Lilisin ROOTs in 2013

I've been lurking in the BOMBS group for a year and due to some very friendly encouragement I've decided to join in even if my contribution will be very little. I just really like the enthusiasm of the members here.

I don't actually have to worry about acquiring books too quickly so my determinant for what counts is any book past Page 1 on the "Your Books" tab. On my LT settings each page has 20 books. This way, if I do acquire a new book, the books that are pushed to Page 2 are fair game for the challenge. I like this as it will allow me to read fairly recently acquired books as well as the really old ones which is just as important.

This thread will be devoted mostly to acquisition and ROOT pulling.
My reviews and thoughts on books will remain in my main LT thread over at Club Read 2013 and this thread will be more for tracking.

Since I read only about 13 books a year usually (I do a lot of independent study in Japanese which takes up my other time) I will make my goal be 5 ROOTs.




Nice to meet everyone!

2013 ROOTs:
1) Amelie Nothomb : Peplum
2) Yukio Mishima : Sun and Steel
3) Banana Yoshimoto : アルゼンチンババア (Argentine Hag)

2013 Non-ROOT books read:
1) Takashi Nagai : The Bells of Nagasaki
2) Colette : Cheri
3) Kobo Abe : Secret Rendezvous
4) Haruki Murakami : 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage)
5) Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 1
6) Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 2
7) Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 3
8) Kenzaburo Oe : Hiroshima Notes

Books gifted to me in 2013:
1) Jeff Backhaus : Hikikomori and the Rental Sister
2) Alistair Horne : Seven Ages of Paris
3) Louis Aragon : La Semaine Sainte
4) Louis Aragon : Les Beaux Quartiers
5) Haruki Murakami : 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年​
6) Alain-Fournier : Le Grand Meaulnes
7) Otsuichi : 暗いところで待ち合わせ
8) Hitonari Tsuji : サヨナライツカ
9) Mieko Kanai : Oh, Tama!
10) Alexandre Dumas : Le Meneur de Loups

Books purchased in 2013:
11) Kobo Abe : Secret Rendezvous
12) Kobo Abe : Kangaroo Notebook
13) Akira Yoshimura : On Parole
14, 15, 16) Alexandre Dumas : Le Vicomte de Bragelonne Volumes 1,2,3
17) Victor Hugo : Quatrevingt-Treize
18) Amelie Nothomb : Le Voyage d'Hiver
19) Donald Richie : The Inland Sea
20) Nagai Kafu : Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale
21) Kenzaburo Oe : Hiroshima Notes

Welcome, I love the "root pulling". My flower beds are a lot like my bookshelves, things just keep showing up!

Glad you are joining us. Wishing you success at your goal.

Welcome here! 5 Books is a fair goal, good luck! I like the idea how you decide what to count in this challenge. Unfortunately, it won't work for me thanks to my book swappimg pages *sigh*.

I'm still working on my first book of the year (it's a 1000 page tome and I'm a couple hundred pages from the end) but it is a ROOT so I'll post it immediately once I finish it.

In the meantime, I received a book today at my door. I got Hikikomori and the Rental Sister from the ER program. This is the first book I acquire this year.

My thread might have been pushed down to the very bottom of the forgotten threads in ROOT! but I will not be forgotten! Here me roar!

But what happened? Well, at the beginning of the year all my books that I was in progress were tomes. So, that was taking a while. Then...

I got a job!
Well, a temporary one. But for the first time in 2 years I had a schedule again. That was super tiring at first. Eesh! Then when I got used to the actual teaching part of the schedule, I had to start grading and that just always takes forever and you get the strongest desire to try and watch a movie or tv while grading but that just distracts me and then it takes even longer to grade.

Now I'm in a bit of a rut. I love the books I'm reading but it's almost as if I don't want to finish them so I just don't pick them up. I'm less that 80 pages away from finishing the 1000 page Musashi (that is also a ROOT). I must finish it 'cause it's truly amazing.

In any case, to try and get out of the rut today I picked up my go-to Amelie Nothomb and poof! In one day I read an entire book of hers. As always she does the job. (And I had a lot of free time at work today).

So book number one of the year 2013!

1) Amelie Nothomb : Peplum
Belgium
3.5 stars/5 stars

Pages: 150
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 9
Acquired: Aug-2008 (But I never read her books right away. I like to save them for reading ruts.)
Language: French

Books acquired so far in 2013.
1) Jeff Backhaus - Hikikomori and the Rental Sister
Early Reviewer win

2) Alistair Horne - Seven Ages of Paris
Birthday gift
Likelihood of reading in the next few years? Slim.

