Jackie's 4th year of ROOTing

Hi! I'm Jackie, and I'm back for my 4th year ROOTing! I'm English, but have lived in Scotland now for over 11 years, and Scotland is definitely now 'home'. I am in my 40s (although I prefer to think of it as my “ultra 30s”), married with a 3 year old daughter, who keeps me young when she doesn't wear me out! I work in community health, but am planning on setting up as a freelancer in 2017 and diversifying a bit, to enable me to work from home more. Reading-wise I'm more into non-fiction than fiction, but do have a fair bit of fiction waiting to be read, so my potential reads are nice and varied.

ROOTing has revolutionised my approach to Mt TBR since I joined this group in 2014, and I've loved being part of this group, you're brilliant motivators and cheerleaders! I'm going to carry on with the Jar of Fate system I started in 2016 (for the uninitiated, the JoF is a jar with each and every TBR title I own (not sure of the number, but I'm pretty sure now in excess of 300) on a colour-coded slip of paper, which I will pull out to decide my next read). This turned out to be a brilliant system for me, and I read loads more books in 2016 than I had in the two previous years (and probably the most I'd read in a year ever). Same as last year I'm combining the Jar of Fate/ROOTing with the Category Challenge, with the colours relating to specific categories in my challenge.

Last year I set my lowest ever target (12 books) and massively exceeded it; the previous 2 years I had a higher target (24) and then got stressed out about it. So I've had to think hard about what target to go for this year. I've decided to set it at 18, ie an average of 1.5 books per month. I exceeded this amount by quite a bit in 2016, and in 2014 and 2015 read just a little bit more than that (21 and 23 respectively, if I recall correctly). So 18 feels like it's achievable but not necessarily inevitable, which for me is a good balance – challenge enough without being stressy. {Edited 3.4.17 - I've updated my target to 48, as I am currently easily reading 4 books per month}.

I count all my TBR books as ROOTs, even those acquired in the same year. Both paper and ebooks count. Theoretically I am counting rereads too, as any book I reread will not have been read for years and years, but I'm unlikely to do this very often as I have so many TBRs still. Exceptions will be if I pull out (say) book 2 in a series where I've read book 1 already, but so long ago I can't really remember it. I'd read book 1 again in that scenario, and count it as a ROOT.

Also for the last 2 years I decided to track my acquisitions as well as my ROOTs. This was pretty eye-opening, but also useful to help me try to reduce my acquisitions and stand any chance at all of making a dent in Mt TBR. In 2015 my ROOTs:acquisitions ratio was around 1:3, which I managed to get just under 1:2 in 2016. This still represented a lot of acquisitions, given that I read quite a lot more in 2016 than 2015, so for 2017 I am aiming for 1:1.5. I also tracked the amount spent, and the format (paper/ebook). I think I'm going to do that again this year, and see if I can spend less on books in 2017 than 2016 (I'm going to nominally say £150 for the year, but I'm not sure how achievable that is!). I'm going, as far as possible, to stick with my resolve to not spend more than £2 per book.

Note to self so I don't have to look everywhere - code for inserting a picture (surrounded by less than and greater than signs): img src="URL" width=200 length=150

Ticker 1 - ROOTs read




Ticker 2 - acquisitions

ROOTS read

1. Ben Goldacre - Bad Pharma. Finished 2.1.17. 4.5/5.
2. Ray Moynihan & Barbara Mintzes - Sex, Lies & Pharmaceuticals: How Drug Companies Plan to Profit from Female Sexual Dysfunction. Finished 16.1.17. 4.5/5.
3. Brian Jacques - Redwall. Finished 18.1.17. 3/5.
4. Gaston Dorren - Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages. Finished 26.1.17. 3.5/5.
5. E. Nesbit - The Railway Children. Finished 30.1.17. 3.5/5.
6. Various - The Anti-Inauguration (no touchstone). Finished 11.2.17. 3.5/5.
7. Amy Brown - Breastfeeding Uncovered: Who Really Decides How we Feed our Babies?. Finished 13.2.17. 4.5/5.
8. Katie Kirby - Hurrah for Gin: A book for perfectly imperfect parents. Finished 16.2.17. 5/5.
9. Alice Oswald - The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile. Finished 23.2.17. 3/5.
10. Jan Carson - Malcolm Orange Disappears. Finished 18.3.17. 4.5/5.
11. Na'ima B. Robert - From my sisters' lips. Finished 20.3.17. 3/5.
12. Jim Crumley - The Great Wood. Finished 22.3.17. 4.5/5.
13. Jill Paton Walsh - Fireweed. Finished 28.3.17. 4/5.
14. Amy Liptrot - The Outrun. Finished 2.4.17. 5/5.
15. Brian Wansink - Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Finished 11.4.17. 3.5/5.
16. Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver & Priscilla Warner - The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding. Finished 15.4.17. 4/5.
17. Neil Paynter - The Sun Slowly Rises (no touchstone). Finished 16.4.17. 3.5/5.
18. Joanne Faulkner - The Importance of Being Innocent : Why we Worry about Children. Finished 23.4.17. 4.5/5.

Books acquired

1. Ben Fogle - The Teatime Islands. From Barter Books (£2.88), acquired 2.1.17.
2. Robert MacFarlane - The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. From Barter Books (£2.88), acquired 2.1.17.
3. Mark Carwardine & Stephen Fry - Last Chance to See: In the Footsteps of Douglas Adams. From amazon (free - gift voucher), arrived 18.1.17.
4. Timothy Garton Ash - The File: A Personal History. From amazon (free - gift voucher), arrived 23.1.17.
5. Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine - Last Chance to See. From amazon (free - gift voucher), arrived 26.1.17.
6. John Galt - Annals of the Parish. From Project Gutenberg (free). Acquired 28.1.17.
7. Tzvetan Todorov - The Fear of Barbarians. Free ebook from UoC Press. Acquired 1.2.17.
8. Jonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. From amazon (free - gift voucher), arrived 4.2.17.
9. Various - The Anti-Inauguration: Building Resistance in the Trump Era (no touchstone). From Verso Books (free ebook), acquired 8.2.17.
10. Brian Anderson - Dog eat Doug Volume 2: It Came From the Diaper Pail. From kobo (free ebook via Bookbub), acquired 20.2.17.
11. Diana Gabaldon - Outlander. From kobo (£1.99), acquired 2.3.17.
12. Frank Kusy - Dial and Talk Foreign at Once (no touchstone). From kobo (free, via bookbub). Acquired 9.3.17.
13. Margot Lee Shetterly - Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped win the Space Race. From kobo (£2.99). Acquired 9.3.17.
14. Henry Marsh - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery. From kobo (£0.99). Acquired 9.3.17.
15. Neil Paynter - The Sun Slowly Rises (no touchstone). From Iona Community (£8.16). Acquired 9.3.17.
16. Richard Holloway - Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics. From an online acquaintance (£0.98 for postage only). Acquired 10.3.17.
17. Sue Monk Kidd - The Invention of Wings. From kobo (£0.99). Acquired 19.3.17.
18. Sinclair Lewis - It Can't Happen Here. From kobo (£0.99). Acquired 22.3.17.
19. Kathryn Stockett - The Help. From kobo (£0.99 - daily deal). Acquired 24.3.17.
20. Guy Sigley - Barney: A Novel. From kobo (free, via bookbub). Acquired 31.3.17.
21. Brian Wansink - Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. From amazon marketplace (£2.81). Acquired 1.4.17.
22. Various - Northumberland: Time and Place (anthology for the 10th anniversary of the Hexham Book Festival) (no touchstone). From Hexham Book Festival website (free ebook). Acquired 6.4.17.
23. Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist. From kobo (£1.99). Acquired 7.4.17. (***note to self- all books up to and including this one now in the Jar of Fate***)
24. Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism. From kobo (£1.99). Acquired 9.4.17.
25. HG Wells - The Time Machine. From Project Gutenberg (free). Acquired 17.4.17.
26. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - We Should All Be Feminists. From kobo (£0.99). Acquired 18.4.17.
27. Tim Shipman - All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class. From kobo (£1.99). Acquired 29.4.17.
28. Ed. Christine Holmberg, Stuart Blume & Paul Greenough - The Politics of Vaccination: A Global History (no touchstone). From Google notifications (free). Acquired 29.4.17.
29. Catherine Czerkawska - The Way it Was: A History of Gigha (no touchstone). From kobo (£5.63). Acquired 8.5.17.

Running tally of acquisitions:

2.1.17 - 2 books (0 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 0 ebooks, 2 paper books.
18.1.17 - 3 books (1 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 0 ebooks, 3 paper books.
23.1.17 - 4 books (2 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 0 ebooks, 4 paper books.
26.1.17 - 5 books (3 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 0 ebooks, 5 paper books.
28.1.17 - 6 books (4 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 1 ebook, 5 paper books.
1.2.17 - 7 books (5 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 2 ebooks, 5 paper books.
4.2.17 - 8 books (6 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 2 ebooks, 6 paper books.
8.2.17 - 9 books (7 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 3 ebooks, 6 paper books.
20.2.17 - 10 books (8 free, 2 paid-for), total spent £5.76. 4 ebooks, 6 paper books.
2.3.17 - 11 books (8 free, 3 paid-for), total spent £7.75. 5 ebooks, 6 paper books.
9.3.17 - 15 books (9 free, 6 paid-for), total spent £19.89. 8 ebooks, 7 paper books.
10.3.17 - 16 books (9 free, 7 paid-for), total spent £20.87. 8 ebooks, 8 paper books.
19.3.17 - 17 books (9 free, 8 paid-for), total spent £21.86. 9 ebooks, 8 paper books.
22.3.17 - 18 books (9 free, 9 paid-for), total spent £22.85. 10 ebooks, 8 paper books.
24.3.17 - 19 books (9 free, 10 paid-for), total spent £23.84. 11 ebooks, 8 paper books.
31.3.17 - 20 books (10 free, 10 paid-for), total spent £23.84. 12 ebooks, 8 paper books.
1.4.17 - 21 books (10 free, 11 paid-for), total spent £26.65. 12 ebooks, 9 paper books.
6.4.17 - 22 books (11 free, 11 paid-for), total spent £26.65. 13 ebooks, 9 paper books.
7.4.17 - 23 books (11 free, 12 paid-for), total spent £28.64. 14 ebooks, 9 paper books.
9.4.17 - 24 books (11 free, 13 paid-for), total spent £30.63. 15 ebooks, 9 paper books.
17.4.17 - 25 books (12 free, 13 paid-for), total spent £30.63. 16 ebooks, 9 paper books.
18.4.17 - 26 books (12 free, 14 paid-for), total spent £31.62. 17 ebooks, 9 paper books.
29.4.17 - 28 books (13 free, 15 paid-for), total spent £33.61. 19 ebooks, 9 paper books.
8.5.17 - 29 books (13 free, 16 paid-for), total spent £39.24. 20 ebooks, 9 paper books.

My first ROOT of the year is Ben Goldacre's Bad Pharma, which I started just before Christmas. I'm already a fan of his, I like his writing a lot - he's well known for debunking poor/quack science. This is very passionately argued, but also very very readable, a plea for all involved in developing, regulating, and prescribing drugs, to work ethically and transparently (after giving example after example after example of how they don't). He goes over the loopholes and missing trial data that has dogged medicine and drug development, and does not pull any punches in detailing the implications of incomplete/misleading data. Despite the title, it is not just the pharmaceutical industry who are targetted here, but also regulators, doctors, journal editors, academics, patient groups, and many others. This is an angry, but passionate, and ultimately hopeful book (at least, the 2013 afterword in my edition gives some considerable cause for optimism, not least because of the setting up of the AllTrials campaign). 4.5/5.

Hi Jackie, I'm impressed that you already managed to finish your first ROOT! Happy reading!

Yay, Jackie's here! Glad to see you back and to see that Bad Pharma is a good read!

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Happy New Year, Jackie, and good luck with your 2017 ROOTs!

Here's to a great 2017 with lots of ROOTing.

Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to reading this year! :)

Glad to see you again and happy you've kicked off the year with a 4.5-star read! Looking forward to more Jar of Fate :)

>11 detailmuse: yes, it was a good read to start the year (and end the previous one!). This year I am combining the Jar of Fate with a couple of the Category Challenge CAT challenges, so quite a few of my books will be for the CATs rather than drawn out randomly. But I am still aiming for at least one random Jar of Fate read per month.

Hi Jackie! Starred and happy to follow another year of the Jar of Fate and your thoughtful and intelligent reviews. Plus all the fun stuff, too!

Happy ROOTing!

Happy ROOTing, Jackie. It's good to see you back again!

Jackie, glad you are with us again!

I too found it very eye-opening to see all the books that I acquire especially since most of my new books are in e-format so they aren't sitting on the shelf staring at me. My goal was not so much to cut down on the acquisition but to read at least 75% of what I acquire in that year so that I'm not creating too many more ROOTS.

Hoping you are successful in your plan!

I started off the year pretty well with my reading, but was lulled into a false sense of security by being on holiday over Christmas and the New Year, meaning I was able to finish my first ROOT really early on. I had the rest of this month's reading all planned out and worked out how many chapters per day etc (a couple of category challenge books, plus one remaining jar of fate book from last year, and enough days left for another jar of fate pick at the end of the month). But I didn't reckon with my dear daughter bringing home a cold from nursery just before Christmas (which she got over in a few days, and which has had me wiped out since Christmas Day!). What is it about little kid germs, they're always 100% more toxic than normal bugs! Going back to work this week while trying to recover from a cold has just about finished me off, so I'm already a day behind in my reading, and it's not even a week into the year yet!

Good luck rooting, Jackie!

>16 Jackie_K: Big Hug!!

