (sorry I don't know how to do the html links - the article title is "Is owning books as good as reading them?" which got me thinking about everyone here!)

That was a good article! I definitely like owning books just as much as reading them ;)

Sometimes I wonder about all the books that I own. Many of them I bought for that mythical time in the future when I will have time on my hands. After all, I wouldn't want to be bored. So maybe they are insurance for the future?

oh yes, good article! Thanks for sharing! :)

>83 Jackie_K: Excellent article. Most of us around here can sympathize. I can't part with a book until I've read it, even if I strongly suspect I will not enjoy it - who knows, there may come a day when I will enjoy it. And I keep on buying books, more than I will ever read. And, oh dear, I too have those "big books" the author mentions. Is there any hope for us?

LOL #85-mythical future. I always thought when my kids were grown and gone I would have tons of time to read. It seems, I don't have any more!

Great Article!

I've got a feeling that I may have ordered the same book twice in my book-buying frenzy. I guess at least I can blame baby brain, and I'm sure that I will find a willing home for the duplicate copy! :)

#89--did that, only to find it on my shelf!

>89 Jackie_K: lol -- been there ;) Duplicate copies seem to be easy enough to pass on! :)

>83 Jackie_K: Great article, Jackie and so true!

Nice article. For me, books are a way of reaching out and connecting with others. This is odd, since the actual act of reading is usually a solitary one. But having the book on the shelf - locate-able, visible, accessible - is inviting. It's a way for me to say so many things, such as, "I have this book. Do you? Want to talk about what we each thought of it?" And "Yes, borrow this book. You are my friend and I am glad to share what I have with you." Also, in a quiet, personal, way it's my way of expressing words I usually don't get to literally say to authors. "I appreciate your work. That's why your book is on this shelf where everyone can see it."

Because, of course, my bookshelves are probably better reflections of who I am than the words I would use to describe myself.

>93 Merryann: I think I will go all the way with your thoughts, Mary Ann.

And I think you have a real nice way with words!

Thank you, Connie. :)

My first ROOT finished for April (5th for the year - just about on track, if I can finish another by the end of the month). Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time to Keep Silence", a lovely short book describing his travels to monasteries and his reflections on the life there. Two of them were in France, Benedictine and Trappist monasteries (the Trappist monastery being particularly austere), but most interesting for me was the short chapter on his travels to the abandoned rock monasteries of Cappadocia in Turkey - nobody knows when they were hewn out of the rocks or by whom, nor do they know when and why they were abandoned, but it sounds like the most magical place and I would now absolutely love to see them. 4/5.

Sounds like a lovely book, Jackie. I will put this on my "list."!

It was lovely, Tess! A good 'short' book if you need to catch up with ROOTs! :D

Woot! Congrats on your ROOT Jackie!

Woohoo, I have polished off another quick ROOT which means for the first time this year I am properly on course (and will get a star - go me!). Poetry this time, "Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides" by Kevin MacNeil, a poet from the Hebridean island of Lewis. I am counting it as fiction for my own mini-challenge (half my ROOTs to be fiction, half non-fiction). I gave it 3.5/5 - I liked it very much, in as much as I could appreciate the language and the sense of place he created. Poetry isn't a form that comes naturally to me (as a reader), but these poems are pretty accessible, I thought. And I've been to Lewis so could appreciate some of the references. Some of the Buddhist themes were a bit beyond me, but they still read beautifully.

Yay for stars! :)

Ooh, you've been to Lewis? It looks like such a beautiful place. Someday my family will get out there!

>102 rabbitprincess: Yes, we went to Harris (which although a separate entity from Lewis is attached to it geographically as one island) for our honeymoon, so we got to explore both Harris and Lewis. It was amazing, so beautiful, and I'd love to go back one day. It really was something to be standing in the queue in the Co-op and listen to two little old ladies behind us gossiping in Gaelic!

Googled Lewis and Harris! I did not know about them/those. Another thing learned!

