The Book Thread Book • Page 106

About halfway through Lavinia by Le Guin, and god it's dry. I don't know if it's just the setting/voice, but it's a struggle. It's a shame, I've wanted to read her for a while and went with this just coz I came across it in a second hand shop. Would I get on better with her other work, Earthsea in particular?

 

I’ve never read this one but I usually start people on her short story the ones who walk away from omelas. It’s only a couple of pages but it’s a masterpiece imo. From there I would probably suggest the dispossessed

 

Cool thanks, I'll look out for them

 

@Colby Searcy

Just finished She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be.

I loved it. I don’t know if I liked it more than the 4MK series but hard to compare. This story was bizarre, violent, long, and I could not put it down.

 

I'm reading You by Caroline Kepnes. It's really hard to put down. I watched the series and I really enjoyed it.

 

I actually have an ARC of it but haven't started it yet (same with Sixth Wicked Child)! While in quarantine, I have been reading alot but mostly graphic novels and comics as they are much easier to pick up and put down while dealing with 3 kids haha. I do plan to finish 4MK and read that one this year though! I keep seeing great praise about it and hints of Stephen King at his best and whatnot.

This is on my short list to read this year (and Hidden Bodies) but haven't had a chance yet. It's shot quickly up my list after hearing the praise for the show. I'd like to read it before watching it.

 

I had a goal to read a mere ten books this year but I've only read three. The Three Body Problem which was very good, Casino Royale, and Live and let die (I bought a ten book set of James bond novels). Reading Dune right now but it's a lot.

 

thought about giving Dune another whirl too but I'm like forever intimidated by those sci fi classics, i probably would've been better suited to a lot of them a few years ago but my memory is such shit now that it makes it kind of difficult to latch onto some of the finer details that inevitably come into play. i need like one of those glossary things they have in fantasy novels lol. it wasn't uninteresting when i tried to read it either, it was just like you said, a lot

 

I read Dune probably 5-6 years ago and it amazes me all the little oddities I remember from it. Not saying everyone would have that same thing happen to them, but there’s shit I’ve read / watched in the last week that I don’t recall anything from, but thinking about Dune immediately brings like 30 things to mind lol which I guess says a lot about it and how it’s written? There’s lots of stuff I’ve read that is immediately out of my head as soon as the book closes, but not Dune.

 

recently read Welcome to Hell World by Luke O'Neil, which was a great anthology of his newsletter entries that I definitely recommend, some great reporting mixed in with very sharp personal writing

also just finished To The Lighthouse which I picked up based on a mention in the above and it was of course brilliant. I read Mrs. Dalloway in college and it was the only book that I liked in my Brit Lit class (which was a basic ENG degree requirement I put off until my last semester because I knew I would not like it). Woolf is the master of exploding a moment and Lighthouse is a perfect example of that.

I picked up Mathias Énard's Compass yesterday, which I originally bought like way back when I was reading Infinite Jest and of course my attention got sidetracked but I'm remembering now that while the concept seems arduous in summary, the first 30 pages or so are a really enjoyable breezr and I feel excited to get back to it tonight.

 

To The Lighthouse is one of my favorite books, just so dreamy and ethereal.

 

Has anyone here read I Await The Devil's Coming? I had never heard of it before until recently but it sounds very intriguing to me.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for memoirs/fiction about the music industry?

 

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan is the only thing that comes to mind. It’s been almost a decade since I read it but I remember liking it.

Edit: Totally missed the memoir part. My favorite music memoir is New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye by Ronen Kaufman.

 

Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield comes to mind

 

On the podcast And Introducing, each ep they read a memoir by a famous musician and talk about them/their band’s career. It seems like most of them are generally bad / poorly written but it’s entertaining hearing about them.

Looking through the list of eps, these are ones I recall them saying are actually enjoyable books:
-Debbie Harry - “Face It”
-Steve Aoki - “Blue”
-Patty Schemel (Hole drummer) - “Hit So Hard”
-Dave Weigel - “The Show That Never Ends” (history of prog rock)
-“Meet Me In the Bathroom” (oral history of 00s NYC alt rock scene, so Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeah, LCD, Interpol, etc)
-“Song of Spider-Man” (about the disastrous Spider-Man broadway musical)
-Alex James (Blur bassist) - “Bit of a Blur”
-Viv Albertine (Slits guitarist) - “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes...”
-Glyn Johns (produced albums for basically every big rock band of the 60s/70s) - “Sound Man”

I also personally recommend Questlove’s book “Mo Meta Blues”

 

Jay Z’s Decoded is great. Sticky Fingers by Joe Hagan too if that counts. Questlove, Common and Grandmaster Flash also wrote pretty cool books. The Beastie Boys book is supposed to be very good.

I also know several good book about genres and so on but I don’t know if that is what you’re looking for.

 

Only memoir/autobiography books I’ve read from musicians were Laura Jane Grace’s and Travis Barker’s. They are more focused on their lives, however, more than the music industry.

Speaking of so, VERY pumped to read Mikel Jollet’s memoir next week-ish! (lead singer of the Airborne Toxic Event who had a crazy life growing up where he was born into a cult and had to escape).

 

have you read Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl? one of my favorite music memoirs. There's also Hanif Abdurraqib's Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes for A Tribe Called Quest

 

Hanif is very possibly my favourite current writer. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us is just a jaw-dropping and important text for everyone

 

catch me rereading his Carly essay today

 

damn straight, and I might flow straight onto his Fall Out Boy one because goddamn what a masterwork!

 

not trying to cry that much today!

 

Surprised no one mentioned Born to Run yet, though the stuff about the music industry specifically is kinda dated, it's still really, really great.

 

Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) by Jeff Tweedy

I am a casual fan of Wilco at best, but this is my favorite music memoir. I won't spoil it but there is one part in the book where I had to put it down for several minutes to let my emotions cool down. Absolutely heartbreaking.