Montarville's ROOT 2017

Walking to work is supposed to be less expensive than commuting by car or public transportation, but it is not the case for me: there are two bookstores between home and the office.

I will set a modest objective for my ROOT challenge, because I own quite a few thick books, and because I know I will not be able to resist for very long the charms of the bookstores. Fifteen books, including a few big fat ones, is a reasonable objective for me.




1. Hérétiques, Leonardo Padura
2. La Jument verte, Marcel Aymé
3. Le Lecteur de cadavres, Antonio Garrido
4. Humiliés et offensés, Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. Six degrés de liberté, Nicolas Dickner
6. La Confusion des sentiments, Stefan Zweig
7. Pélagie-la-Charette, Antonine Maillet
8. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
9. The Best Laid Plans, Terry Fallis
10. Casse-pipe, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
11. The Rest is noise, Alex Ross
12. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
13. Requiem pour l'Est, Andreï Makine
14. Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
15. Contrepoint, Anna Enquist
16. El libro de arena, Jorge Luis Borges

Welcome and good luck! This group is a great motivator to read one's own books. :)

Welcome! This bunch is so motivating. They're also a lovely group of very nice people. I hope you have fun with us.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Ooh, that sounds like a dangerous commute! Good luck with your ROOTing.

Welcome and good luck with avoiding the bookstores!

Welcome & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Welcome to the group and good luck with your goal!

Welcome to the group, and happy new year! I hope we can help you meet your goal!

Welcome to the ROOTers and Happy Reading.

Happy 2017 rooting!

Well, some of us like to live dangerously...

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Welcome! We have similar sort of goals.

First ROOT completed! Hérétiques, by Leonardo Padura. And it was a thick one, so I am very happy.

From what I can see, it is not yet available in English. It deserves to be translated, it is very good. It all starts when the son of a Jewish Cuban exile finds that a Rembrandt that used to belong to his family (most of which perished during WWII) is for sale in a London auction house. Of course, he wants to know how that painting ended there, who had it during all those years, what did his father do about it, etc. Then, we are taken to Amsterdam at the time the painting was made, and finally we are brought back to modern-day Cuba, where the detective Mario Conde is trying to solve the disappearance of a teenager.

A very good read to start the year.

>15 Montarville: Sounds like a great read!

From your summary, I want Hérétiques to be translated into English soon, too. BTW, who are the heretics in the novel?

I like your goal because it's nearer to my slightly even humbler one (12 ROOTs) and company here at the bottom of the reading ladder is welcome. I tend to dine on fatty books, too.

That is why having to pass 2 bkstrs on the way to work would be fatal for me. I'd never get there, nor, probably, ever return home.

­­­­­There are many heretics in the book: Jews considered heretics by Christians, Jews considered heretics by other Jews, Christians behaving unchristianly, Cubans who have stopped believing the propaganda of personnal sacrifice for a greater good that will not be achieved in their lifetime...

To make my ROOTing a little more fun, I have decided to play BingoDOG (http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2017_BingoDOG). I probably won't fill the entire card. Though I have many books that have been on the shelf more than five years or set in a time before I was born, I very much doubt that I have a single one from an author who shares my initials or that was published in 1917. Nevertheless, I think this can be a fun way to choose ROOTs.



2- Le Lecteur de cadavres, Antonio Garrido - ROOT
5 - Hérétiques, Leonardo Padura - ROOT
13 - Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa, Haruki Murakami - Does not count as a ROOT, since it was a Christmas gift.
15 - Humiliés et offensés, Fyodor Dostoevsky - ROOT
21 - La Jument verte, Marcel Aymé - ROOT
24 - La Confusion des sentiments, Stefan Zweig - ROOT
20 - A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole - ROOT
1 - The Best Laid Plans, Terry Fallis - ROOT
8 - Casse-pipe, Louis-Ferdinand Céline - ROOT
7 - The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross - ROOT
10 - Heart of Darkness and Tales of Unrest, Joseph Conrad - ROOT
18 - Requiem pour l'Est, Andrei Makine - ROOT
22- Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut - ROOT
4- Contrepoint, Anna Enquist - ROOT
11- El libro de arena, Jorge Luis Borges - ROOT

Good idea! Have fun checking off the boxes with the ROOTS you have! :)

>20 Montarville: Love it! It looks really doable.

Second ROOT completed! And there are still 10 days left in January. If I keep up the pace, I will make my objective.