>16 Jackie_K: Ah, Jackie, I'm sorry you're sick. When your kids are sick you can't just NOT hug and smooch on them, and then the germs get shared. I got sick a lot when my daughter was young, but it decreased over the years, thank goodness! I hope you feel better soon.

Hope you're feeling better soon! My baby cousins (five and three) have given me colds for Christmas the past two years and it is not really a gift I appreciate...

>20 rabbitprincess: Yeah, I'm all for promoting generosity, but there are limits!

Get well soon! We've been tossing colds back and forth over the holiday season as well. No fun when you have to get back to work.

Am impressed by your jar system, your planning, and your record keeping. It fascinates me how each of us approaches The Goal. Enough to say that my approach is nothing like yours, having an aversion to self-discipline!

Your goal sounds eminently achievable; hope you enjoy every book.

Hope your feeling better, Jackie!

Good to see you here, Jackie. I hope you are feeling better soon.

Thank you, I am feeling much better this weekend (although my husband has now come down with it! I guess it was only going to be a matter of time).

I've had a really good day, my Christmas present from my husband was a photography training day, an introduction to DSLR photography run by a local professional photographer. I have had my DSLR a few years but have mainly only had it on the automatic setting, so really just using it as a posh 'point'n'shoot' camera. This training has given me a lot of knowledge and confidence to dare to try the manual settings and play around with all that the camera is capable of. So definitely a hit as far as presents go!

Speaking of presents, my sister gave us an amazon voucher, so I am still trying to figure out what to get with it. There are a couple of CDs I'd quite like, but I've also figured out that I can get 4 cheap books from amazon marketplace for the same money, and I'm very tempted. I've been really good at resisting the free UoC Press ebook, and also the bookbub bargains that have wended their way to me so far, but amazon vouchers don't come along that often...

Hi Jackie! I'm glad to hear that you're feeling much better, although your husband getting sick isn't so good. Hope he gets over it soon WITHOUT re-sharing with you.

I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas. It's long spent, and I'm about 1/4th of the way through the first one. (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, first two in the Underworld USA series by James Ellroy, in case you're curious.)

The Amazon voucher is wonderful. Have fun deciding how to spend it.

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Jackie! Poor Husband! Great presents!

Good to hear you're getting better, Jackie. Amazon vouchers are always fun, aren't they? I got one as well, but I'm not going to waste money on post and packing all the way out here, so I will wait till nearer my trip home before I decide.

>16 Jackie_K: lol I think the same happened to me (false sense of security) ;)
Oh no, a cold from nursery... those are the worst! Hope you're feeling much better now!

>20 rabbitprincess: >21 Jackie_K: lol ;)

>26 Jackie_K: Ah, I'm belated, but glad to see you're feeling better :) Bummer that your husband got it next though!
The photography training day sounds like a lot of fun! What a great gift! :)
and you're quite right about Amazon vouchers.. no one would blame you for using it for books.... ;)

Hi Jackie - Thanks for stopping by my thread.

I love your jar of fate! I did a similar thing one year using a random number generator, but there were times when I just wasn't in the mood to read a particular book and got bogged down. Have you had that happen? How do you handle it?

I also list my purchases on my 75 book challenge thread. It does help me a bit to keep the numbers down.

I've heard good things about Bad Pharma. Darn, I hate it when I pick up more things to go on the wishlist, when I'm trying to reduce the numbers of books I have waiting. :-)

Love your husband's gift of the photo workshop.

>31 streamsong: Thank you! So far getting bogged down has only happened once (with the book I am *still* reading at the moment, which I started in September or October last year). Unfortunately for me I am a compulsive finisher (generally, eventually - if I give up totally on a book you know it is an utter turkey), so what I have done in this case is kept it on the back burner and pulled the next book out of the jar. At the moment I am going through a phase of needing 2 or 3 books going at once, so if I mix it up with a few other books it usually helps me to keep going and slogging through eventually.

The other thing I sometimes do is count pages or chapters, and work out how many I need to read per day to finish by a particular point (usually the end of the month) and try to stick to that - sometimes that helps me because 2 chapters a day feels much less daunting than having 2/3 of a book still to go! (so at the moment my plan is 6 chapters of the sloggy book every other day - the chapters are really short so it doesn't take long - and the days when I'm not reading that then I'll read a chapter of the non-fiction book I currently have on the go. If I stick to that then I should finish the non-fiction one next week and sloggy book the week after that; I already have another relatively short book lined up for when I've finished the non-fiction book, and when that's finished I reckon I'll have 4 or 5 days left before the end of the month so might pull out another ROOT from the Jar then).

I think because the Jar of Fate took such a lot of work (albeit very pleasant colouring in!) to set up, I can't quite allow myself to pick something out, think 'nah, don't fancy that' and put it back in the jar and choose another one instead! It feels like I'm breaking the rules and even though nobody except me actually cares about the rules, I know I'd just feel guilty!

>32 Jackie_K: I would feel guilty too. Even if nobody cared or knew about me putting the chosen book back and pick another one.

>32 Jackie_K: That's how I felt, too, Jackie, when I was doing my read all the "A's" and then "B's" books. Guilty if I chose a book beginning with letters C-Z. I stuck to it pretty much for 1 year, except when my RL book club chose The Goldfinch. (ugh!) I'm serial reading Moby Dick because it's just one of the "worst" books I've ever read!

>33 connie53: Book guilt is really interesting, isn't it? It's definitely a real thing! The other thing I feel guilty about is not liking a book which is a present. The book I'm slogging my way through (and, with just a couple of days left to read the remaining few chapters, I'm finally starting to enjoy) was a gift from my best friend at school, either just as we left school or the year after (it was published in 1987, which is the year I left school). I read about half of it at the time (I found the old bookmark in it, at least I know I've read more this time than I did the first time I tried it!). Each time I was tempted to give up again I remembered her, and felt so awful about her buying me this gift that 30 years later I still haven't finished - even though we've not actually stayed in touch and I think the last time I saw her was probably 1990. Also because it was a gift I'll probably keep it even though it's unlikely I'll read it again, as I would feel so awful donating it elsewhere! (actually it is a YA book, so I think that I will see if my daughter likes it when she's in her teens). I guess it's like it's my last connection to a friendship that was really important to me at the time, even though it has now fizzled out.

>34 Tess_W: I've seen enough accounts of people finding reading Moby Dick is like swimming through treacle that I'm just planning on giving it a miss altogether (and hoping nobody buys it for me as a gift!!!).

As well as guilt-inducing book, I've made good progress on the other ROOT I'm currently reading, so am hopeful that I will finish them both either this weekend or early next week.

>35 Jackie_K: I feel the same about books given to me. I would keep such a book too. But then I'm not very good at getting rid of any book at all. I can take them of the shelves, put then I put them in boxes upstairs. Creating shelve-space that way. I am thinking of buying two new bookcases for the room we are going to use for Fiene (and any other future grandchild). I think it will not be used frequently so I think there is room for 2 bookcases.

>35 Jackie_K: Then there's that tricky balancing act between showing appreciation for a book gift and discouraging the giver from giving the author's next book next year.

I'm raising my hand too about guilt at not reading/liking books given to me. Fortunately I discovered the simple expedient of giving lists of specific books for people to choose from and making sure I don't put the same book on different lists. I got 3 great books at Christmas this way. I usually put 3 books per list, making sure to range from very inexpensive to a shiny new hardcover.

I've found that people are grateful for lists because then they don't feel stressed about picking the wrong book or a duplicated book for someone who they know is Serious About Her Books.

And I, too, have quite a few books on my shelves that I keep for 'sentimental value', including all those poor orphan little books that I don't really like or don't want to read but that mean something to me because of who gave them to me.

I admire you for the discipline of not abandoning a book once you pull it out of the Jar of Fate.

>38 karenmarie:

Agree. We readers develop tastes the longer we've been pleasurably enrapt in our love affair with books. It's only fair to make it as easy on gifters as possible -- their sole goal is to add to our happiness.

That's why asking for a gift card from your favorite bookseller is always appropriate, too.

I've just finished my second ROOT of the year, another 4.5/5 star read and a great compliment to Bad Pharma which was my first ROOT. Ray Moynihan & Barbara Mintzes' Sex, Lies & Pharmaceuticals: How Drug Companies Plan to Profit from Female Sexual Dysfunction is basically a very detailed case study of many of the issues raised in Bad Pharma, namely how pharmaceutical companies seek to create interest in new medical conditions (which may or may not actually exist - certainly this is the debate around the nebulous 'Female Sexual Dysfunction') in order to create fertile ground for a demand for new treatments, including influencing academics and medics to research and promote these treatments. This was really well written (reflecting Moynihan's background in journalism), and very readable and approachable. It's not as angry in tone as Bad Pharma, but no less hard-hitting for that. Highly recommended.

I thought of the recent discussion on this thread about book guilt, and in particular guilt at putting a title back in the Jar of Fate yesterday - the title I pulled out yesterday evening probably would have gone back in if we hadn't had this conversation so recently, so you have definitely all done your job in maintaining the guilt factor and making me consistent in my JoF use!! And actually, now I've started the book I'm glad I didn't put it back, although I think it's going to take me a long time.

Readers of my 2016 thread may remember I read a whole book in Romanian (my other main language, although I can read French at a push too), but that it took me ages and I was hopeful that I wouldn't get another Romanian book for a while as it wore me out! So this new book is the first Romanian book I have pulled out since then, and my first thought was that I wasn't sure I could face it. But guilt got the better of me, and having now pulled it off the shelf and started it I think it is going to be do-able! Last year's book was aided by the fact that I also had the same book in English, so I'd read one chapter in English and then the same chapter in Romanian in order to maximise my chances of understanding it. This year's book doesn't have an English equivalent (which is probably why I felt so daunted!), but does have the advantage that the subject matter is related to my PhD research (which took place in Romania) so I already have a. an interest in it, and b. the subject-specific vocabulary knowledge. I read the preface this morning and pretty much understood it all, so feel much happier about tackling it! I'm going to be realistic though and aim for 2 or 3 pages at a time while also reading other books (this will be helped by the fact that it is basically a text book, so has lots of short sections of a couple of pages or so, so lots of natural breaks). So I think it will be a good few months before it is finished, so I'm going to pull out another title from the Jar of Fate which will hopefully be a quicker read meantime!

Good luck with your Romanian book. It is hard reading in another language, but SUCH a sense of accomplishment when you finish.

>41 Jackie_K: Good luck with that! Academic books in a foreign language are what we Germans call the "Königsdisziplin" of reading, i.e. the most difficult or the most demanding.

>42 Robertgreaves: Yes, but the more you read, the easier it gets.

Just echoing >42 Robertgreaves:, good luck with the challenge of the Romanian book - you've got this, just do a little at a time!

>41 Jackie_K: Very good, Jackie and very brave!

Impressive, Jackie! You've maintained your discipline and are going to 'attack' it in a methodical way.

I hope your second pick from the Jar of Fate is a good contrast.

Thanks everyone!

>46 karenmarie: Serendipitously, it's actually vaguely related, but should hopefully be a quick read. By vaguely related, I mean it's Lingo, which is a tome about European languages! I can't wait to read it.

>32 Jackie_K: >33 connie53: >34 Tess_W: lol I would feel the same way! And then my husband would tease me when I told him about it.... ;)

>35 Jackie_K: >36 connie53: >38 karenmarie: oh yes, that too! Guilt about not really enjoying a book-gift... especially when it was a book you requested! I don't, however, attach that guilt to keeping the books... once they're read, they're read and go. (unless they end up in my fairly limited permanent collection). Of course, there are a couple books in my permanent collection that were gifts from years ago *and* written in.. those I've kept so far, even though I wouldn't otherwise....

>37 Robertgreaves: lol that can be tricky... most people I know don't buy me books unless it's on one of my wishlists... primarily bc they'd be worried I already own it ;)

>39 Limelite: agreed :)

>40 Jackie_K: sounds interesting! Congrats on your 2nd ROOT!

>41 Jackie_K: good luck reading the Romanian book!

I've added my 3rd ROOT for the month/year, this is one that I pulled out of the Jar of Fate in September or October last year so it has taken me a little while to get through - especially at the start I found it a bit of a slog. It's Brian Jacques' Redwall, which is the first published (although not first chronologically in the overall story) of a YA series which ended up being 22 volumes by the time the author died. Redwall is an abbey (although there are pretty much no references to religion, it's the environment and traditions/routines of the abbey which is more important to the story), inhabited by peaceful mice and other woodland folk, which comes under siege by evil rat warlord Cluny the Scourge. Can plucky novice mouse Matthias find the ancient sword of Redwall founder Martin the Warrior and save Redwall from being overcome by the advances of evil?

Good points about this book include a good build-up of tension as the plucky abbey residents win skirmishes but Cluny plots again as he licks his wounds, and just as we think Matthias will find the sword a clever plot twist means that quest is drawn out till much later in the book. Also I really liked some of the characters - Constance the badger, Jess Squirrel and Warbeak the sparrow in particular. And it is beautifully written - it is a first novel, but is very assured writing and there wasn't a single place where I noticed a literary device (you know what I mean - sometimes you read something that is going well and then there's a really obvious or clumsy piece of alliteration or something like that which you know is for a particular effect. I much prefer writing where that sort of thing just isn't obvious because it's all flowing so well, and that was definitely the case here). Also a more shallow thing, the chapters are really short, which is always a big plus in my book - it's easy to feel like you're making progress because you've read 6 chapters in one go, even though each chapter is only 3 or 4 pages long, which I always appreciate psychologically!

