MissWatson digs up some ROOTS buried since the 90ies

Well, it's finally done: I've entered all my books on LT and I am a little dismayed to find so many languishing unread in the second rows of my shelves. High time to do something about it and I hope that joining this group will provide some urgently-needed discipline. Since the year has advanced so far already, I'll aim for a modest 20 books off the shelves.




Just added my ticker.

welcome, and good luck!

Thanks for the welcome.

Welcome - not THAT modest IMO - especially if modest turns out to be doable as well.

Well, there's also the facor of size. Some of the books are pretty slim.

Finished my first ROOT last night: Die Abenteuer der Silvesternacht. Insel paperbacks are amazing, this one's been on the shelf for almost thirty years and the pages are still pristine white, the binding undamaged. It's only a short story with illustrations, a mere appetiser, as it were. The story is a little weird and feels like a few ideas jotted down, to be explored and worked upon later. I definitely will be reading more from E. T. A. Hoffmann.

Welcome, MissWatson. I am glad you joined this group.

Thank you for the welcome.
I just finished my second ROOT Miss Mole I bought it on the strength of the miniseries the BBC made of it. I had no real idea about the author, but she's definitely worth further reading.

(Edited for spelling)

Spent the weekend doing my tax return (sigh), so I'm a little behind with my reading, but now my third ROOT is finished: The Awakening. A little disappointing, not a keeper. Ticker is updated.
I didn't make a list of books to read, because that's a certain way of leaving them unread. Instead I'll pick something from the shelf tomorrow morning that will last for a train journey. I have to get up early for it, so it will depend on how sleepy I still am...

Took me much longer than expected to finish my fourth ROOT: Hotel Shanghai. It was a bit of a slog at 600 pages, but an interesting read. The ending is rather abrupt; after spending so much time with the characters a little information on their deaths would have been more satisfactory.

Back from the holidays without internet, hardly any reading done, except for my fifth ROOT Schach von Wuthenow. Too much sightseeing in France, and a little too much time spent in French bookstores...

(edited for typo)

Great start! Welcome to the group n

Thanks, LittleTaiko!

I'm spreading my attention across too many books, and only one of them's a ROOT. But I finished it successfully: L'Adultera. Tickers updated.

And another ROOT is finished: Irrungen, Wirrungen. Off to update tickers. And then for something completely different!

Here's to my 8th ROOT: Gerfalcon.
I cannot recall when and why I bought it, probably it was mentioned or reviewed somewhere. It's an obscure medieval fantasy, a tale of Raoul who must go and live with his uncle as his guardian, runs off to have adventures which turn out to be a cross between a quest and a bildungsroman and finally succeeds his uncle as count of Ger, hence the title. The author must have been extremely well read in medieval literature, there are numerous allusions to long-forgotten romances. Not to mention the very obscure language and technical terms of the hunt, arms and armoury and chivalry. Intriguing, but it requires some follow-up reading. The names of the characters are mostly Frankish in origin, and he calls his fictious country Neustria (one of the Merovingian kingdoms, the western one which much later became France), but the setting and the customs are 15th century Burgundian rather than Merovingian or even Carolingian.

Finished my 9th ROOT Joris of the Rock. Great sequel to Gerfalcon and I'm very optimistic that I will indeed reach my goal.

Of course you will!

Just finished my 10th ROOT: Shy Leopardess. I'm halfway there, wow, "who'd have thunk". I like it best of all the three books, Yolanda's a great creation.

No new ROOTs because I went on vacation and took my newly acquired, first-ever e-book reader, trying to get to grips with it. I'm halfway through Le comte de Moret, a very obscure novel by Dumas. And there's loads of other delicious stuff on Project Gutenberg. Oh my!

good luck with your e-reader! I'm a fan of digital books.

>21 majkia: Thanks, majkia. Setting it up was a bit of a challenge for a total novice, but the reading experience is great. That great treasure trove of digitised old books finally swayed me and I'm already convinced of its merits.

To my own surprise, I managed to pull my 11th ROOT: Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte. Okay, so it's on the short side, but every little thing matters.

yes, every little thing does matter!

And off the shelf is off the shelf!

>24 majkia:, 25 Thanks for the encouragement!
I think I'm going to count my Theodor Storm reading as ROOTs, but since some of his novellas are very short, I will bundle them. Five read count as one ROOT. Which means I can update my ticker, because yesterday I finished the fifth, Immensee. The others are: Marthe und ihre Uhr, Im Sonnenschein, Das grüne Blatt and Angelika. And now I need a break, or I will no longer be able to tell them apart...

I have finished my 13th ROOT Regeneration The big centenary is casting the first shadows, so it seemed like a good time to finally read it. Next up is another WWI book Under Fire which by some curious coincidence sits right beside Pat Barker's on the shelf.

