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What are you reading Chapter 4

#3,081
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#3,082
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#3,084
Remedial reading (in my case).
The transformation of the world in the period from the mid-1700s to the mid-1900s is astonishing, particularly from the mid 1800s onward.
The patterns of fundamentally the same social and political forces keep working themselves out, different aspects getting the advantage at different times. It was almost funny to see Windsor Royals - American meeting this past week, something of a mirror of Henry Adams' experience in England during the Civil War. With the exception of the fact that the elites of his time functioned (ironically) at a much higher level of knowledge and language.

Henry Adams.jpg
 
#3,085
So Anyway, very complete look at CSN&Y. This is a pretty quick read, but it starts to get repetitive.

Success. Egos. Add Neil. Fight. Lose Neil. Breakup. Write Snarky Songs About Each Other (and how tough it is to be a rich rock star).
Get back together.
Success. Egos. Add Neil. Fight.....
Repeat.
Repeat.
:rolleyes:
IMG_20260501_075914.jpg
 
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#3,086
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu (translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)

WH is the latest choice for the classics book club. I'm going in knowing very little, but approaching it as if it were a horror story, thanks to a post on social media shared by Martha Wells.

The Tao is something I've been working through very gradually for a few months. My curiosity about the Tao and reason for reading it is a long story for another time (and possibly another forum), but I'm deliberately going through it slowly. I read one or two passages every day, sometimes the same passages over a couple days, and sit with what they say. From what I can gather, the Feng/English translation is one of the less interpretive translations, which I sought out on purpose, but it can make some of the passages pretty impenetrable (to me, anyway). I will definitely be buying some other books on the Tao and possibly other translations to compare.
 
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#3,087
Frosteeman said:
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu (translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)
Click to expand...
Wow, the old 1972 translation.
I still have mine from back then, stacked next to the Last Whole Earth Catalog.
Can't say that I've penetrated very deeply into understanding in 54 years, and still, it's intriguing, I think that there is definitely something in there.
Degrees of understanding vary a lot per individual.
I attended a short meditation retreat once with a guy from China who was both an ordained zen monk and a Taoist master. HE was different.
When I was in Japan, I met the guy who wrote this book, he was living outside a temple.He had one line in his book, something that a Zen teacher said to him, and his degree of understanding at the time: "20 years of expensive Zen training....gone to waste." Looks like he kept at it, though.
A very funny, good-natured guy.
-Dang...just now looked him up. Looks like he just left this place.

David Chadwick.jpg
 
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#3,088
The Bastard Instrument: A Cultural History of the Electric Bass - Brian F. Wright

Inspired to pick this up by this very website, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'd like to read more books about bass. I already plan to go through the sources of this book and see what I can find, but I'd welcome suggestions if anyone has them.

I already have Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass, and Tony Bacon's Bass Book, Jim Roberts' How the Fender Bass Changed the World, and Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson are in in my TBR pile. I welcome suggestions for books about bass guitars themselves, history, builders, and playing (less music theory and more mentality). Books by and about players are also welcome if, again, there's a significant focus on their playing. I think I saw books in Wright's sources about the Rick bass and Ampeg, so those are definitely going on the list.
 
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#3,090
I've been on a musician's bio kick. So in the last little bit...
Stephen Stills Change Partners
Neil Young Special Deluxe - enjoyed that one. unusual short form format
Elvis Costello 'something words' and disappearing ink - dense. Kinda like reading Dostoyevsky. i'm a fan though so I found it interesting.

About to start Graham Nash wild Tales.
the neil Young Waging Heavy Peace.

If you knew my band you'd totally get my list (other than the Elvis read, but if you knew my late 70's band...)

I have been abusing Powells Books on line. That is simply a great book store site. When outta towners tell me they are visiting Portland, Powells is one of my recommendations.
 
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#3,092
4Mal said:
I've been on a musician's bio kick. So in the last little bit...
Stephen Stills Change Partners
Neil Young Special Deluxe - enjoyed that one. unusual short form format
Elvis Costello 'something words' and disappearing ink - dense. Kinda like reading Dostoyevsky. i'm a fan though so I found it interesting.

About to start Graham Nash wild Tales.
the neil Young Waging Heavy Peace.

If you knew my band you'd totally get my list (other than the Elvis read, but if you knew my late 70's band...)

I have been abusing Powells Books on line. That is simply a great book store site. When outta towners tell me they are visiting Portland, Powells is one of my recommendations.
Click to expand...
Powell's is by far the best bookstore that I have ever been to.
It pretty much in itself is worthy of a trip to Portland.
If you're interested in ranging further, check out the authors Peter Guralnick (Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, Memphis), Phillip Norman (Beatles together and solo), Nick Tosches (Jerry Lee Lewis and...Dean Martin - which is a great evocation of the 50s-60s), Charlie Cross on Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, Stanley Crouch's book on Charlie Parker, and the Miles Davis autobiography. (If you haven't already.)

