Late Start - but Want to Read My Own Books

Discussions2022 ROOT CHALLENGE

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Late Start - but Want to Read My Own Books

1Settings_PersonalLib
Mar 1, 2022, 12:12 pm

Made this account to catalog all the books I have in this apartment that I could reasonably read (i.e., not cookbooks / textbooks, not that other people don't read those cover-to-cover but reasonably I'm not going to), and organized it by shelf location.

Came out with 433. -_- Decided to skip over books that are part of series if I do not own the entire series... interesting how many books I have that I was unaware were part of series. Love Medicine, Fateless, The Baron in the Trees, Bless Me Ultima, Plainsong, Company Parade, Memed My Hawk, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Segu, Ivanhoe... series. I'm aware that I do not need to read complete series but I feel compelled to, so starting series would add another couple hundred books I do not own to this.

That left 363. Going to do this by shelf location / random number. If I want to skip over a book I land on by random number enough to not even try it that's a sign I should just give it away.

First one I got was Turtle dream : collected stories from the Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Havasupai people, which was unexpectedly a book for very young children. I finished it and I'd like to give it away, but it's not donateable because the binding glue is old and pages are falling out. Don't like recycling it, but idk, it's at the end of its life. The illustrations are nice.

Next up is The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, the bookclub edition with all three books. Darkangel was nominated in 1983 for the Mythopoeic Award. Was reluctant to start this one because of the YA tag even though I picked it up because of the award nomination. Was hoping it was tagged because of the female author, and would actually be more adult, but that does not seem to be the case. It gives off a Narnia vibe. It's tolerable.

Others in that shelving location:
1. Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis. I've liked the author's other books and this is extremely short - but that low rating is suspicious.
2. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler. This author has a good reputation but I've never read anything by them.
3. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A short story collection, not a novel. I've read some (all?) of the short stories but I'm willing to read them again.
4. I'm Dying Laughing: The Humorist by Christina Stead. An unpopular book by a very famous author.
5. Traveller of the Century by Andres Neuman. My friend bought me this as a souvenir from a trip, maybe 10 years ago. Was extremely nice of her to carry something so heavy, I appreciate it.
6. The Complete Novels by Jean Rhys.

2Jackie_K
Mar 1, 2022, 3:55 pm

Welcome to the group! Happy reading :)

3Settings_PersonalLib
Mar 1, 2022, 8:37 pm


^Ton of books I've read.


^Books I own.

Not sure if I have the preferences the same for both but strongly reflects how easy the various genres are to get at library / discount sales around here haha. Poetry / historical fiction / classics... yes. SFF / fantasy... not really.

4MissWatson
Mar 2, 2022, 3:54 am

Welcome and good luck with your reading project!

5Settings_PersonalLib
Mar 5, 2022, 12:17 am

Thank you guys.

Finished The Darkangel Trilogy. This was very light reading so I was able to force through it with patience but I should have DNF'd it instead of making myself finish it just because I own it and it'll let me check a SFF award nominee off a list. I should have more respect for my time. Also I should give it away instead of keeping it just because it's a hardcover.

Got 6 as a random number so next up is The Complete Novels by Jean Rhys.

Remaining in that shelf location:
1. Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis.
2. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler.
3. Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
4. I'm Dying Laughing: The Humorist by Christina Stead.
5. Traveller of the Century by Andres Neuman.

6connie53
Mar 5, 2022, 4:54 am

Hi Setting! Welcome to the ROOTers. Great Charts in >3 Settings_PersonalLib:

Are you planning on becoming a group-member too?

7Settings_PersonalLib
Modifié : Mar 23, 2022, 8:53 pm

Ty, and ty for the reminder

Started the Jean Rhys collection which is a beautiful book imo.

Got rid of Turtle Drum and Envy by Yurii Olesha (which I DNF'd). Finished The Wake by Margo Glantz. Acquired The Golden Warrior, the Story of Harold and William, a Novel of the Norman Conquest by Hope Muntz from the little free library. Noticed The Darkangel Trilogy was still there.

So now have 362 books l left to read or discard... math that doesn't work but eh that's what it says.

8majkia
Mar 12, 2022, 2:54 pm

Welcome. Enjoy and be happy in your reading.

9Settings_PersonalLib
Modifié : Mar 23, 2022, 8:54 pm

Finished In the House of Slaves by Evelyn Lau and decided to keep it.

Also finished Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe - found it a lively romp and had fun reading it but want to give it away - if I ever read it again I want a version without modernized spelling. Realized it escaped being cataloged somehow so wasn't in my original count.

