Michael.Rimmer: ROOT Pile

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Michael.Rimmer: ROOT Pile

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1Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: jan 3, 2014, 10:06 pm




I've got a few hundred books I haven't read, some I've had so long I'm not sure when I bought them. The oldest I've entered an acquired date for (a work in progress in itself) is 1978, so I'll start with that one for January:

When Graveyards Yawn by August Derleth

To qualify for my ROOT pile, I'm going for books I've owned for more than 10 years and will aim to read one of those per month.

2rabbitprincess
jan 3, 2014, 10:13 pm

Welcome and good luck!!

3Michael.Rimmer
jan 3, 2014, 10:21 pm

Thanks :-)

4cyderry
jan 4, 2014, 12:05 am

Welcome aboard!

5rainpebble
jan 4, 2014, 12:53 am

Happy New Year Michael and good luck with your challenge.

6connie53
jan 4, 2014, 3:58 am

Welcome to this group, Michael. And happy reading.

7Tess_W
jan 4, 2014, 7:30 am

Good luck with your challenge, Michael. Your "story" is all too familiar!

8Merryann
jan 10, 2014, 12:09 am

Hi Michael. How's the 1978 book going? Is it set in the overbright world of the 70s? Or an older book and it's just that you got it in 78? Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it!

9Michael.Rimmer
jan 10, 2014, 1:51 pm

Thanks for the all "welcomes" and "good lucks" :-)

> 8 Hi Merryann: I bought the book in 1978, but it is a 1965 edition of a work originally published in 1963. The stories themselves were written mainly in the late '40s for publication in the Weird Tales horror pulp. So, not the overbright '70s, but the rather darker post-war years, and looking backwards rather than forwards.

Given the time they were written, there's nothing graphically horrible in the stories, but they are atmospheric. I'm glad I've finally gotten around to reading them.

10Michael.Rimmer
jan 25, 2014, 2:16 pm

Finished my first ROOT! That was rather satisfying. Now, something a little newer before I decide which oldie to read next.

11Tess_W
jan 25, 2014, 5:57 pm

Congrats! I started on a root that I had for six years....then my friend loaned me one from her Kindle library, which is only good for 10 days...so I had to read it...now I'm back to my first root. Determined to finish it in next 1-2 days!

12connie53
jan 25, 2014, 6:27 pm

Good for you Michael!

gogogogogo Tess!

13Michael.Rimmer
feb 8, 2014, 11:02 am

My second ROOT book is Mabinogion Tales by Charlotte Guest, which I've had since 1992.

14connie53
feb 8, 2014, 11:07 am

Happy Reading, Michael!

15Michael.Rimmer
feb 16, 2014, 8:02 am

Finished Mabinogion Tales.

16connie53
feb 16, 2014, 12:57 pm

What did you think about that book, Michael?

17Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: feb 16, 2014, 3:16 pm

The stories are ones that I've been reading since I was a child (it was this particular book that I hadn't previously read), so they are favourites and therefore impossible for me to objectively assess.

The stories in this book are the Arthurian romances from the Mabinogion. If you like mythology and folktales, then you can't really fail to like them. Something has been lost in their transmission down the ages so that some of what happens incomprehensible, but for me that is part of their appeal.

Owain's adventure in The Lady of the Fountain is probably my favourite of the four stories here: archetypal "knight errant" quest, involving giants, nature spirits, a magical invisibility ring, a lion bodyguard...

Suffice to say, I loved it :-)

18connie53
feb 16, 2014, 1:56 pm

Thanks, Michael. I love Arthurian stories!

19Michael.Rimmer
mrt 6, 2014, 1:55 pm

ROOT 3: The Sebastopol Sketches. This (sadly) seems like an appropriate time to learn a little about warfare in Crimea. Hopefully, this will remain an exercise in history and not in current affairs.

20MissWatson
mrt 7, 2014, 5:28 am

Indeed, we all hope for the best. I think I've got those buried on my shelves somewhere, too. What did you think of these stories, how do they compare to his novels?