Less good (for me), and the reason I think that it took me so long to get into reading this regularly, rather than just picking it up occasionally which is what I did to start with, is that the whole good-vs-evil thing was so very one-dimensional. So all of the goodies were 100% good, and all of the baddies were cartoon-caricature 100% evil, and I just found that a bit dull. I do appreciate that for YA readers things often need to be a bit more black and white like that, and I'm not the target audience really, but I did find that a bit irritating. Also (with the exception of the 3 characters I mentioned above as favourites) I thought the gender roles were portrayed fairly stereotypically. However, I realise that expecting realism and depth in a children's book about talking animals is really a bit silly, so I have got over myself :)

I am giving this 3/5 stars - I dropped half a star because it did take me so long to get into it. But I'll definitely be keeping it, and encouraging my daughter to read it when she's around 11-12 as I suspect that kind of age group would really enjoy this, as I did once I eventually got into it. I'm not planning on reading any more of the series, but I can understand why it's so popular.

I also succumbed to the lure of the amazon voucher and went for books instead of CDs... The first one arrived yesterday, and I have 3 more coming. I've made good enough progress reading though that I am fairly confident (providing that bookbub doesn't come up with anything tempting in the next week or so) that I can finish the month close to my 1:1.5 ROOTs:acquisition ratio goal.

Shouldn't the Cluniacs be inside the abbey rather than beseiging it?

>51 Robertgreaves: Heh - now there's an ecclesiastical reference I had to look up! Very clever!

>35 Jackie_K: it's like it's my last connection to a friendship that was really important to me
That's so poignant!

>41 Jackie_K: Interested to hear how your Romanian text progresses.

>49 Jackie_K: interesting.. I've never heard of Redwell described as a slog! I've also not yet read it... just heard so much about it :)
I would probably feel the same way about your frustration -- 100% versus 100% evil. Though I suppose it makes sense for younger readers...

>50 Jackie_K: fun! x-D

>54 avanders: heh - I'm happy to concede the fault might be with me! (I find reading fiction quite a challenge, so have to work myself up to it, and if it's not amazing straight away I do struggle a bit).

>53 detailmuse: thanks! I'm nearly at the end of chapter 1 (14 more to go after that!). I'm currently trying to figure out the best way for me to read in a foreign language. With the book I read last year, because I'd read the chapter in English first and then immediately afterwards in Romanian, I didn't feel the need to translate in my head as I was going along, as I already knew what was going on, so I just read the words without translating and found that helped the flow of reading. With this one I don't have the luxury of an English translation, so have been probably doing more translating as I go along than I did with last year's book. However, last night I was reading my few pages in bed while my husband had the news on the radio, and I found it quite hard to concentrate with that distraction so found myself just reading without translating. I think I still got the gist of it, but I think that for this particular book I will probably need to translate to myself as I go along in order to get the most out of it.

The second of my amazon giftcard purchases arrived today - 2 down, 2 more to come! Because I used amazon marketplace for cheap copies they are all just coming as and when, but hopefully I'll have them all by the end of the week.

>55 Jackie_K: oh that makes sense.. if you're not a regular fiction reader, then it seems the fiction would have to be particularly good to feel worth it! But also, I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bit of a slog anyway :)

Hi Jackie! Congrats on using the Amazon voucher. You had much more discipline than I did in waiting a while. I don't have buyer's remorse, though and have finished the first of the two books I bought.

I love Amazon Marketplace. I can get quite a few books for $.01 plus $3.99 shipping.

>57 karenmarie: It's the same here, and probably works out about the same - books for £0.01, plus £2.80 postage. The books I got this time were a bit more than that, but still good value.

I finished my 4th ROOT so far, Gaston Dorren's Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages which I enjoyed very much, although I occasionally found it a bit frustrating too! As the title says, he covers many of the European languages in short chapters, not in any kind of depth but often identifying one particular feature or quirk and discussing those, which was very interesting and accessible. I occasionally got a bit frustrated that the discussion didn't use as many actual examples from the language as I would have liked - as well as talking about them, I like to see what they look like! But that is a minor point really, as this book never makes any claim to being comprehensive or detailed. It is still a pretty impressive bit of research, and I think it's quite an achievement to make linguistics readable and accessible! 3.5/5.

I almost hesitate to ask if you've ever heard of John McWhorter re linguistics.....

>59 karenmarie: I have, and in fact Dorren highly recommends him in his 'further reading' section at the end of Lingo. I need to check my wishlist - I do have some linguistics books on it, but can't remember who wrote them. I've heard McWhorter recommended elsewhere on here too (I think in last year's Category Challenge), so I think I need to investigate further!

I squeezed one more ROOT in for January, my 5th for the month - E. Nesbit's classic, The Railway Children. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Brit left who's never seen the film! This was a lovely read, very 'of its time', and I must admit to shedding a little tear a couple of times! I'm not sure I dare watch the film, I will be in floods. It's a bit corny, but I did enjoy it very much. 3.5/5.

I have 3 books lined up for February for the various CATs in the Category Challenge (two for CultureCAT, this month's theme is Medicine & Public Health, and one for CATWoman, the theme this month is debut books by women). I'm hopeful that I'll have enough time left for a Jar of Fate book at the end of the month too, but while I'm faced with three wholly unread books it feels a bit daunting still! Once I've broken the back of the first one I'll be feeling a bit more confident :)

My total acquisitions for the month was 6 (should be 7, but one of my amazon marketplace purchases hasn't arrived yet). Given my ROOTs read total was 5, I'm pretty pleased with that.

Acquisitions this month are:

1. Ben Fogle - The Teatime Islands.
2. Robert MacFarlane - The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. These first two are from Barter Books.
3. Mark Carwardine & Stephen Fry - Last Chance to See: In the Footsteps of Douglas Adams.
4. Timothy Garton Ash - The File: A Personal History.
5. Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine - Last Chance to See. Nos 3-5 are from amazon marketplace, thanks to a gift voucher I received for Christmas.
6. John Galt - Annals of the Parish. This was from Project Gutenberg. I did swear off Project Gutenberg till Mt TBR was a bit lower, but this was a BB from another site I frequent, and I knew I'd forget it if I didn't download it there and then!

>62 Jackie_K: Letting a book-lover visit Project Gutenberg is like letting an alcoholic free in a liquor store.

>61 Jackie_K: sounds like a great plan! :)

>62 Jackie_K: congrats on such a great ratio for January!

>63 Henrik_Madsen: I know! I have actually been pretty good and not been there for a couple of years, and once I'd searched for and found this particular BB I left again, so I'm feeling pretty virtuous! I'm not planning on heading back there too soon though!

>65 Jackie_K: Well done 😊

Nice job reading ROOTs (and keeping the acquisitions ratio where you want it) in January! I'm also impressed that you stick with your Jar of Fate books no matter what. I know I'd be tempted to just put them back in :).

>67 readingtangent: lol me too..... ;)

>67 readingtangent: Oh, I can't say I'm never tempted! But the guilt pretty much always is stronger than the temptation! :)

You are doing so well with your acquisitions, Jackie. I went a bit overboard in January. Tomorrow is my Thingaversary so I will have to make a special trip to see if I can pick up something that is good that I didn't already get in January LOL!

About book guilt, I understand feeling bad about not liking a book present but the guilt is even worse if the person who gave it to you has passed on. On a par with those books, or maybe even worse, is books that you inherited from the deceased person.

>70 Familyhistorian: Happy Thingaversary! I'm sure there's a book out there somewhere with your name on it! :D

>71 Jackie_K: The goal this year is 10, Jackie. I don't think I will have any problems especially as one of my gifts was a giftcard for a bookstore!

I've finished my first ROOT for February - a very new and shiny one, as I only acquired it a few days ago! It was another of Verso Books' free (short! - this one is 46 pages) ebooks on a contemporary issue (last year I read their Brexit equivalent, brought out just a couple of weeks after the UK's vote to leave the EU, and made up of essays that had appeared in the immediate aftermath of the result). This one is called The Anti-Inauguration, and was produced in the days after the Jan 20th inauguration in the USA based on an event of the same name. It is from an unashamedly left-wing perspective, looking at how to mobilise and organise in the face of the new political reality, but the main thing that I liked about it was that most of the five essays were just as critical of the Democratic party as of the new administration - it is saying the status quo isn't enough, we can aim and achieve so much better than that. The last essay in particular, by Keeanga-Yaahtta Taylor, was really excellent (emphasising solidarity rather than individual factionalism), and I also enjoyed the chapter by Owen Jones. The first chapter by Naomi Klein was the weakest one, I thought - I didn't disagree with her, I just found the writing style a bit all over the place. Overall I think that I'd like to read around this subject in a bit more depth (although I'm not especially expecting depth so soon after the event), but this is a good start. 3.5/5.

It's available for download from here if anyone's interested: http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3074-free-ebook-the-anti-inauguration-building-r...

Verso Books -- had never heard of them but very interesting concept for collecting opinion/editorial essays. Yet, as you point out, maybe a little too soon to events for in-depth or evaluative writing.

My perception of the RESIST movement is that it emphasizes "togetherness." For ex. today's Moral March in Raleigh, NC, led by Rev. Barber. Ditto the Women's Marches held all around the world immediately after the inauguration" At this early juncture, one can say that all the anti-Trump demonstrations have been for the sake of unity and against his divisive paranoia. I expect there will be forthcoming activism against his deportation of working mothers of American citizens rather than the "mean hombres" Trump spoke of while campaigning as being his targets for deportation.

>74 Limelite: I really like Verso Books, and am now on their mailing list. They often have sales and offers (I have got wise and know that once or twice a year they have a 90% off sale, so I intend to resist temptation until the next one of those!).

I've just finished ROOT #2 for February (#7 for the year to date), Amy Brown's Breastfeeding Uncovered: Who Really Decides how we Feed our Babies?, which is really fantastic. I follow the author on twitter and have interacted with her there briefly; I'd say she's probably the foremost UK researcher working on infant feeding at the moment and I really like her work. So no surprise that I thought this book was excellent. After starting off with a realistic look at research into the benefits of breastfeeding (including the relative strength of this research - one thing that often annoys me when folk promote breastfeeding is the uncritical parroting of relatively weak research, but this book avoids that), she looks at wider factors which affect how empowered women feel to start, and continue, breastfeeding (from political lack of funding, parenting manuals, pressure from family, societal disapproval, etc etc). As both a health care professional who tries hard to support families with breastfeeding, and a mum who had particular difficulties with breastfeeding (primarily due to medication affecting my milk supply), I found this a supportive and helpful book and would recommend it to anyone. The only thing I was a bit disappointed about was in her section which criticised a couple of popular parenting books for their advice which is absolutely contrary to supporting and establishing breastfeeding, she repeatedly made the point that the authors were not mothers. I worked for many years in my job before I was able to have my daughter, and "how can you give advice when you've not done it" is something that I often had to face, often painfully. I think that there's more than enough to criticise in those particular parenting manuals, without having to point out something so personal, and potentially painful, about the authors. Other than that though, this is an absolutely excellent book which I would thoroughly recommend to both health care professionals and parents/potential parents who want to know more about issues around breastfeeding. It's not a how-to book at all (there are plenty of those already on the market), but a passionate argument for increased support for families, whatever choice they make about feeding, and for society to become more supportive and less uptight about breastfeeding. 4.5/5.

Hi Jackie! Congrats on ROOT#2.

>75 Jackie_K: Some good points about the breast feeding debate, Jackie. I do agree that whenever possible, it's a good idea (from what I've read). However, it is NOT necessary to breastfeed to have healthy, well-adjusted children. Following my C-section, I was terribly anemic. I tried to breastfeed and then developed mastitis. It was awful--I was on antibiotics for several months to clear it up--therefore my baby could not breastfeed. That being said, he graduated with a 4.0, is 6'4" tall and healthy as a horse. He was bottle fed on soy milk. Both of my boys were and they are well adjusted family men. I can't see how they were "hurt" at all; but in the 70's I was shamed because I did not breast feed.

>77 Tess_W: That does sound awful, Tess, but I'm so glad that your sons have grown up so healthy! You could say the same about me - I was bottle fed, but ended up with qualifications from 5 different universities, including a PhD! I'm sure the advice around weaning to solid food was also very different then (also in the 70s), and I've not done too badly overall. That said, I'm committed to evidence based practice and where the evidence means that advice changes I'm fine with that. My parents did what they thought best with the knowledge available to them at the time, and the circumstances they were in, as have I 40-odd years later. One of the things I liked about the book I read just now was that she is very realistic about what it can be like - her focus is on the gap between our low breastfeeding rates (particularly in the UK) and the high rate of people who say that they wanted to breastfeed but either couldn't start, or had to stop before they had wanted to, so looking at what are the barriers that hinder people from feeding for as long as they want to. It's not at all a simplistic 'breast is best and everyone can do it if they just put in the effort'. I think shaming anyone for the choice that they make, often in less than ideal circumstances, is a terrible thing to do.

ROOT #3 for February (#8 overall, and I'm now only one ROOT behind my number of acquisitions this year so far which is unheard of!) is my first 5 star read for ages (lots of books have come very close and been 4.5, but this one just had me nodding with recognition all the way through!). Katie Kirby's Hurrah for Gin: A book for perfectly imperfect parents is based on her blog of the same name, which has built up quite the following in the last couple of years. This is one of a growing number of parenting blogs which aim to tell it like it really is (rather than that parenting is all roses and rainbows and perfection), and is funny, irreverent and sweary, but also oh so real. The stick figure drawings just add to the overall effect that we're all just making up this parenting business as we go along.

I think what I liked most about this book (other than the fact that it is hilarious) is the sections where she reminds us (and herself, I suspect) about what really matters, and that aiming for perfection is leaving you on a hiding to nowhere. She did a blog post a while ago (not in the book) for Postnatal Depression Day which was spot on - so don't think that this is all just about swearing and dreaming about gin (although there's quite a lot of that too).

