laura_88's 2014 ROOT Challenge

I didn't meet my goal in 2013 so I have reduced my goal to 20 in 2014. Hope this year is going to be more succesfull. Every book I own counts so books that I acquire in 2014 will also be included.

Welcome again, Laura!

Best of luck this year! :)

Hi Laura. Good luck with your challenge.

Thanks everyone! In the start of year 2014 I have 180 TBRs waiting to be read...

Well I'm slowly reading my first ROOT book Bleak House. My copy is 936 pages long and I've read 43% of it so far. After finishing this huge book I'll probably read something shorter for this challenge. :)

WOW, that's lot of pages! Respect.

>6 laura_88:: Good idea! I need to get cracking on Bleak House myself. I'm not even at the point where I stopped reading last time!

#7 Thanks Connie!
#8 I'm really liking the book, but it will take awhile before I finish it.

That's a really impressive volume to take on for your first ROOT. Wow!

#10 The group read in the Category Challenge group really pushed me to start this book and I'm glad it did. I'll guess at some point of the year I will try to find the short TBR books to meet my challenge... Maybe my goal for 2015 should be to read Les Miserables which I also own (and is one of the longest books in my TBR).

Wow, 9e36 pages is a huge task for the first ROOT! Hope you enjoy it.

Hope you enoy Bleak House. It takes up a bit of pace in the second half, if I remember rightly, so I hope it will hold on to be an anjoyable read.

#12 & 13 I'm still enjoying Bleak House and I only have 100 pages to go. :) Will probably finish the book today.

Bleak house took me 3 months! Keep going!

ROOT #1 Bleak House by Charles Dickens
This was a great book to start my ROOT challenge. I had previously read and liked Great Expectations so I knew the writing style of Dickens. I really enjoyed the book and towards the end it started to be a real page-turner.

Congratulations!

#17 Thanks! :)

Yeah, you finished the big one!! Way to go.

Congrats on finishing Bleak House. Glad you liked it, it really takes up pace towards the end.

#19-20 Thank you both!

ROOT #2 Beowulf
This seems to be a month of classics for me. This was luckily a lot shorter than Bleak House. :)

Yes!!! good job.

Which edition of Beowulf did you read? The new one by Seamus Haney?

#23 I read a Finnish translation of Beowulf.

Ah, thanks! That is an edition I can not put on my reading list...

ROOT #3 Maaninkavaara by Miika Nousiainen
Martti starts to train his daughter to be a champion runner, after his son dies. He has some unique training methods but not all of them are good for his daughter.

Wow, I just realized you are from Finland! I looked at the title of your ROOT and thought: What is that?

I really like the multicultural groups here!

Yes sometimes it's hard to know where are everyone from. I am from time to time suprised when I notice that someone that I've thought to be man/woman is actually the opposite sex. That usually happens when I can't guess that from the username.

This has nothing to do with books, Laura, but I love your Finnish Pelican's hockey commercials! (Saw them on wimp.com)

Had to watch them from youtube because I hadn't seen them before. Hilarious :D

> I'm trying to keep track of every ROOTer in an excel sheet!

ROOT #4 Through A Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon
Book #15 in the Brunetti series. An ok mystery although it took awhile before the crime happened.

>Book 15, That's a departure from most mystery. Was it annoying that the crime didn't happen right away?

It's been quite a while since I last read a Brunetti, but they're big favorites in our household - too bad it was only ok for you.

What's up next for your reading?

#33 Well in the beginning Brunetti interviewed some people who were later involved in the case so it wasn't that bad.

#34 Actually I finished another ROOT book last night. Don't know what will the next book for this challenge. I have a lot of library books I should read.

ROOT #5 Kiitos, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
This book contained two longer Jeeves and Wooster stories ("Right Ho, Jeeves" and "Thank You, Jeeves") and one short story (Jeeves Makes An Omelette). I read the first story a couple of years ago but for some reason didn't read the rest until now.

Unfortunately no ROOTs for me this month. I was busy reading library books and me and my fiancée took a trip to Barcelona. I'll try to do better next month!

Just keep it up, Laura!

I'd trade ROOTs for Spain, too! :) Did you have fun?

>38 Merryann: I sure did. :) Great food, lots to see and the weather was just right for me, not too hot.

Barcelona? Of course that's way better than ROOTs. That has been on my list for ages. Soon, I keep promising myself. What did you like best?

>40 MissWatson: Well I liked everything so it's hard to say just one thing. And we saw only some parts of the city: for exemple Sagrada Familia, Montjuïc, Parc Güell and La Rambla. We already talked about which places to visit if we go there again... :) Barcelona is a beautiful city and I hope you get a change to go there.

Finally I read a book from my own shelves... I've been busy with library books. I will start a part-time job next month in a local library so I don't see the library book pile getting any smaller.

ROOT #6 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust by George R.R. Martin
This is the first part of A Dance with Dragons. It's been a few years since I read A Feast for Crows so I was quite happy to return to Westeros. I liked the book alot and now I have to wait patiently for the second part of the book to be published in Finnish. The publishing company which translates these books to Finnish is very small so it has taken awhile to get the translation done. If everything goes as planned the second part will be out this month. I'll probably buy that one too.

OK this was a short one but it still counts! :)

ROOT #7 The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister by George R.R. Martin
Short quotations from the Song of Ice and Fire series. Tyrion is one of my favourite characters so I had to buy this book.

My next ROOT read will probably be the second part of A Dance with Dragons.

Welcome back and have fun with the Lannisters!

How is the part-time job in the library going?

>45 Tess_W: It's been great working there. Three months has just flown by. I have nice co-workers and the customers are usually friendly too. :)

ROOT #8 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Flavia is such a wonderfull character. I will continue reading this series, but this was the only Flavia book in my TBR.

>47 laura_88: I have The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie on my shelf as well. Not yet a ROOT but you piqued my interest with your comment about Flavia. Maybe I should get to this book sooner rather than later.

I'm really glad the library job is going well! What a great job for a book lover!

ROOT #9 A Dance with the Dragons : After the Feast by George R.R. Martin
And the waiting game starts again... It kills me to think that I have to wait for a few years before I can read the next book in the series. I want to know what happens now! Luckily we have the tv-show to help past the time... :)

I'm still reading part 4, Een feestmaal voor kraaien. So I can take it slow and read all the remaining books before the newest one is written and published.

>51 connie53: Lucky you... :) I've been reading the translated versions of the books so I first have to wait for the original to get published and then for the translation. Well I have tons of other books to read while waiting. :D

I'm reading the translation too.

ROOT #10 Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami
I'm a fan of Murakami's writing and this book did not disappoint me.

So I got halfway with this challenge this year. I have one ROOT in progress, should finish it soon but there is no way I can read 20 ROOTs this year. Well there's always next year. :)

The most important thing is that you enjoyed the books.

I agree with MissWatson!

>55 MissWatson:, >56 Tess_W: I know. :) Working in a library makes it sometimes difficult to concentrete on the books I own.

>57 laura_88: The library is tempting enough to me as a patron; I can imagine how much more tempting it would be when you actually work there! :)

I agree with MissW and Tess. Just enjoy what you are reading!

>58 rabbitprincess: Well let just say I have over 60 books borrowed from the library...

>59 connie53: That won't be hard. :)

ROOT #11 The Dinner by Herman Koch
I didn't find any likable character in this book. It was still interesting though.

>60 laura_88: I did not like The Dinner at all! I found it to be a no-brainer, but perhaps that's just in my lil world!