21Michael.Rimmer
mrt 7, 2014, 6:28 pm

I'm on page 27 of the introduction so far, so not really sure :-) I'll let you know when I've finished.

22Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: mrt 29, 2014, 10:33 am

I've finished The Sebastopol Sketches - keeping on track for my ROOT target!

I decided to read this book to see if it shone any light on the present tensions in the Crimean region, which I don't think it did, other than to highlight that Russia has been a presence there for a long time. What it did do is confirm me in my opinion that war is, generally, a bad thing.

Tolstoy doesn't glamorise his characters nor the conditions in which they are fighting. He draws his sketches well, the soldiers and their motivations seem true-to-life.

I haven't read any of his big works, although I've got War and Peace and Anna Karenina lurking around somewhere, so I suppose I should have a crack at one of them soon. I have, however, read On Life and Essays on Religion : a fascinating book which had the effect of turning me off the path of organised religion (I had only taken a few steps as it was) and onto the path of atheist spirituality. Not what the vicar intended, I think, when he suggested that the congregation should read religious books outside of church and other than the Bible.

23connie53
mrt 28, 2014, 1:52 pm

Congrats, Michael, on being on track! Have you chosen a book for april yet?

24Merryann
mrt 28, 2014, 11:45 pm

>22 Michael.Rimmer:, "war is, generally, a bad thing." Boy, do I ever agree with that! For many reasons, but the one I'm currently thinking of is, I'm reading The Library: An Illustrated History. FAR too much of it has been along the lines of 'Such-and-such society built a wonderful library, filled with great writing. Then So-and-so enemies burned the town and destroyed the library.

Or confiscated the library, so that when Whosits came around and destroyed THEIR town, Whosits could destroy their library.

Meanwhile, I'm reading Art Through the Ages to my daughter, so we can both learn from her college art class. Again, time after time, 'So-and-so was a great artist. Most of his works were destroyed in war.'

I know there are many bigger reasons why war is bad, but it's just been getting on my nerves.

It just occurred to me, I may never have even said, 'Welcome' to you, Michael.Rimmer, and here I am on my soapbox on your thread. Sorry.

25Michael.Rimmer
mrt 29, 2014, 10:40 am

Not chosen one yet, Connie. I select a book on the spur of the moment.

26Michael.Rimmer
mrt 29, 2014, 10:47 am

I'd count post 8 as your welcome, Merryann :-) Thanks again, though.

Cultural destruction is one of the worst consequences of war, and what better exemplifies a culture than the contents of its libraries? When Winston Churchill was advised to stop funding the arts during WWII in order to divert resources to the war effort his reply was, "Then what are we fighting for?"

27Merryann
mrt 30, 2014, 11:26 pm

Wow!

That quote makes my day!

Thank you!

28Michael.Rimmer
apr 3, 2014, 2:40 pm

New ROOT: The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carrol, illustrated by Mervyn Peake. I recently read an edition illustrated by Tove Jannson, so it will be interesting to compare how my appreciation of the poem is affected by the very different styles of the illustrators.

29Michael.Rimmer
apr 6, 2014, 9:43 am

Finished "Snark" (which is nonsense, regardless of what Carroll asserts in his preface). I enjoyed Peake's illustrations, of course.

Where Jannson's illustrations for the same poem are more "cartoonish", ethereal and mist-bound, Peake's are detailed caricatures, grotesque and steeped in darkness (though his rendition of the Beaver is rather cute).

With their contrasting styles, the two illustrators draw out elements from Carroll's verse. Peake, a dark and gothic humour, Jansson a plaintive Northern melancholy. I enjoyed both.

30Merryann
apr 9, 2014, 9:44 pm

Among the treasures I am unearthing as I enter my books into LT is a complete works of Lewis Carroll, so I pulled mine to see what kind of picture I shall be enjoying when I read The Hunting of the Snark. Alas, it's not illustrated at all. But I read the preface until I got to 'the ship usually moved backwards', and then stopped, laughing, knowing I'll have some good reading to savor another day when I pick this up again.