The only down side was that I have been reading this while in the throes of a viral cough and evil cold which mean that right now I don't actually dare laugh out loud in case I stop breathing or puke thanks to a mad coughing fit. I'd better read something less funny next...

>79 Jackie_K: Being unable to laugh sounds a bit like torture. Get well soon!

Congrats on all your ROOT success! Looks like you've been reading a lot of interesting & informative books :)

And hope you feel better soon!!

Hope you feel better soon!

>79 Jackie_K: Sounds great (the book I mean, not you being sick!). Even though we all know that perfection is never achievable and most certainly not in the art of parenting - where you have no training and have to get it right the first time anyway - it is quite hard to come to terms with it.

>80 MissWatson: >81 avanders: >82 Tess_W: >83 Henrik_Madsen: Thank you very much! This is such a nasty virus going round, it really is taking some shifting! I slept much better last night (I've been waking up several times coughing up till now) and I thought I had turned the corner, but I started coughing again mid-morning and am feeling back pretty much where I was! I did have a couple of days off work last week which I think have helped, but I'm going to have to go back this week as there's just too much to do and if I stay off till I shift the virus it could still be weeks! (the last couple of viral coughs I had lasted 7 weeks each - there's no way I can take that much time off!). The worst thing is that I haven't even felt much like reading more than usual - I thought with a couple of days off I could read a bit more, but I ended up just sleeping for most of the time!

Ah well. I think I'm still on track to finish 4 books this month, so I'm pleased with that. And as Lent is coming up at the beginning of March and I am going to give up facebook (my other major timesink) till Easter, then hopefully I will get some more reading in instead of wasting time there!

I'm sorry you're feeling so sick, Jackie. I'm halfway convinced that it is spread via LT since so many of us have been rather sick this winter. I hope it isn't the 7 weeks of the previous viruses and that you recover quickly.

Hell is surely defined as being too sick to read.

Facebook is a timesink - fortunately that's not my major weakness (I consider myself a lurker and liker), but the 13 news apps on my cell phone AND LT are. I should give up some of the news apps simply because with the bloviating orange gasbag in the White House it's beyond depressing. Can't give up LT, though; but I should probably cut back to posting on threads to every third day or so.

>85 karenmarie: I have avoided news apps, and other than a subscription to the NYT at the start of this year (so I could access more than the allocated free articles per month; my friends post lots of articles from there on fb which I wanted to read but couldn't!) my main source of news about Lord Dampnut (my favourite anagram) is facebook. So I must admit that from that perspective, giving fb up for Lent won't be as much of a penance for me as it usually is! I'll still be visiting LT daily though - it's not entirely DT-free, but at least I can avoid looking at pictures.

I've been avoiding having to spend money on news apps, but should probably support the "enemy of the people" as Lord Dampnut calls the media. I absolutely adore your calling him Lord Dampnut and will add it to my repertoire.

Are you as unhappy with Theresa May as you are with LD?

>87 karenmarie: That's a good question, Karen! I think the best answer is yes, but for different reasons. Unlike Trump, Theresa May is intelligent and articulate and capable. However, her party and policies are diametrically opposed to where I'm coming from politically - the Conservative (Tory) party are pro-privatisation, and pro-rolling back of public services, and tend in my view to favour the 'little Englander' Britannia rules the waves, no Johnny Foreigner here thank you very much perspective, which I personally hate and think is disastrous for the country. The politics of compassion have no place in her party, and I hate seeing (for example) how our wonderful health service is slowly being sold off to the highest bidder, with disastrous consequences for the general population. Likewise I have a number of friends who, through no fault of their own (largely through health issues and/or disability) are reliant on our (never particularly generous, despite what some papers would have you believe) welfare system, which is constantly being cut back to the point where more and more people are dropping into poverty, whilst big businesses continue to avoid paying taxes at a much much higher level. I am grateful that I live in Scotland, where our govt/parliament can make their own choices about a lot of these issues, although we are still affected by UK-wide policies because they affect how much money the Scottish parliament have to spend each year (so, if the UK govt decide to privatise parts of the NHS and therefore have a smaller NHS budget overall in England, then the % of grant available to Scotland for the health service is proportionately reduced too, even though the Scottish govt is against privatising and wishes to keep the health service wholly in public ownership). I also think that May has paid lip-service only to ensuring that all the regions of the UK are heard in the negotiations around Brexit - whilst the UK as a whole voted (only just! - 52% to 48%) to leave the EU, Scotland voted by a much larger margin (62% against 38%) as a whole to remain, yet Scottish voices are being sidelined as we run up to the day we actually trigger the formal negotiations.

However, at least with Theresa May I feel like I (or anyone) could have an intelligent debate with her and that even if she disagreed profoundly with the point being presented, she would at least understand it and not embarrass herself or the country with her response. Unlike you-know-who.

>88 Jackie_K: very well said, I couldn't agree with you more.

There are times LT needs a like button.

Unfortunately due to (still!) being unwell my reading has gone down a fair bit - I normally read in the half hour or so after going to bed, but the last few days I have felt so crappy still that I just haven't had the energy for reading. So I've got behind on the book I was reading (and very much enjoying) that I was expecting to finish by the end of the month. I was though wanting to get at least one more ROOT in this month, so I picked up a small book which I'd set aside for next month's CATWoman challenge over in the Category Challenge group. I finished it this morning.

Now, I have to say that I am not really a poetry fan, so although this was short I did feel a bit daunted by it. The collection in question is Alice Oswald's The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, which was bought for me as a gift by my brother-in-law (who is also a published poet). And to start with as I read I felt my usual misgivings about poetry - I wish I could get into it, I can see that it is beautifully putting into words things that us mere mortals really struggle to express, but so much of it goes over my head and I don't really understand what is going on. However, although most of the poems were only short (a page long at most), the final one was several pages long and the author did include an explanatory introduction, and that one I really did enjoy (probably thanks to the introduction meaning that I had an idea at the outset of what it was about, so I could appreciate her word-use more). So the final one has pushed up my ranking to 3 stars.

>88 Jackie_K: Thank you Jackie! Very informative and interesting.

Happy March everyone! I have given up facebook for Lent, so am kind of expecting my time on LT to increase somewhat! (I've also given up chocolate, so as usual cheese consumption will also increase exponentially. Hmm maybe I still haven't got the hang of what Lent is really all about!).

I was quite pleased when I did my February round-up to see that I only acquired 4 books - the same number I read as ROOTs - and all 4 of the acquisitions were freebies (one only technically a freebie, as I paid for it with a gift voucher, but a freebie for my purposes here!). Here is my February haul:

* Tzvetan Todorov - The Fear of Barbarians.
* Jonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.
* Various - The Anti-Inauguration: Building Resistance in the Trump Era (no touchstone).
* Brian Anderson - Dog eat Doug Volume 2: It Came From the Diaper Pail.

I've been unwell for pretty much all of February with an awful viral cough and cold. I think feeling ill has really not helped my reading rate, as I've just felt too tired and lethargic. So I'm a bit behind on where I wanted to be, but will hopefully catch up in March. I've got a number of reads (both for the Category Challenge and from the Jar of Fate) which I'm feeling pretty enthusiastic about for March and early April.

Hope you feel better soon! Congrats on reading as many books as you acquired!

I'm sorry you've been so sick, Jackie, and hope you're on the road to recovery. My husband has been coughing for over 2 weeks now with no sign of letup, but so far, knock wood, he hasn't shared his germs with me.

I am sort of stuck halfway through The Righteous Mind, having started and finished 20 books since starting it. maybe this month. When a really nice, enthusiastic young man from the Democratic National Committee called for some money yesterday I told him I couldn't help financially now (true - husband just started job a month ago and we're trying to figure out our finances), but I suggested that everybody from Tom Perez down should read this book or at least get someone who knows about the book to help them try to reach out to the folks who are motivated by more than just the two of six moral foundations that traditional Democrats are motivated by. We had a really nice little talk.

I'm glad to hear that you have exciting reading plans for March and early April!

Sorry to hear you've been unwell. There do seem to be a lot of coughs and bad colds about at the moment.

The Righteous Mind looks interesting. Can I ask where you got it as a freebie?

>93 Jackie_K: coughing as I'm reading this - we need Spring!

The Righteous Mind - Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - this sounds interesting. Even Sunday dinner with our grown up children and my parents is a political battleground these days. Thankfully no one has been disinherited yet.

>97 floremolla: That probably why my parents had the rule no religion, politics or sex talk and the dinner table!

>98 Tess_W: When I was about 12, I realized that discussing politics with my dad was futile and completely stopped doing so. Can't talk politics with my sister and her husband either, sigh. Nor with my mom before she passed away last year.

>96 Robertgreaves: Hi Robert - sorry to disappoint, but I was able to count The Righteous Mind as a freebie because I could pay for it with an amazon gift voucher (I'm working on the premise that if someone else pays for it, it's free for me!). I did get it fairly cheaply on amazon marketplace though - the cheapest one at the moment is £4.72 + postage, which I think is similar to what I got it for.

I'm lucky in that in my family, although I wouldn't say we exactly agree on everything, we are more or less on the same page for the things we think are important (other than that my husband and I voted yes in the Scottish independence referendum and my in-laws were pretty against that!). I'm pleased that, despite apparently lots of the older generation voting for Brexit, both my parents and in-laws voted to Remain (as did we) and were genuinely upset with the result. So at least we know we won't be having any family arguments about that!

I am so fed up with this virus now. I think (after 4 weeks) I can finally say that the cough is starting to subside (although I do still have several bouts of coughing every day - just not quite as bad as a couple of weeks ago!), and while I still have the cold too it is not quite as bad now as before. But alongside the virus I have been finding breathing so much more of an effort, and I am now being monitored to either confirm or rule out asthma. This is the third virus in a year and a half where I have been pretty much flattened for nearly 2 months and felt like someone is sitting on my chest, and all my colleagues (I work in a health centre) are convinced I have asthma - especially when I tell them my peak flow readings, or when they hear me cough! I'm just hopeful that if it is diagnosed then I can be given some inhalers and actually take some deep breaths again without coughing! I think more than the virus this is the reason why I've been so tired and wiped out recently.

However, I did manage another chapter of my current fiction read this morning, and am slowly but surely continuing through my Romanian book - I'm now midway through chapter 4 and still pretty much understanding what is going on, so I'm pleased with that! I've still got 12 chapters to go, so it's very much a long-term project, but my plan of reading just 2-3 pages at a time is working well.

>100 Jackie_K: that's sounds truly awful, persistent coughing is exhausting and being short of breath can be scary - it's good that you're being monitored, hope you get an effective treatment asap.

I'm about to see an ENT specialist for mine as it's related to chronic sinusitis - I'd rather avoid strong steroids but have exhausted all first line and most second line remedies and just want to get back to some normality - otherwise I'll be buying shares in Kleenex.

>101 floremolla: Thank you, yes it can be scary, although more often it's just so tiring. My review appointment isn't till the end of the month, by which time I will have 5 weeks' worth of readings for them (1 week down, 4 to go!). If the virus goes the same way as the previous two and lasts 6 or 7 weeks then it should mean that I'll have a good week or two of readings from 'normal' not-ill life, but also a long series of results showing what happens to me when I'm ill. So I'm hopeful that it will give them good information without having to be monitored for longer.

I always find the thought of seeing an X specialist scary, but when you're desperate I guess you conquer your fear! I hope the specialist comes up with answers and with an effective treatment for you.

Sorry to hear about your coughing and trouble breathing; that sounds awful. I hope you're able to get some answers and some help soon. Congrats on a good February, though (in terms of reading and acquiring) :).

Hi Jackie! I'm sorry that you're still coughing so badly. My sister started getting symptoms of and was diagnosed with asthma in her 40s and had a terrible time for a while. It went away for about 10 years or so, but she had a severe attack last Thursday and ended up in Urgent Care, getting a breathing treatment and prednisone. She's finally doing better and we're all hoping that this was a once-only stress-related event.

On the one hand you don't want asthma, but on the other a diagnosis would at least lead to proper treatment.

Good luck!

>102 Jackie_K: Thanks! Sounds like your condition is being thoroughly assessed. Hope you get good results and are soon on the mend :)

Hoping you get rid of that cough, Jackie!

Thank you everyone for your kind concern! I do feel like the cough and cold are starting to improve, although I still have both - but I do see light at the end of the tunnel.

>104 karenmarie: I hope your sister recovers soon, that sounds very scary! My sister too developed asthma symptoms as an adult (in her early 30s if I recall correctly), and also a whole bunch of allergies and hayfever. It's mostly well controlled, although unfortunately one of the things she turned out to be allergic to was a type of tree which happens to surround her block of flats, so there are 3 or 4 weeks of every year when she's absolutely streaming and really suffering.

I hope you're well on the way to recovery, Jackie.

I'm still plugging away with my books - I was hoping to get my current fiction read finished early this week, but I'm still trying to recover my reading mojo, so haven't managed it so far. I decided to mix things up a bit and throw another book into the 'currently reading' pile, so I had more of a choice. At the moment I'm reading a chapter of each alternately, which seems to be kick-starting the mojo a little, and with any luck both of them will be finished next week.

In other news, I can tell I'm old as today when I got up I spotted blue sky and my first thought was, better check the weather forecast, maybe I can hang my washing out today! The forecast is good so it'll be going outside for the first time this year, and I am disproportionately pleased by this!

>109 Jackie_K: haha, you're not alone, grab those blue skies when you can!

Good luck with the reading mojo - throwing another option into the mix sounds like a good move. Well done on persevering, I wouldn't be awash with ROOTs if I hadn't put so many books aside to finish 'another time'.

