Edgewood roams through the tomes in his home

Here's my mostly-baked plan to reach my goal of reading 50 already-owned books this year: I'll read 7 books simultaneously, in 7 different categories. (Well, not *really* simultaneously--I'll switch between them depending on my reading mood.) At least 5 of the books I'm juggling at any given time will have been purchased before 2013. The categories are:

1. Fantasy or science fiction (novels or collections)
2. Mystery/crime/thriller
3. Other fiction (non-genre, novels or collections)
4. Non-fiction of any kind
5. Comics (graphic novels or collections)
6. Poetry
7. Miscellaneous (whatever I feel like reading)

I have 3 books lined up in each category. I'm currently reading 5 books (as seen in "Currently reading" on my Profile page). I'll post here occasionally as I finish books, and post my total books read in the group's monthly "Progress report" topics. (Not going to use the tickers.)

It's just crazy enough to work!

Good luck!

Good luck! I am going to follow your challenge and are ROOTing for you.

Thank you, fellow ROOTers!

I've just removed 4 books (mostly gifts) from my shelves that I really have no intention of ever reading. Also 12 that I have read, and mostly enjoyed, but will never reread. Off to the used book shops.

8 ROOTS books finished in January 2013:

2 novels:
Red to Black, a British/Russian spy thriller
How Much for Just the Planet, a humorous Star Trek (original series) story

1 book of poetry:
The Largest Possible Life

5 graphic novels/comics collections:
The Jew of New York
The Search for Smilin' Ed
Asterios Polyp
Krazy & Ignatz, The Dailies, Vol 1. 1918 -1919
International Bob

8 books is very good! Well done.

Thanks, Connie! And lest I feel like I'm coasting because 5 of the books were comics, I should say the first 3 of those were quite dense :-)

Alas, only one ROOTS book finished in February, and a slight one at that: Allen Ginsburg's classic Kaddish and Other Poems.

And I acquired two new books in February. Oh well!

And again alas, I only finished one ROOTS book in March: I reread (after at least 20 years) Samuel Delany's Tales of Neveryon. I'm looking forward to rereading the other 3 books in this unique postmodern fantasy cycle.

I acquired 13 books in March: 2 from the public library, 5 new books, and 6 used books. At least I finished 7 of those!

Perhaps ROOTing will go better for you in april!!.

Thanks for rooting me on, Connie! Looks like you are well on track to meet your goal.

Just two ROOTs finished in April (though I'm right on target for my 2013 goal):

The Solitudes, a re-read of the first book in one my favorite series, John Crowley's "Aegypt" quartet. Looking forward to continuing the series this year.

Welcome to Dingburg, a collection of the absurdist Zippy the Pinhead daily comics.

This month I finished two books of Ursula K. Le Guin short stories that have been on my shelf for years:

Unlocking The Air
Changing Planes

These are both in a "magic realist" mode (vs. her science fiction, or the high fantasy of Earthsea). Not every story grabbed me, but the good ones were really good. She remains one of my favorite authors.

For August I finished 5 ROOTs. Three were re-reads, and one was a book of poetry I got 19 years ago!

Dig Up My Heart: Selected Poems 1952-83, by Milton Acorn. Great poems, just took me a while to get around to it.

I read 6 ROOTs for September. Mostly on track for meeting my goal of 50, if I stick to shorter books for the rest of the year :-)

27. The Return of the King. I've loved rereading this trilogy!

28. O Pioneers!. Gripping story of a strong woman building her fortune on the Nebraska frontier.

29. Red Bird. Straightforward, heartfelt poems of nature & spirituality.

30. The Bloody Chamber. Vivid short stories based on folk & fairy tales, but for a mature audience.

31. Love & Sleep. The second book in John Crowley's great Aegypt tetralogy, which I'm rereading.

32. The Spirit Level. An intriguing collection of not always straightforward poems from the recently departed Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.