Root number 2 is La Jument verte, or The Green Mare in English, by Marcel Aymé. I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. Though that doesn't mean much, since I expect a lot from this author. Another one of his books, The Man Who Walked Through Walls, is one of my favorites of all time.

This ROOT could fit many squares in the bingo card: satire, color in the tilte, set in a time before you born, owned more than five years, etc. I will put it in square 21, book or title about an animal. For the moment. I reserve myself the right to place it elsewhere at a later date if it's more convenient.

>20 Montarville: fun! I love being able to use tangible things like that ;)

My third ROOT of the year is Le Lecteur de cadavres (its English title is The Corpse Reader) by Antonio Garrido. The story is set in 13th century China, and is about the first CSI in history. It's a well written historical novel, and a paghe-turner.

Since I have never set a toe (or any other body part) in China, I chose to use it for the second square of the bingo card: a country where you've never been.

>25 Montarville: Oh wow, sounds like a great story. I'm going to check out Amazon!;)

It took more than a month, but I have read my 4th root of the year. This book, Humiliés et offensés (The Insulted and Injured), has been on my shelves for about twelve years, so it deserves the square "owned for more than 5 years".

I am glad I finally read it. I don't think it's the best of Dostoevsky's works, but it is worth the read.

Hi MV, just passing by to say Hi!

It took a while, but I have read my 5th ROOT of the year. It doesn't fit any of the bingo squares, unfortunately.

If I keep the pace, I will reach my objective for the year!

A book is a book is a book! Congrats

Congrats on your progress!

What they said -- and you're already a third of the way there!

I have been reading books from the library and new books lately. This is why my ROOT count is not going up as fast as it was at the beginning of the year. So, to get back on track, I went for the thinest book in my ROOT stack: La Confusion des sentiments, by Stefan Zweig. As Tess_schoolmarm said: a book is a book. And an afternoon with Zweig is always well spent.

I must read Zweig sometime. Journey into the Past is on my TBR because it was adapted into a movie featuring Rebecca Hall and Alan Rickman, called A Promise.

>33 Montarville: yep, a book is a book! Congrats on another ROOT pulled :)

Another ROOT! Once again, it does not fit any square in the bingo card, but it doesn't matter. The point is to reach my ROOT objective, not to get a bingo.

My 7 th ROOT is Pélagie-la-Charette, by Antonine Maillet. It won the Goncourt prize in 1979, and I agree it is an exceptionnal book.

Well done with the ROOTing! Yours is such a dangerous thread, with all those fascinating books. I just read about the Acadians in my non-fiction chunksters, so Pélagie-la-Charette goes onto the wishlist.

#36, I am such a fan of Evangeline and the history of the Acadians that I'm afraid I have just purchased this in translation on Amazon!

I have Pelagie: The Return to Acadie on the shelf. Is it a translation of what you read or a sequel?

>39 Familyhistorian: Your touchstone links to a stray copy (probably because the author's surname is missing), but in the main entry under Antonine Maillet that is the title of the English translation.

>37 MissWatson: Thank you MissWatson! I think too that Acadia has a very interesting history.

>38 Tess_W: Tess_schoolmarm: Good for you! I hope you enjoy it.

>39 Familyhistorian: Familyhistorian: It is the translation. It must have been very difficult to translate. The characters speak in the particular French of Acadia, and I think this is mainly what gives the book its particular flavour. I am sure the translator found a way to carry it into English, I just don't know what it is.

Another ROOT bites the dust! And that brings me beyond the half way point of my objective. Woohoo!

My 8th ROOT is A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. I bought this book about ten years ago, read a few pages, didn't find it funny, so abandonned it on the shelf where it gathered dust for a decade. I picked it up last week because it is June's reading group selection on The Guardian's website.

I know some people adore this book, but I am not one of them. It is supposed to be a laugh-outloud farce, it barely made me smile a couple of times. I liked the last two chapters (approximately the last 60 pages), I just wished the author would have found a way to get there sooner.

How this book won a Pulitzer Prize is beyond me. I think the jurors gave more consideration to how the book got published (posthumously, after years of efforts by the author's mother) than to its actual content.

Nevertheless, I am glad I read it, if only because of its vivid portrayal of New Orleans (that I had the pleasure to visit for a few days last summer).

Congrats on making the 50% mark!

>42 Montarville: I've got this on my shelf. Looks like I can safely let it linger a little longer. Great progress towards your goal!