31Michael.Rimmer
apr 13, 2014, 3:18 pm

I've got a Complete Works of Carroll, too. I've not read it all - I think probably just the Alices. I should read some more of his stuff. Sigh - time!

32Michael.Rimmer
apr 13, 2014, 3:22 pm

Having just read The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson (which doesn't qualify as a ROOT for me as I've only had it a year or so), I'm inspired to delve into my mythology back-catalogue...

Popol Vuh it is. I've had this since 1985, so it's about time to get it read.

33.Monkey.
apr 13, 2014, 3:29 pm

Oh interesting, I'm just reading my ER book Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths, which is a lot of his history intertwined with the myths and Icelandic & Norse history. :)

34Michael.Rimmer
apr 13, 2014, 5:07 pm

That looks like an interesting book, Monkey - how're you finding it?

I've got an ancient edition of The Story of Burnt Njal I've had since about 1984, so maybe I'll try to work that into my ROOT. But I first want to get and read The Poetic Edda now that I've read the Prose Edda.

35.Monkey.
apr 13, 2014, 5:14 pm

I'm not sure yet, lol. I'm on p60, and it's interesting, but there's a whole lot of names and crazy stuff and I'm not sure how much is actually soaking in. Some of it seems a little bit too much Here's interesting fact A and this is fact B, but it's informative, anyway. We'll see in another 50 pages how it's going. :P

36Merryann
apr 17, 2014, 1:25 am

I've read some Greek Myths, and some Roman Myths, but never thought to read any Norse Myths. Another for the TBR. :)

37.Monkey.
apr 17, 2014, 6:50 am

Oh Norse mythology is lots of fun! Also Greek and Roman is mostly the same, minus the altered names. :P

38Michael.Rimmer
apr 18, 2014, 1:57 am

Yes, I'd agree that "fun" is an appropriate description for many of the stories, particularly that of Utgarda-Loki, but the foreknowledge of Ragnarok casts a melancholy shadow over all of the proceedings.

39.Monkey.
apr 18, 2014, 4:33 am

True, Ragnarok is a bit depressing. But still, they're some of my favorite.

40Michael.Rimmer
apr 18, 2014, 6:01 am

I don't feel that the allusions to and ultimate telling of Ragnarok are depressing, just that it adds a sense of impending doom to the proceedings. It's also a metaphor for change, ending and renewal, though. A reminder that nothing is permanent, all things will end, but that life continues, nonetheless. In that respect, Ragnarok gives a message of hope. I find it resonates with the present situation we face with environmental degradation and climate change. Much of what we know might be swept away, but there will not be an ending, rather a transformation and beginning of a new cycle of being.

41Merryann
Bewerkt: apr 19, 2014, 12:32 am

Okay, that's it! How on earth am I supposed to ever whittle down a ROOT pile, when I keep learning about new worlds of great reading? This is wonderful/appalling. I must get myself to the library now and get some Norse mythology!

42Michael.Rimmer
apr 19, 2014, 5:52 am

Ha, ha! I know what you mean. I was looking at my books wondering what to read next: something new? something old from my TBR pile? an old favourite? Tough decisions!!

43connie53
apr 19, 2014, 3:43 pm

And.....what did you choose, Michael?

44Michael.Rimmer
apr 19, 2014, 7:08 pm

Well, I recently bought Boneland by Alan Garner, which is the third in a trilogy, and I thought I might reread the first two again in preparation: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (another Norse myth reference!) and The Moon of Gomrath (that one based upon British legends of the Wild Hunt). But then, I thought I might reread A Study in Scarlet. Ultimately, I haven't decided and will probably read something completely different, as the mood takes me. I need to finish Popol Vuh, first, though, which is proving very interesting.

45Merryann
apr 19, 2014, 10:23 pm

I went to Barnes and Noble today where they had one book of Norse myths...and we couldn't find it on the shelf.

So, I bought The Art Book and now have over 500 pages of pictures of art to look at instead. :)

46Michael.Rimmer
apr 20, 2014, 12:58 am

That's certainly a departure! But it looks like an interesting book.

