What are you reading?
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@frenchcricket Jan 2022
Annual book lovers thread! What are you reading, and/or what did you read recently that you want to tell us about?
I’m currently reading a book of Mallarmé poetry, and the last book I read was How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan. Friends, it was absolutely fascinating! -
@frenchcricket Jan 2022
(Dammit, this should’ve gone in Free For All)
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@ajna1960 Jan 2022
On my bedside table currently: "So, you want to become a media composer ?: A case study, music business handbook." by Adonis Aletras
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@seanbrennan Jan 2022
My family got me some great-looking new reads this year. First up is Bewilderment by Richard Powers, which I'm just finishing up. Not something I'd have bought myself, but a thought-provoking and occasionally-poignant story. Next is a biography of Alexander Hamilton, specifically the one that inspired the musical.
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@doeeyes Jan 2022
Factfulness, by Hans Rosling. Pretty good if like me you spent the last years' lockdowns addicted to the hyperbole of the media :)
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@vomvorton Jan 2022
I joined a book club last year in an attempt to motivate myself to read more, and both the books I've read so far in 2022 were for that - Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith, a fun sci-fi adventure, and Replay by Ken Grimwood, which was actually my own pick for the book club - a twisty time-loop novel that I've read a couple of times before.
February's pick is The Book of J by Harold Bloom, which is a totally different proposition. It seems to be a literary critic arguing that the first few books of the Bible were intended as a work of fiction? Going to get a head start on that one, since I'll probably have my mind on other things next month! -
@tinear Jan 2022
I was given Bob Mortimer’s autobiography ‘And Away’ for Christmas. I like him but to be honest, although it was an easy read, it wasn’t that interesting a book!
I also just read Trio by William Boyd and Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell - fiction is much more my thing. -
@billwhite51 Jan 2022
im the wake of Andrew Vachss' death, I have been re=reading his Burke series.
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@auditasum Jan 2022
@frenchcricket the Michael Pollan book sounds super interesting! I love the subject of death lol. I've also been getting into poetry although I don't have a recent rec.
My favorite books I've read lately are Michael Newton's Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls. Definitely a mindtrip.
Currently I'm reading a fantasy book set in imperial Russia called The Bear and the Nightengale. Not sure if I'm into it yet. -
@silvermediapro Jan 2022
@frenchcricket yessssss, how to change your mind is a phenomenal read! i listened to the audiobook twice-through a couple years back; pollan has such a captivating writing style :D
right now, i'm reading "be here now" by ram dass, which is honestly 2/3rds a picture book, but there's such great dharma throughout!
i also joined an online satsang last year which has a book club! we finished ram dass' "miracles of love" a couple months back, & we since decided the massive undertaking of reading "the gospel of sri ramakrishna" in its entirety! -
@fuzzy Jan 2022
Ah, @frenchcricket, I agree, that Pollan book is absolutely fascinating. If you like that you might like "True Hallucinations" by Terrence McKenna.
Presently I am trying to finish "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner. A really tough read, but I'm finding it's worth it. -
@ianuarius Jan 2022
A couse in miracles keeps me busy. And since I gotta do some animation for a game... Animator's Survival Kit.
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@sailingmagpie Jan 2022
I had my most productive reading year ever last year (30 books), so hopefully I can keep that up this year.
I recently finished Souvenir by Michael Bracewell. It's somewhere between biography, essay and evocation of London during the late 70s/early 80s. It's kind of an epic poem in the style of The Wasteland.
I've now moved on to The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns (the two guys who wrote The Wire). It's thoroughly depressing, though very well written! -
@rshakesp Jan 2022
I’m working through ‘33 artists in 3 acts’ a really interesting critique of 33 contemporary visual artists by critic Sarah Thornton
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@frenchcricket Jan 2022
@silvermediapro @fuzzy even tho I have an interest in erm... mind expansion, the stuff that fascinated me the most is the section on the Default Mode Network, as it totally resonated with my own experience of mental illness.
