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What are you reading Chapter 4
- Thread starter slobake
- Start date
I came home from a writer's conference with 7 books. I had just picked up Hugh Howey's Dust from the library, but I think I'm going to return it and pick it up later. I started with Crossways by Michael J Allen. The publisher described it as a little like Big Trouble in Little China. After that, I think I'll get into the Heroes of Time series.
Finished Alvin Maker #5 today - Heartfire. On to #6 tomorrow! Also bought some more Tolkien (The Nature of Middle Earth) and the classic Brave New World to add to the list. Been a great summer of reading so far!
The ad hoc library in my apartment building's laundry room has once again yielded a treasure trove of back issues of The New Yorker, and one of these -- the atypically recent June 5, 2023 issue -- is jam-packed with articles about the music business, which I've found engrossing. Artcles include:
The Trials Of Ed Sheeran by John Seabrook ...about the lawsuit/trial where Edward Townsend's estate accused Sheeran of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" (co-written by Townsend) with his song "Thinking Out Loud" One tidbit that absolutely astonished me: Due to some arcane US copyright laws still on the books, combined with the time disparity between the release dates of "Let's Get It On" and "Thinking Out Loud" (measured in decades), the jury was not allowed to listen to the actual original recording of Gaye's song!!!
Front Man by Jia Tolentino ...about Matty Healy of the band the 1975 (neither of whom I've ever heard of tbh) and how Healy is, practically by his own admission, more of a "Social Media Phenomenon" than an actual "musician" or "performer"
One For The Money by Evan Osnos ... about how the concept of selling out to corporate interests -- once absolute anathema to pop/rock counter-culture artists -- is the new measure of peak success among current pop/rock performers. With enough money you too can have The Rolling Stones perform at your private 40th birthday bash!
Pop Up by Kelefa Sanneh ...about pop singer Kim Petras. (Another one I've never heard of.)
Soul Survivors by Burkhard Bilger ...about resurrecting poorly archived demo recordings from the Stax Records vaults.
Really good stuff. I definitely get why The New Yorker can charge so much for a single issue ($8.99!) because there is so much content, and its density is matched by its exhaustive detail...but I don't understand how anybody can read an entire issue quickly enough to be ready for the next issue only one week later!
The Trials Of Ed Sheeran by John Seabrook ...about the lawsuit/trial where Edward Townsend's estate accused Sheeran of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" (co-written by Townsend) with his song "Thinking Out Loud" One tidbit that absolutely astonished me: Due to some arcane US copyright laws still on the books, combined with the time disparity between the release dates of "Let's Get It On" and "Thinking Out Loud" (measured in decades), the jury was not allowed to listen to the actual original recording of Gaye's song!!!
Front Man by Jia Tolentino ...about Matty Healy of the band the 1975 (neither of whom I've ever heard of tbh) and how Healy is, practically by his own admission, more of a "Social Media Phenomenon" than an actual "musician" or "performer"
One For The Money by Evan Osnos ... about how the concept of selling out to corporate interests -- once absolute anathema to pop/rock counter-culture artists -- is the new measure of peak success among current pop/rock performers. With enough money you too can have The Rolling Stones perform at your private 40th birthday bash!
Pop Up by Kelefa Sanneh ...about pop singer Kim Petras. (Another one I've never heard of.)
Soul Survivors by Burkhard Bilger ...about resurrecting poorly archived demo recordings from the Stax Records vaults.
Really good stuff. I definitely get why The New Yorker can charge so much for a single issue ($8.99!) because there is so much content, and its density is matched by its exhaustive detail...but I don't understand how anybody can read an entire issue quickly enough to be ready for the next issue only one week later!
I feel like my current "to read" list is a mixture of stuff I loved from when I was in middle school (old Star Wars novels that are no longer canon... but that's another tale!) and stuff I feel I should have read as an English major in college (Canterbury tales, various mythologies, and books like Brave New World). Let's just say I have eclectic tastes for most. But it seems like I'm not alone in that around these parts, which is quite nice.
These books are from a perspective that most people are not aware of. Interesting and hopeful.
I've heard him a good bit on On The Media and read some of stuff online...I should probably check this book out.
...all the info I can find at Johns Hopkins relating to recovery from spine fusion sugery... a simply riveting topic if you are a candidate ...
I'm reading a comic book (and slightly modernized) adaptation of the Indian Mahabharata called "18 Days". Pretty good so far, though I admittedly don't know the source material and can tell I'm missing plenty of the details etc. that must surely be present in the original. As a fan of mythology and comic books, I couldn't pass this one up. Makes we want to add the original to my collection!
Cool. As I previously mentioned, I grew up with Burkhard. His sister Andrea and I are the same age. He's an entertaining read always!
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I just started re-reading Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, written about 1844. Haven't read it in about 40 years. It's a surprisingly easy read, and the translation doesn't suffer from the extremely thick prose style of the turn of the 20th century (50 years later).
When I think of the film versions, I love the 1974 version which became two movies that adhere closely to the book. Those movies are the Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers, starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee. York was an excellent D'Artagnan, and any movie improved when it included Oliver Reed. Simply wonderful movies.
The moves are a perfect sequence and casting because the director Richard Lester shot the first film in conjunction with its sequel, The Four Musketeers. It was 0riginally intended as a single film, so splitting them into two movies prompted a lawsuit from the cast demanding payment for both films.
When I think of the film versions, I love the 1974 version which became two movies that adhere closely to the book. Those movies are the Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers, starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee. York was an excellent D'Artagnan, and any movie improved when it included Oliver Reed. Simply wonderful movies.
The moves are a perfect sequence and casting because the director Richard Lester shot the first film in conjunction with its sequel, The Four Musketeers. It was 0riginally intended as a single film, so splitting them into two movies prompted a lawsuit from the cast demanding payment for both films.