Hi Jackie - just a quick hello and wish for getting your reading mojo back.

>111 karenmarie: thank you Karen - *waves*.

I'm not sure about my reading mojo, but my acquisitions mojo has been a bit more active this afternoon than I'd have hoped! Whoops.

Not related to reading, but to LT - a Luddite's question. Is it possible to add pictures to LT threads from sources other than a URL? As I understand it, the guides I've read (here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/129158 and here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/HelpThing:Html_tips ) all give advice on grabbing a picture from another website and how to code it to appear in a thread post. But is it possible for me to just grab a photo from my hard drive or memory card? I'm wanting if possible to not necessarily upload my pictures to a website first, cut out the middle man! I can see that the advice in those threads could be good for book covers (and might start trying that from now on), but I'm just wondering about photos I take myself. Thank you for any advice!

I upload pictures to My Gallery or Junk Drawer from my laptop's hard drive, or, if it's a cellphone pic I usually email it to myself, then save it to my laptop's hard drive (because likely I'll want it on my laptop anyway), then upload it to LT. I see that you haven't put any pictures here on LT, but I've recently had great success uploading them to either gallery or junk drawer, then taking that URL and using the img src syntax.

>114 karenmarie: I don't even know where my gallery or junk drawer are! *blank look* Is that something that would be in my LT profile?

OK, just had a look and I've found it. I've been here nearly 5 years and never knew that was there! Let's see what I can do with it :)

Ah, good! Go for it.

One thing that I have taken advantage of when using the img src syntax is to preview my message before posting it - there's a preview option to the right of the post message option. If the picture seems too large or small you can mess around with 'width=xxx length=yyy'. I mostly use width=200 length=150, but for larger stuff I use 400 and 200 or 300 and 150. It goes after the link, with just a space. And if the picture is by default huge, you can use width/length to make it smaller.

img src=(link) width=xxx length=yyy

surrounded by the less than and greater than signs. (I'm too lazy to find the syntax to actually display them without their being used functionally)

Have fun!

Hmmm. I've added a picture to my member gallery (ok, how easy was that, how embarrassing!), but it's not showing in my preview post. I wonder if I need to give LT a bit of time to register across the site that the picture's there?

OK. I thought I'd figured out what I'm doing wrong, but I'm not sure and Preview Post isn't helping! Can you see this? (it's a picture of my current and planned reads for March and April). All I can see is a blank square box. Gah. Luddites R Us.

>119 Jackie_K: just seeing a blank square box but it's a proper pic on your profile

>120 floremolla: Thank you, that's what I'm seeing too. I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong! I bet it's something really silly and obvious!

I'm giving it a go too out of interest....

Jackie....is this the format for your pic

img height="200" img src="athlstiuioe.com" with the before and the at the end of the phrase? These things:>>>>!

I'm using an iPad - I clicked on the image in my gallery and chose 'copy'. Then I typed in my post:

img src=" "

In between the quotes I clicked 'paste' which inserted the location of the image - then I enclosed the whole lot in pointy brackets (the signs for less than and greater than)

Okay, I found out how to display less than/greater than signs, so here's what the syntax is and the result for the picture you uploaded, Jackie!
to display < you have to type ampersand lt semicolon without spaces
to display > you have to type ampersand gt semicolon without spaces

<img src="http://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/ba/49/ba499a37d816259636a31356e77434b41716b42.jpg" width=200 length=150>



And now that you've run screaming into the night.....

I don't even put the length or width in mine...just:

Thank you everyone!

Turns out that what I missed out was the "" around the URL.

Also, weirdly, when I copy the image location I get a slightly different URL from the one you seem to be using - there is no 'cdn' in the URL (between 'pics' and 'librarything'). I wonder why you got a slightly different URL?

Anyway, here it is to prove that I can do it, even though you've all seen the picture already!!

Yeah! BTW...I got the cdn in my url also.

>127 Jackie_K: Yay! Well done. But, speaking as a fellow Luddite, LT could make it so much easier for us to find and use these tools :/

>129 floremolla: Here is the link to anything you can/need to do on LT:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/59470

>127 Jackie_K: Congrats, Jackie! Now that you've got it, you'll find it very useful for book covers, family stuff if you want to share, and etc. It works for any picture. Just realize that if the picture is deleted from the source, it gets lost in your 'img src' reference, too.

>126 Tess_W: and >128 Tess_W: Hi Tess! Sometimes the pictures that I personally import are huge, so I usually just set width and length on everything.

>129 floremolla: It took me until last year - 8 long years on LT trying to figure it out occasionally over the years with no success - to be able to happily get img src syntax to work correctly.

>130 Tess_W: There are several good ones, out there, Tess. I use a different one, but regardless if which one you use, starring the topic is the best idea to get back to it quickly.

I hope you're having a happy Sunday, Jackie.

>131 karenmarie: Thanks Karen! I have copied and pasted the img src code and put it in my opening post, so I don't have to trawl through either this thread or others to find it again! (it means I can copy it over if and when I start a new thread too). I could bookmark the helpful threads, but have so many unsorted bookmarks on my browser that I'd never find it. I really need to sort out some kind of site for links instead of just bookmarking sites (is delicious still going strong? Must ask my husband, I know he used to use it).

Sunday is OK so far, thank you! We had my daughter's swimming lesson this morning, which is always fun, and now we are chilling out doing nothing much. The weather isn't good enough to hang out today's washing, sadly, I shall have to resort to just smelling the now-dry clothes I hung out on Thursday and hoping for better weather to come! I have a couple of commitments I really need to get round to - one is a review of an academic article for a journal I review for occasionally, and the other is to start on the revisions needed for a book chapter I am co-writing. But I think I will try and chill out a bit more first! And get a bit more reading done as well.

Lots of useful info, thanks all!

>132 Jackie_K: Jackie, you need to star threads you want to follow, including your own. You never need to bookmark a URL at the web browser level to find the threads you want to see here in LT.

In this thread, right at the top, under 2017 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES), literally under the words READ OUR OWN, you'll see 'Star this topic' or 'Unstar this topic'. If you star it (click on the words Star this topic), the star turns yellow. You can star and unstar a topic as often as you wish. Then, up top on the left again, under Your world you'll see the Starred option. If you click it, all the topics you've starred show up.

Once you see starred topics, you can click on the header of the column you wish to sort by, and that helps find what you're looking for, too. I usually keep it sorted by Last Message, showing newest posts first, but when I get really behind, I sort by Unread/messages to show the threads I'm most behind on.

>134 karenmarie: Wow thanks, I'm learning loads! I do star topics here and in the Category Challenge, mainly threads where I know I'm likely to participate or am interested in, so I see them easily from the group page, but I had no idea about 'Your world'. I used to think I was pretty computer/web-savvy, but clearly not!!

I've learned here on LT to just click things to see what they do. You can't do any harm because they've got things protected nicely.

Trying again, this time from Junk Drawer. Don't worry, I won't completely spam LT with pictures, I just liked this one a lot! I don't think I have any of the dark pink ones, and thankfully only a few dark grey ones. But I can really relate to most of the others!

>137 Jackie_K: That's nice, Jackie. I think I should look at the green ones and cull them...

>137 Jackie_K: I barely have any yellow, except on my Kindle, have lots of orange and pinks! Absolutely no greys, they are GONE!

I finally finished a ROOT in March! And excellent it was too!



Malcolm Orange Disappears is the debut novel by Northern Ireland author Jan Carson. I have a signed copy of the book as a gift from my brother-in-law, as it was published in the year that she was in receipt of a career enhancement grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which he (my BIL) also received the same year (he's a published poet - there were about 12 grants given, if I recall correctly, and they had to do a number of events (readings etc) as well as use the money to work on their next work).

It's set across America, with a cast of weird misfits, and whilst starting off relatively 'normally', as the book goes on there are more and more glimpses of magical realism. That's not something I normally like in a book, but here it worked really well. I found this funny, sad, infuriating, easy to read, horrific, entertaining, funny again, and by the end I was really rooting for most of the characters (apart from Dr Blue, who becomes more and more cartoon villain-like). I'd really thoroughly recommend this, and I'm really keen to read her subsequent work (currently a book of short stories, set in Belfast).

The basic premise is that the Orange family (Malcolm, 11, his baby brother Ross, and his parents) spend their lives driving across America, not settling anywhere and moving on whenever they get into trouble. Eventually Malcolm's father abandons them, and the children with their mum find themselves living in a chalet in a Baptist retirement village, where his mum takes a job looking after the misfit residents. Malcolm realises that he is starting to disappear, in the form of holes that start to appear on his body, first as pinpricks but gradually getting bigger, so that he can see right through them. However, nobody else seems to be able to see this. This is partly the story of Malcolm trying to figure out what to do, partly the story of the various elderly residents, and partly the story of his mum and how she tries to make her escape. Along with the residents (my favourite of whom was Cunningham Holt), the story also features a talking cat, Dr Blue's rebellious daughter, and flying children, as well as post-Vietnam era discredited psychological treatment, and a comedy shooting. It's impossible to describe really, but do read it - it's very funny, and beautifully written, a very very impressive debut. 4.5/5.

By George, I think she's got it!

Yay for img src.

I've seen "My Library" and had it as my desktop picture at work for a while before I retired.

I have never pretended to read a book, nor bought books purely for show. I admit that my Easton Press books are gorgeous in addition to being ones I plan on reading. "Wish I hadn't read" - I've got about 20 that I've still got on my shelves that are 2 1/2 stars or less. Looks like after I eliminate my duplicates I can work on culling them. I have a bunch tagged 'ntbr' that I will never read - some are reference, some I keep for sentimental reasons.

Hope you're having a happy weekend, Jackie!

I don't think I've ever pretended to read a book or bought them for show either - it doesn't make sense to me! I must admit that I've never been very ruthless about culling - I've always thought that I should keep everything, in case someone else in the house might want to read whatever-it-is, even if I hadn't enjoyed it myself. But now that we go to Barter Books a couple of times a year I must admit the temptation to see if I can get a bit of credit there with some of my likely-never-to-be-read-again books is getting greater!

I've had a really nice weekend. Yesterday we went to Edinburgh and met up with some friends who live in the north of England who were up for the day, we had a nice meal with them and then had a look round Edinburgh Castle (which I have been to before, but not since 2004, I think). They have a little boy the same age as our daughter, so they were both really pleased to have someone their own age to hang out with! And then today we had my daughter's swimming lesson, and then after lunch we went to a nearby nature reserve - an in-the-process-of-being-reclaimed peat bogland which has a nice gentle walkway all the way round which is perfect for little people. After that we went to a nearby cafe for tea and (very good!) cake. The fresh air did its magic and my daughter had a 2 hour nap when we got back, which is unheard of most days!

And then this evening I may possibly, maybe, perhaps, have found another book wending its way here through the ether. March has turned out to be a very acquisitive month for books! I've started checking my kobo recommendations more carefully (to try and train them to recommend more books that I'm likely to be interested in, and fewer that I'm not), and a few times this month while doing that I've come across books that I'm definitely interested in for not very much money. It's good in that I'm not spending a fortune, but not so good for Mt TBR! If I don't acquire any more this month then I'm going to have to finish 2 ROOTs in order to still be within my 1:1.5 ratio for ROOTs:acquisitions. Luckily I think I'm on track for that, I should finish one tomorrow and have another short-ish one on the go, but I might have to give the recommendations a miss till April!

>142 Jackie_K: Sounds like a lovely two days! I can't wait till it's warm enough here to go outside and enjoy it, even in a jacket!

>142 Jackie_K: Thanks for sharing your weekend with us, Jackie! It sounds like a lovely time all around. I remember appreciating those two hour naps when daughter was young!

I started serious culling last year when I did an inventory on my books after retiring from work. I've gotten rather ruthless, and when I saw those 2 1/2 and less stars (except for keeping the ER books to keep the ER gods happy) I got itchy to get at them and get them gone. Today I want to spend some time working on culling more duplicates. Maybe I'll take a two-hour nap like your daughter's of yesterday because I've had insomnia and so far have had only 2 1/2 hours of sleep Sunday night-Monday morning!

>143 Tess_W: we had to be very wrapped up! It was mostly dry, but very very windy, so in Edinburgh Castle, which is very exposed on top of its massive rock, it was very bracing indeed! We got pretty well buffetted by the wind in the nature reserve as well, which I think is why my daughter got so sleepy when we got home!

>144 karenmarie: I must admit on the rare occasions that she does still have a nap I'm very jealous, as I never manage to nap at the same time! I call them old lady naps, and there's nothing quite like them! But I generally want/need to nap when she's at her most energetic (and so needing the most supervision!). I can't really complain though, as she's always been an amazing night-time sleeper right from the start. I think I'd have been homicidal if she'd been one of those babies who wakes up all the time!

Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend - first up the view from Edinburgh Castle:



This is from Flanders Moss nature reserve (so gives you a good idea of the weather, although what you can't see is that to the left of here was beautiful blue sky and white fluffy clouds!):

>145 Jackie_K: LOL to homicidal. The pics are beautiful. What "dark" skies!

>146 Tess_W: yes, when the skies are heavy with rain you really know about it! At Edinburgh it was really clear, even though it was so cloudy - you could see for miles from the castle. Apparently earlier in the morning the staff were saying you couldn't see a thing because it was so misty, so we were very lucky with the views!



