I've just been on another rampage of Jim Butcher's Invalid Link Removed. Stuff's like Steven King for me -- I don't know why it sucks me in but it never fails.
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Double Bass DB forum "what books are you reading" thread
- Thread starter Chris Fitzgerald
- Start date
I've read all of those and they are quite addictive ! I think the last one I read was "Small Favour"...?
Stephen King.......I remember driving back to the Days Inn somewhere near Bangor Maine after playing a blues fest and thinking I was IN a Stephen King book.
I read all of the Dark Tower series and really enjoyed them - I tried reading some others, but for me, they really didn't match up to that - although I did like "The Stand"...?
"What Ever Happened to the Hall of Fame" by Bill James. I've never been more that a casual baseball fan and certainly not one of those guys who has every player's stats memorized but I really enjoy the clarity of his writing and the thought that he's put into how to quantify things which are inherently difficulty to measure (e.g. fielding or the contribution of an individual player to the team effort).
I've been working through two books: Ron Carter:Finding the Right Notes by Dan Ouellette and Bill Bruford: An Autobiography.
The Ron Carter book was a huge disappointment. It's written like a high school kid's book report. "Ron was discriminated against and never got that symphony position he always wanted---BAD! He therefore had to become the most recorded jazz bassist in history! GOOD!!!"
Ok. Those really weren't quotes but my hyperbole was only slightly hyper. I'm only about a third of the way into this piece of dreck and I doubt it's going to get any better. I don't think I'm going to finish it. It would be a few days of my life I'd never get back.
The Bruford book is the Carter book's polar opposite. Full of meaningful insights about life on the road, anecdotes about the musician's he's worked with (some quite unflattering), long philosophical discursions into what music is, commercial considerations vs. art and why he chose to end his career playing acoustic jazz in London bars when he made his name playing progressive rock in stadiums. Every page is loaded with fascinating insights. I'm about 50% of the way through and I'm savoring every page.
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The Ron Carter book was a huge disappointment. It's written like a high school kid's book report. "Ron was discriminated against and never got that symphony position he always wanted---BAD! He therefore had to become the most recorded jazz bassist in history! GOOD!!!"
Ok. Those really weren't quotes but my hyperbole was only slightly hyper. I'm only about a third of the way into this piece of dreck and I doubt it's going to get any better. I don't think I'm going to finish it. It would be a few days of my life I'd never get back.
The Bruford book is the Carter book's polar opposite. Full of meaningful insights about life on the road, anecdotes about the musician's he's worked with (some quite unflattering), long philosophical discursions into what music is, commercial considerations vs. art and why he chose to end his career playing acoustic jazz in London bars when he made his name playing progressive rock in stadiums. Every page is loaded with fascinating insights. I'm about 50% of the way through and I'm savoring every page.
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+1 on "The Bear Comes Home" - funny, philosophical, very entertaining novel by a sometime jazz drummer whose music journalism appeared in the late, great Musician magazine. I wish more people were aware of this book.
Just came across this from Zabor's bio on the NEA site, on which I learned that "The Bear Comes Home" won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998.
"Zabor is currently working on a short jazz narrative entitled Walking Bass and plotting a novel set in Turkey, If I Take the Wings of Morning. He's been all over the map but still lives in Brooklyn."
Just came across this from Zabor's bio on the NEA site, on which I learned that "The Bear Comes Home" won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998.
"Zabor is currently working on a short jazz narrative entitled Walking Bass and plotting a novel set in Turkey, If I Take the Wings of Morning. He's been all over the map but still lives in Brooklyn."
Moby Dick, Herman Melville. best fiction I have read in a long time.
Also peeking at Ursula K. La Guin's rendition of the Tao Te Jing, which is very good as well.
Also peeking at Ursula K. La Guin's rendition of the Tao Te Jing, which is very good as well.
I don't intend to be a drag, but in the spirit of open dialogue I'll say I might be one of the few musicians out there who didn't dig this book. I think with Bear, Zabor needed an editor that he just didn't get...
Currently reading "Water for Elephants," by Sara Gruen, a richly detailed novel about a young vet school dropout who signs on with a traveling circus during the '30s. Author obviously did a lot of research about circus life, and has done a great job with character development, dialogue, scene setting, etc.
Seems like I'm always reading a book by my favorite crime writer, Elmore Leonard - just went back and read "Touch" (87) and "The Hunted" (77). My favorite of his is "Killshot," which was just made into a movie (with Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane) that, for one reason or another, has gone straight to DVD. Haven't seen it yet.
And my new favorite writer is Richard Price - just read Lush Life and Samaritan, both crime-centered stories set in NY/NJ area, although describing them as "crime novels" is too reductive, as he investigates a lot of social issues, including race relations.
So many books, so much music ... and so little time.
Seems like I'm always reading a book by my favorite crime writer, Elmore Leonard - just went back and read "Touch" (87) and "The Hunted" (77). My favorite of his is "Killshot," which was just made into a movie (with Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane) that, for one reason or another, has gone straight to DVD. Haven't seen it yet.
And my new favorite writer is Richard Price - just read Lush Life and Samaritan, both crime-centered stories set in NY/NJ area, although describing them as "crime novels" is too reductive, as he investigates a lot of social issues, including race relations.
So many books, so much music ... and so little time.
Needed an editor? Maybe, maybe not.
IMO, I don't think so. I didn't find it overly wordy or overlong.
Maybe it's one of those books you might try reading again after leaving it alone for a while?
I've had that experience before - started a book, just wasn't sure how long I wanted to stay with it, put it down, then came back later and discovered that it was really worthwhile. That happened to me recently with "The Russian Girl," by (late) comic novelist Kingsley Amis.
Anyway, I've yet to meet a jazz listener who has read "The Bear Comes Home" and didn't like it.
Unless I'm mistaken, The Bear Comes Home was originally serialized in Musician magazine in the early 1980's when I was in college. Actually, I think it was written in bits for the magazine and then later re-edited into a novel (which might account for some thinking it needs an editor). I remember liking it at the time but haven't gone back to it since it's original run and don't remember much about it now.
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That's interesting. It's been 25 years but I seem to remember it running for a long time in Musician.
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Just started Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - bought it a couple of weeks ago. Never did read the original, and hey, it's got zombies now...
