What are you currently reading?

[Ataraxia]

No, I haven't.  I'll probably get to it eventually, but Brahms was on the priority list because he's one of my favorite composers.

It's good that Brahms' father was a musician and wanted his son to work in music and that young Brahms knew precisely what he wanted to do (compose)! And that he had such understanding teachers. How often does that happen?

Oh, I suppose sending him off to play piano in a whorehouse wasn't the best idea. 

[Geo Dude]

Thanks. That's generally what I read in reviews also, and what I can glean from the obligatory interviews the he often gives in Bach-related documentaries. Despite the seemingly, as you said, 'normal' life a historical figure of his stature led, in a way I find it satisfying to not know much about Bach's life, or at least not have a thick layer of romanticised story-telling laid upon history as is the case with the lives of most composers who came after him. The music speaks clearly to me, and how wonderfully!

I should consider picking the book up once more regardless of my shortcomings with regard to understanding the technicalities of the music (although I would very much like to learn that as well, some day). If I remember correctly, I stopped somewhere in the preface where he starts dissecting Bach's obit.

I found that I developed a greater appreciation of Bach's music as a result of this book precisely because he wasn't romanticized.  The man's life is a wonderful demonstration of what can happen of what can happen when a very bright individual works his (or her) ass off to hone his craft, in spite of personality flaws that may get in the way.  I suffer from being unable to read music and a lack of knowledge of music theory and I still enjoyed the book with the exception of the detailed genealogy sections.

[Opus106]

I found that I developed a greater appreciation of Bach's music as a result of this book precisely because he wasn't romanticized.  The man's life is a wonderful demonstration of what can happen of what can happen when a very bright individual works his (or her) ass off to hone his craft, in spite of personality flaws that may get in the way.  I suffer from being unable to read music and a lack of knowledge of music theory and I still enjoyed the book with the exception of the detailed genealogy sections.

That's good to know... well, apart from the "suffering" part .

[Geo Dude]

Along with these two I've started on this and the accompanying workbook, partly in an attempt to rid myself of my math phobia prior to re-entering college and partly because the concept of calculus fascinates me.

[Sergeant Rock]

Reading Wodehouse's novel The Code of the Woosters. Best exchange so far:

At Jeeves suggestion, Wooster, in despondent mood over a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation, adjusts the length of his trousers by a quarter inch to effect the perfect break. He then says:

"There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself "Do trousers matter?"

"The mood will pass, sir."




Sarge

[Karl Henning]

I love that one! Possibly the first Wodehouse book I read myself!

[Philoctetes]

Charles Taylor and Liberia by Waugh
Fixing the Facts by Rovner
Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy by Pillar
Marx and Whitehead by Pomeroy
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere by Habermas
Archaeologies of the Future by Jameson
Organizational Sociology edited by W. Richard Scott

Charles Taylor and Liberia by Waugh: This book is really the first of its kind, and I cut it some slack because of that. It's supposed to be historical, but it lacks a methodology. It's really more of a journalistic affair, but it does cover quite a bit of material in regards to Taylor that had not been really been mentioned previously. It also exposed Sirleaf's dealings with Taylor in the early 1990s, which actually pretty important. Other than that it's just a common flair, but if you're interested in modern Liberia, I would definitely suggest this book.

Fixing the Facts by Rovner. This book is utterly fantastic. It covers the entire history of intelligence politicization. It's goes in depth, and offers a sound empirical theoretical foundation. It's fairly unique because this literature is really just beginning, and this will be a really hard act to follow. The other main text is the one by Pillar that I'll talk about in a second. This is definitely on the top of the list if that is your topic of interest.

Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy by Pillar. This one isn't as good as the first, because oddly enough it lacks rigor, and if you know Pillar this is pretty surprising. He really only focuses on one type of politicization which shows that he really didn't give the topic much thought. It's really a book more about reform, so the title is a bit of a lie. More than half the book deals with what he thinks should be done to correct the intelligence process. While it isn't a bad book, it's not one I'd suggest unless you're really into intelligence reform.