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@kanttila Jan 2022
I'm currently reading Tony Fletcher's Keith Moon book. It's fantastic, a really great biography of Keith and also the Who. It seeks to find the truth behind a lot of urban legends surrounding Keith and present who he really was.
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@tiller2 Jan 2022
A New Earth, by Eckhard Tolle, full of insight into gaining the awareness that frees humans from the thrall of ego.
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@tesla3090 Jan 2022
Mythos, by Stephen Fry is an excellent retelling of the Greek myths through a very British humor lens. Also, the audiobook version is really good.
Also wrapped up the Expanse series last year. That was a fun sci-fi read that ended on a fairly satisfying note. -
@johncrossman Jan 2022
Just finished Red Rising yesterday. Brutal but gripping. Designing Your Life has been motivating me to rethink work, which I'm needing. Started Ball Four yesterday about baseball just because, and a day or two before, started The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin. I don't think I had intentionally read any poetry by Merwin before so I picked it up at the library because it was available and it was a good pick.
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@bradbrubaker Jan 2022
@sailingmagpie - The Corner has been on my list a long while now, but haven't gotten to it yet.
As for me, I just finished Our Team about the Reds team that broke the American League's color barrier with Larry Doby and Satchel Paige. Good book!
Now I'm onto the book version of Get Back. -
@blueone Jan 2022
I'm actually revisiting the Harry Potter books for the first time in about 15 years (some of the early books are probably going on 20 years since I last read them...).
Whilst I remember almost everything, I'm genuinely shocked how short some passages are. In my mind there are parts that it felt like I spent hours reading as a kid, but in reality they're only a couple of paragraphs! Imagination is a wild thing. -
@beat Jan 2022
@frenchcricket Mmmmh. Mallarmé, my Poet hero! I’ve got my tonal version of „Un Coup de Dés“ on my SoundCloud page. Jean-Paul Sartre’s „Mallarmés engagement“ is very enlightening too. Mid Dezember I’ve been listening to an episode of -Start of the week- on bbc4, „Living in the Matrix“ and after the show I immediately ordered the coming up book by David J. Charmers who was amongst the panel. Right now I’m finishing the 4th book by einzelkind to who’s books me bookdealer had me introduced to shortly before the end of the year. I started with Minsky and just got me the other 3 books straight after the first 10 pages into the book. He’s writting in german, but I guess he has a close affection to the english language. Minsky is an artificial intelligence who tells us that it is alright to be at the end of our road. That it all works out perfect even without us… ;]. einzelkind writes quit witty and it’s very hard to put his books down. Am glad that I’m halfway trough with „Billy“ the last of the four. FAWM is round the corner and there will be no time to turn pages. Music will rule the coming month.
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@burrsettles Jan 2022
2021 was my "readingest" year ever. I read 36 books (10k pages)
Currently I'm reading "Jade War," the second in a sci-fi kung-fu gangster fantasy trilogy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41716919-jade-war
Probably one of the most fascinating fictional worlds I've encountered in a long time! -
@scottlake Jan 2022
Just finished The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Enjoyed his A Gentleman in Moscow significantly more than Lincoln Highway
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@gubna Jan 2022
How To Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy. I just finished the book on the Prophet Synthesizer which is nowhere as fun as playing a synth.
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@whispermouse Jan 2022
@gubna Yes! I just finished "How To Write One Song" myself and it was by FAR the best book on songwriting I've ever read. I've been in a terrible musical funk, and that book really changed my thinking about some things.
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@davi3blu3 Jan 2022
Just started "the Dawn of Everything: a New History of Humanity" which is a bit daunting! Seems to be an interesting mix of anthropology, history, and philosophy. Excited to see y'alls picks too, I'm finishing my 2022 reading goals list :)
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@loveonamixtape Jan 2022
"How to Change Your Mind" is wonderful! Loving the poetry love on here, too (and Merwin is a favorite!)