47Merryann
apr 20, 2014, 5:23 pm

It is! Thanks. I say that because I never would have known it existed if not for you and PM talking about Norse myths, which led me to go to the bookstore.

48Michael.Rimmer
apr 21, 2014, 11:31 am

Completed ROOT number 5, Popol Vuh. I'm slightly ahead of schedule now, having targeted myself for one ROOT per month.

Although I know that J.R.R. Tolkien used elements of Northern European mythologies when creating his Middle-earth legendarium, I do wonder whether he'd also read the Popol Vuh, as the splitting up of the original population of humans in the Maya stories, wanderings through the darkness before the coming of the sun and moon, seems to have parallels in Tolkien's story of the creation of and journeys of the Elves in the Silmarillion. I'm probably making a connection that didn't exist but, anyway, I found it an interesting correlation, which probably says more about the universality of mythic motifs than it does about any conscious borrowings or influence.

49Jackie_K
apr 21, 2014, 11:36 am

>45 Merryann: I have that Art book and love it. I only have the small pocket version (there is a giant coffee table version which is the same book, just bigger), it is brilliant for dipping in and out when the fancy takes you. And it introduced me to a lot of artists I didn't know at all before, and encouraged me to check out more of their work. I love it when books do that!

Michael, I am thoroughly unfamiliar with any of the Norse myths - is there any one set you'd recommend to start a beginner off with?

50Michael.Rimmer
apr 21, 2014, 11:53 am

Hi Jackie :-)

I would suggest the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, which I've just read. It is fairly short, contains the foundations of the Norse mythical universe and some interesting and amusing stories of the gods and their doings. I'm going to move onto the Poetic Edda later in the year, which is a somewhat longer but more expansive work, taking in some of the legends of us earthly folk, as well as the gods.

51Jackie_K
apr 21, 2014, 1:08 pm

Thanks Michael, I will add that to my wish list.

52Merryann
apr 23, 2014, 12:04 am

Me too!

53Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: mei 10, 2014, 10:07 am

My next ROOT is The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft. This one's been on the shelf for about 20 years.

This volume collects some of his earlier works, which are more fantastical than the cosmic horror that he is best known for, so I'm not expecting the "Bone-chilling tales of horror and the macabre" promised by the cover blurb. In fact, with the exception of the title-novella, I've read all of the other short stories before, but in other collections. Reading this particular selection together should be interesting.

54Familyhistorian
mei 10, 2014, 8:47 pm

This is very interesting. An actual book by H.P. Lovecraft - thornton37814 posted this link to a quiz on her thread in the 75ers http://iwl.me/ where you put in a sample of your writing and it tells you which author you write like. Most people come up with at least one of their samples being in the style of H.P. Lovecraft but I didn't hear of anyone actually having read Lovecraft.

55Michael.Rimmer
mei 10, 2014, 10:06 pm

Never heard of anybody having read Lovecraft? You obviously mix in the wrong circles, Familyhistorian! Or, possibly, the right ones :-)

Lovecraft can be something of an acquired taste. His vocabulary was immense, and he seemingly wanted you to know it; his style of horror was allusive rather than graphic (lots of "unnameable/unspeakable/ineffable" creatures and happenings) and, particularly in his earlier works, largely a descriptive style in which you learn a lot about landscapes and little about the things that inhabit them. There is also his most unfortunate bigotry and racism, which totally alienates some readers. For myself, as distasteful as I find some of the language and views that Lovecraft expressed, I keep in mind the cultural context of the period, when the scientific view of race regrettably supported prejudice. I reject those elements and focus on his other qualities.

Whatever you think of his writing, his influence on many other authors is undeniable.

By the way, that writing analyzer gave me Charles Dickens - I wish!

56Familyhistorian
mei 11, 2014, 2:58 am

Charles Dickens is a good one to get. I tried more than one sample and got a different author each time. My favourite result was Margaret Mitchell. I will have to see if I can find some Lovecraft, maybe I can acquire the taste.