April is definitely my most successful month yet, I've finished my 3rd ROOT for the month (7th overall). This was more non-fiction, "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, which I gave 4/5. Sacks is the neurologist made famous by the film version of his book "Awakenings". This book is a series of 24 case studies of individual patients, showing just how profound and disturbing neurological damage can be. What I liked was Dr Sacks' obvious compassion and interest in his patients as individuals worthy of respect and full of potential, not as 'repositories of conditions'. Wonderful, and (I thought) not intimidating or beyond the lay reader.

# 105-sounds like a wonderful read!

oooh, sounds very interesting!!

It does, indeed!

So the baby is (at LONG last) fast asleep on my lap, so I don't dare move an inch - and my book is just slightly out of reach!!! Dilemma - do I risk reaching for the book and possibly waking her (in which case I don't get to read *and* have a grumpy baby), or leave the book till later, and let her continue her sweet dreaming ...

I would risk it. Or you can visit LT, because your post is prove you can ;-))

Hmmmm....I think I would close my eyes and nap with the baby!

She woke up shortly afterwards and needed a feed and a change, so I ended up doing neither. It just amused me that I could see my book from my seat (I was sitting at. the table with the laptop, with her on my lap) but couldn't reach it

>109 Jackie_K: oh no!! I know the feeling to a MUCH lesser degree... i don't *mean* to disturb kitty bear when I want to read... ;)

>113 avanders: I think I'd probably sooner disturb the baby - at least she doesn't have claws! ;)

Although I'm enjoying my current ROOT I'm not doing too well at making time to read, so I've decided to experiment with having two books on the go at once, and seeing if that makes a difference to my motivation to read. We'll see - there's still potential for 2 ROOTs to be read in May, if I get back into my stride...

>114 Jackie_K: lol, true :)

hmm - I hope that works well for you! I used to read multiples at once and a couple years ago, when my multiples were around 11-at-once, I decided I'd rather than just take them one at a time ;)

But I could see the benefit of having a couple going, different genres for your different moods... might increase motivation :)

For me two books at the same time is very doable. One for daytime reading at home and one for bed and out on my reader.

#116-Connie

I can only handle two, one a "real" book-paperback or hardback and one on my Kindle. Depends on what kind of mood I'm in which one I read.

I had really good intentions of alternating the two books, one day one, the next day the other. However, what has happened is that I am primarily just reading book 2 and have (temporarily) abandoned book 1. Still hopeful I'll get them both read for the end of the month, but if I only manage one of them I am pretty sure it will be book 2.

Ha, that's what's happening a lot to me too. Preferring one book to the other. But I don't mind at all!

I frequently have two or more books going on at once. As long as they are not all the same genre, I can handle them.

I usually have 2-3 books going at one time, but they must be totally different. I find, too, that about half way through all of them, I will stick with one until it is finished.

ROOT #8 for the year (#1 for May) is completed, another good one which I gave 4/5 stars. Charles Maclean "Island on the Edge of the World: The Story of St Kilda". Written in 1972 and based on various historical accounts of St Kilda, it details life on the remote island group (about 50 miles west of Harris/Lewis) up until the evacuation of the remaining small population back to the mainland in 1930. Rather than being a chronological history, each chapter looked at a different topic (eg agriculture, topography, religion and contact with/effect of missionaries). At the end he also muses on utopianism and the extent to which St Kilda could be seen as a utopian community or not. Absolutely fascinating, and yet another place for my bucket list!

Sounds fascinating!

>123 avanders: it really was!

I sneaked in another ROOT yesterday as well - as last month, another slim volume of poetry, which I have owned since the late 90s so it's very satisfying that I've got it read. I also really enjoyed it - 'it' being John Hegley's "Love Cuts". Hegley is a comic poet from Luton, and his observations are wry and tender as well as often very funny. There were a couple of poems where he talked about exploring love and sexuality as a dorky teenager, having to repress any feelings for other boys because of the risk of bullying, which were really profound even as they were so simply expressed. I wasn't so mad on a script for a sketch, 'The Quest for the Holy Spectacles' (which google tells me is one of four sketches performed by Hegley and comedian Simon Munnery), but I suspect if I'd been watching it I would have found it pretty funny. 4/5.