I'm currently finishing up "Parable of the Talents" by Octavia Butler. Next I'll either read "Klara and the Sun" by Kazuo Ishiguro or "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt, if I need a sci fi break. I'm also embarrassed by how little Kafka I've read, so I'm going to read "the Trial" or "The Castle" soon. -
@zecoop Jan 2022
Currently reading "Through The Banks of the Red Cedar" about the integration of college football, specifically at my alma mater Michigan State University. I'm picking up my next one tomorrow at the library; "My Monticello" by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson; a book of short stories and a novella, inspired by Black lives in America.
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@ayehahmur Jan 2022
Current reads are "A Master Of Djinn" by P Djeli Clark, a pretty cool police procedural set in an alternate early 20th Century Egypt which is leads the modern world due to the integration of djinn in society; also, "The Mammoth Book Of Folk Horror", and Jeff Vandermeer's "A Peculiar Peril".
Best book of last year was Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi". -
@philkmills Jan 2022
I'm in the midst of various urban fantasy series. I finished "Smoke Bitten" by Patricia Briggs about 20 minutes ago. :)
The next on my list will probably be whichever Benedict Jacka book is waiting for me. ("Forged", I suspect.) -
@johnstaples Jan 2022
I am carrying a big ol' stack of actual printed books around with me this month. I still love my Kindle but kinda switched back to paper for awhile!
Beautiful Country: A Memoir
by Qian Julie Wang
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
by Clint Smith
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul
by Richard Bach
Billy Summers
by Stephen King
A Promised Land
by Barack Obama
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
by Oliver Burkeman -
@andygetch Jan 2022
Rereading mostly. Recently re-read Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen and now re-reading Springsteen on Springsteen. Both are 10 yrs ago-ish compilations of interviews, etc edited by Jeff Burger. Also skimming/reviewing the Rikky Rooksby How To Write Songs series, mainly to shake loose some ideas. Got a few more songwriting books on the shelf to go through. Still slogging my way through Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art by Lindsay & Vergo.
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@billwhite51 Jan 2022
youth without youth by mircea eliade
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@erikdidriksen Jan 2022
I've got a few going right now. I'm re-reading "Contacts" by Mark Watson for a book club, which is brilliant. I'm also tackling "Fuzz" by Mary Roach; "Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli" by Mark Seal; and "For Richer, For Poorer" by Victoria Coren Mitchell.
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@scottlake Jan 2022
Starting Cloud Cuckoo Land right now
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@fonte Jan 2022
@doeeyes I absolutely loved Factfulness. I may re-read it as I've forgotten most of it but I remember thinking 'I must remember this!'
@frenchcricket How to Change Your Mind sounds fascinating! I will check it out!
@fuzzy I read 'As I Lay Dying' a couple of years ago and really enjoyed.
I currently have John Updike 'Rabbit At Rest' on the go. I think he is an incredible writer, and really gets you inside the main character's head. -
@frenchcricket Jan 2022
@fonte @doeeyes I went the other way with the media and read Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli. And honestly, I pretty much entirely have :)
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@mctown Jan 2022
Tune In -The Beatles—All These Years
by Mark Lewisohn
Lengthy, but is also very factual with all kinds of interviews worked in.. one of the best bios of an artist I've read. -
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@bradbrubaker Jan 2022
@mctown - I just ordered the Extended Version that is 1700+ pages because the mass produced version was sooooooo goooooood. Enjoy!
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@brycoop Jan 2022
A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell. Perhaps an odd book, but a story of a beekeeper. If you like bees (or honey!) it's fun, fairly short read!
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@mctown Jan 2022
@bradbrubaker hard to imagine a longer version...but I looked it up...I have been looking for tune in 2 as it was supposedly in the works...which continued from in the time frame.... I was wowed by the book... read it twice. The songwriting/publishing scenario was very telling .. wouldn't have gotten a record deal without giving up publishing on a song... Epstein also got an involvement by managing the writing team and getting part of the publishing later on. Inspired the writing altogether.. probably wouldn't have happened otherwise...wow.
