MissWatson reads and ROOTS, part two

The thread was getting too long, so here's a new one. Welcome!

And here's the ticker. The goal is to read 50 books currently on my shelves. Or in the piles on the floor.

Happy new thread! :)

LOL in piles on the floor! Congrats, Miss Watson, on your new thread!

>4 Tess_W: Hi, Tess! A couple of months ago I re-sorted the shelves and had cleared the floor. Now there's a new pile growing. It's scary.

>3 rabbitprincess: Thanks for dropping in!

Hi, Birgit! Happy new thread. About piles: My husband discovered my piles in a bedroom he seldom enters. Although not on the floor but on top of the bookcases ;-)) He was a bit flabbergasted.

>7 connie53: Hi Connie! This book hoarding can easily get out of control. And it's not just books. This weekend I tackled the carrier bags on top of the shelf in the bedroom where I keep the knitting yarns I bought and haven't got around to, yet. There were some I had completely forgotten about...at least they're now in transparent boxes so they can frown down on me while they wait their turn.

>8 MissWatson: Ahh. knitting! I did a lot of that when the kids were small. I think there might be a bag or two filled with yarn here too.

Happy new thread!
Yes I think we're a book-hoardy lot ;) I had developed a new system a few years ago, w the new house... It's nearing its breaking point but so far has held! I can acquire new books so long as they fit in an organized manner in my book nook. If they don't, I do a little culling... We're about at max capacity (after having already added a couple shelves), but I think I could be creative if I needed to be :). Personally, it just makes me happier to see all my books all organized (I'm a type-A ocp (personality, not disorder ;))..

>10 avanders: There comes a point where you cannot find a book unless you have them organized somehow. I live in a house with very high ceilings, so there's still room at the top. But I don't feel comfortable on ladders, so I haven't used the space. Yet.

Hmm... Maybe someone can help you with shifting less-often referred to books to the top, freeing up lower shelves.. :)

>12 avanders: That is worth considering...

My current ROOT won't accompany me to the seaside (I'm off for a two week vacation and will be offline) because it is falling to pieces, so it won't count for August. See you all in September!

Enjoy your seaside vacation! Sounds amazing!!

Happy vacation!

Oh yes, piles on the floor - I try not to put my books on the floor which is why the pile on my bedside table towers over the lamp on the table! It is amazing how books multiply!

Yes, I'm pretty sure they breed, the same way that tupperware does!

Hi Tess! Just saying hello. ...The hubby just had to put up new shelves in our new home's library that I promised "wouldn't run out of space for years!" to avoid piles on the floor, lol. Whoops.

Hi Birgit! Happy holiday! Seaside sounds excellent.

Hello, it's nice to be back! Hope to catch up on everyone else's threads soon. I finished only two books, but one of them was 511 pages long, which is decent reading for a holiday. No ROOTs, though.

Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed your vacation!

>23 avanders: Thanks, Ava, I did. It was so refreshing!

And today I made a fateful foray into Hugendubel (a big bookstore chain) and came away with eight new books. These remainders bins are truly dangerous.

>24 MissWatson: sounds fun! :)

My first September ROOT is Türkenlouis, a biography of Louis William Margrave of Baden-Baden, who was famous in his time for fighting against the Turks. Lots of princes and dukes and whatnots to keep track of, and decent maps are a must for the campaigns.

#45 is Der Meister des Jüngsten Tages by Leo Perutz, a very strange tale from Vienna, pre-WWI. An actor kills himself – or did he? Beautiful prose, too.

>24 MissWatson:, Oh those bargain bins are so dangerous!

#46 is another novel by Leo Perutz, Turlupin, a historical novel set in the Paris of Richelieu. Great fun! I really need to find the rest of his books.

Only 4 more to go, MissW!

I'm glad you had a good refreshing vacation!

>30 connie53: If I can find more books like those of Perutz I should be able to reach my goal. They're delightful and pretty short!

And you have 3,5 months to get there.

Yes, but I'm actually aiming to reach my goal in September. Ambitions, ambitions!