I've just finished my second ROOT for March (11th for the year to date). This was a very interesting book, which (for me) ultimately failed to realise its potential. Na'ima B. Roberts' From my sisters' lips is a book that I actually won in a radio phone-in in late 2004/early 2005 when the book first came out, I'd heard an interview with the author and was really chuffed to win it! The author is a convert (or, more accurately in the Islamic context, revert) to Islam, and this book is both a celebration of Muslim womanhood and also an account of her and other women's stories of coming to Islam, and looks at certain issues (covering, marriage, children, submission to Allah, and Islamic sisterhood) under the overarching theme of 'Living Islam'. It was really interesting and I felt that I learnt a lot that I really didn't know before, so from that perspective it was successful.

However, I was ultimately disappointed with this book. I think from very early on it was obvious that this was an account from a very enthusiastic and committed convert, and thus everything was presented as obviously right and there wasn't much place for doubt and questioning, which I must admit is what I find very interesting in people's faith journeys, and where ultimately the depth and strength of faith is developed. There was a chapter early on about difficulties, so I thought that would be where I would find a bit of what I was looking for, but it tended to focus on the difficulties of other people's reactions to finding out that a woman has converted, rather than the difficulties and doubts that that woman experienced and how she worked/is working through them. She occasionally alluded to certain issues (particularly around male-female relationships) where she had to work through issues before coming to the 'correct' understanding, but she didn't say a huge amount about these. The book really left me with lots more questions - what about gay, or disabled, or feminist, Muslims? What would their stories look like? It's left me wanting to read more accounts from different perspectives.

Overall I'm giving this 3 stars. As an introduction to Islam from a particular perspective of women converts this is an informative and easy to read account (albeit quite 'earnest' in style) which gives lots of information and insight. I think I'm just more interested in the 'awkward squad' accounts!

My 3rd ROOT for the month (12th for the year) is Jim Crumley's The Great Wood. This is a fantastically poetic look at what is left of the so-called Great Wood of Caledon, the forest which is supposed to have covered large swathes of Scotland thousands of years ago. Each chapter is based in another bit of the remaining forest, and looks at the land as it is, the wildlife and trees, the other influences on the land (such as commercial forestry), and the book concludes with the author's own theory on the extent of the Great Wood. Essentially this is a love song to trees, and to landscape, and I loved it. Crumley could be accused of romanticism, but I think his approach is pretty pragmatic - he isn't, for example, uniformly against forestry, or against introduced species, although he does argue for a different approach. He writes so beautifully (about this time last year I read another of his books, Among Islands, which was one of my favourite reads of the year). 4.5/5.

{Edited to sort out the touchstone}

... I will definitely not be able to "catch up" on threads.. so I'm just dropping in to say Hi!! :)
& congrats on such great progress w/ your ROOTs!

>149 avanders: ALETHEIA! HELLO!!!

I don't think any of us are expecting you to catch up on our threads - we're all far more interested in YOURS!!! xx

(sorry for shouting! But, you know...!)

>150 Jackie_K: :) :) !!
lol Such a warm hello!!
I know, I started to stop by your threads and then baby started calling and I got side-tracked..... but will be updating my own thread next!
xx

>151 avanders: Delighted to see you here, and M is gorgeous!

I'm really enjoying my reading currently - I have two books on the go (one which will hopefully be finished by the end of the week) which are very different but both great. I love it when that happens!

I'm also now half way through my Romanian book, which I'm rather proud of!

In other news, I gave myself a fright this morning. I completed my tax return, relating to a flat I rent out (long story - I started doing the return on the US Presidential inauguration day (that seemed somehow quite apt) but didn't have all the technical bits I needed, so they gave me till May to do it instead). At the end it told me that I owed over £2000 in tax! I was horrified, but phoned the helpline, and it turned out that there was one box where I had put in incorrect information, and the real figure is just under £40. Cue VERY big sigh of relief!

>152 Jackie_K: Isn't it awful how much time we have to spend every year slaving over these forms? Which reminds me that I haven't done mine yet. Ouch.

I'm so glad your taxes bill was NOT the £2000! My husband hasn't done the work to get them to our accountant yet, which probably means an extension. Sigh.

Congrats on all the good reading, too.

>153 MissWatson: This is actually the first time I've had to do a tax return - prior to this I've only ever been an employee and taxed at source, or a student and not required to pay tax, but this is for the first year I rented out my old flat. I had tried to sell it before but just got stupidly low offers, so decided to rent it out instead - I'm making hardly any money and only just about breaking even, but as there are fewer than 10 years left on the mortgage it should hopefully start providing me a bit of an income in time to top up my pension (the mortgage should be paid off about 4 years before I would hope to retire, although looking at our current govt plans I may have to work a few more years. I'm not going to say no to a bit of extra income meantime though!).

>154 karenmarie: Me too! Given that my total annual extra income from the flat was only just over £200 I knew it had to be a mistake, but it did give me a shock when I saw the figure! I think I need a good read to calm down!!

This is what always stresses me out doing my tax forms, that I'm going to make a mistake that will end up costing me about 6 months' salary.

>156 Robertgreaves: this is why some of us put these things off as long as possible...then find ourselves nearly at the deadline for online submissions having forgotten our password.

On one such occasion I had to photocopy an old paper tax return, tippex out the writing, photocopy it again, fill it in and dash to the shops to buy a 1st class stamp and get it posted five minutes before the uplift. I vowed never to repeat that but, no, every year there's a drama.

>148 Jackie_K: sounds very interesting, one for my wishlist - unfortunately your touchstone link for The Great Wood is going to The Hobbit - I can see the connection but really, LT, it's not all about Tolkien!

>155 Jackie_K: My husband must have been reading my mind. I found a box with all our tax prep stuff on the chair at my desk with a note "OK to file extensions." I'll take it to the accountant on Thursday when I'm in Sanford anyway for a luncheon with the people in the IT department I worked with for the last 20 years before I retired.

>157 floremolla: I dated a guy in the 1980s who enjoyed, enjoyed, the last minute deadline of going to the post office just before midnight so he could get his tax return postmarked on the last filing date before penalties. This was, of course, before electronic filing, and there were lines of people doing the same thing. It wasn't the main reason I broke up with him, but it sure was an indication of personality traits that were not in synch with mine.

>158 karenmarie: hehe - my husband was always much more organised than me - tax returns, Christmas shopping, you name it and he had it planned and executed well in advance. That really annoyed me! Now I have to handle all his paperwork because he isn't able to do it himself. Fortunately he has the good grace not to berate me for my habitual last-minute-madness ;)

>157 floremolla: the touchstones have been driving me nuts recently! I thought I'd changed them all from The Hobbit, but obviously missed one!

The touchstones stopped working rationally a year or more ago - most times I have to open 'others' to get the right one.

Yesterday I finished my 4th ROOT of March (#13 overall this year), Jill Paton Walsh's Fireweed which is a YA book I remember reading in school and being really taken with it at the time. It's set in London in WW2 and is about two teenagers, Bill and Julie, who are essentially runaways in wartime London avoiding the authorities who would try to re-evacuate them. It's a short book, with a not-especially-happy-although-not-tragic ending, unusual for YA books particularly at this time (the book was written in 1969). I know that the author has since dismissed the book as juvenilia, but my googling suggests that there are a lot of people who are really fond of it and like me have memories of it packing quite a punch at an impressionable age. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it. 4/5.

>162 Jackie_K: I'm glad you enjoyed your revisit, Jackie. I like to do to the same thing. I have a Scarlet Pimpernel published by Reader's Digest from the 1960's and that was one of the first "adult" books I read and I have really fond memories of it. I plan on revisiting it this year; although I know Reader's Digest Condensed Books at poo pooed by serious readers.

>162 Jackie_K: >163 Tess_W: I have also been struck with this urge to revisit books I enjoyed in my teens and 20s. It's great how many of them are now available again as ebooks.

>162 Jackie_K: nice idea - I read several of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series in my teens but the later books didn't come out till I was in my twenties and had moved on, so I always feel I missed out on an ending!

The series wove Arthurian legend with a 'good versus evil' battle for the world. The atmosphere of TDIR stayed with me and I still think of it when I see crows gathering in tree tops in winter...

>163 Tess_W: >164 Robertgreaves: >165 floremolla: I must admit that I approach the revisiting of old favourites with some trepidation - what if they were so of their time that they just don't stand up to scrutiny today and are simply less enjoyable to read? What if I've become so much more of a hardened cynic that I find it too hard to lose myself in it the way I did back then? But I'm glad Fireweed, although pretty 'of its time', did still hold my attention - that's one fond memory I can leave intact!

It's one of the reasons why I haven't dared pick up Go Set a Watchman yet - I don't want my childhood love of TKAM and all those wonderful characters to be spoiled.

My March round-up: 4 ROOTs read, and, er, 10 acquisitions. Whoops. Looks like the acquisition mojo needs a little dampening down - let's see how April goes!

This month's haul:

* Diana Gabaldon - Outlander (book 1 in the series).
* Frank Kusy - Dial and Talk Foreign at Once (no touchstone).
* Margot Lee Shetterly - Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped win the Space Race.
* Henry Marsh - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery.
* Neil Paynter - The Sun Slowly Rises (no touchstone) (this is readings etc for Holy Week, from the Iona Community).
* Richard Holloway - Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics.
* Sue Monk Kidd - The Invention of Wings.
* Sinclair Lewis - It Can't Happen Here.
* Kathryn Stockett - The Help.
* Guy Sigley - Barney: A Novel.

All but one of these (the Richard Holloway book) are ebooks, so not too much overcrowding of the shelves this month! Only two of them were freebies, but of the eight I paid for only two were over my £2 limit, and one of those was less than £3. So that's not too bad...

All of my March ROOTs were pretty good too, and the book I'm now reading which is likely to be my first April finished ROOT is brilliant, my book of the year so far. So it's been a good reading month, even if my book-acquiring got a bit carried away.

Ratio-wise, I'm only just over the 1:1.5 ratio for ROOTs:acquisitions - 13:20. I'll try harder to reign it in in April! (and read more!)

Quite a nice haul. I hope you find many brilliant ones in there!

>167 Jackie_K: I wish I had your taste for non-fiction - you've inspired me to include one in this month's ROOTs!

>168 MissWatson: I have high hopes of quite a few of them!

>169 floremolla: yes, I've been more into non-fiction for quite a number of years, and find fiction quite daunting now! I was actually quite impressed with myself that of my haul this month, half were fiction! (thank you bookbub and kobo special offers!). I'll be interested to see what non-fic you get to this month!

My first ROOT of April, 14th overall for the year, is Amy Liptrot's The Outrun. I can't rave enough about this wonderful book. It is a memoir of her return to her childhood home of Orkney after a decade of alcoholism and drifting in London, and deals with her reaction to the landscape and nature in Orkney, and the various experiences she has, as well as her ongoing experience of addiction while sober, and reflections about her life. Insightful, stark, beautiful, extraordinary - everyone should read it! I am pretty sure this is going to be my book of the year, it's going to take an absolutely exceptional book to beat it. 5/5.

>171 Jackie_K: this looks very interesting - I think I cope better with harrowing stories in fiction than non-fiction but it sounds like this might be quite uplifting? I love the idea of nature as restorative.

>172 floremolla: Yes - while she doesn't shy away from what happens as she is experiencing addiction (both when she is looking back and writing about things that happened when she was drunk, and reflecting on why she drank and how it escalated, as well as when she is sober again), her making sense of it all and making connections with nature and place is beautifully done. She is realistic about the fact that once an addict that never goes away, and she has to make the choice every day to stay sober (by the end of the book she has been sober for just over 2 years). So I don't know if uplifting is quite the word, but I did find it very hopeful. I'm a real wimp when it comes to harrowing stuff and there wasn't anything that made me want to put the book down while I braced myself for what was coming, if that makes sense!

I'm also a Scottish island-phile, and this has definitely made me want to visit Orkney!

>173 Jackie_K: yes it does make sense! I don't cope well with other people's real life struggles. I'll keep this one in mind. I hope to get to Orkney some time and I like to read different perspectives on places I visit. Admittedly usually fiction!

>174 floremolla: I definitely want to see Orkney now having read this, her writing is very evocative.

I'm trying to figure out why fictional 'harrowing' bothers me often more than real-life. I wonder if it's because I am a nurse (now a health visitor) and have seen plenty of real-life harrowing situations, so I have learnt to protect myself to an extent. Whereas I just can't fathom how someone could think up these scenarios, so find that really stressy!

>175 Jackie_K: ah yes, I see what you mean. We're on opposite sides of the coin. As primary carer for someone with multiple serious conditions I deal with a RL harrowing situation daily, so I try to avoid other RL woes - we all have our emotional limits. Fiction is therefore a great distraction, provided it's not too maudling!

>176 floremolla: yes, I think if I was in a similar position where it is that close to home/family, I wouldn't want to read about other RL people's woes either - just as I never watch programmes about hospitals or health care (fictional or fly-on-the-wall) because I do that all day! (although that doesn't apply to reading non-fiction/RL stuff about health care, for some reason. I guess because I quite enjoy a good old rant!). I think 'emotional limits' is a good way of thinking about it. For me, I think fiction (whether on the page or screen) often requires either a suspension of disbelief or an emotional investment in characters which take me beyond my own comfort zones/emotional limits. Whereas reading about real-life situations doesn't need that suspension of disbelief because I already know it's real, if that makes sense. Although having said that, I must admit that I do avoid so-called 'misery memoirs', which don't appeal to me at all. I'd already read enough reviews about The Outrun to know that it was going to be so much more my cup of tea.

>177 Jackie_K: no 'misery lit' here either!

Hi, Jackie! 125 new entries are a bit much to read. But I skimmed through them and will start to keep up from here. Have a nice weekend!

>179 connie53: Ah Connie, there's no expectation to read every last message! It's always just lovely to see you here. Hope your weekend is good too. We seem to have some lovely weather here at last, so maybe we will go to the park later with our daughter. Although then we will have to deal with the inevitable tears when it's time to go home again!!