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@dasbinky Jan 2022
I'm finishing up Dave Grohl's book, it's pretty good as rock memoirs go. Lots of fun stories.
Also just started Mary Roach's new book "Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law". I've read all of her stuff, she's a joy. -
@airbagtester Jan 2022
@johncrossman I started Red Rising in early 2020 after a coworker recommended it, but I put it down for some reason. I need to pick that one up again and start over.
The same coworker of mine recommended Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, which is another relatively short fiction I enjoyed.
Henry Rollins' Get in the Van I read most of, and also Beastie Boys Book, which I remember a bit about cassette tape nostalgia that I bookmarked. -
@pbtaylorjr Jan 2022
Just finished a reread for me and a first read for my son of the Harry Potter series.
Now I’m doing the same with him on the original Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.
On my own I am bouncing around between:
The Anthropocene Reviewed
The Five Love Languages
The Body Keeps The Score
The Witcher: The Last Wish
Star Wars: Ahsoka
And I intend to start reading the Star Wars High Republic series and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. -
@audrey Jan 2022
I'm currently on the 7th book of the Expanse series. It's great Sci Fi. The TV series is really good too and mostly follows the storylines of the books. Just finished watching the last episode of the last season. Wish they would do another season. Oh well.
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@rollasoc Jan 2022
Currently reading Death's End by Cixin Liu
The whole (3 body problem trilogy) is long, but interesting and some good twists and turns. Be glad when I have finished this last one and can get back to re-reading some Pratchett. -
@beat Jan 2022
Ja. Got it today, Reality+ by David J. Chalmers. Very cool. I can start it just before the workload starts in February ;].
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@jonmeta Jan 2022
On my bedside table, The Vicar of Bullhampton, by Anthony Trollope. One of his lesser known works but a delight to read if you like that sort of thing. I burnt out on science fiction and fantasy in high school, Asimov’s Trilogy and all that, and now rarely get closer to the present day than the 1880s. I do want to read Updike though @fonte and Factfulness is going on my list @doeeyes .
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@janetjulian Jan 2022
I’m doing read harder challenge this year. Just finished Silk & Steel, a fantasy anthology from a lesbian queer perspective. Next is Girls Made of Snow & Glass, a queer retelling of Snow Queen.
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@scottlake Jan 2022
Cloud Cuckoo Land: stopped after 6%. Sooo disconnected. Went to look at some non spoiler reviews and found out it doesn’t improve. I’m disappointed because All The Light We Cannot See was a great book.
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@bethyrose Jan 2022
Just started Leigh Bardugo's Rule of Wolves (YA fantasy with Russian influence) and for non-fiction am reading Brene Brown's Daring Greatly (highly recommend anything by her).
Love getting to see all you other readers on here! :) :) :) -
@bradbrubaker Jan 2022
@bethyrose - I grabbed Daring Greatly from a free little library in my neighborhood in the fall. I shall read it post-FAWM methinks.
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@lowhum Jan 2022
The Prague Cemetery
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@quork Jan 2022
@scottlake I loved Cloud Cuckoo Land, which led me to All the Light We Cannot See, which was heartbreaking and powerful.
Recently I've read several music books, including the following that I enjoyed:
- Last Chance Texaco, by Rickie Lee Jones
- Beeswing, by Richard Thompson
- The Soundtrack of My Life, by Clive Davis -
@emkaydeebee Jan 2022
Currently reading The Evening and the Morning - Ken Follett’s prequel to the Pillars of the Earth trilogy, so naturally I had to re read the trilogy first. At 900 pages, the prequel is the shortest of the set, but his writing is so gripping, you don’t notice. (Apart from the thumb ache of holding the book open… love a paper book!)
