Okay, we have a similar thread like this in movies and music, but I think the book one has a bit of a twist to it. The twist being we may never actually read any of the books we just purchased. I still think it will be fun to see what we're buying, and at least hoping to read...maybe.

I went to Breckenridge over Memorial Day weekend and picked up a couple in a local used bookstore.

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. This is his only published work which I have not read.

Dead Father by Donald Barthelme. I have only read his short fiction, so I'm excited to read one of his novels.

I got "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for a buck at a thrift store and in wonderful, almost brand-new condition. I'm going to read by July, but I have a pretty strict reading schedule so I'll have to fit it in somewhere.

I hope you make it. Although I love it to pieces, others (such as my wife and daughter, who both love it), told me it's a long read. The best way to read it is to read the original Spanish version, but I understand that can cause more problems. I do believe, however, that the English translation is pretty darn poetic.

quote:

I do believe, however, that the English translation is pretty darn poetic.

There is a really funny quote from Marquez's nobel prize speech (i think) where he thanks his translator for earning him the prize. He goes so far as to say his books were better in their English translation than in the original.

quote:

Originally posted by Memorial:
I got "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for a buck at a thrift store and in wonderful, almost brand-new condition. I'm going to read by July, but I have a pretty strict reading schedule so I'll have to fit it in somewhere.

Don't rush through it if you can help it. It is a slow read, but it's written to feel like one hundred years.

Michael Sokolove's DARRYL STRAWBERRY & THE BOYS OF CRENSHAW: THE TICKET OUT. It came out in '04 or so and is the story of the Crenshaw high school baseball team that included Darryl Strawberry.

Native Son by Richard Wright

Gunther Schuller's THE SWING ERA and George T. Simon's THE BIG BANDS. Two classic jazz tomes. I nabbed them at a used bookstore that had a 30 percent off sale.

Wow! GREAT finds, CfA!

Have you read Schuller's Early Jazz? It's probably one of the first surveys of the music I ever read, which set a pretty high bar for jazz scholarship, I'm afraid. Jazz seems to attract plenty of journalists, but not nearly enough scholars.

Now Playing: "Woody'n You" Igancio Berroa Codes <-- I'm on random play, so it's a complete, but delightful coincidence!

quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate:
Wow! GREAT finds, CfA!

Have you read Schuller's Early Jazz? It's probably one of the first surveys of the music I ever read, which set a pretty high bar for jazz scholarship, I'm afraid. Jazz seems to attract plenty of journalists, but not nearly enough scholars.

Now Playing: "Woody'n You" Igancio Berroa Codes <-- I'm on random play, so it's a complete, but delightful coincidence!

No, EARLY JAZZ is on my "want to buy" list, though. Next time I get a Borders coupon I'll use it for EJ. I am more of a modern jazz fan, from bebop on so I wondered how much I would enjoy reading EARLY JAZZ.

I recently read Stanley Crouch's new book -- actually a collection of previously published articles and essays -- CONSIDERING GENIUS and Crouch spoke highly of Schuller's writing and his facility to write about music technically, but be able to do so in a manner a layman can understand. Most jazz writing is atrocious. The few guys with the technical background can only communicate with others with a technical understanding of the music. The vast majority of the jazz writers don't have a musical background so they resort to metaphor to describe the music. It kind of covers up their numerous shortcomings.

When I first read Early Jazz, I'd not ventured much earlier than Bebop. I think it had a lot to do with my love and appreciation of everything that came before.

The only frustration was that at the time (the mid-80s) a lot of the music was damned hard to find, even in used stores, so a lot of what I read was just academic until the labels really started reissuing music in earnest.

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisFromAstoria:
Most jazz writing is atrocious. The few guys with the technical background can only communicate with others with a technical understanding of the music. The vast majority of the jazz writers don't have a musical background so they resort to metaphor to describe the music. It kind of covers up their numerous shortcomings.

Your words or Crouch's? Either way, I couldn't agree with the sentiment more.

If, however, that's the gist of Crouch's comments in one of the essays, I'll have to check out Considering Genius. I quit reading Crouch quite a few years ago. I admired him a great deal in the 80s, but haven't much cared for him since the early 90s.

The fact that he punched one of my favorite critics has nothing to do with it!

Now Playing: "Unhinged" The Drams Jubilee Dive

I finally found a copy of Stuart Nicholson's "Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has It Moved To a New Address), a trade paperback published by Routledge.

This book caused a bit of a stir because of some strident and controversial opinions posited by Nicholson and I was dying to read it, but it is a hard book to find, even though it was published this year. Borders, for example, doesn't stock it. I found it at an independent bookstore in Manhattan, one of a dwindling number unfortunately.

Nicholson has written biographies on Billie Holiday, which I read, and Duke Ellington, which I haven't read, and a terrific book on early 80's jazz called "Jazz: The 1980s Resurgence."

Adam Rubin: Pedro, Carlos & Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple & the Pursuit of Baseball's Top Latino Stars"

Peter Bart: "Boffo: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster & Fear the Bomb"

James Mottram: "The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood"

Nadine Cohodas: "Queen: The Life & Music of Dinah Washington"

Used copies, via mail order:

The Secret Life of Water by Masaru Emoto

and

Blake's Poetry and Designs: Authoritative Texts, Illuminations in Color and Monochrome, Related Prose, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition; Mary Lynn Johnson & John E. Grant, Editors)

Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda & the Road to 9/11 (Knopf)

Thomas Ricks: Fiasco: The American Military Misadventure in Iraq (Penguin)

George Packer: The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq

Michael Isiskoff & David Corn: Hubris

Picked these up at a used books store today:

In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams

Poets on Painters: Essays on the Art of Painting by Twentieth-Century Poets (J. D. McClatchy, Ed.)

Windows Into the Infinite - A Guide to the Hindu Scriptures by Barbara Powell

As stated in the Best of '06 thread, I did in fact purchase The Road last Friday. I just started it today and am about 50 pages in. I've already felt like crying a few times! It's pretty heavy.

William J. Mann's "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn." Just published, it received a good review in the "New York Times."

T. Christian Miller's "Blood Money" about the money spent in Iraq (or misspent in Iraq). Frank Rich, in his "New York Times" column, gave this one a plug.

Lance Williams & Mark Fainaru-Wade's "Game of Shadows" about Barry Bonds and his steroid use.

Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" about the Iraq fiasco.

God only knows when, if ever, I'll find the time to read these tomes.

I just buought what I swear is my third copy of The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Shelley Winter's autobio "Shelly"

Brooke Hayward's autobio "Haywire"