edgewood digs up more ROOTs for 2014

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edgewood digs up more ROOTs for 2014

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1edgewood
dec 30, 2013, 12:56 am

The 2013 group was inspiring, so I'm back for more! I'll aim again for 50 books, concentrating on those I've had for 2+ years. I'll post here monthly with what I've read. I'll even figure out how to use a ticker!

There is apparently a Japanese word tsundoku meaning "the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other such unread books." That's me for sure!

2Tallulah_Rose
dec 30, 2013, 2:48 pm

Welcome back.
That japanese word is quite interesting. Makes me wonder why the japanese have a word for such a behaviour, but we westerners haven't why may that be so?

3cyderry
dec 30, 2013, 2:51 pm

Glad you came, Charlie!
Are you going to make a ticker this year?

4rabbitprincess
dec 30, 2013, 7:54 pm

Welcome back and good luck with this year's challenge! I practise tsundoku a fair bit too (and am very good at it if I may say so myself). Nice word!

5edgewood
dec 30, 2013, 11:18 pm

Chèli, I gather tickers make it easier for you to gather statistics, so I'll use one when I start posting books here (and in the ticker thread). Thanks!

6rainpebble
jan 1, 2014, 2:25 am

Hi edgewood. Good luck with your challenge.

7connie53
jan 1, 2014, 5:34 am

Welcome to the club, Charlie. And happy Reading in 2014.

8Tess_W
feb 5, 2014, 6:17 pm

Good luck with your root! I think that the definition you posted applies to many of us in this group!

9connie53
feb 6, 2014, 2:38 pm

And now we are wondering if you are reading anything ROOTable, Charlie.

Just curious. ;-)

10edgewood
feb 6, 2014, 6:25 pm

Thanks for the nudge! I have been reading, will post here soon.

11connie53
feb 7, 2014, 10:39 am

And you made a ticker! You know you can put it in your first post up above too? Just copy the HTML code en edit your first post and paste it there. To make your own thread more fun! Happy reading.

12edgewood
feb 7, 2014, 2:58 pm

Okay, I seem to have figured out how tickers work, and updated mine in the ticker thread, and the group's January progress thread.

Here are the ROOTs I read in January:

1. Star Songs of an Old Primate. The 3rd collection of short stories by James Tiptree Jr. A strong collection, especially the Nebula-awarded feminist novella "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" (a story with its own Wikipedia article, should you want spoilers).

(I'm rereading Tiptree's oeuvre after around 20 years, and some new (to me) things too.)

2. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. A riveting biography. Her life was as remarkable as her fiction. Interesting to see how her life experiences became reflected in her stories.

3. First Kingdom Vol 1: The Birth of Tundran. Beginning in the 1970s, veteran comic book artist Jack Katz independently published The First Kingdom, a 24 issue black & white epic space fantasy, densely plotted, written, & drawn. I read many of them back then, but I'm really happy to see this well-done hardcover collection, the first of four.

13connie53
feb 7, 2014, 4:56 pm

Good job, Charlie!

14jen.e.moore
feb 7, 2014, 5:16 pm

Love to see all that Tiptree! I confess to having taken the biography out of the library at least three times without ever getting around to reading it. Some day...

15edgewood
mar 31, 2014, 3:16 pm

I skipped the February tickers, so I'll catch up with March. Here's what I've rooted up the past two months:

4. Out of the Everywhere and Other Extraordinary Visions. I consider this Tiptree's strongest collection of stories.

5. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. A sweet novel set in a rather odd San Francisco book store.

6. The Wild Shore. The first of Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy. A young man tells of one summer's adventures around his coastal settlement in a post-apocalyptic San Onofre. I liked this a lot, and look forward to reading the other two books.

7. James Tiptree, Jr (Starmont Reader's Guide 22). An overview of Tiptree's works and themes.

8. Clumsy Love: Volume 01: 2009 to 2011. Charming comic strips about a young family.

9. Buttering the Wind. A recent collection by the Berkeley street poet.

10. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. The translation is by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

16edgewood
mar 31, 2014, 3:30 pm

I've just added these 7 books to my own ticker & the group's for March.

17Merryann
apr 2, 2014, 1:41 am

Congratulations on some good reading! :)

18connie53
apr 7, 2014, 2:46 pm

Happy reading, Charlie!

19edgewood
maj 1, 2014, 12:37 pm

Hrmm, given my sparse reading of ROOTs, I'm skipping April and will update at the end of May. (Read other good stuff though!)

20edgewood
jun 6, 2014, 7:11 pm

ROOTs from April & May:

11. The Life-Partner of Frankenstein. Predictably entertaining cartoon story in the long-running series of Wolff & Byrd, attorneys with supernatural clients. This one is a metaphorical riff on gay marriage rights.

12. Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand. I reread one of my favorite science fiction novels for the first time in some years; it's still great.

13. The K Chronicles: The Incredible Cuteness of Being. The latest collection from cartooning genius Keith Knight. It's his usual mix of personal foibles & political outrage. Many of the strips are about his experiences as a new father.