57Michael.Rimmer
jun 2, 2014, 8:00 pm

The story The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was not quite what I had been led to believe from reading other reviews. As per post 55, above, there was not so much landscape description as I'd expected, though there were some very good examples of it. The style started out in a sort of darkly whimsical vein, but as Carter ventured deeper into the Dreamlands, his visions became more grotesque. There were some touches of horror, but not so much. There was more in the way of a growing awareness of the cosmic beings whose indifference towards humankind was apparent more than any conscious malignity towards us (with an exception!). A humorous ending (I thought it was, anyway) and a fun read. Got the short stories to finish off now.

58Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: jun 30, 2014, 2:17 pm

Having just read a fairly recently acquired Star Trek book, I thought I'd bring balance back to the Force by reading a Star Wars book. I bought Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster in 1978, so it's probably due time to read it.

59Jackie_K
jul 1, 2014, 6:08 am

>58 Michael.Rimmer: "I bought ... in 1978, so it's probably due time to read it" - that is the most beautiful understatement!

60MissWatson
Bewerkt: jul 1, 2014, 7:18 am

>58 Michael.Rimmer: I owned that too, way back when. Didn't quite live up to my expectations then. What do you think of it now?

Edited for typo

61Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: jul 1, 2014, 2:00 pm

I'm an understated kind of person, Jackie :-D

Splinter... probably isn't the oldest acquired book in my collection, but it's probably the oldest one I haven't read. I probably should have started my ROOT with it.

62Michael.Rimmer
jul 1, 2014, 2:02 pm

MissWatson, I shall tell you once I've finished it :-)

I knew that it was written between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back movies, but didn't know until now that it was intended as the novelisation of a low-budget sequel if ANH had been a flop! Hence the digressions from what has become Star Wars canon, which I thought were because Lucas had no idea where he was gong with the project at the time this was written. You live and learn!

63Michael.Rimmer
jul 6, 2014, 5:13 pm

Having a dual read: along with Splinter, I'm reading The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind. I'm not sure of the date that I bought this - probably about 1995.

64Michael.Rimmer
jul 18, 2014, 8:15 pm

I got into Zen Teachings more-so than Splinter, which I've barely started. My dream of becoming a Zen Buddhist Jedi Warrior Monk has been dashed.

I'm not qualified to properly review Zen Teachings as I don't know enough about Buddhist philosophy, although the point of the teachings of Huang Po are that chasing after conceptual understanding is pointless, so seeking further knowledge would not actually help me, anyway. Enlightenment cannot be attained, because there is nothing to be attained. We are eternally one with the Absolute but our faulty perceptions hide from us this truth. Study will not help us experience our true nature, only the stilling of any dualistic, conceptual thought. I think I'm a very long way from that, but if it does happen, it will apparently be a flash of intuitive knowledge that will be incommunicable in words, hence the transmission of Mind (the Absolute) to Mind (that part of the Absolute that has experienced itself as "me"), thus freeing my conception of myself as a separate entity, limited in time and space, to the experience of myself as coterminous with the eternal, uncreated, unending One Mind. Which, obviously, doesn't really explain it.

Back to Star Wars, hokey religions and ancient weapons and all.

65Michael.Rimmer
Bewerkt: jul 27, 2014, 1:54 pm

Splinter of the Mind's Eye finished. It was OK, but no better than that. The only other Star Wars books I've read are the original trilogy (which I enjoyed much more), so I don't know how Splinter measures up to the hundreds of Star Wars books written about the expanded universe.

Knowing that it was intended as the book of a never-needed-to-be made low budget film sequel gives it some context though. It was fun in its own way, but not a book I need to re-read or (whisper it softly) to keep.

66MissWatson
jul 27, 2014, 7:41 am

I bought some of the books when they came out (my my, how long ago is that?) and I must say the Jedi stuff bored me. The trilogy about Han's early years was fun. But then, he's my kind of rogue.

67Michael.Rimmer
jul 27, 2014, 1:55 pm

Han is great, and he shot first!

68MissWatson
jul 28, 2014, 5:28 am

Yay!