The books by Pomeroy, Habermas, and Jameson were simply too boring for me to struggle through. Pomeroy is the one that I got through the most pages, but it didn't really offer me anything that I thought would be interesting. Habermas led me to a book that I'm going to start reading (Toqueville). Jameson was just plodding, but if you're a late-Marxist who dislikes post-modernism but enjoys literary theory, you just might enjoy this book.

Currently reading:
Organizational Sociology edited by Scott
Tocqueville's Road Map by Boesche
The Poet and the President by Coyle

[Opus106]

Possibly the first Wodehouse book I read myself!

Ditto.

[Florestan]

Stendhal - The Red and The Black

This is one of those books that literally make you happy when reading it. 

[Geo Dude]

Inspired by my recent decision to start following geology blogs again I have restarted my read-through of the second edition of this:

[asin]1577665201[/asin]

If my reading habits continue trending in this direction, I may even find myself restarting my reading of Rudwick's Worlds Before Adam soon, the second volume in an excellent two volume set on the history of geology.  I made it about a third of the way through before I sought a (long) intermission, but I need to clear my plate of some other reading material before resuming it, I suspect.

Unfortunately, music is taking a back seat to all of the reading, but that's how it goes sometimes.

[val]

STEPHEN W. HAWKING:      The Grand Design  (2010)

A very interesting book, in defense of the possibility of the M Theory. It is even more interesting when we compare it to the recent book  (2010) of Marcelo Gleiser, "Imperfect Creation", defending the opposite perspective.
Sometimes, reading this works I ask myself if Physics, in some moments, are not becoming Metaphysics in the minds of certain scientists.

[Opus106]

I ask myself if Physics, in some moments, are not becoming Metaphysics in the minds of certain scientists.

It has to, if you want to mass-publish your book.

[Elgarian]

Having been knocked for six by Audrey Niffenegger in recent months, at last I turned to the runaway bestseller that made her famous: The Time Traveller's Wife. It's beautifully written (inevitably, because it's A.N.), but by that I mean that the language is wonderfully economical and effective, and doesn't draw attention to itself. The story is imaginative and gripping. The character of Henry (the involuntary time-traveller) remains a bit sketchy to this reader; the character of Clare (his wife) much more attractive and rounded and - one might say - noble. I found myself close to tears on several occasions - there are some very poignant moments in this novel. When I laid the book down I felt well-satisfied by a well-crafted and emotionally fulfilling ending (inevitably not a happy one, conventionally, at least).

So how does it compare with Her Fearful Symmetry, which is one of the most profoundly affecting novels I've ever read? Well, I'd hardly suppose (except from the wide-ranging operation of imagination that's apparent in both) they were by the same author. Time Traveller's Wife is deservedly the hit novel that it is. People love it. But I don't find myself tempted to re-read it immediately, contemplating each sentence carefully to extract all its meaning, and continually finding new depths, new richnesses of nuance - as I did with Her Fearful Symmetry. It's a chalk and cheese issue. Time Traveller's Wife thrilled, entertained, and engaged me for days and left me sad to finish it but well-pleased with the experience. But Her Fearful Symmetry changed me (and is still changing me), permanently, I think, in ways that I still can't quite grasp but which feel important.

[Lethevich]

I was lucky enough to be somewhere earlier today where I could stumble across and read a monthly periodical edited by Trollope (St Paul's magazine). It featured all kinds of content on tons of subjects giving useful insights into how Londoners thought back then, including interesting topics such as how anybody in their right mind when shown the evidence will come to understand that Jupiter is certainly inhabited by "persons" who look radically different from humans (intriguing that the less creative modern man, with his X Files and so on, still feels that aliens must look fairly humanoid). But the journal doesn't seem available in any way for purchase. There is one volume on Amazon, but it's £100 -_- Worst feeling

[ggluek]

Recently read "Xylophone Fragments" by Mark Woodward.

