books: what are you currently reading?

[tuffythepug]

Anyone have suggestions for books on American music, blues, jazz, or pop?  Or favorite music biographies?

I need more!

Tx, piscator

You might want to try "Skydog"...the Duane Allman biography.  It's very good.

Also "Boogieman"  the biography of John Lee Hooker.

[Fredmando]

Hey, this is all good stuff. You all are giving me some great ideas.
John, is it hard to get into Charles de Lint's works? It sounds like some pretty complex, but interesting reading.
Eor, you hit the nail on the head! I should have been reading some of these books years ago. I had a great English teacher in high school and we were supposed to read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and he changed his mind at the last minute. The guy was great and he was an ex-Marine, so he had us write a paper about Stairway to Heaven. It was great, but I missed out on a great book.
Hey, what is "half.com" that you make reference to?

[Parlor Picker]

Probably the most well-informed, objective and intelligently written books on music I have read:

"Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop" by Charles Shaar Murray.

Hendrix is the central theme but other subjects are covered, including Robert Johnson and Charlie Christian.

[doctor_gogol]

Arthur C Clarke-Rendezvous with Rama

[eor]

half.com is an ebay off-shoot, so you can use your ebay profile info there, too.  its like amazon, no auctions.  you put stuff up or, you buy stuff.  oftentimes, very inexpensively.  i get most of my books/cds/dvds from half.com or amazon.com, all used, and all cheap.  shipping cuts into your discount, but it is usually still worth it.  they sell all kinds of stuff, too.  used to get my school books there supercheap.

love,
eor

i read mostly shakespeare in school.  a solid 5-6 different plays over the years.  none since.

[Caleb]

half.com is an ebay off-shoot, so you can use your ebay profile info there, too.  its like amazon, no auctions.  you put stuff up or, you buy stuff.  oftentimes, very inexpensively.  i get most of my books/cds/dvds from half.com or amazon.com, all used, and all cheap.  shipping cuts into your discount, but it is usually still worth it.  they sell all kinds of stuff, too.  used to get my school books there supercheap.

I used half.com a lot myself.  If I buy a book, that's normally where I get it.  But I get most of my music and books at my local library.  We have a large network of libraries that stock tons of great music and most of the books I'm interested in.  Like you, I'm a bit late to the party on some of the stuff considered "classic".  I seem to be stuck on Steinbeck for now. 

[Queequeg]

this is on my amazon wish list...
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
by Oliver Sacks
From Publishers Weekly
Sacks is an unparalleled chronicler of modern medicine, and fans of his work will find much to enjoy when he turns his prodigious talent for observation to music and its relationship to the brain. The subtitle aptly frames the book as a series of medical case studies-some in-depth, some abruptly short. The tales themselves range from the relatively mundane (a song that gets stuck on a continuing loop in one's mind) through the uncommon (Tourette's or Parkinson's patients whose symptoms are calmed by particular kinds of music) to the outright startling (a man struck by lightning subsequently developed a newfound passion and talent for the concert piano). In this latest collection, Sacks introduces new and fascinating characters, while also touching on the role of music in some of his classic cases (the man who mistook his wife for a hat makes a brief appearance). Though at times the narrative meanders, drawing connections through juxtaposition while leaving broader theories to be inferred by the reader, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. This book leaves one a little more attuned to the remarkable complexity of human beings, and a bit more conscious of the role of music in our lives. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

[rockstar_not]

Just finished "Same Kind of Different as Me" last night - took a total of about 6 nights to read.

It's a true account of how an international art dealer and a sharecropper (read: slave) become a sort of Odd Couple in friendship.  One of those books that even a novelist can't think up because it can only happen through providence.

I read "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller earlier in the year as it was recommended to me by so many influences.  One chapter was memorable, the others seemed self-centered and downright pathetic.  I kept wanting to call the author and just tell him to 'Grow Up!!!'.  The chapter about Christians in confession to the crimes they have foisted on society and the world through the ages was pretty challenging to me, however.

Books in the same vein as Miller's, but with more meat on their bones, are "A New Kind of Christian", and "The Story We Find Ourselves In" by Brian McLaren.  A re-thinking of what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century.  Don't agree with all of the points, but less rambling in style than Miller.

A New Kind of Christian
The Story We Find Ourselves In

In the last year another book that rocked my world was "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman of the NYT.  Mostly right-on the money except for the last chapter or two.  If you are in business in the western world, and you haven't yet read this book, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  At most libraries by now.

Also a couple other fascinating books about societal trends and such are Blink! and The Tipping Point  by Malcom Gladwell.

Perhaps I should start a new thread on Podcasts, because I've been digging the Rob Bell podcasts at his church's website.  Very challenging stuff.  His Velvet Elvis book was mentioned on page 1.

-Scott

[Caleb]

Just finished "Same Kind of Different as Me" last night - took a total of about 6 nights to read.