Non-fiction, I’ve just started “Listen - How to find the words for tender conversations” by Kathryn Mannix. -
@nicetrip Jan 2022
I'm used to read few books in parallel. It's not fast but works for me, like having suitable drug in appropriate moment.
Currently I'm finishing two books:
- horror fiction "Pokrov-17" by promising russian writer Alexander Pelevin (not Viktor Pelevin, if you know what I mean)
- non-fiction about writing and editing "Write, reduce" by Maxim Ilyakhov
And I'm on a long journey with huge book by Robert Sapolsky "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst". -
@jcameron Jan 2022
I've been reading the Silmarillion, aka the greatest teen rebellion story ever written. (When you think of it, all the problems in Middle-Earth ultimately stem from the fact that Melkor's dad didn't approve of his taste in music.)
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@johncrossman Jan 2022
@auditasum I was excited to read The Bear and the Nightingale based on the description. I'm not sure I'll continue the series, partly because of my long list of to-be-read books but I'm still considering it.
Working my way through The Dairy Restaurant by Ben Katchor. It's my third book by him and I'm still not sure what to think. Anyone else? -
@auditasum Jan 2022
@johncrossman it is a bit slow paced.
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@johncrossman Jan 2022
@auditasum I agree. I'll describe my final feelings about it this way: It sounded like a book I would have to recommend to my best friend because she would love a dark folk tale but in the end I couldn't quite recommend it.
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@katpiercemusic Jan 2022
I've been back on the light sci fi/fantasy recently. I fell away from those genres in recent years. Over the fall I read Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (very sweet), Feral Creatures which is the sequel to Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton, and A Radical Act of Free Magic which is the sequel to Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry. I'm currently reading Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. I've also been doing some professional reading. I've been educating myself on Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory. I've read Music Play which focuses on early childhood music learning and I am currently reading Weaving it All Together by Heather Shouldice. It's a fascinating look at how we learn music. It's helping me as a musician AND a teacher. I'll read Gordon's book too, but it's dense and I wanted a good general idea of his theory before I tackled his book.
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@philkmills Jan 2022
@jcameron I wrote a song 17 years ago (I just looked it up :) ) that claims all Middle Earth problems derive from Melkor not being allowed to have a pet. He tried a spider, a dragon, a hell hound....
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@seemanski Jan 2022
I finished Jeff Tweedy's How To Write One Song recently. I'm now working my way through his autobiography.
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@ianuarius Jan 2022
I actually read quite a bit of stuff last year.
Alvin Jorneyman
Prentice Alvin
Red Prophet
Seventh Son
Heartfire
The Crystal City
by Orson Scott Card
Soulforge, The
Brothers in Arms
by Margaret Weis... and I guess the later one was also by Don Perrin.
I'd read all of those in Finnish long, LONG time ago (like half a lifetime). I wanted to give them a read in English now. -
@frenchcricket Jan 2022
I just started 'An End to Upside Down Thinking: Why Your Assumptions about the Material World Are No Longer Scientifically True' by Mark Gober and casually mentioned it to my (very much materialist/sceptic) girlfriend and she went mad. We are very different people when it comes to consciousness. I'm a poet, for one.
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@fuzzy Jan 2022
Any book that makes me question my view of reality is a book for me.
That one sounds fascinating, @frenchcricket. -
@meadows Jan 2022
"How To Write ONE Song" by Jeff Tweedy (as some of you also), which I enjoyed really much.
And I'm about to start with "Do What You Want" the story of Bad Religion. :) -
@krrisstin Jan 2022
all day is a long time, by david sanchez. so good! i recently finished bewilderment by richard powers and loved that one too.
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@texascities Jan 2022
I'm reading some of Tim Powers more recent books -an urban fantasy trilogy that edges into more horrorish than romance. Also a couple of books on composing and writing better melodies. And rather a lot pf redfit hfy.
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@jamesstaubes Jan 2022
Just finished reading Erica Jong's, "Fear Of Flying." Loved it. Never read it before. Now I'm reading bell hooks, "The Will To Change."