Now have 361 books left to read or discard.

10LoraShouse
Mar 30, 2022, 9:03 pm

Welcome and happy reading.
I read Moll Flanders years ago. I think it was from the library. I don't remember if it had modernized spelling or not. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't necessarily have wanted to keep it if I had bought it.

11Settings_PersonalLib
Modifié : Avr 20, 2022, 7:41 am

Some reviewers were commenting about odd spelling and random capitalization, which my copy didn't seem to have. I'm curious about the original version.

Read Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman and 3 / 5 of the novels in Jean Rhys: The Complete Novels. Decided to get rid of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin and Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

Leaves 359 books left to read or discard.

...and acquired Tenth of December. 360

12connie53
Mai 2, 2022, 7:24 am

Hi Settings, nice to see you have been reading a few books since my last visit.

13Settings_PersonalLib
Mai 10, 2022, 12:35 pm

Visited my mother for the holiday and brought back a box of books I was storing at their house to donate - but I don't have any of that stuff cataloged on this account so doesn't decrease my number here.

... Did retrieve a Moliere and a Medieval Morality Play collection so +2.

Finished Merchanter's Luck, Uncharted Territory, In the Pond, and Woman Between Mirrors so -4.

...359.

14Settings_PersonalLib
Mai 25, 2022, 5:33 pm

I donated Pachinko and Mythology to a local little free library. Read a good chunk of Mythology and it's interesting as a product as its time and I'd be interesting in reading an edition with notes that point out the biases, but I'm not sure such a thing exists and I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the topic to catch all the inaccuracies and odd framing.

Finished The Complete Novels of Jean Rhys and Love in the Fallen City by Eileen Chang, both of which I'm keeping.

...352 (the math for this never works, I'm always forgetting something).

15connie53
Juin 5, 2022, 6:43 am

>14 Settings_PersonalLib: Same here. Getting the stats right is a problem sometimes. Good to see you are still reading and donating books to a LFL.

16Settings_PersonalLib
Juil 4, 2022, 8:15 pm

I went to a library sale and retrieved some more books so my total is higher not lower :\ lol.

Finished Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz, Over Their Dead Bodies by Thomas C Mann, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, The N Town Plays and Medieval Picture Cycles, and A Middle English Anthology.

Also donated some inc The Taming of the Shrew and In the Pond. A good percentage of the retrieved books are to be donated.

...390

17Settings_PersonalLib
Modifié : Juil 9, 2022, 10:27 am

Read some of The Leopard and decided drop it. Unfortunately it can't be donated because it's an old paperback and a good 40 pages fell out :'(. Hurts but it'll have to be recycled. Also dropped and donated Tigana.

And remembered I'd gotten rid of a different book by Moravia.

...387

Oh also found an edition of the Shakespeare Comedies, which looks really great.

https://www.librarything.com/work/14642947/book/220161909

...388

18Settings_PersonalLib
Modifié : Août 20, 2022, 3:44 pm

I moved across the country and couldn't take my books. :'(. They're in storage.

... On the bright side I was always only counting books that were currently in my possession, so that dramatically decreases my number of ROOTs to read?

Current ROOTs:
Roxana by Daniel Defoe
In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae
Old New York by Edith Wharton
John Steinbeck: Novels and Stories 1932-1937
Dimanche and Other Stories by Irene Nemirovsky
The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

7

19MissWatson
Août 21, 2022, 4:35 am

>18 Settings_PersonalLib: Does it feel very strange to be cut off from your books? Or do you have enough to keep you company for a while?

20Jackie_K
Août 22, 2022, 2:19 pm

>18 Settings_PersonalLib: >19 MissWatson: I must admit this will be a huge advantage of ereaders - if we ever move, I can happily pack up my books knowing that I won't run out while I wait to move and unpack, thanks to the library in my bag!

21Settings_PersonalLib
Août 27, 2022, 3:39 pm

>19 MissWatson:
It's giving me an excuse to hit up library sales and buy more haha. If I decide to move here permanently I'll have to rent a truck anyway.

>20 Jackie_K:
Yep, that's great about ebooks. :D

-

Finished In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae

Acquired some more at a sale today:

Water Witch by Connie Willis / Cynthia Felice
Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
No One Said a Word by Paula Varsasky
The King of Trees by Ah Cheng
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Big Mama Storise by Eleanor Arnason
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-1997 edited by Salman Rushdie / Elizabeth West
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr

... 19

22connie53
Sep 11, 2022, 3:25 am

The Connie Willis books are always great reads as are the Tad Williams