Five ROOTs finished in October:

33. No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I liked this first of the series, but perhaps not enough to read the next 13 books.

34 & 35. Daemonomania & Endless Things. I re-read the 3rd & 4th (final) books in Crowley's great Aegypt cycle. One of my favorite works, even if I mostly have to gloss over the Renaissance metaphysics.

36. Cannibal Casserole: New & Selected Poems 1996-2006. Unflinching work from the Berkeley street poet, Julia Vinograd.

37. The Souls of Black Folk. Eloquent, impassioned essays from W. E. B. Du Bois on the state of African Americans at the turn of the last century. Some chapters are scholarly, some personal, all are powerful.

I read 11 ROOTs in November, bringing me near my goal of 50 for the year.

38. Assassination Vacation. Author Sarah Vowell is fascinated with the odd corners of US history, in this case traveling to sites associated with the assassinations of presidents Lincoln, Garfield, & McKinley.

39. The Eye of the Heron. A short novel by Ursula Le Guin, it tells of the conflicts between two populations on an exile planet, the first group convicts (a la Australia), the second Gandhian pacifists.

40. Desert Exile. The memoir of a young Japanese American woman from Berkeley, Yoshiko Uchida, whose family is interned during World War II, first in a converted horse racing track near San Francisco, then in a dusty Utah camp, and their (mostly successful) struggle to maintain normality & dignity.

41. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. Short stories by Grace Paley, featuring lovably flawed working class New Yorkers.

42. The Chaos. A YA novel by Nalo Hopkinson. This had some great set pieces and multi-cultural consciousness raising, but the lack of any rational explanation for the basic premise (the world goes crazy in a hallucinatory way) was unsatisfying. I understood the metaphor for The Chaos as the craziness many teens go through, but that wasn't enough for me. (Maybe why its demographic is young adults :-)

43. Girls & Boys. The first collection of alt-weekly strips from Lynda Barry. She hasn't quite found her genius voice of creative, tortured childhood yet (many of these are about dysfunctional romances), and the drawing is raw, but still quite funny.

44. The Comics Journal #300. For this landmark issue of the venerable, combative magazine (now web site) of comics criticism, they had pairs of artists and/or writers of different generations interview each other. Consistently interesting dialogs, even if not all the artists appeal to me.

45. The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances. Odds & ends from fantasy grand master Peter Beagle, including a few of his very earliest stories, a scattering of later ones, and some essays.

46. Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life. This memoir is less about Richard Feynman and more about the author, who as a young physicist at Cal Tech really doesn't know what to do next. He does have some great conversations with Feynman. (This book gives me a greater appreciation for the Big Bang tv series, set at Cal Tech.)

47. Milvia Street 2011. A literary publication by Berkeley City College students & teachers. A few really clever short stories among the mostly so-so poetry & artwork.

48. Mr. Spic Goes to Washington. A graphic novel written by Ilan Stavans, it follows a populist (radical, really) Latino politician from his East L.A. gang member roots to the US Senate, where he ends up filibustering a la the Jimmy Stewart movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".

Nice recap!

Thanks, Connie. If I don't write these mini-synopses I stand a good chance of forgetting what some of these books were about!

Well for gosh sakes, I've reached my goal plus one, and two days to spare!

49. Warm Worlds and Otherwise, a collection of James Tiptree Jr. short stories, including classics such as "The Women Men Don't See" and "Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death". Ironically enjoyable is Robert Silverberg's introduction, where he insists the mysterious Tiptree (identity not yet revealed) must be male.

50. Interfaces, an anthology of original sf short stories from the mid-1970's. Quality is mixed, but the John Crowley and James Tiptree Jr. stories are wonderful.

51. The Line Between, a solid short story collection from Peter Beagle. Includes "Two Hearts", where characters from The Last Unicorn reunite to fight a gryphon, and "A Dance for Emilia".

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Edgewood!

Well done!!!

Huge congrats!

Nice! Congratulations!