Come on, lilisin, just climb those 80 pages and you have read ROOT # 2! You can do it!!!

Congratulations on the job!

Book number two of the year although it is a non-ROOT.

Takashi Nagai : The Bells of Nagasaki
Japan
5 stars/5 stars

Pages: 118
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: Jan-2013
Language: English

Book number 3 of the year is another non-ROOT. But looks like book number 4 will be so hopefully I'll have a ROOT-related update. But at least everything I've read so far has come from my shelves, although not from my ROOT "criteria".

Colette : Cheri
France
3.5 stars/5 stars

Pages: 190
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: Dec-2012
Language: French

Acquired a few more books from my mom and one from a friend. Still no book purchases this year. Although I flew to San Francisco and might need a to buy a book for the flight back as I'll probably finish the book I brought with me before then.

Gifts for my mom:
3 and 4) Louis Aragon - Les Beaux Quartiers and another of his works
Gift
These are huge tomes and I likely will not get to them anytime soon. But they are tempting!

5) Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
Gift
This one looks quite interesting and I hope to get to it soon but it wouldn't be a ROOT if I did.

Gift from a friend:
6) 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 by Haruki Murakami
Gift
This is Murakami's latest book that just came out in Japan last month. I'm about halfway through this and really enjoying it!

And even though I like ROOTS and its concept, another goal that is important to me is that if I do acquire a new book, that I'm reading it right away and not just creating new TBR piles. So the fact that I'm reading some of these as they come in is really great.

Bought my first books of the year since I needed some books for the plane ride back. Granted I didn't need three books but I'll at least get to one.

7) Kobo Abe : Secret Rendezvous
8) Kobo Abe : Kangaroo Notebook
9) Akira Yoshimura : On Parole

Finished my second ROOT!

2) Yukio Mishima : Sun and Steel
Japan
2 stars/5 stars

Pages: 56/107
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 2
Acquired: May-2012
Language: English

I couldn't finish this one. Just wanted to give up. At least it's off my TBR shelf now!

Another non-ROOT:

Kobo Abe : Secret Rendezvous
Japan
4.5 stars/5 stars

Pages: 179
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: May-2013 (just two days ago, very quicky turnaround!)
Language: English

Lilisin, its 2013! ;-))

That it is, that it is. Thanks for the catch!

One more non-ROOT:

Haruki Murakami : 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage)
Japan
4 stars/5 stars

Pages: 370
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: May-2013
Language: Japanese

This is Haruki Murakami's latest book that JUST came out in Japan two months ago. I'm happy to say that I'm the first to own it on LT and to read it! Woohoo! I enjoyed it. Typical Murakami. Very proud of myself. Longest book I read so far in Japanese. Studying hard so that there will be many more books in my future!

Nice work! Also, hurray for being the first one on LT to own the book! :)

My 3rd ROOT of the year!

3) Banana Yoshimoto : アルゼンチンババア (Argentine Hag)
Japan
3 stars/5 stars

Pages: 80
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 3
Acquired: May-2011
Language: Japanese

Another Japanese book but this time it's a ROOT! I'm not the biggest fan of Yoshimoto but I wanted to practice reading her writing style as it's much more complicated than it first looks. Short little novella, will watch the movie later this week. As far as I know, this work has not been translated into English.

In France so I of course had to pick up new books. Or rather, I bought one book in three volumes. At 900 pages each, this is going to take me awhile.

10, 11, 12) Alexandre Dumas : Le Vicomte de Bragelonne Volumes 1,2,3

Two more books bought in France.

13) Victor Hugo : Quatrevingt-Treize
14) Amelie Nothomb : Le Voyage d'Hiver

Now I have all the Nothomb that she has written.

Another non-ROOT although I did read this in only 7 days after having bought the book only a few days earlier so that for me is great.

Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 1
France
5/5 stars

Pages: 888
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: July-2013
Language: French

Seven days to read the first volume while on vacation with nothing else to do but read. Only two more volumes to go, 1800 pages left! Will have to see how quickly these come off the TBR shelf.

That is a real good job, lilisin, good luck with the last two volumes.

Oh, I just bought the Bragelonne myself, but firmly admonished myself not to start it after the finish of the challenge. Whet my appetite: why did you rate it 5/5?

24 -
I'll admit I've been rating books quite high lately. This one I rated as so because it gave me exactly what I was hoping for. Some intrigue, and, mostly, a better look at d'Artagnan and the other characters. This first volume has very little action compared to TThreeM and is much slower in pace but in that slower pace I have the time to really immerse myself and enjoy every little scene. And that is what I want from Dumas. I have started reading volume 2 which I will also rank individually once I finish.

