2018 Rooting Around My Bookshelves -- A Dirty 2? Dozen
Talk 2018 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES)
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1Limelite
My extremely realistic and unambitious goal for 2017 was almost unfair. Read twelve tomes. So, this year I am going to CONTINUE to be realistic, unambitious, and unfair. Read a Dirty Dozen but try for 24, if it doesn't hurt too much. I simply do not believe that pain builds character. Besides, I'm too old to build my character which is fully formed and not worthy of further discussion. Or improvement.
To meet my goal this year of (hopefully, maybe, perhaps) of moving two dozen books out of my TBR stack and under my belt, I will have to get into a reading mood and stay in it. This has been difficult because Real Life provides too many distractions from Reading Life.
In conclusion, I expect I am on the Road to Hell because my intentions are good.
My Ticker
To meet my goal this year of (hopefully, maybe, perhaps) of moving two dozen books out of my TBR stack and under my belt, I will have to get into a reading mood and stay in it. This has been difficult because Real Life provides too many distractions from Reading Life.
In conclusion, I expect I am on the Road to Hell because my intentions are good.
My Ticker
3floremolla
Welcome back! Here's to your good intentions bearing fruit :)
5rabbitprincess
Welcome back and have a great reading year!
6MissWatson
Welcome back and good wishes for a painless dozen!
7readingtangent
Good luck!
8Familyhistorian
Enjoy the road in 2018 no matter where it takes you!
9Limelite
>2 Tess_W:, >3 floremolla:, >4 connie53:, >5 rabbitprincess:, >6 MissWatson:, >7 readingtangent:, >8 Familyhistorian:
My very best New Year wishes that everone meets his/her 2018 ROOTing Goal. I'm grateful for your encouragement and have embarked on my first reading venture of the year. Only 6 chapters into The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell but I've been completely seduced by this sensuous historical novel set at the end of the 18th C. in Japan during the Sakoku era.
ROOT #1 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Have you read this book? Enjoyed it? So far, I am very impressed. David Mitchell wrote another novel that I liked very much, Black Swan Green, in which he captures the magical but confusing world of the verging adolescent in a novel that sparkles with just a touch from the author's fairy tale wand.
Already, I've noticed the same wand and the same light touch at work in this novel. Jacob and all the Europeans must live an a man-made island which, like a mouse hole, is the only well-patrolled entrance to the lucrative trade with Japan. Guarded, watched, and able to communicate only through suspect translators, he and the rest of the Dutch East India traders are totally at the mercy of the Japanese.
He sees and is beguiled by a mysterious midwife, who desires to study western medicine and is the only woman not a courtesan or courtesan's maid allowed on fan-shaped Dejima Island. While an object of interest to the other men, for Jacob, she becomes an obsession. Is she an enchanted being? The disfiguring burn scar on one side of her face suggests that she is under the curse of an evil enemy.
That's about all I can say about the book so far, except to note that it is already full of secrets, mysteries, and prickles of danger, as well as promises of awaiting adventures, and that it is a perfect balance of period history and mythic romance.
My very best New Year wishes that everone meets his/her 2018 ROOTing Goal. I'm grateful for your encouragement and have embarked on my first reading venture of the year. Only 6 chapters into The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell but I've been completely seduced by this sensuous historical novel set at the end of the 18th C. in Japan during the Sakoku era.
ROOT #1 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Have you read this book? Enjoyed it? So far, I am very impressed. David Mitchell wrote another novel that I liked very much, Black Swan Green, in which he captures the magical but confusing world of the verging adolescent in a novel that sparkles with just a touch from the author's fairy tale wand.
Already, I've noticed the same wand and the same light touch at work in this novel. Jacob and all the Europeans must live an a man-made island which, like a mouse hole, is the only well-patrolled entrance to the lucrative trade with Japan. Guarded, watched, and able to communicate only through suspect translators, he and the rest of the Dutch East India traders are totally at the mercy of the Japanese.
He sees and is beguiled by a mysterious midwife, who desires to study western medicine and is the only woman not a courtesan or courtesan's maid allowed on fan-shaped Dejima Island. While an object of interest to the other men, for Jacob, she becomes an obsession. Is she an enchanted being? The disfiguring burn scar on one side of her face suggests that she is under the curse of an evil enemy.
That's about all I can say about the book so far, except to note that it is already full of secrets, mysteries, and prickles of danger, as well as promises of awaiting adventures, and that it is a perfect balance of period history and mythic romance.
10floremolla
>9 Limelite: yes I've read it - it took some unexpected turns for me that I wasn't so sure of, but I ended up liking it immensely. This was before I was ROOTing, and reviewing as an aide memoire, so the details now escape me...lol!