My 9th Root is The Best Laid Plans, by Terry Fallis. For Canada's 150th anniversary, it was a fitting read. Set in Ottawa, the novel (gently) mocks Canadian politics. It made me laugh quite a few times. A good summer read.

>45 Montarville: Good choice! My favourite Terry Fallis is probably Up and Down, about the space program.

>46 rabbitprincess: So far, The Best Laid Plans is the only Terry Fallis I have read, but I am sure it will not be the last.

I read a novella this weekend, to keep my ROOT numbers rolling. My 10th ROOT is Casse-pipe, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. It is short, but intense. I have never seen so many exclamation marks in so few pages. (A quote from the third page: "Visez-moi ça l'empoté! Une demoiselle! Jamais vu un civil si gourde! Merde! On nous l'a fadé spécial! Arrive, bijou!")

Good job and congrats on passing the half way point.

My 11th ROOT of the year is a non-fiction book, about classical music in the 20th century: The Rest is Noise, by Alex Ross.

Here is a quote from page 560 (2007 paperback edition): "This has been a book about the fate of composition in the twentieth century. The temptation is strong to see the overall trajectory as one of steep decline. From 1900 to 2000, the art experienced what can only be described as a fall from a great height." And after reading this book, I understand why a little better.

Since it is about music and hearing is one of the senses, I have decided to put this book in square 7 (appeals to the senses) of the bingo card.

>50 Montarville: I love classical music and listen to it often. However, I can't really get anybody to go to the symphony with me because they don't like the music!

>51 Tess_W: I would come with you if I lived nearer! I'm fond of classical music, though my listening has decreased this year because I'm busy ROOTing ;)

<52 My current favorite composer (and that changes often) is little known Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish composer whose WWII experience is told in the movie "The Pianist."

>53 Tess_W: I shall make a point of listening to him - I have a music streaming account which is great for instant access. Loved the movie.

>51 Tess_W: >52 floremolla: I'd come with you too!

My latest ROOT is Heart of Darkness and Tales of Unrest, by Joseph Conrad. I bought that book during the summer of last year. The bookstore was tempting me with its table of classics at $10 for 3 books. The two others that I bought at the same time (Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night) are also somewhere in my TBR pile.

With this ROOT, I have now reached 80% of my goal. Now, what do I do? Until a few weeks ago, I had been very good at buying just one book at a time and reading it right away. But after seven months of being reasonable, weakness prevailed. First, I went on a trip where I made sure to visit a few bookstores, and sure enough I ended up buying four books in two days. Then, once home, before I had finished reading all my new books, I bought two more. And then, I went to visit my parents and stopped by a bookstore that I like a lot, and I bought five more books. So far, I have read 6 out of those 11 books.

So my dilemma is as follows: do I read one of the 5 remaining books, to make sure they don't become ROOT candidates for next year, or do I keep working at reducing my ROOTs? I guess it doesn't make much difference. Either way, my number of Books Bought this year minus Books Read this year, which now sits at minus 7, will go down to minus 8. I was really hoping at the beginnig of the year that I would end the year at minus 15, but somehow I don't think it's going to happen...

Read whatever is calling to you. The numbers will sort themselves out :)

Good advice there from RP! You're not alone in your resolve crumbling as the year progresses... :)

Sound advice from RP, indeed. Reading should be fun, not a chore.

>59 MissWatson: Don't worry, MissWatson, reading is never a chore!

In the end, I simply looked at all of my books and went for the one that tempted me the most at the moment. It turned out to be a ROOT, from an author that I like very much (Andrei Makine). After a few pages, it looks like it will be an excellent read.

>60 Montarville: I'm looking forward to your comments!

>60 Montarville: And that is the right way to chose books! Go for the book that is calling you.

My latest ROOT is Requiem pour l'Est, by Andrei Makine.

The first thing that I noticed in my previous ROOT, Heart of Darkness, was that the narrator was not the protagonist. He was telling the story as told by someone who was a rather passive witness to the events. It made me think of other Victorian novels, such as Wuthering Heights or Frankenstein.

In Requiem pour l'Est, the narrator is a protagonist, but not in every chapter. He tells not only his own story but also that of his father and grand-father, yet he grew up in an orphanage. The only way the narrator knows the life of his parents and grand-parents is because he was told by a friend of his grand-mother. So again, I was reading a story told by a narrator who was told a story by a passive witness to the events.