The ROOT I started the month with is still not making much progress, it is a great book and so it's odd that I'm not getting into it - I guess I must have just picked the wrong time. I think I'm going to put it down and start something else, and come back to it later when I'm a bit more in the mood for it.

Congrats on hitting your halfway point!!
What's the ROOT you're trying to read but finding difficult? (did I just miss that?)

>125 avanders: it's actually "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" which I know is a modern classic and everyone loves it. I can see what's good about it, and it's a good easy read, I think I'm just not in the mood for that particular style. I want to have half of my ROOTs as fiction and half as non-fiction, but my natural inclination is to go for non-fiction, so I always find the fiction books that bit harder to get into.

Totally understand... I enjoyed that book, but I could definitely see not being in the mood to enjoy it!

Interesting that you've set that goal for yourself.... I prefer fiction to non-fiction (for my "entertainment" anyway, I read TONS of non-fiction for my job!), but never thought to try to balance it out ;)

I totally understand your "plight." I prefer to read only fiction for entertainment. I get enough non-fiction while working (history teacher). I have to force myself to read NF outside of work.

I think I have never read any non-fiction books. But I don't have to read for my job, so that helps.

I have finished ROOT #10 for the year, #1 for June. I can't remember the last time I've read this many books in such a short time! (I know it's not many books compared to many of you, but for me this ROOT challenge has been just brilliant!). I have classed it as non-fiction, as it is basically biography, but it's probably more accurate to say it is a biography/fiction hybrid as he is very open about the fact that he has 'jazzed it up a bit'. 'He' being Spike Milligan, the legendary British comedian, and the book being "Rommel: Gunner Who?", the second in his 7-volume series of WW2 memoirs. I had read (and reread) the first volume, "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", many times years ago, and had got hold of volumes 2, 3 and 7 at a cheap bookshop sale a long time ago, but never got round to them. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them, although there were one or two terms he used which let's just say weren't very politically correct and they did make me start a bit, which I don't remember from the first volume. But, just like the first volume, this is an easy read, a very funny (yet also often very poignant) memoir of his time in the British Army. This volume covers early 1943, where he first sees action in the North Africa campaign. I'm looking forward to vol. 3 (which will probably be another 2014 ROOT at some point), and will have to get hold of vols 4, 5 and 6. Verdict: 4/5.

>129 connie53: Connie, I can't imagine not reading non-fiction - I don't know why, I just find fiction a bit stressful (I'm the same with films - I'd much sooner watch a good documentary!). I think because I approach them from a position of believing what I'm reading/seeing, so I get so caught up with the characters and situations, and then find I can't stop thinking about them. At least with non-fic/documentaries I'm expending that mental energy on something that actually happened! :)

Spike Milligan! :D Gunner Who is my favourite of his war memoirs so far, but my favourite moment from the memoirs is from Vol. 1, where they are practising firing the big gun but don't have any ammo to practise with, so they have to shout "BANG!" when the gun "fires".

>132 rabbitprincess: haha yes, I loved that book. It does make you wonder how the war was ever won, when the whole situation as he describes it is so ridiculous.

>124 Jackie_K: I think you made a good decision to set aside that particular book until you feel more like reading it. I found it a good book, but like avanders said, definitely an understandable one to need to be in the mood for.

I have learned how to kind of 'fool' myself sometimes when I start to struggle with a book I really do want to read but can't bring myself to get to it. I set a seven minute timer because I know I can read it for just seven minutes. Usually, that's enough to keep me going when the timer goes off, but if not, I do what you did and set it aside in favor of another.

Ooh what a great idea! Because I agree, usually if you allow yourself to really get into a book (7 minutes is a good amount of time :)) then the story takes you in its flow. Ya know, unless it's terrible or has no flow ;)

>134 Merryann: >135 avanders: what I did like about that book - and which usually works for me to fool me into reading more than I otherwise would - is that the chapters are so short, so I can go 'just one more chapter' and then 'just one more then' and I usually find that I have read loads. I'll definitely pick up the book again, hopefully before the end of the year, but I have the next couple lined up so it'll be a month or two. Maybe it will be good as a holiday read.