>33 MissWatson: You can do it! I have faith :D

And here is #47: Nebelheim.
This is the tale of three men: Nicolaus Swart who follows in his father’s footsteps as a cartographer and takes a ship north to find the Fortunate Isles, dying King Erik XIII of Sweden, and his secretary/scribe/chronicler Rikmann, who has spent his life in the shadow of the king and must now find a life of his own. It is about the perception of reality and of the world, about trust, about finding one’s place in the world. The passages where Swart is stuck in frozen ice north of Greenland dragged, a lot. I was tempted to give it up, but the extraordinary quality of the writing kept me going. Puchner has the precise word for everything, and a wonderful way with the past tense that you do not see often anymore. The ending is surprising and extremely satisfying and I’m glad I stuck with it.
But I can't see myself reading it again, so it will find a new home.

#48: Cyrano de Bergerac fits well with my recent readings from the 17th century. Again, we're in the middle of Franco-Spanish wars, men will fight with swords at the least provocation and love is mostly star-crossed. I found it surprisingly easy to read in French, and I was intrigued to find an illustration showing the cover of a book written by the real Cyrano.

>36 MissWatson: sounds lovely!

>37 Tess_W: Yes, I was very pleasantly surprised.

#49: Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne
In 1810 and 1811, Shelley published two Gothic romances. The literary equivalent of a trainwreck: horrifying to watch, yet you cannot tear your eyes away. The editor tries to make a case that Shelley was ripping off the fashion for Gothic for a get-rich-quick-scheme, but I don't buy it. That is no excuse for such preposterous language, it is likely to put you off Gothic and the Romantics for ever.
But I believe I will take a peek at Maria Edgeworth, to see if she writes in a similarly overblown style.

ETC

ooooooh 1 more!

And...drum roll! I have reached my goal!
#50 is The castle of Otranto.

I confused Maria Edgeworth with Ann Radcliffe, and as it happens, I don't have any Radcliffes on my shelves. So I picked another "classic" Gothic novel and found myself very pleasantly surprised. First, because it is amazingly short, I always assumed these to be three-volume-things of epic proportions. It is also much better written than Shelley's efforts, nary a superfluous adjective in sight, and though people faint, they do not do it at the drop of a hat.

Next one up is a book I borrowed from my sister, so not a ROOT. I'll be back for more ROOTs in October.

Congratulations!

>42 rabbitprincess: Thanks!

Congrats!!

>44 avanders: Thanks, Ava, nice picture!

Hooray, well done on reaching your goal!

>46 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie!

wOOT! Congrats!

>48 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess. I noticed that you are close to reading twice as many ROOTs as planned. Now that's amazing!

Well I read 40 in 2014, so I upped that by a few...I never knew.....but I didn't travel near as much this summer as last....and I didn't teach or take any courses this summer....and at least 3-4 of those were YA books.

Congratulations on reaching your goal!

>51 Familyhistorian: Thanks! It's been a great year for reading.

#51: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope. The more I read, the better I like his books, his heroines are so delightful and vivid like real persons.

#52: The old English Baron by Clara Reeve. It was written expressly in response to Walpole's The Castle of Otranto and doesn't compare. Unlike Walpole, who made a private study of it, Reeve knows nothing about the Middle Ages. Consequently, her barons live and behave like Georgian country squires. She refers to the younger characters as "Mister" which is entirely anachronistic. And I think the narrowness of her own horizons shows in the way she spends pages on the division of the estates, right down to tableware and linens, like some penny-pinching housewife. Somehow the phrase "a nation of shopkeepers" sprang to mind.
Of academic merit only to people who study Gothic literature in depth.

#53 Vathek by William Beckford.
Again, not quite what I expected. For one thing, it is very short. I have owned a copy in English for ages, contained in Three Gothic Novels where it comes to barely 110 pages. Then I read in the notes that he wrote it in French, so I tracked down a digitised version, which was converted into plain text and then a PDF, where it boiled down to a mere 40 pages. Since I kept the English version close at hand for the notes on the beasties and demons, it counts as a ROOT. Very weird tale, very cruel and I'm not sure that the moral, to leave everything to heaven, is quite properly Protestant.

>55 MissWatson: another one on my to-read list! Wow only 40 pages... I should really "get on that... ;)

>56 avanders: I think it is so short because of the 18th century habit of running several bits of dialogue into one paragraph. Nowadays, every time the speaker changes, they start a new paragraph, and so the books get longer. But I find the modern way of typesetting much easier to read.