This narration tool is the only thing Victorian about this novel. The rest is very modern. In a few well-chosen scenes, Makine portrays life in the USSR, from the beginning to the end (though not in that order). The grand-father lived through World War One and the Communist Revolution. The father had to live through World War Two and the repression of the Staline era. The son is making his way through the Cold War era and is a witness to the crumbling of the USSR.

I could go on and on, but I will finish by simply saying that it is a great read.

Makine is a perfect fit for the "author abroad" square of the bingo card. Born in the USSR, he now lives in France and writes in French, often about his country of birth.

>63 Montarville: Ooh, that sounds like it's right up my street! Did you read it in French, or in translation?

>64 Jackie_K: I read it in French (it's my first language).

>65 Montarville: I think I'd struggle with the French (I do read it, but very rustily!). I hope the translated version I've added to my wishlist is a good one!

And another ROOT bites the dust!

I have just read Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut. A few years ago, I was hoping to visit the Galapagos Islands, so I bought that book because I love to read novels set in the place that I am visiting. Unfortunately my budget decided that the Galapagos were too expensive, so the book stayed on the shelf. Until now.

I have not read a lot of Vonnegut, but apparently this is pure Vonnegut. The narrator, a million years in the future, looks back at the year 1986, when human intelligence (or maybe human stupidity, it's hard to tell the difference) caused a series of catastrophes that initiated the end of human kind, except for a small group stranded on the Galapagos Islands.

Here are a few quotes, that I found particularly funny and relevant:

pp. 16-17: "Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be. So the Galapagos Islands could be hell in one moment and heaven in the next, and Julius Caesar could be a statesman in one moment and a butcher in the next, and Ecuadorian paper money could be traded for food, shelter, and clothing in one moment and line the bottom of a birdcage in the next, and the universe could be created by God Almighty in one moment and by a big explosion in the next—and on and on."

P. 39: "About that mystifying enthusiasm a million years ago for turning over as many human activities as possible to machinery: What could that have been but yet another acknowledgment by people that their brains were no damn good?"

P. 109: "Like most pathological personalities, *Andrew MacIntosh never cared much whether what he said was true or not—and so he was tremendously persuasive."

Don't you think that this last quote explains perfectly the current political situation in the United States (and probably in many other countries)?

>67 Montarville: been the situation (from a historian's perspective) since 1932!

>68 Tess_W: Very true!

And Contrepoint makes 15! Objective reached! Woohoo!

This is the story of a woman who grieves for her daughter by immersing herself in the music of Bach's Goldberg Variations. It is a good novel, but I did not enjoy it. It is sad through and through, almost depressing. The characters are never named, just "the woman", "the girl", "the boy", etc. We don't know until the end what happened to the daughter. There is a dark cloud hanging over every page, even when happy memories are recollected.

It's a good thing it is short (225 pages in the French translation), I don't think I would have kept with that dark atmosphere for many more pages.

Congrats on reaching your goal!

>71 rabbitprincess: Thank you!

Congratulations! Too bad it was such a dark book.

Well done on reaching your goal! :)

Thanks MissWatson and Floremolla!

Congrats!

Hooray, well done!

>77 connie53: Thanks Connie!
>78 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie!

After reaching my objective, I gave myself a break from ROOTS and read a few shiny new books. But somehow I found my way back to my TBR shelf, and I read El libro de arena, by Jorge Luis Borges.

I have a bilingual edition, with original Spanish and translated French side by side. I found it very intersesting to have both versions. I don't understand Spanish enough to say that I would not have needed the French. Quite a few details would have escaped me, and I would have spent a lot of time in the dictionary to figure out the meaning of different words. But I understood enough of the original Spanish to experience directly, without the help of the translator, the particular writing style of Borges. I enjoyed it immensly.

I used this book to fill the "book about books" square of the Bingo card. It is no so much a book about books as a collection of short stories many of which center around books. In particular, the short story that gave its name to the book, El libro de arena (The Book of Sand), is about a book that contains every book.

This sounds like a great read!

My Spanish is definitely not strong enough to read on its own (I'd probably struggle with newspaper articles now; it's been over 10 years since I last used it), so I am impressed by your achievement!

I made a quick review of the content of my bookshelves, and found only six books that I bought in 2017 but have not read yet. Given that I have read 16 roots this year (i.e., books bought or received before Christmas 2016), it means that the number of unread books in my home has actually diminished. 10 less books! That also means that the TBR stash is not out of control anymore! I consider this a small victory.

>83 Montarville: And that surely is a victory!