Skip to main content

Wrapped Up in Books

What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses - like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?

You know it's interesting when you read Moby Dick, the second time, A-Hab and the whale become good friends.

from Seinfeld, "The Ex-Girlfriend"

---

I have to admit: I'm usually a slow reader when it comes to books. Certain books, like the last few Harry Potter books and Staring at Sound, have been easy to get through and enjoy but others haven't.

In the last few months, I've tried to read Mat Callahan's The Trouble with Music and Frederic Dannen's Hit Men but found myself incredibly frustrated. The Trouble with Music is a great concept, but it goes a little too deep for me to fully understand the author's points. Centuries of philosophy, sociology and literature are thrown into the mix and while that sounds right up my alley, it all comes across a little too vanilla vague for me. Hit Men focuses on a number of record executives, mob men and the various ways music they put out music on major labels in the '70s and '80s. At times, it's really interesting, but reading about these kinds of people gives me a cold feeling.

Those are only two books that I've had trouble reading in the last six months. What's even more troubling is the two full stacks of books I have yet to read. Why do I have so many left unread? Well, a certain bookstore that I like to go to often sends out 20-40% off coupons every few weeks. Feeling like I can't pass this up, I just go for it.

In the last year, I've picked up/received as a gift Nick Mason's story of Pink Floyd called Inside Out, a book on skateboarding called Scarred for Life, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and Songbook, Stephen King's On Writing, Scott Richter's Slamdek A-Z, a bio on the Clash called Passion is a Fashion, an anthology of death metal/grindcore called Choosing Death, Alex Robinson's latest graphic novel called Tricked, a bio on Elvis Costello called Complicated Shadows, Russell Simmons' Life and Def, Bukowski's Hot Water Music and a book on the Creation called Our Music is Red With Purple Flashes.

And all of these are gonna wait as I finish up We Got the Neutron Bomb and begin Fool the World: an Oral History on a Band Called Pixies. Why? Because I want to read something that I really want to read. Of course I want to read those other books, but the ones that really excite me are the ones that go high in the pecking order.

A major stumbling block with me is that I easily fall asleep while reading. Put me in the den and in that blue recliner and chances are good I'll be asleep for 15-20 minutes after reading a few pages. Maybe reading helps my eyes relax. I don't know. It's not like the material bores me, but reading in general makes me sleepy when I'm in a relaxed position.

However, along with continuing work on Post, I want to read as much as I can this year. I'm not going to try and read 52 books this year like Jason hopes to do, but I want to read as much as I can. I'll keep working on not falling asleep while I read too.

Comments

Anonymous said…
High Fidelity is a great one. I love Nick Hornby.

And I understand the falling asleep thing. Whenever I'm having trouble getting to sleep at night, I read a book in bed. Works every time.

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Hello, Control

I'm still a big fan of iTunes . I haven't tried Napster , Urge or eMusic as I've been perfectly happy with Apple's program ever since I downloaded it two years ago. However, an annoying new feature has come up with its latest version, 7.0. Whenever you pull up your music library, a sidebar taking up 3/4ths of the screen appears plugging the iTunes Music Store. Why is this an annoyance? Well, first and foremost, since you can't close the sidebar, you can't escape it. I believe a music library is a private collection, a spot away from the music store. So what's the need for constant advertisements and plugs? To provide a better visual, let me describe what I see whenever I pull up a song in my iTunes library. When I listen to "This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open" by the Weakerthans, I see a graphic for Left and Leaving , the album that it comes from (and available in the iTunes Music Store), along with a list of the Weakerthans' other albums,

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s