>57 MissWatson: that makes sense... And I agree, the modern way of typesetting is much easier to read!

Stupid stupid me! I missed your " I completed my challenge" post by almost three weeks!



So here is my cheering and congratulations party!

>59 connie53: It's the thought that counts, Connie! Thanks for the fireworks!

#54: Frankenstein
Again, this was much shorter than I expected it to be and much better written than the other two. The good news is that I can now remove the book Three Gothic novels from my shelves. If I should ever feel the urge to re-read Frankenstein I'll download an ebook. But I don't think so because I seriously disliked Victor Frankenstein.

#61 I must have been in the mood for gothic monster reads, but I read Dracula first and Frankenstein following. I found the latter to be much better written and hence more enjoyable.

>62 Tess_W: I was on a Gothic trip myself, but there's only so much I can stomach. I remember I wasn't overly impressed with Dracula myself. Right now I need some non-fiction...

>63 MissWatson: So I'm curious what you are going to read, Birgit. What did you come up with

>64 connie53: Hi Connie, I picked some non-ROOTs that fit in with my recent readings about the Baroque. One is a book about Louis XIV and his artistic leanings, the other was a brief history of the Saarland.

>>>63 MissWatson: Ah, the sun-king. Don't know anything about his artistic leanings, but do know of his politics viz a vis the nobility. I have visited Versailles and it was wonderful!

>66 Tess_W: I have a gorgeous photograph on my office wall which my sister made of the details of the newly-gilded railings, of a golden sun. As regards his artistic leanings, he was a famous dancer and created at least one step still in use in classical ballet. At least so my friend tells me who went to ballet class.

#55 Wo ungestört der Lenz regiert is a slim volume telling the history of Schloss Wilhelmsthal, a small palace built by Landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse, near Kassel. We visited it last year, it's a charming little place, uninhabited, but open to visitors. The kitchen range was very impressive.
If you'd like a glimpse, here's a link: http://www.museum-kassel.de/en/index_navi.php?parent=9706

LOL to small! It's beautiful!

>68 MissWatson: >69 Tess_W: Yes it's rather small, isn't it ROFL

>69 Tess_W:, >70 connie53: Well, in comparison to the other palace, Wilhelmshöhe http://www.museum-kassel.de/en/index_navi.php?parent=9527, it is. Not to mention Versailles...

I've only been to 2 palaces Buckingham and Versailles. And wow to Versailles.

Buck House is still on my list. And the châteaux on the Loire...

#56 Glück hat seinen Preis by Irina Korschunow is to a large extent autobiographical. The author looks back on her mother's life which was dominated by her father, and also tries to reconstruct his life, from when he came to Kiel as a young man and made a fortune as a builder. Lots of illusions, disappointments, misunderstandings and the force of circumstance or necessity, and why we always do the wrong things for the wrong reasons, or don't do anything at all. A little depressing.

#57 Prince of thorns is a fairly recent buy, but last year's acquisitions count. The first book in a trilogy with obvious reverences to Game of Thrones, and yet different in a way I did not expect. This is a post-nuclear disaster world, our world. There are relics of ancient Rome around, so I'm curious to see how this will play out.

>75 MissWatson: That's on my shelves too. I have to buy part two but I hesitate about that. Part 3 is not translated and probably won't be. So I wait for your opinion about this book, Birgit.

>76 connie53: I'll start with King of thorns this weekend, and since it is not very long I can let you know soon.

>77 MissWatson: ahh, that's a good thing. I will wait for that and not buy book 2 until I've read your review.

I've been to Versailles (but years and years ago, when I was a teenager and so probably didn't appreciate it - I don't remember very much about it), and one of the German palaces near Munich (I think Schloss Nymphenberg). I haven't been to Buckingham Palace, despite spending 15 years living in London. I think as I get older I'm less and less enamoured by the idea of monarchy, so they don't particularly appeal, although I can still appreciate the beauty of the buildings and grounds.

>79 Jackie_K: Yes, it is a bit conflicting: admiring the architecture and the fittings, but all the time remembering how the rest of the people lived. And I usually come away grateful that I'm not living in those times.

#58 Der Tod in Venedig. This is quintessential Thomas Mann who should be read in homeopathic doses. His prose is very hard to digest.