14. The Gold Coast: The second in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Three Californias" trilogy, of three different visions of a future Orange County. This is the "dystopian" novel, of rampant building, military contracting, and multiple wars around the world. Written in the 1980's, it reflects the late Cold War and nuclear proliferation concerns of that time. But all of the novels focus on the human condition of trying to lead a meaningful, happy life, no matter what the external circumstances.

15. Phallos: Enhanced and Revised Edition. A literary hoax within a literary hoax, Phallos is an erotic novel of uncertain authorship, set in the late Roman Empire, described and excerpted on an academic web page. Complex & beautiful.

16. Amphigorey Too. The second collection of illustrated stories by the macabre & inimitable Edward Gorey.

17. The Unlimited Dream Company. J.G. Ballard's dream-like, nightmarish takeover of a bland English suburb by an unreliable narrator who may be experiencing the whole story as he drowns in the Thames. Not for everybody.

18. Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus. This is for everybody, a collection of his always hilarious newspaper columns.

Now to see if I can remember how to update those tickers...

21Tess_W
jun 7, 2014, 8:24 am

Wow, way to go on all t hat reading!

22connie53
jun 13, 2014, 1:56 pm

And did you remember, Charlie?

And you did read a lot the past few months.

23edgewood
jun 13, 2014, 3:05 pm

Urf! I forgot the passcode to my ticker; may have to start a new one.

24Merryann
jun 21, 2014, 10:55 am

>20 edgewood: #13. How cool! I haven't read that one by Keith Knight yet. I often think the only drawback to books of comics is that they can't write/draw them as fast as I read them and so I always end up waiting for the next book. My son will be pleased to know there's another Knight book also. Thanks!

25edgewood
aug 31, 2014, 5:44 pm

June, July, & August ROOTs:

19. Pacific Edge: The third in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Three Californias" trilogy, of three different visions of a future Orange County, this is the "utopian" novel. That doesn't mean human suffering has been eliminated, but that it's not on such a vast, human-caused scale. The main character deals with state & local water politics, unrequited love, and the normal grief of a friend's death. But human society has arrived at much more sustainable, peaceful systems. As a whole, I love this trilogy.

20. The Big Feminist BUT: A good anthology of comics dealing with modern takes on feminism, by both women & men.

21. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book: A strong, kaleidoscopic novel of a Chinese American writer coming of age in the Bay Area. The 1960s time range is deliberately vague, but he seems to be a late beatnik/early hippie, dealing with racism, art, love, & politics.

22. Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society: A history of the Bay Area (and beyond) artists, pranksters, & culture jammers, members of whom brought us Burning Man, the Billboard Liberation Front, the Chinese New Year treasure hunt, drunken Santa mobs, urban exploration, and much more. You may already be a member!

23. Me: Stories of My Life: A loose, enjoyable memoir by Kathrine Hepburn. What a life!

24. David Copperfield: I hadn't read Dickens before, except A Christmas Carol. This was a wonderful book to get lost in.

25. Ubik: A classic, reality-questioning novel by Philip K. Dick.

26. Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story: A memoir by the child actor who played Timmy on the television show Lassie. An interesting look at the joys & travails of being a young actor, and its pressures on his family. Includes a great look at the historical moment of the mid-1960s on the Sunset Strip.

26Tess_W
aug 31, 2014, 8:59 pm

Sounds like some good reads!

27edgewood
nov 1, 2014, 2:38 am

My September & October ROOTs:

27. Lost Girls: Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie's stunning erotic graphic novel.

28. Kim: Kipling's classic novel, really wonderful.

29. The Crying of Lot 49: Pynchon's early paranoid farce. Fun and unnerving.

30-32. Riddle-Master: Perhaps a cheat that I'm counting this single bound volume as 3 books, but it is an omnibus of Patricia McKillip's early trilogy. Nice epic fantasy to get lost in, though I had trouble keeping some of the characters straight.

33. Alec: The King Canute Crowd: Lovely comics from Eddie Campbell, semi-autobiographical stories of Alec and his jovial, drink-loving, twenty-something friends in late 1970s England.

(No way I'll reach my 50 book goal by the end of the year, but onward I plod.)

28Tess_W
nov 1, 2014, 11:32 am

Wow, looks like September was a really great reading month! Don't worry about the numbers, just enjoy!

29edgewood
dec 31, 2014, 5:02 pm

My November & December ROOTs:

34. The Best American Comics 2006: This annual series always has great choices, and always some artists I've not heard of before.

35. Singing to the Sound: Visions of Nature, Animals, and Spirit: Personal essays with an eco-spiritual theme, especially focused on humans living harmoniously with other species.

36. Selected Poems (William Carlos Williams): I don't read a lot of poetry, but he has a distinctive voice, seeing the numinous in the everyday.

37. Christmas With Eve: A cheerful modern romance novel that seemed seasonally appropriate.

Well, that's it for this year! Happy reading to all.