Brakketh trying to up-ROOT 30 in 2021.

Love the support and intent of the group. I managed 26 out of my goal of 30 in 2020 and am looking to stretch and achieve my goal of 30 in 2021. Hello to my fellow gardeners in 2021.

1. Cradle finished 15 January.
2. Hunger finished 17 January.
3. The Satanic Verses finished 18 January.
4. First and Only finished 27 January.
5. Moment of Lift finished 31 January.
6. Finders Keepers finished 21 March.
7. Kingdom finished 25 March.
8. The War Lord of the Air finished 2 April.
9. Imagine finished 1 May.
10. Cat and Mouse finished 9 June.

11. Piranesi finished 21 May.
12. The City We Became finished 2 June.
13. Leaves of Grass finished 10 July.
14. Paul of Dune finished 3 July.
15. Superforecasting finished 17 July.
16. Love is as Strong as Death finished 29 July.
17. The Other Log of Phileas Fogg finished 25 July.
18. A Year in the Merde finished 31 July.
19. What Would Keynes Do? finished 4 August.
20. Educated: A Memoir finished 7 August.

21. Rumi: Selected Poems finished 8 August.
22. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe finished 30 August.
23. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965, Vol. 4 finished 31 August.
24. The Steel Remains finished 5 September.
25. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning finished 16 September.
26. Blind Lake finished 19 September.
27. Troylus and Criseyde finished 28 September.
28. The Once and Future King finished 28 September.
29. Social Physics finished 2 October.
30. My Sister, the Serial Killer finished 2 October.

BONUS ROOTs

31. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts finished 3 October.
32. Voss finished 5 October.
33. Manifold: Origin finished 9 October.
34. In the Woods finished 14 October.
35. I Know This Much is True finished 26 October.
36. The Day of Creation finished 1 November.
37. Is It Just Me? finished 2 November.
38. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath finished 3 November.
39. The Eyes of the Dragon finished 4 November.
40. Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May-June 2018 finished 12 November.

41. Chomsky finished 15 November.
42. 10 Short Stories You Must Read in 2010 finished 17 November.
43. Recollections of a Bleeding Heart finished 29 November.
44. The Speaking Earth finished 29 November.
45. Asimov's Science Fiction, March-April 2018 finished 30 November.
46. Lullaby finished 1 December.
47. Evolution finished 6 December.
48. Death of a Salesman finished 7 December.
49. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis finished 16 December.
50. The Bonfire of the Vanities finished 30 December.

A very enjoyable year where I managed to make my way through many wonderful new books and only resolved a couple after finding they weren't for me after all.

Hi Kale, good to see you back again for another try! Happy New Year and Happy ROOTing.

Welcome back, happy reading!

Hey welcome back! Good luck with your goal this year, and I hope you find more great books on your shelves!

Hoping we'll meet at the finish line!

Happy ROOTing!

Happy start for me - January 2021.

1. Cradle, quite dated and ended with a bit of a fizzle for me. Hopefully some more enjoyable discoveries for me throughout 2021.

2. Hunger, deeply personal and striking telling of Gay's relationship with her body and moving her body through the world.

3. The Satanic Verses, nothing from me on this one. I enjoy magical realism but didn't really have the mental space when I was reading it for this one. This one was a double for me as it is also a 1001 book.

4. First and Only, the bleak gothic setting of Warhammer 40k is very appealing to me right now. Enjoyed this introduction to Commissar Gaunt.

>7 brakketh: I have Hunger on my TBR, I'm looking forward to it. I read Bad Feminist last month and thought that was excellent.

Just popping in to wish you and yours a Happy Easter.

5. Moment of Lift, I appreciate the work that the Gate's Foundation does for the world and enjoyed the opportunity to read more about Melinda Gate's role in the organisation and view of the world.

6. Finders Keepers, I little off the boil compared to Mr Mercedes in my opinion though Hodges is still a fun character to read about.

7. Kingdom, I cannot put my finger on why but this book felt very odd and confusing, didn't really do it for me.

8. The War Lord of the Air, Not Moorcock's best, but still an interesting read.

Hi Kale, sorry to hear your reading has been a bit disappointing. Hope it will go better in the next couple of weeks.

9. Imagine, discarded unread after finding when a friend pointed out the plagiarism scandal around the book and the conduct of the author.

10. Cat and Mouse, a bit of brain-candy, enjoyable by-the-numbers thriller with a couple of twists to keep the reader amused.

11. Piranesi, a delightful mediation on loneliness and a slow, peacefully paced book.

12. The City We Became, an engaging mythology for cities with wonderful characters and an exciting world.

>17 brakketh: That's on my TBR-pile too. And >18 brakketh: goes on the wishlist! I love N.K. Jemisin

>15 brakketh: I was vaguely aware of this book, but I hadn’t heard about the plagiarism scandal. I found an interesting piece that Roxanne Gay wrote about it for Salon.com.

Glad to hear you like Piranesi as it’s on my to-read list too.

13. Paul of Dune, book appeals to the desire to have everything stepped out, enjoyable and in some ways detracts from the original trilogy.

14. Leaves of Grass, some beauty scattered throughout and one of those books with lots of 'aha' moments where you realise you've seen references in popular culture but didn't understand the source.

15. Superforecasting, thoroughly researched and engaging discussion of how to improve human's ability to predict future events under uncertain conditions. Read this in part to support the risk prediction for work.

16. Love is as Strong as Death, alphabetical collection of Paul Kelly's favourite poems covering love and death, some absolutely beautiful poems I'd never come across and some old favourites.

17. The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, novel that fills the gaps of the 80 Days Around the World, didn't really hook me.