If you intend reading The Bone Clocks I'd suggest doing that while The Thousand Autumns... is still quite fresh in your memory to make the most of Mitchell's linking of characters across novels.
If you intend reading The Bone Clocks I'd suggest doing that while The Thousand Autumns... is still quite fresh in your memory to make the most of Mitchell's linking of characters across novels.
11connie53
>9 Limelite: Yes I've read it and loved it. I've read everything written by Mr. Mitchell I could get my hands on. Let's see.
Wolkenatlas, Dertien, De niet verhoorde gebeden van Jacob de Zoet, Tijdmeters, Droomnummernegen, De geestverwantschap en Doorgang. And loved them all! And just as >10 floremolla: Donna says. They are all linked, which was a welcome surprise to me.
Edit: I even read Waarom ik op en neer spring. This is a book he did not write but he translated the book from Japanese.
Wolkenatlas, Dertien, De niet verhoorde gebeden van Jacob de Zoet, Tijdmeters, Droomnummernegen, De geestverwantschap en Doorgang. And loved them all! And just as >10 floremolla: Donna says. They are all linked, which was a welcome surprise to me.
Edit: I even read Waarom ik op en neer spring. This is a book he did not write but he translated the book from Japanese.
12floremolla
>11 connie53: I’ve read all of his novels too - I enjoyed trying to work out from your post which was which in Dutch! I’ve also read a few articles and blogs by diehard fans who have tried to identify every link between every book - interesting but it takes the fun out of spotting them for yourself.
13connie53
>12 floremolla: Which one did you get right? I bet you guessed them all except maybe the last two
14floremolla
>13 connie53: I didn't get the second one or the last two!
15Limelite
>11 connie53:
Didn't get the second or the last. Could it be the titles are utterly different for Dutch readers from the titles for us English speakers?
I'm guessing the longer title may be Black Swan Green because of the suggestive theme when I translate it. Something like "the growth/passage of the soul/spirit"? And I have no idea which Dutch title is Slade House, but am again guessing the Dutch title that translates to 'thirteen" simply because 13 is an unlucky number to those who are superstitious.
Please enlighten me!
From everyone's comments, I am now intrigued to have a David Mitchell read-a-thon so I can look for the connections and linkages in his books. But I read BSG so long ago, I only remember it as a warm somewhat magical glimmer about an English boy and an old woman's house in the woods.
Why do his books trigger recollections of fairy tales from childhood?
BSG =>"Hansel and Gretel"; Jacob de Zoet =>"Sleeping Beauty". . .
Do they have the same effect on all of you?
Didn't get the second or the last. Could it be the titles are utterly different for Dutch readers from the titles for us English speakers?
I'm guessing the longer title may be Black Swan Green because of the suggestive theme when I translate it. Something like "the growth/passage of the soul/spirit"? And I have no idea which Dutch title is Slade House, but am again guessing the Dutch title that translates to 'thirteen" simply because 13 is an unlucky number to those who are superstitious.
Please enlighten me!
From everyone's comments, I am now intrigued to have a David Mitchell read-a-thon so I can look for the connections and linkages in his books. But I read BSG so long ago, I only remember it as a warm somewhat magical glimmer about an English boy and an old woman's house in the woods.
Why do his books trigger recollections of fairy tales from childhood?
BSG =>"Hansel and Gretel"; Jacob de Zoet =>"Sleeping Beauty". . .
Do they have the same effect on all of you?
16floremolla
>15 Limelite: I hadn't thought of the fairy tale link but there's certainly some kind of magic in the air in Mitchell's books - some of his themes/threads through the books, hint at some sort of reincarnation and a struggle between good and evil. The Bone Clocks is where it comes together and then additionally in Slade House. Even without those elements I loved Cloud Atlas for the myriad of worlds he conjured up and the sense of wonder at the universe and the resilience of people.
I read his novels spread out over many years, so I envy your ability to binge read them if the fancy takes you!
I read his novels spread out over many years, so I envy your ability to binge read them if the fancy takes you!
17connie53
Dertien = Black Swan Green. Jason in this book is 13 years old.
Geestverwantschap = Ghostwritten. Ghost translates into Geest. Verwantschap = Affinity, kindred.
Doorgang = Slade House Doorgang = passage (And Slade house was a passage.)
Geestverwantschap = Ghostwritten. Ghost translates into Geest. Verwantschap = Affinity, kindred.
Doorgang = Slade House Doorgang = passage (And Slade house was a passage.)