Oh yes, I agree that those are easier to push through!
Well, when you pick it back up, I'll definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts!

ROOT #11 for the year (#2 for June) is Colm Toibin's "The Testament of Mary". A very short (104 pages) novella, this was shortlisted for last year's Man Booker Prize. I've given it 4/5 but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep that rating - this is a book which will have me thinking and musing for ages. Some people think it's a great piece of feminist writing, others think it's sacriligious and no better than Dan Brown. It's an imagining of the thoughts and reminiscences of Mary, mother of Christ, about the final year or so of his life, his death and the time thereafter. This Mary is clearly very different from the Mary who has been exalted and venerated by the Church over the years - she clearly is very cynical about her son's ministry and not convinced by many of the miracles, for example. In the background are the shadowy figures of her 'minders' - who turn out to be Jesus' followers, maybe even the Gospel writers, waiting for her to say what they want her to say. The resurrection is dealt with here as though it was a dream shared by Mary and Mary (sister of Lazarus) rather than an actual event. Most interesting I thought was the treatment of Lazarus here - looking at the implications of what life was like for Lazarus being raised from the dead (plus the way he is described in his early days, he comes across as the really god-like one, rather than Jesus). I thought that if you weren't very familiar with the Gospel stories then a lot of this book might well pass you by, and I'm sure that there are plenty of religious people who would find this offensive. I wasn't offended by it, there was quite a bit of it where I thought the interpretation was interesting but not how I'd interpret things, and I did think it was pretty cynical. But it was a good, quick read, I think overall I liked it, and I'm glad I read it, and like I say I will be thinking about it for ages.

>131 Jackie_K: We just differ in tastes, Jackie. But at least we read!

ROOT #1 for July (and #12 overall) is Jen Campbell's "More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops". Mostly her own experience (lucky woman works in a bookshop in North London) but for this volume (there is a previous one) she also got other bookshop workers and librarians to submit their own classics. I read this in an hour, and it made me laugh out loud. 4/5

Just noting that I have changed my rules slightly so 2014 purchases count. I bought this book today because I was in Glasgow for the day and forgot to take the book I'm currently reading with me, but had some time to kill between my morning appointment and picking my husband up from work. I would have bought it anyway probably, and it would have been a TBR, so I have decided that although I will still prioritise books bought before this year I won't feel guilty at the odd newer acquisition sneaking in :)

Sounds great! I'll have to check it out :)

Have to read the new & shiny sometimes!

ROOT #2 for July (#13 for the year) is Stephen Clarke's "1000 Years of Annoying the French". This is a light-hearted romp through Anglo-French history from the Battle of Hastings up to London winning the 2012 Olympics over Paris. He somewhat specialises in pointing out where the official French versions of events are, well let's say a wee bit airbrushed (although often the Brits don't come off any better). It's a fun read, although I can't help thinking he was trying to be Bill Bryson and that Bryson would probably have been funnier if he'd had the same source material. It also made me feel really anti-monarchy, as on both sides of the Channel the English/British and French royalty were horrific people! Not that Napoleon was much better, mind you! 3.5/5.

No more ROOTS to add to the total, but I just have to share - back on 1st March I wrote here that I had mislaid my eReader. And this evening I FOUND IT!!! I knew it must have been in the house somewhere - it had fallen into my laptop case, but as my laptop is my main computer so is always on the table I almost never use the case. I only looked in it tonight because I had mislaid something else (a USB lead) and thought it might be in there. This has absolutely made my day :)

Congrats!

huzzah!

WooHoo! Congrats!!

Yes, congratulations! I bet it felt wonderful finding it!

>148 Merryann: I was SO happy! I was really cross with myself for being so scatty and mislaying it, and had also wondered if it had been stolen from my bag sometime, so I was very happy to be reunited with it!