I'd be interested in those Graham Nash and Stephen Stills books.
I still keep going back to their solo albums, songs like The Myth of Sisyphus and I Used to Be a King.
Crosby's solo album....a touchstone.

Tangentially, I was walking home in Seattle, through the regrade, late 80s, I guess.
Saw two old guys on chopped Harleys waiting at the light as I crossed the intersection in front of them, their wheels were actually about halfway into the crosswalk and I had to step around them. Long hair, no helmets, the nearest one had a girl with a ponytail riding in the Queen seat.
I hadn't seen a chopper in years. I thought "So great, old guys doing what makes them happy." It made me feel good to see it. I looked up, the first guy was David Crosby, fresh out of the joint, his return tour.
If I Could Only Remember My Name really helped me through some dark times. I thought...for about two seconds...of saying "Hey, thanks for your solo album." I was a foot from his bike. But from the look on his face, I thought he just might respond with "Yeah, well f#& you." They were playing the Colosseum in the Seattle Center, I'd forgotten about it. I wondered if they'd lost the direction and had to get back. The light changed and they roared off.

Those album sessions...incredible.
Crosby's solo had a lot of the same people, a great year.
Garcia, the steel....like The Wheel....gawddam.

Leland Skar's bass on this! Yow.
 
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#3,093
Frosteeman said:
The Bastard Instrument: A Cultural History of the Electric Bass - Brian F. Wright

Inspired to pick this up by this very website, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'd like to read more books about bass. I already plan to go through the sources of this book and see what I can find, but I'd welcome suggestions if anyone has them.

I already have Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass, and Tony Bacon's Bass Book, Jim Roberts' How the Fender Bass Changed the World, and Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson are in in my TBR pile. I welcome suggestions for books about bass guitars themselves, history, builders, and playing (less music theory and more mentality). Books by and about players are also welcome if, again, there's a significant focus on their playing. I think I saw books in Wright's sources about the Rick bass and Ampeg, so those are definitely going on the list.
Click to expand...
My Bass and Other Animals.

Powell’s is wonderful!
 
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#3,094
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

I read one of Berry's novels (and quite possibly one of his essays) when I was in college. I found him to be a compelling writer and someone that I wanted to revisit at some point. I don't remember how I felt about his philosophy at the time, and I feel like I may have disagreed on some points. But I could tell he possessed a certain wisdom. Now, more than 10 years later, I'm finally diving back in with this collection of some of his essays. My own views have changed dramatically, and I imagine that if I disagree with him, it will be for very different reasons. But I hope I'll come out the other end with a similar conclusion about his wisdom. Berry's naturalist views also seem like they will be an interesting companion to my current reading of Lao Tsu (which I am now accompanying with a podcast).
 
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#3,096
Been reading a full length discussion of a theory regarding the Bayeux Tapestry, and how it is NOT a pro-Norman work that glorifies the Norman Conquest of England. Instead, the author argues, it is cleverly subversive in that it was created soon after the Norman Conquest, and must have at least on the surface level agreed with the Norman rulers' take on the conquest, but that it in fact subtly mocks them and tries to tell (and defend) the English position (or perhaps another French position, as the Normans were not the only French people involved, and many didn't like William either, and supported him for other reasons). Regardless, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The book also has annotated pictures of the tapestry itself, so when it mentions a specific part of the cloth, you can easily find it and see for yourself.
 
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#3,098
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie
A Prayer for the Crown Shy - Becky Chambers

Death on the Nile is the latest pick for the classics book club I attend. Despite growing up watching the David Suchet Poirot show, I've only read one of Christie's novels (And Then There Were None, which doesn't feature Poirot). So I'm excited to see how this one goes.

The book store that hosts the club has been kind enough to let me host my own speculative fiction book club. The first pick is the single-volume edition of Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot novellas. I read the first one, A Psalm for the Wild Built, twice in quick succession, so I only really need to go back and find key passages. However, I've only read Prayer once, so I need a bit of a refresher.
 
#3,099
B.P.R.D. Omnibus, Volume 1 - Mike Mignola et al.

As my picture indicates, I am a fan of Mignola's comics, but my experience has been limited to the primary Hellboy series (Seed of Destruction through Hellboy in Hell, as collected in the library editions). I was always interested in the broader "Mignola-verse," and now I've finally ventured into it. So far, the vibes are similar to Hellboy. I didn't necessarily think they would be different, but I think I was afraid of that possibility. I'm not sure how I feel about some of the art. This universe is just so tied to Mignola's (and Fegredo's) style, that it can be distracting when other artists make bold choices. But I'm sure I'll get used to it the farther along I go.

BPRD1.jpg
 

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