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@gmcgath Jan 2022
I'm on my fifth (something like that, I've lost count) reading of LotR.
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@jeustan Jan 2022
I've been finishing Orange World and Other Stories, Karen Russell, for a good long time. It's so good I'm trying to stretch the stories out by neglecting to read it for weeks at a time (that's my excuse).
I just checked out Anatomy of a Song by Marc Myers and Music: A Subversive History by Ted Gioia for FAWM inspiration. Tweedy's How to Write One Song was backordered so I'll have to wait.
I'm currently looking for my next choice of fiction by picking through this thread. For some reason I have a full list of nonfiction I intend to read next and zero fiction. -
@sbs2018 Jan 2022
I’m rereading “The Artist’s Journey” by Steven Pressfield. Love all of his books. So inspiring!
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@stuarthu Jan 2022
Yup, another vote for How to Write One Song - ironic given I just signed up to write 14!!! :)
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@gubna Jan 2022
I'm still working on How To Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy, but I just got two George Martin books one or both may be my reads in Feb.
All You Need Is Ears
and
Maximum Volume, the life of Beatles producer George Martin the early years 1926-1966 -
@scottlake Jan 2022
Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
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@sbs2018 Jan 2022
Okay, so now I've started reading "Unpredictable Songwriting" and I am so inspired! Yes, this is more like my natural songwriting style, which wasn't really accepted by NSAI so I kinda stopped writing lyrics and just wrote phrases instead and doing more EDM because of all that. But now I feel like getting back into writing more full lyrics. Anyway, he mentioned Steely Dan, which we were also talking about on another thread and from there I "discovered" the "Do It Again/Billy Jean" mashup" from the 80s. How did I miss this? It's absolutely incredible! 70s Steely Dan mixed with 80s MJ with an overall EDM feel. Wow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=attuUDpeauQ&feature=youtu.be -
@petemurphy Jan 2022
I listen to a lot of audiobooks these days. Is that allowed in this thread?
I'm currently listening to "How Music Works" by David Byrne. Part autobiography, part 'history of music', part analysis of the music industry.
Some very interesting stuff in there. -
@odilongreen Jan 2022
The Motern Method by my friend Matt Farley, about his creativity philosophy. He has recorded 23,000+ songs, made several movies, and now has written and released (through Amazon) a very short book. He's quite this inspiration.
(Article about Matt: https://bettermarketing.pub/how-matt-farley-built-a-65k-per-year-music-empire-from-his-basement-99b1192e762a) -
@iwilleatyou Jan 2022
Fallopian Rhapsody: The story of the Lunachicks is the last one read. Even if you are not into the band (which I very much am), it's a blast of a read akin to Motley Crue's The Dirt. Like the latter, Fallopian would make a great film.
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@fuzzy Jan 2022
Currently in the middle of "The Fourth Horseman: A Short History of Plagues, Scourges, and Emerging Viruses", written in 1991 by Andrew Nikiforuk.
It has the world-changing history of all the Greatest Hits - leprosy, syphilis, malaria, the plague, smallpox, TB, etc. etc.
I'm finding it a sobering and slightly frightening read, considering the past few years. Believe me, folks, it could be much worse than it presently is.
Nikiforuk approaches the subject with black humour and some really interesting facts.
A really readable and entertaining book, despite the subject matter. -
@corinnelucy Jan 2022
I started reading the Wheel of Time series just before I heard it was gonna be a TV series! I'm on book 5 and stubbornly refusing to watch it until I've read all 14 books...
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@frenchcricket Feb 2022
I'm now reading How to Write One Song as many of you have already. Funny thing: I've been doing that grab a random book trick for years, but I only used it as a resource for song titles.... What a missed opportunity!
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@gubna Feb 2022
I read the latest copy of TapeOp. I still haven't finished the Jeff Tweedy book (procrastination!)