>152 Jackie_K: thank you! :)

oh no! That's scary when you think you owe a bunch in taxes -- whether it's true or not! Glad it was not true for you ;)

>167 Jackie_K: well, after so many months of successfully keeping your acquisitions ratio well in check, you were bound to have a month in which you weren't as ... successful ;) But to still be just over your 1:1.5 ratio is impressive!

And otherwise, hello! :)

>181 avanders: hello back! It's great to see you here as you are able, and enjoying your wee one so much! He is adorable!

I should have 3 books finished by the end of the week (two I'm reading for Lent, so finish on Sunday, and one should just be another 2-3 days if I keep going at a chapter a day like I have been. I wish 'poly-reading' had occurred to me years ago, I am racing through ROOTs this way!).

>182 Jackie_K: Thank you! we are indeed enjoying him... I do spend odd amounts of time just looking at him ;)

Congrats on your reading success! Glad the "poly-reading" works for you ;)

>182 Jackie_K: I like the sound of the poly-reading approach - look forward to learning what you've been reading and any insights the Lenten books have brought.

>183 avanders: >184 floremolla: thank you - poly-reading is great! I generally have at least two books on the go, my main reading time is the 3/4 of an hour or so after going to bed, and I usually manage a chapter (or set number of pages) of each book. I find this particularly works well with paper books - for some reason I find reading ebooks less daunting so can often read more of them in one go than paper books. Also if I'm finding one book a bit of a slog, or a bit stressful, having enough books on the go that I can have a day off and read something else instead inspires me to keep going! I try not to have books which are too similar (or too intense) on the go at the same time, so I don't tend to get too confused!

At the moment I technically have 5 books on the go, but I am having a couple of weeks off the Romanian one (I'm making good progress with it, so thought I could have a little break! I'll get back to it next week!), one of the Lent ones is only readings for Holy Week so is very short, and I tend to read it at unearthly hours of insomnia as it is on my ereader so I can read under the covers. Then I have my other Lent book, a popular psychology book which I think I will finish tonight, and some fiction (which I've only just started - I'll probably read more of that after this week when the Lent and psychology books are out of the way).

I like poly reading, also. I have at least 3-4 going at once: 1 on my Kindle (bedtime), a paper book (for day light), an audio book for the car, and I'm currently reading about each president--working on Madison now. That doesn't include any history reading I need to read for classes nor my daily Bible reading (6-6:20 daily). That's why you will often see me finish 2-3 books very close together and then go for long periods without finishing even one. It works for me. I'm sure I'm ADD!

>186 Tess_W: I'm similar Tess, including the several books finished in a cluster then a few weeks with nothing! I never used to be able to read like this, I would just read one book at a time, and only then start the next one, but if I got into a reading slump it meant that I would go ages without reading anything at all! I think it was reading War and Peace over the course of a year for my ROOTs a couple of years ago and having other books to read at the same time to encourage me to keep going with it showed me that it was something that could really work for me.

For a long time while I worked full time and had a little one to look after, I only had one book going at a time. Now I have 3 - the year-long Bible as Literature read, one fiction book (currently The Stranger From the Sea, 8th Poldark book), and one non-fiction book (Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It seems to be working.

There's a lot of poly-reading going on! I usually have an audiobook (fiction) on the go - I save those for the big chunksters - plus a paper book (also fiction), but I could probably add a non-fiction to the mix without confusing myself too much...

My polyreading is usually one main book plus a book of short stories for reading when I can't read the main book. For example, I couldn't read my main book on the way home last night (too dark for a physical book) so I read some short stories on my reader.

>188 karenmarie: When I had little ones (2 boys 18 months apart--2 in diapers and bottles same time and 2 not sleeping through night same time---my oldest didn't sleep through night until he was almost 2)......I could only read 1 book at a time---if I was lucky! Luckily my oldest and my youngest started sleeping through the night at the same time--one at 3 months and one at 21 months.

>191 Tess_W: Hi Tess! Sometimes motherhood and reading seem mutually exclusive, although I read to daughter before she was born and every day of her life up 'til about 1st grade or so. I read some great childrens book!

>192 karenmarie: I identify with that! I could only settle to read on holiday when my two were young, I always seemed to have too much to do, or was too tired by bedtime.

One of the nicest things is seeing your children happily reading - now my daughter and I enjoy sharing and buying each other books as gifts, so I think I did a good job there ;)

>191 Tess_W: >192 karenmarie: I also read to my children constantly. Even on vacations we would start a chapter book in the car and read between stops. I'm thankful that there were no video games or cell phones in those days! And I kept some of the books and re-read them to my grandchildren.

I am loving hearing of you all reading to your kids! My daughter loves books too, but then I've been reading to her since she was here too! I was lucky when she was a baby that she was pretty mellow, and also slept amazingly pretty much from the start (that was the year I first started ROOTing, when she was a little over a month old and I was on maternity leave). I'm pretty sure if I'd had another child that reading would have been squeezed out for a while!

My 2nd ROOT for April (#15 for the year so far) is a popular psychology book, Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Last year I read Beyond Chocolate by Sophie and Audrey Boss which made a lot of sense to me and made me think about trying to eat more mindfully. Reading "Mindless Eating" is my next step, this was a very readable discussion of the ways that we think we're in control of what we eat and the decisions we make about food, but actually how influenced we are by external factors. Further than that, it makes suggestions of small changes to make to our habits which can make small, but tangible (and hopefully more sustainable) differences over the long term (if you want to lose a large amount of weight in a short amount of time, this really isn't the book for you). It's got me thinking about changes I can make which I know can work for me, and hopefully I will start seeing the fruits of approaching my food more thoughtfully as the year goes on.

This was slightly spoiled for me when I found out, midway through reading the book, that the author and his lab are being investigated for misconduct over, let's say statistical massaging, with some of his academic articles being challenged over their methods and interpretations. This is not an academic book though, it's more a distillation of some of his research findings for a popular/non-academic audience, and so I had already approached it with the perspective of seeing if there were any good ideas that made sense to me rather than that it was gospel. I think reading it like that was fine, and may well dip into it again in the future. 3.5/5.

>196 Jackie_K: guilty! I know it's a cliche but the Scottish weather really does seem to demand comfort food ten months of the year (at least). Plus I've an inbuilt dislike of wasting food.

This sounds like a useful book. It's a pity the author has been discredited somewhat but if it is engaging you effectively in mindful eating the stats probably don't matter.

>197 floremolla: oh tell me about it! It really isn't lettuce climate, is it?!

>198 Jackie_K: hehe, 'lettuce climate'! :)

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day, however you celebrate it!

I finished my two Lent books, yesterday and today.



The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner, pretty much does what it says on the tin. I didn't have particularly high expectations for this book, but I found myself really warming to all three women and really appreciating their honesty in examining their own and each other's religions. They started to meet after 9/11 when Ranya had the idea of writing a children's book which examined the similarities and connections between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and sought out a Christian and Jewish mother to co-write it with her. It soon became apparent to them that before they could write that book, they needed to discuss their own prejudices, stereotypes and beliefs with honesty and openness, and it is as a result of that process that this book emerged. It has to be said that all three are from the more liberal end of their respective religions, which is probably why I found them easy to warm to - we all relate to 'people like us'. That said, I did find their discussions fascinating and challenging, and it has given me lots to think about. 4/5



My second book doesn't appear to have a listing on LT, it is from the Iona Community and is a series of readings, poems and other pieces for Holy Week: Neil Paynter's "The Sun Slowly Rises" (available from here: http://www.ionabooks.com/the-sun-slowly-rises-downloadable-book.html ). Like "The Faith Club", I'd say the Iona Community is largely from the liberal end of the spectrum, with a very heavy emphasis on social justice, the environment, etc, so again largely preaching to the converted here. I found some of the readings touched me more than others (particularly the main Palm Sunday reading), but again found plenty here to make me think. 3.5/5.

As a result of these two readings, as well as a reminder on Tess's thread earlier this week about a favourite book that is long overdue a reread, I am thinking again about the implications of faith for life, and what that means for me and what I am/do in the world. I know reading is easy rather than actually getting off my backside and doing something, but I am wanting to get back into a couple of books which made a really big impression on me when I first read them, several years ago: Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and Keith Ward's What The Bible Really Teaches: A Challenge for Fundamentalists. This isn't the only thinking I'm doing - we're coming up to local elections here in the UK, not to mention all the various national and international turmoils that have been rehashed here and elsewhere ad nauseam, and I'm thinking about where that all leaves me too and what I should do about that. Not just for me, but for my daughter and her future.

(My current other read is much lighter! Much less philosophising after I've finished that one!! Hopefully by the end of April)

I read the Keith Ward book about 12 or 13 years ago, and IIRR found it very abstruse -- to the point that it seemed to be saying Christianity is only for very highly trainded philosophers and best avoided by others as we will only misunderstand it with dire consequences.

>200 Jackie_K: speaking from a secular viewpoint but just as concerned - of all global concerns nowadays I despair most about the lack of humanity that leads to hatred and persecution. I think politicians have a lot to answer for, in the growing use of fear as a tool to manipulate public emotions and perceptions. Their greed for money and power is what shapes unsympathetic policy on social equality and the environment, yet ironically some are keen to display their religious credentials.

I'm not optimistic about what individuals with a social and environmental conscience can do except seek to influence local politics to be more progressive, demand our education systems teach young people to think for themselves and meanwhile support (financially or actively) those charities making a difference in the aspects we care about at home or overseas.

On a brighter note, I think the millennial generation might surprise us with their own view of the world.

>201 Robertgreaves: That's interesting, Robert - I read it a long time ago, but found the focus on universalism really refreshing! Something I now feel I want to revisit. Although I did attend a talk he gave a few years ago and fell asleep, so make of that what you will! :)

>202 floremolla: Yes, I absolutely agree with you. I am seriously thinking about how I can get more involved in local politics (to the extent that I am not entirely dismissing the thought of joining the Greens and maybe looking at council politics in the future). Hopefully I can do something in my generation and not just wait for my daughter's to undo our mess (I know that's not what you were implying!!).

Hi Jackie!

I've added The Faith Club to my wishlist. It sounds like a very good book.

>185 Jackie_K: funny - I'm the opposite.. I find ebooks more daunting than paper books and tend to read less of them in 1 sitting .... :)

poly-reading I used to do a lot of that... intentionally stopped several years ago (I wanted to re-emphasize the joy of picking a new book as a reward for having finished one...).. but it still happens with audio books and certain non-fiction longer-term reads :)

>191 Tess_W: >192 karenmarie: >193 floremolla: >195 Jackie_K: it does seem that way sometimes (no time to read when sometimes it seems that all I do is sit around?)... ;) But I enjoy reading stories to Mal - esp. when he's so interested in them! :)

& Congrats, Jackie, on more ROOTs!

>203 Jackie_K: maybe I'll give it another go. I did find his God, Faith and the New Millennium fascinating.

>195 Jackie_K: Well, my reading story when the kids were little is not the same. I read everywhere! Even while cooking dinner. Jeroen and Eveline could keep themselves busy and could play together without it ending in a fight. So I sat beside them with my book. I think I learned then to read in small bits. 5 minutes there, 10 minutes here. And of course we read together or I read to them. We had library-cards for each kid and went to the library at least once a week.
Now everybody reads, even the kids-in-law. Only Peet won't touch a book!

I have another ROOT finished but am on my phone waiting for the garage to fix a puncture (sigh) so will wait till later to update. Not how I'd planned to spend Sunday afternoon, especially as it's forecast to be our last nice day for a while. And stupidly, I didn't think to bring a book while I wait!

>208 Jackie_K: oh that's a nuisance! Hope you don't have long to wait. :(

>208 Jackie_K: Oh my, that's really a nuisance. Hope you are back home now enjoying the last nice day!

Thanks folks - luckily they were able to do it while I waited, although unluckily the puncture wasn't fixable so I ended up having to shell out for a new tyre, which was a bit annoying. Apparently the nail that had punctured the tyre was at a weird angle so also having a go at puncturing the inner wall of the tyre a bit further round. Le sigh. I did get back in time to get out in the garden to do some watering and hang out the washing (my last chance for a while I suspect).



So as I mentioned, I finished another ROOT this morning! Not the easier read I mentioned in >200 Jackie_K: (although that one is still on the go), but another Jar of Fate book which grabbed me and so ended up superceding my other reading. It was another non-fiction academic book, The Importance of Being Innocent : why we worry about children by Joanne Faulkner. I had picked this up thinking it was going to be a book from a sociological perspective (which is the academic approach I feel most comfortable with), but it turned out that she is actually a philosophy professor, so I was initially a bit daunted, as any philosophy at a level more complicated than Sophie's World more often than not bamboozles me. However, this was an eminently readable and very approachable book which I found fascinating. Her basic premise is that the focus on innocence in childhood is flawed, and she illustrated this by looking at both moral panics and also children who don't fit the narrative (eg adolescents, refugees and indigenous children - the book is mainly focused on Australia, although the points she makes absolutely apply more widely). I can't possibly do it justice, but would absolutely recommend it. 4.5/5.

Also, this marks the point of my original ROOT goal for the year. I'm pleased I managed it this early, let's see if I can reach my new (and much larger!) goal by the end of the year!

>211 Jackie_K: You reached your goal for the year? And upped it with 30 more?

>212 connie53: Yes - I decided to be brave, as I seemed to be managing around 4 books a month (as opposed to the 1.5 a month of my original goal). Hopefully I won't regret it, but last year I managed 46, so hopefully 48 isn't beyond me!

Then you deserve some:

Well done, Jackie!

