What are you currently reading?

[Mirror Image]

Yes! 'Tis! I should re-read, too. You might like Bax's autobiography, Farewell, My Youth, if you haven't read it yet. Easily the best book by a composer I've ever read (outside of music theory).  Edit : ok, even inside music theory! 

Thanks for the suggestion, but not being a fan of Bax's music pretty much puts a damper on any kind of enthusiasm I would have for a book on his life. His music completely baffles me and leaves me scratching my head most of the time.

[Daverz]

Thanks for the suggestion, but not being a fan of Bax's music pretty much puts a damper on any kind of enthusiasm I would have for a book on his life. His music completely baffles me and leaves me scratching my head most of the time.

I think his tone poems are his most accessible music.  Garden of Fand for example.

[asin]B000027QWV[/asin]

The symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?

[Mirror Image]

I think his tone poems are his most accessible music.  Garden of Fand for example.

[asin]B000027QWV[/asin]

The symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?

It's not that I don't find the music accessible, it clearly is written in an idiom I'm comfortable and familiar with, but, for whatever reason, the music hasn't spoken to me yet.

[listener]

The butt thing? Or the general wing-nut thing?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/10/unwise-strategy-pastor-mark-driscolls-church-responds-to-book-buying-claims/
His letter of resignation was delivered this week.
http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/15/exclusive-mark-driscolls-resignation-letter-to-mars-hill-church/
  Real life stories, hard to beat 'em.

[North Star]

The symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?

No, you're both banned, immediately.  0:)

[milk]

Just finished this. Interesting in a way.

Started this today. I think it has a more compelling subject matter maybe:

[Jo498]

I found the one on the Everest desaster more compelling and more interesting. Maybe because Krakauer actually was there (for most of it).

A (fictional) funny and sometimes macabre account of Hippie enthusiasm encountering the real wilderness is found in TC Boyles's "Drop City". If one likes Boyle in general, I'd recommend it, of the half dozen of his I read, it is among my favorites (the favorite is probably "Tortilla Curtain")

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Richard Wagner and the Jews by Milton E. Brener. This of course is never an easy subject for a book (although there are countless books still about it) but so far what I've read it actually stays pretty objective about it, not denying that Wagner was a huge antisemite but that doesn't necessarily mean every single even remotely friendly recognition he gives to some of his jewish associates was all 100 % manipulation. The book at times actually gets a few laughs out of me as well, such as Wagner's letters to Baron Robert von Hornstein where he pretty much demands ridiculous sums of money which as author of the book points out, could be seen as a joke.

[kishnevi]

On that subject, two quotes that sum up my view.
One is from Leonard Bernstein: I hate Wagner on bended knee
Second is a long comment by a character in the detective story Swan Song by Edmund Crispin (pen name of Bruce Montgomery, himself a composer, mostly of film scores, and an organist), referring to unofficial ban on Wagner related to WII,  to that that was rather nonsensical, since if the Nazis had actually paid attention to the Ring, they would have noticed that not even the gods could get out of a promise without literally bringing the world down over their heads. (Paraphrase, of course.)

[Karl Henning]

With thanks owed to Brian (IIRC) I have been reading the introduction to Vol. I of the Twain autobiography.  Even this account of the background, false starts, metamorphosing mission, and work methods of the sheaf document, is an absorbing read.

[Bogey]

Reading this in tandem with our daughter.  I read Dragon Rider to our son many moons ago, but this one has a better edge to it.  So far, I am impressed 100+ pages in.

[Brian]

With thanks owed to Brian (IIRC) I have been reading the introduction to Vol. I of the Twain autobiography.  Even this account of the background, false starts, metamorphosing mission, and work methods of the sheaf document, is an absorbing read.

Hmm, I have not read it, but I have asked a lot of people for their opinions of it! You probably recall that...and understand the subtext of this reply. Thanks for your notes so far.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Currently reading Dombey. And my God, they were right. Florence cries ALL THE TIME. Can't wait until I get to Edith's introduction. She is often considered to be the first thoroughly convincing complex female character Dickens created.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

It's not that I don't find the music accessible, it clearly is written in an idiom I'm comfortable and familiar with, but, for whatever reason, the music hasn't spoken to me yet.

John, might I recommend Tale the Pine-Trees Knew as a path to Bax?  Did it for me, in any case!

[Karl Henning]

Still lingering in the Kaatskills, we might say . . . I've been slowly re-reading "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," as well as proceeding (with no less pleasure) with the Twain autobiography.

[milk]

I found the one on the Everest desaster more compelling and more interesting. Maybe because Krakauer actually was there (for most of it).

A (fictional) funny and sometimes macabre account of Hippie enthusiasm encountering the real wilderness is found in TC Boyles's "Drop City". If one likes Boyle in general, I'd recommend it, of the half dozen of his I read, it is among my favorites (the favorite is probably "Tortilla Curtain")

Thanks. I don't know of Boyle. I'll check it out. I'm almost done with Into the Wild and quite liked it. The Everest one was a good read but I had a hard time sympathizing with the people and I skipped over the fancy passages about fascination and the history of climbing Everest. Into the Wilderness, on the other hand, focuses on a character that I find compelling. I know a tramp who lives the life on principle - a guy I met years back and have intermittently stayed in touch with. A highly intelligent person who rejects society on principle, not necessarily or solely out of bitterness, fascinates me. It made me want to reread London (even though he was a bit of a hypocrite - but that's another story).   

[Karl Henning]

Hmm, I have not read it, but I have asked a lot of people for their opinions of it! You probably recall that...and understand the subtext of this reply. Thanks for your notes so far.

The account of Gen. Grant in his last years, the question of his memoirs, the circumstances of his conceding to write magazine articles, the publications environment, and the matter of Gerhardt's clay bust, all of it is fascinating, wonderfully humane.

[North Star]

Just ordered this
[asin]0393339432[/asin]

[stingo]

Finished the Arthur C. Clarke short story collection (A Meeting with Medusa - Collected Stories Vol. 4) and the first Legends anthology. Now onto Legends II also edited by Robert Silverberg and Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat by Hal Herzog.

[Jo498]

I should get back at some Wodehouse to deal with impending autumn darkness, I suppose!
Looks like a nice anthology, although I think "Right ho, Jeeves" is actually the first book in a rather loose trilogy. So the story of Gussie, Madeline continues...