Weird, but entertaining, and full of musical references.

george

[Opus106]

(intriguing that the less creative modern man, with his X Files and so on, still feels that aliens must look fairly humanoid).

Carl Sagan actually put forward the hypothesis that there could beings, something like huge jelly fish, floating in the uppermost layers of Jupiter's atmosphere with its fast winds.

[Karl Henning]

Having been knocked for six by Audrey Niffenegger in recent months, at last I turned to the runaway bestseller that made her famous: The Time Traveller's Wife. It's beautifully written (inevitably, because it's A.N.), but by that I mean that the language is wonderfully economical and effective, and doesn't draw attention to itself. The story is imaginative and gripping. The character of Henry (the involuntary time-traveller) remains a bit sketchy to this reader; the character of Clare (his wife) much more attractive and rounded and - one might say - noble. I found myself close to tears on several occasions - there are some very poignant moments in this novel. When I laid the book down I felt well-satisfied by a well-crafted and emotionally fulfilling ending (inevitably not a happy one, conventionally, at least).

So how does it compare with Her Fearful Symmetry, which is one of the most profoundly affecting novels I've ever read? Well, I'd hardly suppose (except from the wide-ranging operation of imagination that's apparent in both) they were by the same author. Time Traveller's Wife is deservedly the hit novel that it is. People love it. But I don't find myself tempted to re-read it immediately, contemplating each sentence carefully to extract all its meaning, and continually finding new depths, new richnesses of nuance - as I did with Her Fearful Symmetry. It's a chalk and cheese issue. Time Traveller's Wife thrilled, entertained, and engaged me for days and left me sad to finish it but well-pleased with the experience. But Her Fearful Symmetry changed me (and is still changing me), permanently, I think, in ways that I still can't quite grasp but which feel important.

Alan, my adventures with Her Fearful Symmetry are mutating into a short story.

I mentioned that the first attempt to order became a seller's cancellation.

My second order arrived, only it was the paper edition (I had ordered hard cover — as Walter Sobchak would say, Am I wrong?)  It was rattier than I want (the book I ordered was listed as Used — like new).  And the amount of the order was utterly different (though, admittedly, even cheaper . . . this ratty paperback copy was priced at one red cent).

So, I've packed this copy back up with a shipping label provided by the seller, who are now sending me the book which I actually ordered.

I think.

[Elgarian]

Alan, my adventures with Her Fearful Symmetry are mutating into a short story.

I mentioned that the first attempt to order became a seller's cancellation.

My second order arrived, only it was the paper edition (I had ordered hard cover — as Walter Sobchak would say, Am I wrong?)  It was rattier than I want (the book I ordered was listed as Used — like new).  And the amount of the order was utterly different (though, admittedly, even cheaper . . . this ratty paperback copy was priced at one red cent).

So, I've packed this copy back up with a shipping label provided by the seller, who are now sending me the book which I actually ordered.

I think.

This is more bad luck than a single Amazon buyer should have to put up with!

All I can say is ... I  consider the book is worth all this hassle. (I just hope you agree!!!)

[Geo Dude]

Inspired by my recent decision to start following geology blogs again I have restarted my read-through of the second edition of this:

[asin]1577665201[/asin]

I ended up ditching that to start on this one, as sedimentology is where my heart lies:

[asin]0521897165[/asin]

[eyeresist]

I've just looked at the beginning of Shostakovich: a life remembered  (now with added water damage - thanks, Amazon UK!).
Sadly, Elizabeth Wilson is not a good writer, expressingly herself clumsily and cramming in various cliched expressions. The typos don't help, e.g. she advises that she will use the conventional English spelling for such names as "Rachmanninov". Also, on page 2 of the book proper (that's as far as I've gone so far), she says that Rimsky was dismissed from the St Petersburg conservatory "for his condemnation of the 1905 Uprising", when I'm pretty sure that the issue was his SUPPORT for the rebels (I have somewhere on CD his orchestration of Dubinushka, a popular song associated with the rebellion).
I really hope the book improves as I go along.