KWharton ROOTs again!

Thanks to joining the 2020 ROOT challenge, I managed to read 12 of my own books last year. I still have a few left (understatement), so I am back for 2021! Once again, I will try to read some large books, but I expect I will end up with some short ones in December.

I have started Penguin History of New Zealand Illustrated which I have dipped into in the past, but have not read in full.

Happy reading, everyone!

Hi KWharton, Good to see you back again. Happy ROOTing.

>2 connie53: Thanks Connie!

Welcome back and good luck with the big books!

Welcome back, and happy reading!

Welcome back and have a great reading year!

I am planning for Penguin Illustrated History of New Zealand to be a book I dip in and out of through the year. I have just started Like Water on Stone which I will finish more quickly.

>7 KWharton: That's a good plan KW. Lets us know what you think about both books.

I was using a small handbag the other day so could only read books on my phone. I started Get Her off the Pitch by Lynne Truss, which I am enjoying.

Finished Get Her off the Pitch! Only 11 books to go...

I enjoyed it. I liked the way Lynne Truss covered the questions of if/why sport is actually important (a question I often ask myself as I watch hours of sport on TV), and the misogyny in sports journalism. I also laughed quite a bit!

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

Finished Like Water on Stone. It started off with two chapters that seemed to be more about the author than about Amnesty, but I found a bit more background as I read further. I would perhaps call it "a" story of Amnesty International, rather than "the" story. Amnesty International is such a great organisation. I appreciated that Jonathan Power acknowledged that it is often hard to know how much difference Amnesty's work makes, but I am sure that it does make a difference.

>13 KWharton: I think you are right about Amnesty's organization. There must be more than fits in one book.

Two more down! The Friends of Meager Fortune which was from SantaThing, and The Obelisk Gate the second in the Broken Earth trilogy.

De Obeliskpoort!! I love that series. So different and intriguing.

I have stalled a bit... I keep getting tempted by library books!

>17 KWharton: Me too! I just discovered Hoopla through my local library, which makes it even easier to get ebooks.

Our library recently changed to libby (which is something to do with Overdrive), so I now use Overdrive to get library ebooks. It's great that it's so easy, but also not great! :)

>19 Jackie_K: Oh, yes, my library has libby too! I can get audiobooks and ebooks, which was a lifesaver while the library was closed during lockdown. Plus there’s Hoopla now too, which seems to have the advantage of not having any limits on how many copies the library can loan, so no waiting lists. But I like the libby app for my iPad a lot more than the Hoopla one.

>20 Charon07: For some reason libby doesn't talk properly to Adobe Digital Editions on my PC, so it kept wanting me to reauthorise my kobo every time I tried to download a library book (and then the kobo still couldn't open the book even when I did that). I don't have any problems at all with epub files from other apps, or with overdrive, so I've kind of abandoned libby, other than using it to check the catalogue.

Technology is so amazing, especially when it works! :)

>21 Jackie_K: At least the old-fashioned ink-on-paper technology is generally reliable!

I have reached the "find all the small books" stage! I have just finished e which was pretty bad. I might have enjoyed it in 2000, but it has not dated well. The technique of telling a story via email was quite clever, especially for the time, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.

I also read Cinderella Liberator which was an "Our Shared Shelf" selection about this time last year. It was lovely - and very short!

>23 KWharton: Ha, I'm at that stage too!

>24 rabbitprincess: Happy reading! I guess I should stop posting here and actually read something :-)

I have started Shameless: a sexual reformation which I am loving so far. I did think my goal was only eleven books - oops!

Done! It was great. So hopeful. Next up is Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock which is only 180 pages.

It was OK. I didn't like the style - I felt that it jumped around and I didn't really feel the different voices of the two main characters. I think it was important for the time it was written, as there wasn't much LGBTQ+ young adult fiction from NZ.

I have also finished Dovey Coe which is another young adult (or younger) book. I loved the narrator's voice, but I wasn't sure about some other parts of the story.

Three books to go!

I have just noticed that I did not include The Unsavvy Traveler which I read in September! So that means I only have two left. Should I try to finish the Penguin History??

I finished Belief in Politics which I've had on my shelf since the author did a tour of New Zealand. It's a collection of interviews with UK politicians from the 1990s, so I had to google a lot of them. It was OK, but a good one to donate now. Then I started The Martian which was a SantaThing choice from a few years ago that I've been looking forward to. I think I will make my goal after all! Next year I plan to start earlier, but I think I have said that before :-)

Hello there!

Go get those last ROOTs! (The Martian is a great book and so are all Andy Weirs books!)

Trying to catch up on threads again. I want to wish you

I finished The Martian! It was good, fun, and entertaining. There was quite a lot of scientific explanation, which I didn't always follow, but I still enjoyed the story. I thought that the movie added some good bits, but I might watch it again. Goal achieved - yay!

I picked up Dublin again that I started ages ago, but I don't think I will finish it today, so it can be a completed ROOT for next year.

Thanks to everyone here for your encouragement, and particularly to connie53 and cyderry

>32 KWharton: That's so sweet!

Congrats on meeting your goal.

>32 KWharton: Congrats on meeting your goal in the nick of time! And a good book, too :)