Oh and I actually skipped Twenty Years Later, not expecting to pick up this book while on vacation. I'll go back to TYL later.

Thank you, that is something to look forward to!

Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 2
France
5/5 stars

Pages: 884
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: July-2013
Language: French

And I have now finished volume 2 after taking a week break to recover from jet lag and the resulting brain haze that comes from jet lag.

Online reviews since to think this is the most boring of the three volumes as they call it the Louise la Valliere book. Yes, the book talks about her a lot and of her romance with Louis XIV but what I loved about this volume was all the going around that was happening. Love is supposed to be a moment shared by two people but the book shows how this love affects each and every character around them. Jealousy arises, deception begins and schemes are developed to tear these two characters apart. This is what makes Dumas so genius I feel; his ability to manipulate so many characters at once and have them weave in and out of each other's lives is just amazing.

And as we get little glimpses into these little subplots and schemes that characters are developing around the two main characters of this volume, we start to build a lot of anticipation for the third and final volume. I'm very excited.

I don't know why I did it. I don't know how it happened. I never buy anything from Amazon. And today, today!, I saw that a book I had my eye on at a super low price (hardcover 10 dollars cheaper than the paperback) was down to 2 copies only and that for some reason made me say "well yes then, I should indeed purchase this now." And then of course, to get the Super Saver Shipping, I had to buy two other books to go over the $25 limit since two books total put me under at $23. Thus, I ended up purchasing the following:

15) Donald Richie : The Inland Sea
16) Nagai Kafu : Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale (the cause of the spending spree)
17) Kenzaburo Oe : Hiroshima Notes

Not sure how that happened.... This is the week for random purchases it seems.

>27 lilisin: That is a very good description of what makes Dumas such an unforgettable storyteller: a cast of thousands and yet he keeps track of all of them. I'm really looking forward to the Bragelonne, but I'm still at the halfway mark of Le comte de Moret. Not entirely sure if it is by the master's own hand, but there are devious plots galore.

The end to my non-ROOT. Will see if I read a ROOT next. I only need two before the end of the year (is it almost October already!?).

Alexandre Dumas : Le vicomte de Bragelonne Tome 3
France
5/5 stars

Pages: 856
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: July-2013
Language: French

And with that I have turned the last page and yes, it ends on 5 stars. It was such a wonderful adventure. 2700 pages of wonderful characters, stories, plot developments, schemes, adventure, love, witty dialogues and just pure revel-in-the-moment page-turning imaginings. It was everything I wanted to read and more and it's sad to think this is the last book. It'll be hard I think to go back to the book 2 that I had skipped to read this.

After the Dumas I didn't know what to read so I started to read a lot of comics in Japanese (which was great as it really worked my Japanese). Finally though I was inspired to read a book despite it not being a ROOT.

Kenzaburo Oe : Hiroshima Notes
Japan
4/5 stars

Pages: 192
Tab under Your Books category: Tab 1
Acquired: September-2013
Language: English

Once again, a very short turnaround having just purchased the book in September and it being already on my finished pile. This is always something I strive for since I'm trying to avoid adding on to the large back pile I already have.

I acquired two more books this week as I got a lovely care package from a friend in Japan. Both of these books have been made into movies of which I've seen Sayonara Itsuka and enjoyed. So I thought I'd like to read the book. The second one, I'd like to see the movie but since I tend to prefer reading the book first, I thought this would be my chance.

18) Otsuichi : 暗いところで待ち合わせ
19) Hitonari Tsuji : サヨナライツカ

Sayonara Itsuka was a huge surprise 'cause I just realized last night that it's by Hitonari Tsuji, an author I read a very long time ago in French, but, whom I read at maybe too young an age and thus I didn't really understand the book. Perhaps I can try it again now that I have a second book by the same author. But quite the amusing coincidence.

Also turns out that Hitonari Tsuji is married to the principal actress in Sayonara Itsuka who is just the most beautiful woman.

And wow!
Just received a notice from Early Reviewers that I will be getting a book.

Oh crap!
I still have to review the last one. I'm so bad!

In any case, another book to add to the list.

20) Mieko Kanai : Oh, Tama!

Adding another book acquired.

21) Alexandre Dumas : Le Meneur de Loups

My mom put this one on a pile of things for me to grab. I love Dumas and haven't heard of this one so I'm excited.

That's an intriguing title, tell us more about it when you're done!