Yesterday I finished another ROOT - possibly cheating as it's technically a short story, but it's been sitting on the eReader for ages so I'm going to count it! A few years ago I realised that I had never ever read any of the Russian classic authors, and once I'd got the eReader I was able to download several free ones via Project Gutenberg. However they were a bit daunting (1800+ pages!) so I also downloaded a number of Russian short stories, to try and ease myself in gently. Yesterday I read "Mumu" by Turgenev, which is I think the 3rd Russian short story I've read, and the second by Turgenev. It was a bit depressing to be honest, I was glad it was only short! So far they haven't particularly inspired me to launch into the longer classics! It seems like in all this literature the rich are selfish and thoughtless, and the poor peasants lot is so terrible that there is very little light relief - even when they find love or virtue or some form of pleasure, it is fleeting in the face of some awful tragedy, or in this case the whim of the rich person to whom the peasant 'belongs' but means little. Probably not one I'm going to keep! 2.5/5.

A Root's a Root... short story or not :)
So.... have you tried Master and Margarita? It's one of my all-time favorites. It's important to keep in mind that it was banned in its own country and time (Russia, 1920s) (I've heard critique that it "didn't go far enough"... but my response has always been, given that it already "went so far" it was banned, I think it was plenty for its time :))

I understand it's a lot more accessible than some of the other longer classics... though I've also heard that Brothers K is accessible once you get used to the names (one I've been meaning to read forEVER)..

Yes, Brothers K is there on the eReader, but I've not attempted it yet. Master and Margarita is on my list (and my husband has a copy) - so many ROOTs, so little time ...

> 150 Yes, the Russians can be awfully gloomy and depressing. Must be the climate. I would steer well clear of the Brothers K, and most of Dostoevskij, unless you can warm to religious debates, innocents suffering willingly and general hopelessness.
I was going to recommend the prose fiction of Pushkin (The Captain's daughter; The postmaster) and Chekhov because they are short and much more accessible, but then I couldn't quite recall why I thought them so outstanding. I remember that Pushkin's prose is remarkably and deceptively light and plain, but he can paint a whole scene in a single phrase. So now I'm off to a re-read myself.

Thank you MissWatson! I think I have some Pushkin on the eReader (actually I think one of the short stories I've already read was by him). I think I just need to work myself up to it, if I'm in the mood Dostoevsky sounds great from your description, but I'm not in the mood that often, or for that long (if I'm honest it's mainly the length which is off-putting!).

Well, Dostoevskij has also written some novellas and stories if you want to try him.

Hi Jackie, I hope everything is well!

>156 connie53: thank you Connie (nice to see you back!), all well here. I am on holiday though (in England, visiting family and friends) so only sporadically online for a couple of weeks. I will try and catch up with everyone when I get back, but it might well take a while!

Enjoy your time in England!

>157 Jackie_K: ooh yes enjoy England!

Happy Holiday!!

Thank you very much! We had a lovely time, but it is great to be back home.

I did manage to finish one ROOT (my 15th for the year, and 2nd for August) - Alex McCall "Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens". This is a book aimed at the 9-12 year old market, and won the Kelpies Prize - this is a Scottish-based (I think) prize for aspiring authors, the winner of which gets their manuscript published (after suitable editing and help). The reason I bought it is because I know Alex's mum, who is understandably very proud of him! (he's just about to go into his final year at university - it was written and published when he was 19). The book is set in Aberdeen, which has been taken over by rampaging giant robot chickens, which have kidnapped, spirited away and/or killed (nobody's sure) the adults leaving only gangs of children roaming around trying to survive and outwit the chickens. I thought it was great - some very funny puns, good pacing, and it didn't just tie up every last loose end at the end (something which drives me mad in other books) which leaves the possibility of a sequel open, although this is a standalone book and as far as I know there aren't any plans for a sequel.

Now I'm reading a library book - I was mainly planning on supporting the library this year by getting books out for my daughter, leaving me free to concentrate on ROOTs, but this one was part of a promotion of Commonwealth(ish) themed books (places, authors, stories) for the recent Commonwealth Games and if I leave my comments I have the chance to win an iPad. So I have been fickle and put ROOTs on the backburner for the time being, in the pursuit of bling.

