What do you read?

[chris]

While looking for information on the book Jazz Modernism, I came across this snippet of an interview with the author, which got me to thinking-- what kind of books do you jazz fans like to read? What about the musicians among us?

***

(from http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernote..._modernism.html)

JJM Is there any evidence to suggest that jazz musicians were readers of any particular writer, let alone readers of James Joyce?

AA Not much. There was an interview in the Wall Street Journal recently on Artie Shaw, who has always been self consciously quite literary, who lamented the fact that there weren't more literary jazz musicians. He mentioned Bud Freeman and Paul Desmond as being the exceptions. I don't know how to explain that. It may have to do with education, but can't be sure.

***

[jazzbo]

It's an interesting book by AA. Can't say I can really evaluate his criticism of paintings and other arts, and I think the man sees way too many phalluses and vaginas in artwork, but it was fun to read the jazz portions. . . .

[jazzbo]

I read all kinds of things. A lot of the stuff I've read in the last few years has come from www.daedalusbooks.com . . . I like their prices and choices. Mainly books from their "religious" and "history" sections.

The last few years I've been rereading favorites by Henry Miller, PKD, Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, and others. . . . It's amazing how a book can move you and how you can have different experiences at a different point in your life.

More and more though I read nonfiction. . . . Biographies, history, religious history, jazz history. . . .

Edited December 11, 2003 by jazzbo

[Chuck Nessa]

Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

[chris]

Ah, a Joyce fan! I have to admit that I prefer the understandable Ulysses to the more opaque and musical Finnegans Wake -- but if Joyce ever wrote anything bad, I haven't read it.

Dubliners practically changed my life when I first started writing!

[Alexander]

Yes, Joyce is wonderful. It's a great way to waste one's time...and I mean that in a good way!

[chris]

Jazzbo: I get a lot of books from Daedalus too-- an affordable way to get good books I know and allow for some serendipity when I don't. My taste is all over the map. As a sample, some recent reads include:

• Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (highly recommended)
  
• Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity - David Foster Wallace (likewise)
  
• A history of cult movies whose title escapes me at the moment
  
• Ten Little Indians - Sherman Alexie (always good)
  
• The Neutronium Alchemist/Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton (6 book sci-fi series-- uneven but worthwhile)
  
• Straight Life - Art Pepper
  
• A collection of Nabokov's letters to Edmund Wilson (a lot of fun-- highbrow literary one-upsmanship run wild)
  
• Monkey by Ch'Eng En Wu (a mid-length version translated by Waley)
  

[JSngry]

I really enjoyed reading Shakespeare back when I had a lot of time to read. But only with a well-written commentary to help explain all the arcane references and linguistic quirks. Nothing like good liner notes, it seems.

[kenny weir]

• 
  
  
• Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (highly recommended)
  
  

Chris - I'm just embarking on this as we speak. I'm up to page 130 or thereabouts. The way I'm going these days, this hefty, er, tome will take me six months to get through. I'm sure I'll slip in a couple of trashy mysteries/thrillers along the way.

I had never heard of this author before, so in the absence of a book equivalent of AMG, I turned to the reviews at amazon.com. They're a riot.

I've discovered that what a certain kind of American reader means when they say there is "no plot", what they actually mean is there "NO ACTION".

And for characters to be acceptable, they must never be losers or geeks or otherwise unattractive - no matter how well or convincingly or movingly they are depicted.

Edited December 11, 2003 by kenny weir

[connoisseur series500]

I read a lot of nonfiction (history, biography, natural science). I read poetry. I used to read a lot of literature but have departed from that norm over the last decade or so. Will have go to back to that.

My favorite magazines are Smithsonian and Economist. I will have to splurge and resubscribe to the latter. It costs $70/year.

[chris]

• 
  
  
  
• Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (highly recommended)
  
  
  

Chris - I'm just embarking on this as we speak. I'm up to page 130 or thereabouts. The way I'm going these days, this hefty, er, tome will take me six months to get through. I'm sure I'll slip in a couple of trashy mysteries/thrillers along the way.

I had never heard of this author before, so in the absence of a book equivalent of AMG, I turned to the reviews at amazon.com. They're a riot.

I've discovered that what a certain kind of American reader means when they say there is "no plot", what they actually mean is there "NO ACTION".

And for characters to be acceptable, they must never be losers or geeks or otherwise unattractive - no matter how well or convincingly or movingly they are depicted.

Stephenson has written some fairly innovative science fiction-- if you like sci-fi, he's worth reading. His last book (before Quicksilver) is called Cryptonomicon-- and it is kind of a geeky semi-historical thriller involving spies, code breaking, etc. before/during/after WW II.