18. A Year in the Merde, quick lighthearted read by an author I suspect I wouldn't enjoy meeting in person.

>19 connie53: Piranesi and The City We Became definitely some of the favourite Christmas presents. I think you too will find them very enjoyable.

>20 Charon07: Thank you for the article, love Gay's writing and hadn't seen that take on things before.

A little envious of the great book you have on your to-read list.

Hi Kale, back again to see what you are reading now.

19. What would Keynes Do?, great simple introduction to economic theory and theorists.

20. Educated: A memoir, fascinating story of starting from no education to the peaks of educational obtainment.

21. Rumi: Selected Poems, interesting reading this sensuous, classic of Middle Eastern poetry.

22. The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, the stories and poems you have heard of are the strongest of the collection by a mile. I didn't particularly enjoy the stories that were infighting between critics.

23. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965, Vol. 4, really accessible debate regarding Kuhnian paradigms of science with some very amusing phrasing where they are ripping shreds 'politely' off each other.

24. The Steel Remains, brutal and great fun.

25. The Ravenous Brain, attempts to link developments in neuroscience with a concrete scientific model of consciousness.

26. Blind Lake, pleasant surprise of a book, loved the approach to quantum consciousness and how the observations were covered.

27. Troylus and Criseyde, very hard work getting through the Chaucerian language.

28. The Once and Future King, was really disappointed, expected to enjoy this but found the casual tone and references to current day (at time of publication) events detracted from the story.

OCTOBER ROOT summary:

29. Social Physics, interesting and engagingly written study of big data and social spread of ideas.

30. My Sister, the Serial Killer, a breezy quick read with fun characters and some enjoyable twists.

31. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts, even written down the scenes of this play ring out in a terrifying way. Highly recommend.

32. Voss, vibes of Heart of Darkness in this story of the exploration of the interior of Australia during colonial times.

33. Manifold: Origin, exploration of the Fermi Paradox (that we are the only sentient species in the universe) - characters easy to dislike but the ideas carried the day.

34. In the Woods, well put together and kept me up much later than I would usually read.

35. I Know This Much is True, a wonderful ROOT discovery of this long-form fiction story of two twins lives during a time of upheaval. Very moving and engaging.

We have had another COVID related lockdown (which includes libraries), this has meant that the ROOTing has been turbocharged for the year 2021.

NOVEMBER ROOT summary:

36. The Day of Creation, dated in places and feeling very reminiscent of Heart of Darkness. Creation of a river with parallels to the impact of colonial and neo-colonial works in Africa.

37. Is It Just Me, unfinished - good to get it off the shelves, not for me.

38. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, amazing insight into the life of Plath from her viewpoint.

39. The Eyes of the Dragon, written for his young daughter and it shows. Amazing flexibility as a writer to be able to try out this genre with some success.

40. Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May-June 2018, a mixture of more and less enjoyable short science fiction, the poetry was universally terrible.

41. Chomsky, short and accessible introduction to Chomsky's influential linguistics work.

42. 10 Short Stories You Must Read in 2010, very enjoyable collection of Australian short-fiction.

43. Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, beautifully written and provides a glimpse of how the Paul Keating office functioned. A wonderful read for anyone interested in Australian politics.

44. The Speaking Earth, some enjoyable pieces scattered through this collection. Collection includes poetry from Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen which surprised me.

45. Asimov's Science Fiction, March-April 2018, another strong collection of fiction, particularly enjoyed Bury me in the Rainbow.

That's all for my November ROOTs, some great discoveries over the month with the Keating biography the best of them all. The continued library closure and some holiday time made this an excellent month for my reading (including two chunky reads that had been on the shelves for around a decade).

Hi Kale, just visiting as many threads as I can manage today. I hopelessly behind with that.

I hope the lockdown is over more or less. But is certainly helped your ROOTing.

Wally Lamb writes beautiful books, doesn't he?

>33 connie53: Absolutely, I saw that HBO made a series about I know this much is true which I have added to my to be watched pile.

I have added the remainder of Lamb's books, with great happiness as the discovery, to my to be read pile.

Lockdown largely done now which is a relief. Hope you are doing well and enjoying your 2021.

Hi Kale, I'm doing fine. You are so right by adding all Lamb's books to the pile.

I'have only read Vergeef me and Walvismuziek but both were excellent.

If you have followed my thread you might have read that my husband is now living in a care-home. He can't live at home anymore because he needs care 24/7 and I can't give him that. Even groceries shopping would be difficult because he might try to walk and fall over. The surgery to his cervical vertebrae did not go as good as we hoped and it left him more unstable and his cognitive state has worsened so he keeps forgetting he is limited in his walking. He can't go upstairs to sleep or shower. So the general practitioner in the care hotel where he stayed for two months made the decision that it's not safe for him to come home. We are adjusting to that thought but I'm very relieved someone saw the difficult situation and now I'm getting used to living alone.

So 2021 was not a real good year for us. Let's keep our hopes up for 2022.

>35 connie53: Very sorry to hear this, my family has had similar situations and they are very challenging indeed. I will keep my hope up for you and your husband for 2022.

Hi Kale, thanks for your nice words!

And

DECEMBER ROOT summary

46. Lullaby, a bleak and readable story about what could happen if people were able to kill at will.

47. Evolution, I very much enjoyed this journey through time and how evolution has shaped and could potentially shape our future.

48. Death of a Salesman, a very distressing read, so well done. I look forward to seeing the play performed.

49. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, it was almost a let down as these ideas are now so commonly expressed as to seem almost self-evident. There were of course a number of ideas that have been largely resolved, corrected - but still a very accessible and enjoyable read.

50. The Bonfire of the Vanities, brutal, funny and bleak - very much enjoyed this scathing social critique.