Well, if it helps your local library, pursuing bling is perfectly legitimate!

I agree w/ Miss Watson!

And I agree with them both! Go for the bling!

Bling is always good!

Apologies for abandoning this thread - with various commitments I have had less time for reading and commenting, so I am still on the same library book. However I need to submit my comments today if I have any chance of winning the bling, so I'm sure that will give me the incentive to read today and get back to ROOTing! :)

Hmmm - no ROOTs at all this month sadly. But, we're off on holiday this week and I have some books packed so hopefully October will get off to a successful start! (I'm finishing a library book first, which will probably take the rest of September, so no room to squeeze a ROOT in under the wire!). See you in October :)

Have a great holiday!

Have a great time! No rooting me for me either in September.

Urgh, me too! Or I'm still working on it, but I may not finish ;). Am also vacationing in oct tho, so perhaps next month will pull more roots, like you! :)

Thank you all, I had a lovely relaxing holiday, finished my library book and one ROOT, and am well on the way with the next one! ROOT #16 (#1 for October) is a terrific read, Ron McMillan's "Between Weathers: Travels in 21st Century Shetland". 4.5/5 (but only because I am *very* sparing with my 5/5s). Shetland is somewhere I spent a couple of days in a few years ago and always wanted to go back. This is a really generous and well-written travelogue which has just made me want to go back even more. Absolutely brilliant.

I'm so glad your holiday was relaxing and you got some reading done!

And I am also sparse with my 5/5s, so I understand completely.

ROOT #2 for October (#17 overall, just 1 short of my revised goal) was finished this morning. Charles Elliott's "The Potting Shed Papers: On Gardens, Gardeners and Garden History". 4/5. Elliott is a gardening journalist, an American who lives in England and gardens in Wales, and writes (or at least wrote, I don't know if he still does, as this came out in 2002) a column for the American magazine "Horticulture". This book is just a collection of his columns, so most of the essays are just 4-6 pages long (the longest one was 7 pages) and so this is an eminently dippable book. I really enjoyed it - even though I'm not a gardening expert (I just like looking at them, and appreciating plants, and seeing what grows and what doesn't) this was very much aimed at the non-expert. I think the word that really sums it up is 'amiable'. A lovely gentle read.

I'm tempted to pick a little book next, so I can reach my goal by the end of the month!

Pick up that lil book! Go for it!

>173 Jackie_K: I love books about gardens and that one sounds good. I liked Vita Sackville-West's books about gardens. I could handle one right now as I spent the day cleaning up my flower beds ready for winter.

>175 VivienneR: I will have to look out for VS-W, I don't have any of her books. The Elliott book was just such a lovely, gentle read, like wandering through a calm garden :)

>173 Jackie_K: almost there! Pick up that short read -- you can always get ambitious again after meeting your goal ;)

I've finished ROOT #18 (#3 for October) and therefore reached my goal! I read the 3rd volume of Spike Milligan's war memoirs, "Monty: His Part in my Victory" (I read the 2nd volume in June this year, also a ROOT). I think what I said for that one (in post 130 on this thread) pretty much sums up this one too, although I am giving it half a point less as I didn't find it as funny. It was still amusing, poignant, politically incorrect (that same term that got me last time really bugged me this time) and I still want to read all the others. This book continues his experiences in North Africa in 1943 - as the Germans are basically defeated there by this point he doesn't really see much in the way of actual military action, so a lot of this covers his antics in his jazz band which plays for various reviews for soldiers in the region. At the end he is on the boat getting transferred over to Salerno in Italy where there is still fighting; this is where the next volume takes up. I'm still looking for cheap copies of vols 4,5 and 6 but will definitely read them all at some point.

I think that 18 ROOTS in a year was a more realistic goal for me than my original 25. I'm about to finish maternity leave and go back to work, so we'll see how that affects my reading activity before I decide about next year's goal!

Congrats on finishing!

Re the Milligan memoirs, I think they've been reissued recently, so there might be more copies floating around (and thus available more cheaply). I seem to recall seeing them at Waterstones when we were in Scotland last year.