Quicksilver is actually the first of three prequels to Cryptonomicon-- so some of the families and perhaps characters (Waterhouse, Enoch Root) from the former show up in the latter-- I don't want to say more than that and be a spoiler.

Quicksilver is very different from Stephenson's other book (though like the previous work it is large and not tritely plot driven, as you've already noticed) because it is set so much further back in time and it is MUCH funnier. And depressing. And disgusting. And exhilarating. I envy that you are reading it for the first time

Hard to believe there are two equal-sized volumes to come and I guess they are done or mostly done as they are coming out fairly soon (rather than the 5 year wait or so for this volume)...

[chris]

I read a lot of nonfiction (history, biography, natural science).  I read poetry.  I used to read a lot of literature but have departed from that norm over the last decade or so.  Will have go to back to that. 

My favorite magazines are Smithsonian and Economist.  I will have to splurge and resubscribe to the latter.  It costs $70/year.

I like Harper's, New Yorker (parts of it), Natl Geographic, various science magazines, news magazines-- Foreign Policy is probably my favorite magazine that isn't a variety mag...

I saw in another thread that you are getting back to chess studies. I used to have a serious chess addiction. I've largely given up the game though I have numerous sets and a few shelves of the best books (sold/gave away the rest) and I try to follow chess news (as strange as that sounds to non-chess folks) off and on. I finally decided I would never be as good as I wanted to be and I wanted to spend more time listening to music and obsessing over jazz CDs, poetry, and books-- something had to give

Occasionally-- as a change of pace-- I still curl up with a book of Edward Winters chess lore, or CJS Purdy columns, or just some good middlegame positions to ponder. Or play lop-sided blitz chess with my kids (I get two minutes, they get 20 or 30, that kind of thing).

Edited December 11, 2003 by chris

[connoisseur series500]

I read a lot of nonfiction (history, biography, natural science).  I read poetry.  I used to read a lot of literature but have departed from that norm over the last decade or so.  Will have go to back to that. 

My favorite magazines are Smithsonian and Economist.  I will have to splurge and resubscribe to the latter.  It costs $70/year.

I like Harper's, New Yorker (parts of it), Natl Geographic, various science magazines, news magazines-- Foreign Policy is probably my favorite magazine that isn't a variety mag...

I saw in another thread that you are getting back to chess studies. I used to have a serious chess addiction. I've largely given up the game though I have numerous sets and a few shelves of the best books (sold/gave away the rest) and I try to follow chess news (as strange as that sounds to non-chess folks) off and on. I finally decided I would never be as good as I wanted to be and I wanted to spend more time listening to music and obsessing over jazz CDs, poetry, and books-- something had to give

Occasionally-- as a change of pace-- I still curl up with a book of Edward Winters chess lore, or CJS Purdy columns, or just some good middlegame positions to ponder. Or play lop-sided blitz chess with my kids (I get two minutes, they get 20 or 30, that kind of thing).

There's a chess thread hidden somewhere, Chris in the Misc-non politics forum, I think.

I started it and had a few bites from others.

Basically, I returned to tournament play after decades of inactivity. I managed to move my rating up 100 points, but I'm still nowhere near my goal of master yet.

The American rating system is different from the British one. We're modelled after the elo system. 2200-2399 is master, etc. My rating right now is 1999. As a 17 year old, my rating was 1836 so I haven't really moved it that much. 2000-2199 is expert, and I'm only a point away. I've got a tournament this Saturday; been inactive for three months now, which is not good. I will be rusty.

Anyway, back to the normal discussion...

[chris]

I really enjoyed reading Shakespeare back when I had a lot of time to read. But only with a well-written commentary to help explain all the arcane references and linguistic quirks. Nothing like good liner notes, it seems.

Wel, to bring two threads together, Isaac Asimov's annotated Shakespeare is really underrated... not as scholarly as some (one of my college instructors was a Shakescholar and a senior editor for Riverside editions-- Asimov's notes are different from those) but great for enjoyment...

[chris]

Conn, you are stronger than me by a good 150 points-- I wish you luck making your master norm. Will this be your first? Does your system use norms? Hey, I'm hijacking my own thread!

[Chrome]

Another for Daedalus!

Regarding Neal Stephenson, he also wrote "Snow Crash," which is well worth checking out if you enjoy William Gibson-type sci-fi.

I read a little bit of everything ... my library is even bigger than my CD collection. One of my favorite current authors is A.M. Homes, who writes some pretty far-out stories/books about modern suburban living. There was one about this teenager who begins lusting and starts a "relationship" with one of his sister's Barbie dolls.

Not for everyone, but if you like, say, Chuck Palahniuk, you'll probably like Homes, too.

[Jazzmoose]

Dah, I just look'it the pichers...