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@paulroe Feb 2022
Am never more than a few heartbeats away from busting out some classic poem and reading, reciting, memorizing: usually from the Elizabethan, Romantic and Early Modern eras. T.S. Eliot, e.e. cummings, Shakespeare (usually a sonnet or soliloquy), Keats, Coleridge, Frost and the like
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@franniezest Feb 2022
wow a diverse list for sure! i read a lot but haven't read most of what you all are reading! i just finished "First Person Singular" by Haruki Murakami . it's short stories (i usually never like short stories) but i really loved Murakami's 1Q84 (It inspired one of my first songs i ever wrote!), but didnt care for another of his novels, so i wanted to try a 3rd sample without committing to anything overly long. in the end i had mixed feelings on it. i didn't like it but there was just enough of the stuff i love about him to make me want to try more of his books
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@suscotting Feb 2022
Isle of Noises - interviews with UK songwriters
Great Fool - poetry of Ryokan
The Abundance of Less
How to do Nothing -
@fuzzy Feb 2022
Presently about half way through "Brian Eno's Diary - A Year With Swollen Appendices".
It's kind of a weird juxtaposition; he writes about things like what he had for dinner, interspersed with random throwaway musings about music, politics, and life that make me stop reading for a few minutes so I can fully integrate these profound thoughts of his.
I'm finding it very enlightening, and I haven't even checked out the appendices yet. -
@gubna Feb 2022
@fuzzy I read that last one year. when he would mention something in the appendices, I would just go read one, then go back to the chapter I was on.
I just started Maximum Volume, the Life of Beatles Producer George Martin by Kenneth Womack.
Still haven't finished the Jeff Tweedy book. -
@leka Feb 2022
”Man who died twice” by Richard Osman
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@klyma Feb 2022
I made it a goal to read 12 books this year (which would be the most I've ever read in one year). So far Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward and The Overstory by Richard Powers. Loved them both. Currently reading Alan Light's *biography* (if you will) of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen - The Holy or the Broken. It's a look at the song's ascendance into popular culture. It's had an interesting ride.
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@klyma Feb 2022
@petemurphy love How Music Works. Byrne is a fascinating character. I thoroughly enjoyed learning of his experiences in the biz and his take on things in general.
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@katestantonsings Feb 2022
Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish for school.
Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth
by Robert Johnson for fun. -
@katestantonsings Feb 2022
@ianuarius A Course in Miracles has been on my list for years. What are your thoughts? I haven't delved in yet...
Big fan of Marianne Williamson's teachings. -
@jamkar Feb 2022
Re-reading Eckhart Tolle. Maybe it will take this time. I also read A Course in Miracles.
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@jayjay Feb 2022
Who has time to read during FAWM? Reading your lyrics ;)
Actually my nephews bought me the Belgariad and Mallorean series by David Eddings for Christmas as I had mentioned they were childhood favourites. Waiting for a free couple of weeks, a good bottle of wine or two and some rainy days. Perfection. -
@ianuarius Feb 2022
@katestantonsings It's a life-transforming book, if a bit hard to understand without some help. I recommend The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard. It opens up the concepts even to a dummy like me.
But if you're interested, my advice is, don't wait. As they say, it's a life-long journey. -
@katestantonsings Feb 2022
@Jamkar I love Eckhart Tolle's work--particularly his perspectives on our reality/self-fulfilling prophecies. Byron Katie is another good one you might try if you haven't already.
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@katestantonsings Feb 2022
@ianuarius I'll check out The Disappearance of the Universe first--thanks so much!!
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@katestantonsings Feb 2022
@jayjay insomniacs read during FAWM to try and fall asleep ;p
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@jayjay Feb 2022
I might try The Disappearance of the Universe too. Been ages since I read philosophy or spiritual works. I think I got completely fried by the Fountainhead lol.