>79 Jackie_K: Palaces are interesting places to tour but I always prefer it if they include a look at the working places, like the kitchens. It is more likely that my ancestors might have aspired to a place working in a palace than to have been one of the people in residence.

Just saying hello. As always, awed by your reading depth but actually wish listing a few this time. ;-) And a belated congratulations on completing your challenge as well!

>83 Shutzie27: Hi Christina, nice to see you! Most of them were short books, so I've been able to make a little dent in the TBR. And I do make time for other stuff, my sister just gave me a cute children's book about four rodents having adventures on a cruise ship as musketeers...

ETC

#59 King of thorns
Well, Honorous Jorg Ancrath is certainly an intriguing character. The story picks up four years after the first book, on his wedding day, and he barely has time to get married before an army ten times the size of his own arrives to take over his kingdom. He has certainly grown up, and the politics are getting ever more complicated. Again, there are two parallel storylines: the "present" and four years ago. There are also excerpts from Katherine's diary and lots of people dying. There are many more tantalising glimpses of the civilisation lost in the great nuclear catastrophe, enough to tell us that we are in whatever lands are left of western Europe. And I sincerely hope that the author will satisfy our curiosity and our growing impatience in the next volume!
>78 connie53: I liked it even better than the first book, because Jorg has grown up so much.

>85 MissWatson: Sounds like a great read!

>85 MissWatson: Wow, that does sound like a great read. Sorry to be behind the curve here, but is this part of a contemporary series...? It sounds like a good Christmas present for the hubby, especially since I can borrow it, lol!

>86 Tess_W: >87 Shutzie27: Hi Tess and Christina! I caught a book bullet for the series on the Category Challenge.
The first book was published in 2012, the third in 2014, so I am able to read them all in short sequence, which is always good advice for a series like this. There are echoes of Game of Thrones in that many earls, dukes and kings fight each over for the emperor's crown, although here we have a hundred. There's a whiff of Tolkien also: the contenders represent the descendants of two blood lines, those of the original emperors and their stewards. What is not clear is what the original empire was like, how it was destroyed and what happened to the landscape. There are baffling maps, one in each book, and they get larger as Jorg (the hero) knows more of the territory by his own observations. The third is recognizably western Europe, so I very much hope that these questions are resolved at the end of the final book.
It is also a very cruel world, the ruling families are very ruthless about removing rivals and amazingly heartless towards their offspring. There are also shadowy mages and prophets controlling the major political players like puppets, so how much of the cruelty is deliberate is anyone's guess.
I'm going to Frankfurt for a seminar on Wednesday, so there will be two long train rides and I hope to finish the third book by the end of the week. I am very eager to learn how it will all play out!

>88 MissWatson: Sounds very good, Birgit. Now I have to order book 2 and wait for the translation of book 3.
Maybe I can send a mail to the publisher to ask about that translation!!

Edit: send the mail! Keep your fingers crossed!

>89 connie53: It would be a shame indeed if they left the story dangling without a proper ending after book two, so I'm crossing my fingers!

So far they did not answer my mail. I'm still waiting!

>88 MissWatson: Well, that settled it. Just ordered the first two for Christmas for the hubby (though I may have to quality control check the printing, you know, just to be sure there are no errors or pages missing or something...) Thanks! I was just stumped what to get him in terms of books. He's reading the Outlander series, but a dear friend of ours always gets him those, and I already completed his Steven Brust series, and someone jumped the gun on another series he reads for his birthday earlier this year, so I was just stumped.

#60 Emperor of thorns Wow. This sure ended on an unexpected note. Quite a ride and certainly worth the time!

Put all 3 on my wish list!

>91 connie53: still waiting.

#61 Framley Parsonage. This took a bit longer than I anticipated, what with work and other things, but it is delightful like all other volumes in the Barsetshire Chronicles.

>95 connie53: Well I got some sort of answer. No, there won't be a translation of part 3.
Part 2 will be taken of my wish list. I really am p****d now. Why do they start translating and then stop after one or two books? Do it all or do nothing!

>97 connie53: although I can answer the "why" (demand, $$), I completely agree with you!! I hate it when I find out they translated a series to English out of order or just not completely at all. So sad. :'(

>97 connie53: How disappointing for you! And how unreasonable of the publishers! Especially as translation is not that expensive, considering that translators are usually paid a pittance. Distributing the book as an ebook only surely would have meant low costs overall?