[ghost of miles]

Not as much of a fiction reader as I used to be, but it still makes the literary charts--right now I'm reading Melville's "Benito Cereno" and Alan Furst's NIGHT SOLDIERS, a historical spy novel (all of Furst's books are set in late 1930s/early 1940s WWII Europe). Also read a lot about 20th century American radicalism and history (esp. 1930s), jazz (of course ), the civil-rights movement... I've developed a penchant for detective fiction in recent years as well. And we have way too many periodical subscriptions at my house--Cadence, the Nation, the New York Review of Books, Newsweek, Poets & Writers, Men's Health--enough already! There's always some stack of half-read magazines/papers sliding around on my study floor or the kitchen table.

Thinking about modern writers, I like Paul Auster (haven't kept up with him, though), David Long (BLUE SPRUCE is a wonderful collection of short stories), Jonathan Lethem (just kind of getting into him now--read MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN & would like to read his new one, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE), and Adam Haslett, whose debut, YOU ARE NOT A STRANGER HERE, really blew me away. And Alice Munro still seems to be going strong.

One contemporary fiction author whom I really like, Mary Gaitskill (BAD BEHAVIOR, TWO GIRLS FAT & THIN) has been very quiet for the past few years. She got a Guggenheim last year, so I'm hoping something will be forthcoming...

[ghost of miles]

Dah, I just look'it the pichers...

I like 'em too, especially when Daniel Clowes is drawin' 'em!

[Chrome]

Mary Gaitskill! She's indeed an excellent writer. Regarding Paul Auster, have you ever read the "graphic novel" version of, crap, I can't remember the name of it now. It was one of his books from the "New York" trilogy ... "City of Glass" maybe. Anyway, it was pretty incredible, even if the title escapes.

[chris]

OH yeah, I really should have mentioned Jonathan Lethem. I've read everything of his, though I was disappointed in Fortress of Solitude-- Motherless Brooklyn was amazing and his more sci-fi kind of books are a trip.

I wrote a review of David Long's book Blue Spruce and ended up having an email conversation with him (years ago now) about when his next book would be out-- and when it finally did I bought it but never got around to reading it. I think it's called The Dangling Boy? I better get on that...

[ghost of miles]

Mary Gaitskill! She's indeed an excellent writer. Regarding Paul Auster, have you ever read the "graphic novel" version of, crap, I can't remember the name of it now. It was one of his books from the "New York" trilogy ... "City of Glass" maybe. Anyway, it was pretty incredible, even if the title escapes.

Chrome, yeah, it was CITY OF GLASS, put out by a sadly shortly-lived press called Neon Lit. I wouldn't have thought that something as tricky as that trilogy could be rendered so well in a graphic narrative, but they pulled it off... It's still floating around used, if at a rather high price:

They had another project, long-delayed, which recently surfaced elsewhere: a graphic novel version of William Gresham's 1947 book NIGHTMARE ALLEY. I bought it but haven't read it yet. (The original is very good, now collected in a Library of America volume of 1930s/40s crime stories.)

Re: Gaitskill, have you read her last (1997) book, BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO? That had some good stuff in it... Another, even-less prolific writer I like is Marilynn Robinson, who's published only one novel, HOUSEKEEPING (1980). I keep hoping she'll bring something else out as well.

[ghost of miles]

OH yeah, I really should have mentioned Jonathan Lethem. I've read everything of his, though I was disappointed in Fortress of Solitude-- Motherless Brooklyn was amazing and his more sci-fi kind of books are a trip.

I wrote a review of David Long's book Blue Spruce and ended up having an email conversation with him (years ago now) about when his next book would be out-- and when it finally did I bought it but never got around to reading it. I think it's called The Dangling Boy? I better get on that...

Hey, that's great, Chris! Yeah, I think it was a novel (his first); I remember it coming out, but I haven't read it yet either, even though I'm a fan. Maybe this thread will motivate me to seek it out the next time I'm at the bookstore.

[jazzbo]

I guess I'm one of those jazz persons who read Joyce too. . .but I'm saving F W for my retirement. . . I've dabbled in it. I've read everything else. Stephen Hero is a favorite!

I recently read a collection of writings about Joyce by people who had known him. VERY interesting.

[ghost of miles]

I guess I'm one of those jazz persons who read Joyce too. . .but I'm saving F W for my retirement. . . I've dabbled in it. I've read everything else. Stephen Hero is a favorite!

I recently read a collection of writings about Joyce by people who had known him. VERY interesting.

FINNEGANS WAKE is best read aloud, IMO. There is an amazing musicality to it... (BTW, not trying to claim that I've read it all the way through! My grandfather spent about 10 years delving into it--had a whole bookshelf devoted solely to books about Joyce. And any time that I find myself lacking inspiration in the short-story department, I like to return to DUBLINERS, which is still a classic for me in that regard.)