Double Bass DB forum "what books are you reading" thread

[Jazzdogg]

The perspective is a scholarly one.
Conclusion: there are 5 basic laws:
1. There are more stupid individuals than you think.
2. Stupid individuals are not bound to one social class or group; they are everywhere.
3. Stupid individuals cause loss to another person or a group, without gaining something, and possibly even lose something.
4. The power of stupid individuals is underestimated by non-stupid individuals.
5. A stupid individual is the most dangerous kind of individual.

Sounds like one I'd enjoy reading!

 

[Jazzdogg]

No Huckleberry Finn?

Depends on the locale and century I'd like to occupy when it comes time to download the next book.
When I was a wee lad, my mother had autographed copies of the Secretary Hawkins series; perhaps I will see if I can find them.

 

[210superair]

Just finished the authentic life of Billy the kid. Awesome book. Going back to the works of Josephus. Made it halfway through that before needing a break. Archaic, but really good too.

 

[birgebass]

Recently been on a sci-fi kick. I just read "Mindscan" by Robert Sawyer. Haven't read anything else of his yet, but Mindscan was fantastic. Highly recommended.

 

[210superair]

So Anyway, when our library closed a couple of weeks ago, this is what I had checked out.
America for Americans is a look at the 'nation of immigrants' and their history of xenophobia towards anyone else who wants to come here.
Small Is Beautiful is a look at corporate 'bigness' and how the economy would work if people mattered.
I've also got a DVR of 'The Bicycle Thief'... but I bailed after 15 minutes. It seemed too sad.
View attachment 3773955

If you dig that and haven't read a people's history by Howard Zinn, check it out. Awesome book.

 

[bass12]

The perspective is a scholarly one.
Conclusion: there are 5 basic laws:
1. There are more stupid individuals than you think.
2. Stupid individuals are not bound to one social class or group; they are everywhere.
3. Stupid individuals cause loss to another person or a group, without gaining something, and possibly even lose something.
4. The power of stupid individuals is underestimated by non-stupid individuals.
5. A stupid individual is the most dangerous kind of individual.

I have to read this book.

 

[Inky13]

Recently been on a sci-fi kick. I just read "Mindscan" by Robert Sawyer. Haven't read anything else of his yet, but Mindscan was fantastic. Highly recommended.

Huge sci-fi fan. Having said that, I was DNF on William Gibson’s latest, “Agency”.

 

[BassiklyAC]

Just finished "The View from the Back of the Band: The Life and Music of Mel Lewis". Fantastic and highly recommended read. I saw the VJO almost every Monday back when I was in school, so it was also great to discover the history behind the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and read about how it progressed into what it's become today.

Up next: Mark Stryker's "Jazz from Detroit".

Just added the Mel Lewis book to my Amazon wish list. Thanks for the tip!

 

[matthewbrown]

So Anyway, when our library closed a couple of weeks ago, this is what I had checked out.
America for Americans is a look at the 'nation of immigrants' and their history of xenophobia towards anyone else who wants to come here.
Small Is Beautiful is a look at corporate 'bigness' and how the economy would work if people mattered.
I've also got a DVR of 'The Bicycle Thief'... but I bailed after 15 minutes. It seemed too sad.
View attachment 3773955

I remember reading Schumacher's book long ago. I heard an interview on the radio that touched on some of it, by a guy who wrote https://www.amazon.com/Making-Modern-World-Materials-Dematerialization/dp/1119942535
In intend getting a copy of that in the next few months.

 

[lurk]

1Q84 by Murakami. Astounding and magical journey.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

 

[lurk]

I'm about halfway through that Mel Lewis book and it's pretty lame. There's a few interesting nuggets, but basically, like so many musician bios it's a list of "then he got this gig with this guy and met so and so and got this gig and travelled there where he made this recording followed by this gig" etc etc. Not a lot of insight into the human being or even his music, really. Too bad. Don't feel like I'm getting to know Mel Lewis the man at all. Not gonna finish this one.
In contrast, Lee Konitz Conversations on the Improvisers Art by Andy Hamilton is a must read for any musician. Lots of interviews and great insight into Konitz's personally and process and ideas about music and musicians.

 

[Don Kasper]

View attachment 3793099

Really Chris? You're reading a novel entitled "Housekeeping"???
Am I being Trolled? (I believe I am...)
Well Played, Sir!
Thanks.

 

[kerrycares]

10x rule- grant Cardone

 

[Jazzdogg]

I just finished reading "FACTFULNESS; ten reasons we're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think" by Hans Rosling.

Highly recommended.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Really Chris? You're reading a novel entitled "Housekeeping"???
Am I being Trolled? (I believe I am...)
Well Played, Sir!
Thanks.

You are not being trolled, but I hadn't even considered that interpretation. Marilynne Robinson is an astoundingly good author, and her book "Gilead" is one that I would recommend to anyone, especially in these bizarre and uncertain times. Few books humble me to the degree that that one did. Her prose strikes me in the same sense that Bonnie's singing does - it cuts right to the heart of the matter so quickly that my defenses don't even have time to react before it's already inside...which is kind of what most great art does, now that I think of it.

 

[bherman]

I just finished reading "FACTFULNESS; ten reasons we're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think" by Hans Rosling.

Highly recommended.

I did too - really interesting book! and well put together

 

[Jazzdogg]

I did too - really interesting book! and well put together

It's one of those books that could provide a great advantage to high school and college debate teams; I wish I'd read it 50 years ago!
I believe it would be the basis of a great semester-length class, perhaps in conjunction with logic and critical thinking.

 

[BobKay]

In the past few weeks I've finished:
A World Lit Only By Fire (William Manchester) - actually learned something, quite a lot, actually.
The latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child
Deserter by DeMille
The latest Virgil Flowers book, by John Sanford
Criss Cross by James Patterson

So, one with some redeeming social value, and four pure entertainment.

I now going to start on Lonesome Dove, probably the third time I've read it.

 

[Bisounourse]

Getting back in touch with the 'antique' classics;
Finished:
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars (a biography of the caesars of Rome from Julius Caesar to Domitianus, if it where written for a tabloid)
Vergil: Aeneid
Reading:
Juvenal: Satires. Which documents everything that was wrong with Rome at around 100 A.C (the city, youth, women,...); spoiler alert, nothing has changed in 1900 years. I have read it a long time before, but I ddn't remeber it having so much bile. Very dark, disturbingly funny and surprisingly very recognasible.