>207 connie53: that is a great skill to have (reading in small bits).. one that I need to acquire! If I only have a little time .. I tend not to read. Of course that is changing a little w/ the nursing (a little bit of reading on each side.... :))

>208 Jackie_K: >211 Jackie_K: boo on the puncture :( and double-boo on having to buy a new tire!
I have started using the kindle app on my phone when I am "in a pinch" w/ no reading material.. it is nice to have! Even if I don't end up reading the books on there very often/quickly.

And goodness, congrats on already reaching your original ROOTs goal!

Congratulation from me, too, Jackie!

>200 Jackie_K: I was able to mooch a copy of The Faith Club on Bookmooch, and should get it in the mail within a couple of weeks.

>217 karenmarie: Excellent, I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for congratulations everyone. I think I need to just be braver about what I'm capable of, now that I've mostly got back my reading mojo. I do have the odd blip where I just can't be bothered, but they're not lasting so long now, so hopefully I am still on track for 4 a month for the year.

Jackie- Wow! Congratulations on meeting your original ROOTing goal and best of luck with your new goals. I always like your Jar of Fate idea because it sounds like fun but think I may be too much of a mood reader to try it.

>220 Jackie_K: I think it works for me because I'm such a flip-flopper! It makes me commit to something - otherwise I just procrastinate and can't work out what I'm in the mood for!

A friend on facebook posted this Guardian article today, and there was stuff about this on the radio news today earlier too - essentially it transpires that sales of paper books in the UK are growing again, compared with ebooks which are plateauing/going down. Audio books also doing well, apparently. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/27/how-ebooks-lost-their-shine-kindle...
It was really interesting watching the discussion unfold, how people are very passionate about the format of book they prefer! Personally, I like both, although I'm trying to buy more ebooks now because Clutter. There are some books though (particularly those that are heavy on illustrations/photos) where an ebook just doesn't cut it.

>218 Jackie_K: >220 Jackie_K: hee hee I have the same issue ;)
Mmm reading mojo - it's really going to be interesting to see how this all plays out! I have bought/received an ... uncomfortable number of books over the past month .. now I have to read them! ;P

Very cool about the increase in sales of paper books in the UK! Thanks for the article! :) I've said before.. I love real books and not ebooks so much, but I find that ebooks have their place too (esp. lately while I'm reading in the middle of the night while nursing!)

>220 Jackie_K: interesting article and probably describes my own 'trajectory' of buying and reading - at first I thought ereaders couldn't possibly replace books. Then I did get a kindle but devised my own set of 'rules'. Kindle for books I'm unlikely to reread or authors unknown to me. Real books for favourite authors and classics/books I might reread or want to lend out (I share a lot with my daughter). And I totally agree, books with lush illustrations just aren't meant to be ebooks!

I would add though that my kindle account had an unexpected bonus - when my husband lost mobility in his limbs through spinal injury, he found he could operate an iPad with one finger. With the help of the kindle app, he now gets through a lot of books on his favourite subjects. I guess ebooks are a great boon for a lot of people with disabilities.

>222 floremolla: That last sentence certainly is true. I thought you were much younger, but now with a daughter reading your books I guess you are a bit older.

>223 connie53: haha, in my head I'm younger :))

>222 floremolla: I agree, I had my own rules for ebook reading too, although they have widened considerably since my early days! Initially I just used the ereader for freebies (I went a bit mad on Project Gutenberg!), and for academic journal pdfs that I could read on the train on the way to work without having to print out and carry sheaves of paper. Once I got my kobo, which is backlit (so I can read in bed - my original Sony ereader doesn't have a light so like paper I am restricted to day time), I have started buying books for it, and I've now deleted the pdfs since I no longer work in academia or have a long train commute. My No. 1 book-buying priority remains the pursuit of the bargain, so if a paper book is cheaper than the ebook then I just get the paper copy. I'm happy to read either.

My No. 1 book-buying priority remains the pursuit of the bargain, so if a paper book is cheaper than the ebook then I just get the paper copy. I'm happy to read either.

I feel the same, except I'll pass on a paper copy if the font size is small. Since the sales of ebooks are leveling off, I wonder if price is a factor? I am not sure about UK prices, but in the US Kindle book prices have gone up quite a bit during the past three years, especially for recently published books. Wait lists for newish ebooks at my library are often really long, too.

>226 This-n-That: Yes, I think it's similar in the UK too - there used to be a much bigger difference in price between print and ebooks than there is these days. I think ebooks at libaries here have been much slower to take off, mainly because the vast majority of people have kindles rather than other ereaders, but for some reason they don't use kindle format ebooks for libraries. It works for me (not that I've signed up for that service yet as I have enough TBRs already!) as I have a kobo, but I read somewhere that kindle have about 95% of the ereader market in the UK, and that doesn't surprise me at all.

I've got a Kobo ereader and the Googlebooks and Kindle apps on my large screen phone. Googlebooks is consistently cheaper than the others. For me the huge advantage of ebooks is the availability of the books. So many authors I like are just not easily available here, though the situation is improving all the time. If I order a book through a bookshop, it might take anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. But I want that book NOW. The fact that I might not read it for a year or two is irrelevant :-).

Since I live in an apartment, space is also a factor; my partner is already looking a bit testy when I come in with an armful of new books.

Certain books just don't work on an ereader: heavily illustrated books as already mentioned, and also the formatting for poetry and plays is less than ideal (not that I'm a great reader of them but I do read some). Lines don't fit on one line (if you see what I mean) and verses run together.

The biggest disadvantage is not being able to see how far along in the book I am. A percentage bar or page number just doesn't work in the same way as being able to see it physically. Without that physical cue I have no idea where I am in the book, which can make long books seem very long indeed.

Now it's the last day of the month I am fairly confident I won't be finishing or acquiring any more till May, so here's my April acquisitions round-up. Like March, April ended up being quite an acquisitive month, as I bought 8 (I read 5, and currently have 4 on the go, all of which I'm confident I'll finish in May).

So, April's haul:

* Brian Wansink - Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. (I read this in April too)
* Various - Northumberland: Time and Place (anthology for the 10th anniversary of the Hexham Book Festival) (no touchstone).
* Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist.
* Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism.
* HG Wells - The Time Machine. (BB from floremolla)
* Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - We Should All Be Feminists.
* Tim Shipman - All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class.
* Ed. Christine Holmberg, Stuart Blume & Paul Greenough - The Politics of Vaccination: A Global History (no touchstone yet).

3 of the 8 were freebies, all but the Wansink book were below £2 (and that one was below £3 as I got a 1p copy from amazon marketplace), and all but the Wansink book were ebooks.

I know it will thoroughly depress me, but I'm thinking of reading the Tim Shipman book in place of my next scheduled Jar of Fate pick (it will still count as a ROOT as my rules include new and shiny books as ROOTs). I'll wait till I'm closer to finishing my current 4 books and then decide.

Ratio-wise, I am only one book over my 1:1.5 ROOTs:acquisitions ratio, so am pretty confident I can reign that back in (we'll not think about my upcoming birthday in early June! I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). Although I'm finding 1:1.5 reasonably do-able, I'm really unsure if I'll ever manage to make it to 1:1 (which is my aim, or even 1:less than 1).

Pretty good month for acquisitions, and you're doing well with your ratio! Such discipline!

Congrats on reaching your original ROOTing goal, Jackie, and good luck with the new goal. I think you are doing really well with your acquisitions but then my acquisitions are growing so fast that I am running out of shelf space.

>229 Jackie_K: good work- a steady flow of ROOTing and prudent acquisitions!

>229 Jackie_K: fun haul! And congrats on remaining only 1 over your acquisitions ratio goal! That's very impressive :)

Hi Jackie!

Congrats on your excellent ratio.

My birthday is in June, too. I might pick a book or two from my wishlist as a little birthday present to myself.

>234 karenmarie: Good idea! That's what I did last year and I expect I shall do the same (although last year I picked rather more than I meant to!!).

If you're willing to share, what day is your birthday? Mine's the 26th.

Mine's the 3rd. I like having a June birthday, midway between Christmases, so the presents get spread out!

Me, too! I have a friend whose son's birthday is right around Christmas. They always celebrated his birthday in June so it wouldn't get lost in the holiday activities.

The only disadvantage of mine was that it never got acknowledged at school since school in California always let out mid-June. A small price to pay, though.

In Scotland the schools finish around mid-June too (in England it's later, early July). My disadvantage was that my birthday always coincided with the first week of exams, which felt very unfair! My 16th and 18th birthdays were either day 1 or the day before important exams started, and my 21st was the day before my university finals. So very muted celebration for me!! I've made up for it now I'm older - not that I go mad or anything, but I do often plan trips or treats now I don't have to worry about being around and sensible and sober! This year we are going away for a long weekend to Gigha, which is the southernmost of the inner Hebridean islands. I can't wait.

I just looked up Gigha, and it sounds wonderful. Definitely something to look forward to, for sure.

My husband just started a new job, and can't think of taking time off until fall. He's making noises about going to Garden City Beach, South Carolina, where a cousin lives. We'd rent a small beach house for a week and hope that daughter could visit us part of that time since she lives close by in Wilmington, North Carolina. Husband likes to sit on the deck and watch the waves, birds, and people, with occasional forays to interesting close by historical sites. It works for me, too.

That sounds idyllic! Wave, bird and people-watching with added historical sites would be my perfect holiday! I hope it happens for you!

I have just been looking up books about Gigha and have found a couple I like the look of, I think I might treat myself to an early birthday gift.

{I'm not a book-buying addict. I can stop any time I like}

{I'm not a book-buying addict. I can stop any time I like}

Right.

*smile*

alcottacre, Stasia, calls it BAD - Book Acquisition Disorder. Either way, it's incurable, I think.

I've got BAD bad.

Sounds like a lovely holiday coming up. We can all stop any time. First convince us we don't want what we want.

I'm BAD too!

I've stalled a bit with reading - I'm still managing the Romanian book most days (and will probably finish it this month), and a couple of others both of which I'm enjoying but not going as quickly as I'd like with them! And my fiction read that I started last month is going the way of all fiction with me, which is that even though I'm enjoying it I put it off till I'm too tired and then can't face starting it, so it's been over a week since I last picked it up! I will finish it, hopefully this month, but not if I keep finding other things to do/read first! But anyway, that's this month's progress so far. I have one of last month's acquisitions that I'd like to read before next month's election (groan), and have also just bought a book about Gigha, which I probably won't have time to get to before we go, but hopefully will read while I'm there.

In other news, I have this week off work (I work 3 days, and today is technically day 1 of my leave) to do a big declutter and room clearout to try and turn my spare room (the Room of Doom, as it's the dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home anywhere else!) into a functioning home office prior to hopefully starting freelancing in the next month or two. Decluttering is not something that comes naturally to me (I am a bit of a hoarder) (that is an understatement), but even though the room doesn't actually look much better, I am feeling really proud of myself that I have achieved quite a lot already. Lots recycled and shredded (that was fun - I love shredding!), and other stuff chucked or set aside for the charity shop etc. And - most relevantly to this thread - I have sorted out a box of books to take to Barter Books next time we go there. Their blurb says they take a small box or two carrier bags per person per visit, so I have managed to fill a box and even if I just get a few pounds of credit I'll be happy with that, particularly as around half of the books were left in the house by the previous owners so we didn't pay for them in the first place (they left a lot more than just some books - half a ton of furniture we weren't expecting when we moved in - so we ended up having to pay quite a lot to get rid of it. So I won't feel guilty about making a few pounds on their books!). Most of the books I identified from my own collection are either recipe books or diet and/or fitness books, but I also pulled out four fiction/quasi-fiction books that I really didn't like and will never read again. I'll be happy to get even just a quid or two for them, it will make up slightly for the hours of life lost reading them that I'll never get back. I know to the veteran book-cullers here that four books will be puny, but this is a *huge* thing for me to do - so even though it's just baby steps, I'm very happy! Now we just need to work out when we're actually going to go to Barter Books (knowing me I'll forget where I put the box and leave them behind).

>245 Jackie_K: Excellent work on the decluttering! I'll expect a full report on how many books you manage to obtain with the credit at Barter Books :D

>245 Jackie_K: well done, sounds like good progress - I feel your pain, I loath decluttering and sorting out paperwork. You'll be needing that holiday weekend! And some jolly good reading material... :)

>245 Jackie_K: Oh, I think four books are really nice. I have a stack up books that I don't want to keep. Currently it consists of seven books, it has taken me two years and I haven't actually gotten rid of them yet. *sigh*

What is it with all this 'keeping books even if we don't reread'. It seems to me we all suffer from it. Good job on the decluttering, Jackie.

>238 karenmarie: my husband had that issue too, with his birthday in August. His sister's bday is in March and she always had a big to-do, but in August, they would be "up north" with their grandparents and he'd have no birthday party with friends or anything.. just a small affair. Nowadays, although he loves presents, he tends to prefer keeping the "celebration" on the small side. :) Conversely, one of my best friend's bdays is 5 days after Christmas and her family was not great about it ... she would get the same presents as everyone else at Christmas, but they would call it birthday presents too... and then her sister would get a whole, separate, big celebration when her bday came around. Made her kind of hate Christmas! :-o

>241 Jackie_K: lol me neither :-D

>242 karenmarie: lol I also have BAD bad!

>244 connie53: hee hee ;)

>245 Jackie_K: Oh that sounds like a wonderful week off! I loooove re-doing rooms. I always have. Ever since I was little, I would every-so-often re-do my room completely, moving furniture around, different decorations, etc. Probably came from the fact that we moved so much and, in order to try to make that as un-traumatic as possible, our parents always made it "an adventure"...

& Congrats on the decluttering and book-culling!

Right... you made a 2nd root thread. Well, I'll just leave these comments here anyway ;)