Tickers are updated.

I fell off the wagon – again – with a library book The downfall of money. But it provided interesting supplementary info to my 14th ROOT, haha: Under fire.
That was a strangely disorienting read, I don't believe I've ever read a translation from French into English before, and somehow it doesn't feel comfortable. The contemporary slang reads so very English, and it sits oddly with the very French style of writing. I think I need to look at the French original some day.

Five more novellas by Theodor Storm count as my 15th ROOT. Wenn die Äpfel reif sind, Auf dem Staatshof, Späte Rosen, Drüben am Markt and Posthuma. This is autumn reading, a little melancholy, lots of unrequited love and remembrance of things past.

And my 16th ROOT: a few more novellas by Theodor Storm, and I'm now done with the first volume of his complete works: Novellen 1 Some of his later works were set texts at school, a fact which usually means that you steer clear of an author in later years. And so far these early works do not really impress me.

Hi! Thanks for stopping by my thread earlier today. You're moving along nicely with your ROOTS, despite the new e-reader. I know a great many of my non-ROOT reads this year have been e-books.

Thanks, tymfos, I keep getting sidetracked by all the interesting books I find on other people's threads. I really should spend more time with my books and less lurking on LT...

And ROOT #17 is done: An ice-cream war by William Boyd. I picked this up decades ago – literally – and then it got buried with the other "Let's get back to this later" books. Interesting sideshow to the usual Western Front novels. Not sure if I will read it again, he jumps around rather a lot in time and among protagonists. But he brings across the futility of it all very well.

Another ROOT done: Nussknacker und Mausekönig Lovely read, but I don't really like the illustrations. I'll have to find another copy some day. Only two more ROOTs to go!

Just keep on reading!!

I did and finished #19: Tailchaser's song. A nice fantasy story for cat lovers, an easy read, but not a book for reading a second time. Off it goes to my bookmooching site.

Finished my final ROOT today: Ethan Frome!

Huzzah! *does victory lap around the armchair*

Thanks to you all for the wonderful support. This has been fun and will continue to be. I will continue reading and counting my ROOTs here, but I will now relax the rules a bit: everything I owned before 2012 will count, as well as re-reads.

The book reminded me very much of Theodor Storm: the introduction from a different viewpoint, the flashback to the past, unhappy lovers. Beautifully written.

Congratulations, MissWatson!

Hurray! Congratulations!

Thank you!

Well done!!!

Huzzah indeed! Good job!

The new Astérix adventure is on sale everywhere, I read some favourable reviews, so I went and dug up the very first for a re-read: Astérix le Gaulois. Always fun.

Hey, you're done! Congratulations 8-)

I would love to hear a few words on the new Asterix. The later albums have been lacking in my opinion, but I heard good things about this one, so perhaps the tide is turning.

Hello Henrik, I'm still waiting for my (French) copy to arrive. I stopped buying them after Goscinny's death because I didn't think much of the plots. I leafed through the German edition of the new one and it looks promising, but I won't give judgment until I've seen the original. I'll let you know as soon as I've got it.

And two more to while away the waiting time: Astérix et les Goths and Astérix chez les Bretons. (The touchstone leads to the wrong book, I'll have a look at that later)

ETC.

Just had notice that the new Astérix will be delayed. Grrr. So I turned to a cosy re-read: Le petit Nicolas. I think I need to complete the series...

ETC

And here's another re-read: Les vacances du petit Nicolas. Ticker is updated.

I thought this suited your comment. Happy reading.

That's lovely, thank you! And this weekend I will certainly finish my current ROOT Le crime d'Orcival.

And it is done, 500 pages of 19th century Parisian crime, and I'm six books past target. A very good read, comparatively little sleuthing, but very convincing characters. Gaboriau was a good observer.

I'm presently stuck in the middle of my next ROOT, Dossier 113 because I put it aside for the latest Astérix. It's quite nice, and the drawings imitate Uderzo's style perfectly. Not quite sure I understand why our frozen young Pict quotes the titles of Beatles songs...
Anyway, I'm confident that I can add another ROOT to my ticker before the week is out. I promised myself I won't touch the shiny new ones before then.

I did it, I finally finished it! 7 ROOTs past target!
I may even find the time to tackle another ROOT before I go to my Mom's for the holidays. No internet and no TV there, but I'm sure there will be some books under the tree. New ones! Shiny pretty ones!

Congrats, MissW!! And have a lovely stay at your Mom's!

Hurray, congratulations! Enjoy the shiny new books ;)

Great work - and Christmas gifts this year could turn into ROOTs next year.

I meant to pack Le roi de fer for holiday reading and a final ROOT, but somehow it was left behind. So the final tally remains at 27. Still, much better than I expected when I joined the challenge.