Gildor Roy, his tower of books!

MISE À DAY

As of September 12, Gildor Roy will host La tour on TVA. Until then, we can take the opportunity to discover the books which, according to him, are worth the detour!

Spontaneously, which book do you think you most often recommended?

1491 – New revelations about the Americas before Christopher Columbusby Charles C. Mann. Based on very serious research, this book explains the state of the world before and after Christopher Columbus discovered America. This is an absolutely amazing test. By the same author, 1493 – How the Discovery of America Changed the World is also very good.

What was your latest great discovery?

About a year and a half ago, I shot in Manuel de la vie sauvage, the television adaptation of a novel by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard . As I didn't know him, I read it and found it great. 

And before that, it was…?

At one point, I read The Truth About the Harry Québert Affairby Joël Dicker. It was a great discovery, but for one book only. After that, I enjoyed the other novels by this author a little less. 

Which novels did you particularly like during your life? 

• Fires of Springby James A. Michener, an author my father loved. It tells of his awakening to literature. He is someone who comes from a disadvantaged background and whose life was saved by literature.
• By Christian Jacq, the entire series La pierre de lumière , which depicts the craftsmen who worked on the tombs of the pharaohs. Thousands of years ago, it was understood that artists were important and that they should be treated well! 
• The first novel I read: < em>The yellow shadowby Henri Vernes, a Bob Morane that I discovered when I was in secondary I. Like Bob Morane, I wanted to drive a Jaguar and have a friend like Bill Ballantine. It was so far from me, it was great! 
• It's a little illegal, but I had the privilege of reading the book by Léopold Dion, a serial murderer who raged in Quebec during the 1960s. His trial was important, because it was the first trial where insanity was pleaded. He was regularly arrested and asked to be taken care of. It didn't happen and he started killing. He wrote this book in prison and there are about ten copies. I had a photocopy of this book.  
• Chronicles of Jerusalem by Guy Delisle. I liked it so much that I insisted on submitting it to the contest of The more the merrier, the more we readand I made it to the final. This is the kind of book that should be in the high school curriculum.

Have you ever finished a book regretting that there was no 100 or 200 more pages?

The last time that happened to me was with Born to run, Bruce Springsteen's autobiography. I wish he had spoken more about music. I've rarely seen someone bare themselves like that and his openness, his honesty really impressed me.

Which classic do you promise yourself to read one day?

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. It is enormous. Most people who read it told me, after two or three glasses of wine, that they could have not read it, that it didn't change their life…

Is there a novel you want to talk about? 

The Scarlet Handmaiden by Margaret Atwood, because that's what's happening today. That's where we're going, in the United States anyway. They are installing their own sharia and no one is talking about it.

If there is a tower of books to read somewhere in your house, you can name a few titles?

David, king by Gérald Messadié, which was a gift from a friend of mine from District 31. There is also the biography Jackie Robinson, a summer in Montreal by Marcel Dugas and For the love of hockey, the autobiography of Bobby Orr, who is my favorite hockey player of all time.