Congrats!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge! Excellent reviews of Spike Milligan. I have the series around somewhere and my son, a fan of Milligan, is always encouraging me to read them.

Well done!

Congratulations!!

So, I'm just a chapter away from finishing my current ROOT, and the first one that I will be donating to the overall group total. But I wanted to ask about something unrelated, namely, does anyone here have a Kobo eReader? I recently bought a Kobo Glo, generally think it's fine but I have found Kobo customer services to be hopeless! Yesterday I added some free ebooks from the Kobo store to my library, but each time I try to sync them to the library I get a connection failed, try again later message. I know that the internet connection is fine (everything else is working no problem), so I am finding it so very very frustrating! If all else fails I have figured out that I can probably download them OK to my old Sony eReader so it's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying!

Yesterday I finished ROOT #1 for November (#19 overall), "Beyond the Pink Curtain: Everyday Life of LGBT People in Eastern Europe" edited by Roman Kuhar & Judit Takacs. This is a book I'd come across in reference lists of articles that I had read when I was doing my PhD (which was not about homosexuality, but about sexual and reproductive health in eastern Europe) and always meant to read. It ended up being hard to track down and I had to contact the publishers (Peace Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia) in order to get my hands on a copy. It's very interesting, and I have a paper in mind I'd like to write sometime which I am sure will draw on several chapters in this book. 3.5/5.

The other cool thing about this was when I went to list it on LT I discovered that nobody else on LT at all has this book listed, only me! Which made me feel very adventurous and ahead of the curve :)

Good for you, Jackie! Be adventurous!

ROOT #1 for December (#20 overall) is now finished - Jonas Jonasson's "The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared". I'm still not sure about my verdict - I'm provisionally giving it 3.5/5 but it might go up to 4. I did really enjoy it (which is unusual for me for fiction), but I tend to reserve my 4's and above for classics (in my opinion, of course!), and I still haven't decided if it's a classic yet. It did make me laugh though, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the contemporary story of Allan's adventures and his backstory of finding himself at the centre of world events. His meeting with Kim il Sung, Kim Jong-il and Mao Tse Tung made me laugh out loud. I'm definitely going to look out for Jonasson's next book, if it's anything like this then it will be money well spent!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Jackie!

Thank you very much Connie and Ava, and the same to you both!

ROOT #2 for December (#21 overall) is Frances Wood's "Hand-Grenade Practice in Peking: my part in the Cultural Revolution". Wood, who would later go on to be the head of the Chinese collection in the British Library, here recounts her time in Peking (now Beijing) for a year in the mid-1970s, towards the end of Mao's life. She was there as an exchange student (10 British students were to study there and 10 Chinese students studied in Britain) and the book is retrospective, based on her recollections and on letters sent home that year. I found this fascinating, although was a little uncomfortable with her apology in the introduction for trying to concentrate on the more light-hearted, funnier side of things and that she did not know what was happening re persecution of the intelligentsia until she returned home. Well, not so much that I was uncomfortable with her apology as uncomfortable that she didn't think to ask questions about what was happening at the time. But then I did wonder, if I was in her position, would I have thought to ask questions about what was happening? I don't know, but possibly not. So, deciding not to judge her too harshly I should say that I did enjoy her account very much, I think that she has quite a knack for spotting (and writing well about) the absurd and funny side of things, and yet still managing to convey something of the life in mid-70s China (to the extent that she was able to observe it). 4/5.

I doubt very much I'll be able to finish another ROOT prior to the end of the year, so it looks like 21 is my final total. Not bad - 3 over my revised goal, and only 4 short of my original goal. My 2015 goal is more modest (as I am no longer on maternity leave but back to work, and after February I am going to have less commuting time so no more opportunity to read on the train).

Happy new year everyone, and hopefully I will see you in the 2015 group.

I probably also should confess - although I didn't actually count, I'm pretty sure I bought/obtained at least as many books in 2014 as I read as ROOTs. Including 2 today (sigh). I wonder if I can be more disciplined in 2015...

I definitely suffered the same problem.. I think I easily doubled my outs with my ins! :p