>100 MissWatson: I think the problem is with translating into Dutch. Not many people read in Dutch. The Dutch and Belgian people and people who are of Dutch origin. So translating a book into Dutch is rather expensive when the book doesn't sell to well. When translating into English, there are far more English peaking people in the world.

And then you have the genre: fantasy. The amount of people reading fantasy in Dutch is even smaller.

>102 connie53: Hm, over here translators are usually paid by line of text. It can be different for translators of fiction, but it's still not a well-paid job and it's not directly related to the number of (possible) readers. I guess it's the sheer number of books out there waiting for translation that is the problem for the publishers: if they wanted to translate everything their readers might want, they might need the entire population to do it?

>103 MissWatson: I just mean that they adjust the price of the book to cover the pay of the translator. Books over here are rather expensive. The price for a paperback is usually 19,00 € or 22,00 €.
And when the book does not sell well they just stop publishing.

>104 connie53: Wow, that is a heavy price. I've paid 19€ recently for a 800-pages paperback and felt like being robbed.

Yes, I know! If you can wait for 3 months prices are lowered but for the first three months there are fixed prices. And sometimes you can't wait!

#62 La dame aux camélias I picked it up after watching the ballet, and on stage such an overblown romance works perfectly well. In a novel I found both lovers mostly irritating, because I don't have much patience for such irrational behaviour. The father's moral blackmail of Marguerite may have been typical of its time, but it's still unforgivable.

>107 MissWatson:, Oh I love the ballet! I have season tickets, which for our company is only 4 per year. I think most of the time the ballet is better than the book, because the ballet is a fantasy and it sometimes does not work as well in book form. I have never seen the one of which you speak. In fact, our ballet company does few if any French ballets...they have done Carmen several times, but that is it for the French, I think. Come of think of it....I don't really know where some of the ballets originate. There is another project!

>108 Tess_W: It is a fairly recent ballet created by John Neumeier at Hamburg for Marcia Haydée and for a very long time he didn't allow other companies to stage it. The Bolshoi recently got permission and this season it was included in the transmissions that they do to cinemas worldwide which is where I got to see it. Wonderful music by Chopin.

#63 The water is wide. This is a rather ancient ROOT, it has been sitting on my shelves for more than twenty years. It was an interesting read, about the year the author spent on a small island off the coast of South Carolina teaching. It's the time of desegregation. There is so much that has changed since then, and yet other things remain the same: bureaucracy, petty rules, vindictive minds.

ETC

I went out to buy a book for my nephew today (Christmas is coming, after all) and came home with three for myself. Bad, bad girl! But they are such beautiful editions, proper hardcovers with cloth binding and a leaflet with an essay about the book in question, so how could I resist? 16€ for Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh seemed a bit steep until I saw that used bookstores want 10€ for a decrepit paperback copy, so I think I made a good bargain. The others are Die 1002. Nacht and Jud Süß, and I hope to get around to them next year, after the holidays. The run-up to Christmas is a little busy.
Ah yes, and my nephew gets Die tausend Herbste des Jacob de Zoet, he's interested in all things Japanese at the moment.

>111 MissWatson: Those sound like great gifts from you to you! Hope your nephew enjoys his present too :)

>112 rabbitprincess: Thanks, sometimes you need to treat yourself. I hope he will let me know what he thinks of it because I've been eyeing it for myself...

>113 MissWatson: Very wise! Keep your eye on that book. ;-))

I don't think I can finish The small house at Allington in December, because I'm off to spend the holidays with my sister and I'm not packing any paper books. I'm also hoping for a few new and shiny ones waiting under the tree for me. I'm afraid I won't add to my score. Still, 13 ROOTs beyond the initial target is a very happy outcome.

I'll be offline until the New Year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my fellow ROOTers!

>115 MissWatson: Have a great time, Birgit! Happy New Year to you too. May 2016 be filled with reading and friendship.

Merry Christmas and happy new year! 13 past your goal is very very impressive!

Looking forward to hearing about any new and shiny books under the tree! Enjoy your Christmas festivities :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope you're enjoying some new books! :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!
Hope you find many shiny new books under the tree ;)