69Michael.Rimmer
aug 26, 2014, 6:02 am

Next from the pile is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. I read The Gulag Archipelago many years ago, so while I guess that this covers much of the same ground, it will definitely do so in a more concise way, and probably more personally.

70connie53
sep 1, 2014, 2:46 pm

Heavy stuff, Michael!

71Michael.Rimmer
sep 2, 2014, 2:40 am

>70 connie53: I'm finding it serious in tone, rather than heavy. The Gulag Archipelago was a heavy book, both literally and figuratively! Ivan Denisovich has no overt political commentary (at least not as far as I've read) and is allowing the experience of an individual prisoner to speak for itself, although I can understand why that account embarrassed the USSR and contributed towards Solzhenitsyn being named an enemy of the state.

72Michael.Rimmer
sep 9, 2014, 12:34 pm

Finished One Day.... It's not as harrowing as The Gulag Archipelago, as Solzhenitsyn chose to tell of a fairly typical day in Ivan Denisovich's life, possibly even a particularly good day for him. All things being relative, of course, as the life described is actually appalling.

The decision to present this typical day was one of understated genius, as it's hard to argue that he's being hyperbolic. The brutality inflicted upon the prisoners is institutionalised, there being no outrageous "monsters" presented from among the authorities, just the casual cruelty of the official following orders.

It's a slim book - 143 pages - and I'd recommend it as a quick read for anybody interested Stalinist-era Russia, or in how hope, comradeship and self-survival perseveres in the most unlikely of places.

73Michael.Rimmer
sep 13, 2014, 1:44 pm

Next from the pile, Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss. Another one I've had on the TBR shelf since about 1980. I really enjoy Aldiss's writing, yet I have a number of unread books by him, which I'm now really determined to attend to.

Non-Stop is set on a giant space ship made from a hollowed-out asteroid and travelling to the stars at slower-than-light speed. The original crew know that this will take centuries and that it is their descendents who will complete the journey. As the story starts, however, the "crew" are living in tribes, hunting wild animals (and each other) through hydroponic jungles, their origins largely forgotten other than a few old-wives'-tales. The truth, however, will out...

74Michael.Rimmer
okt 5, 2014, 8:37 am

Finished Non-Stop.

75connie53
okt 12, 2014, 1:26 pm

That sounds really interesting, Michael.

It took you some time to read this one, Michael. Was it such a big book?

76Michael.Rimmer
okt 12, 2014, 4:21 pm

No, it's not so big a book, but I'm studying at the moment, so reading lots of text books and journals and writing essays. Not much time for recreational reading :-)

77connie53
okt 26, 2014, 12:20 pm

I hope studying goes well! And you will have time to read for fun soon.

78Michael.Rimmer
okt 27, 2014, 7:48 pm

Thanks, Connie :-) And, me too, as I keep adding to my tbr pile!

79Michael.Rimmer
dec 8, 2014, 9:52 pm

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: I've had this on the shelf since 1982, so I'm well overdue for reading it.

80Michael.Rimmer
dec 16, 2014, 8:00 pm

Finished A Clockwork Orange, which I loved. Just got one more ROOT to read to meet my target for the year, but I haven't decided what it will be yet.

81MissWatson
dec 17, 2014, 3:59 am

You're on the home stretch, congrats!

82connie53
dec 22, 2014, 3:38 pm

You can do just that, Michael

A very Happy Christmas and an Happy New Year!

83Michael.Rimmer
dec 28, 2014, 7:57 am

In order to ensure that I make my target, my last ROOT of the year is a short adaptation of a classic Humphrey Bogart movie, Conflict by Alex Morrison. It's not as much of a cop-out as it may appear as I've just finished The 101 Best Film Noir Posters from the 1940s-1950s by Mark Fertig and I'm in the mood for a little bit of betrayal and murder. (I should say that Conflict is an omission from Fertig's book, but I don't hold that against him!)

84Michael.Rimmer
dec 30, 2014, 12:50 pm

Finished 'Conflict', and with that have also finished my ROOT for 2014!

85rabbitprincess
dec 30, 2014, 6:13 pm

Hurrah! Congratulations!