It's a true account of how an international art dealer and a sharecropper (read: slave) become a sort of Odd Couple in friendship.  One of those books that even a novelist can't think up because it can only happen through providence.

I read "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller earlier in the year as it was recommended to me by so many influences.  One chapter was memorable, the others seemed self-centered and downright pathetic.  I kept wanting to call the author and just tell him to 'Grow Up!!!'.  The chapter about Christians in confession to the crimes they have foisted on society and the world through the ages was pretty challenging to me, however.

Books in the same vein as Miller's, but with more meat on their bones, are "A New Kind of Christian", and "The Story We Find Ourselves In" by Brian McLaren.  A re-thinking of what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century.  Don't agree with all of the points, but less rambling in style than Miller.

A New Kind of Christian
The Story We Find Ourselves In

In the last year another book that rocked my world was "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman of the NYT.  Mostly right-on the money except for the last chapter or two.  If you are in business in the western world, and you haven't yet read this book, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  At most libraries by now.

Also a couple other fascinating books about societal trends and such are Blink! and The Tipping Point  by Malcom Gladwell.

Perhaps I should start a new thread on Podcasts, because I've been digging the Rob Bell podcasts at his church's website.  Very challenging stuff.  His Velvet Elvis book was mentioned on page 1.

-Scott

I read Blue Like Jazz, Velvet Elivs and am familiar with McLaren and others like him.  While I enjoy some of their perspective, I don't take any of them very seriously.  It all seems very flavor-of-the-week to me and none of it gets very deep theologically, IMO.  To me all they are really doing is trying to counter the status quo while offering little in terms of actual solutions to the problems that they gripe about. 

[jeremy3220]

I just finished 'The Adventures of Augie March'; I expected it to be great but it was only good.

I'm about to start 'Crime and Punishment'.

[tuffythepug]

I just finished 'The Adventures of Augie March'; I expected it to be great but it was only good.

I'm about to start 'Crime and Punishment'.

Be sure to check back in with us in 6 or 8 months jerremy3220.   I admire your fortitude.

[doctor_gogol]

Just finished, Rendezvous with Rama  by Arthur C Clarke. BRILLIANT book!

[piscator]

Good for you Jeremy!  Nothing better than Dosty!  Piscator

[piscator]

Just started "Forever Free" a fascinating history of Reconstruction.

[eor]

finshed "the stranger" last week.  super awesome.  on "slaughterhouse five" now.

love,
eor

[Caleb]

finshed "the stranger" last week.  super awesome.  on "slaughterhouse five" now.

love,
eor

Interesting. I read "The Stranger" this year and I found it to be the worst book I've ever put my hands on.  Different strokes, I suppose.   

[eor]

eor found this edifying: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(novel).  i like to read up on a book after i'm done with them, to fill in the gaps and stuff.  it helps me to formulate my "final decision" on it.  i do the same with movies.  then i put the ones i like back in the pile to be re-read, now that i "get" them.

but maybe it just hit a little too close to home for me.  and, as you said, it was tailor made to my sensibilites.  you can look at the other stuff eor has read and kinda see a pattern.  eor does require a different stroke.   

love,
eor

i'll probably check out another one of his major works later.  i only have two or three in line after slaughterhouse five, but none that i'm super excited/curious about.  i suppose i can re-read some old ones...

[ducktrapper]

Anyone read Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu/In Search of Lost Time? Challenging stuff! Not for the weak of heart (or eyes). I read Duane's Depressed by Larry McMurtry in which Duane is prescribed Proust by his shrink and that was hard enough.

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (French pronounced [maʁsɛl pʁust]) (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922) was a French novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927.

[piscator]

EOR,

I don't think Camus offers a complete world-view, but, like an ikon, presents an incivive view of one aspect of modern times.  That the message is there at all, makes Camus seem less bleak than other existential writers.  Orson Welles produced a film version of "Stranger" with Anthony Perkins.  I'm not a film buff, but I thoutht it was superb.

Creature, really?  I didn't like Camus sparse style right away, but ultimately had to admit that "Stranger" is a brilliant commentary on the dehumanization of 'modern culture'.   

Not exactly a cheerful writer, but for that reason, maybe we should be thankful for the sparse narrative style.  Camus has never topped my list of favorite writers, but now I wish he'd had time to write more.

As you say, 'different strokes'

Duck, I'm not drawn to French novels and I suspect I've missed out.  Proust's 'Remembrance' is highly regarded and one day I'll get to it. 

I'm not an expert on Larry McMurty but I thought "Lonesome Dove" was magnificent.  It even struck me as Shakesperean.  I don't know McMurty's other work, but 'Dove' really impressed me.

Piscator

[ducktrapper]

McMurtry is an American treasure in my H.O. I've almost bought the Proust many times but having read the first 50 or so pages of the first book, I'm terribly daunted and am pretty sure it's some kind of existential torture as opposed to entertainment. Maybe I'll stick with McMurtry.