@katestantonsings I have zero brain capacity during periods of insomnia. I just switch on youtube and let others read reddit to me. Research for songs and mind numbing all at the same time :P -
@ianuarius Feb 2022
I should add, that course is not one of these "get more money and stuff" books. I feel like it's focusing very heavily on enlightenment and transcending the physical world (since according to the book it isn't real) for the spirit. It has side effects on the physical level, too, like a sense of peace, but if you want to learn to manifest gold ingots, I suggest you look somewhere else. The Secret works for some people.
You can read a 70-page sample of Disappearance on Google Books.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=J-oYcg4Y2dEC
And the whole Course in Miracles can be read on their website.
https://acim.org/acim/en
It's been great for me. Glowing endorsement. Can't recommend enough. -
@katestantonsings Feb 2022
@jayjay Ayn Rand will do that to you, haha. I like to read about various religions and philosophies to incorporate my values and personal ethics into a belief system; it helps with creative writing. A few of my favorites are the books from Paul for suffering, Soren Kierkegaard for purpose, stoicism for dealing with difficulties and trials, Carl Jung’s archetypes for creativity, and Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience which inspired some heroes like MLK Jr & Gandhi. I’m rambling now;)
@ianuarius thank you so much!! I think it’s a sign I need to finally read it. Much appreciated. -
@jayjay Feb 2022
@katestantonsings that’s a list. I’ll need two months not two weeks off and a couple of cases of wine lol.
Thanks for the recommendations though. I might start with Thoreau. Been meaning to read him and it feels particularly relevant in these times. -
@kirjis Feb 2022
Hit me, Fred - Recollections of a Sideman by Fred Wesley, Jr.
Fred Wesley, Jr. played trombone with Ike & Tina, James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic, Bootsy, the US Army, Count Basie etc.
Very dry humor and good (and awful) stories, and for once a well edited and proofread book. -
@rollasoc Feb 2022
Reading the Wayward pines trilogy at the moment, just finished book 2. (thought I would leave it sometime between the series and reading the books)
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@nahlej381 Feb 2022
Bouncing between naked lunch, this spoke Zarathustra, be here now, and the universe in a single atom.
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@jamkar Feb 2022
Thanks @katestantonsings . I will check out Byron Katie.
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@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
This pandemic, I've been reading a lot of fluffy fated-mate shifter romances. If that's your thing, I recommend Zoe Chant, especially the Shifting Sands series. I find them fluffy and fun, and I know I won't be spending emotional processing spoons on them. Mind you, I like a lot of books that make the reader think, and I have certainly not given up on finding more of those, but right now I'm pretty short on emotional processing spoons, and it's really nice to have a haven that is decidedly not in the real world, where there's no pandemic and (unlike Game of Thrones, say) I can assume everybody won't die, and there'll be silly hijinks leading to a happy ending.
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@klyma Feb 2022
This is the first I've heard of The Disappearance of the Universe and Course in Miracles. Have to see if they have 'em at my local library.
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@ambroise Feb 2022
I read in a magazin "It is incomprehensible that the name of Sigismund Krzyzanowski is not better known." It made me laugh. Or mabe did I just relate because my family name is also hard to spell. I'm currently reading his "The Letter Killers Club". It is beautifully written (and/or translated).
@kirjis : I discovered Fred Wesley with Abraham Inc, I love his work ! I just checked and sadly I found no translation of his book in french (not that skilled in english reading). -
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@sheilerk Feb 2022
What am I reading? The Forums!!! Oh, you mean a real book! Well, before February I had just finished When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal, not quite fluff, but an easy read. I'm with @wylddandelyon, and I'm just not much into the deep dives into my psyche.
I also finished the Woman They Couldn't Silence by Kate Moore, a biography of Elizabeth Packard, about a woman put in an asylum for speaking her mind, and her lifelong crusade to keep it from happening to other women. It wasn't fluff, but it read like a novel, even though it was meticulously researched and often taken straight from the historical documents on her life. -
@dwarvenlover Feb 2022
Im reading Moorcock´s Corum books and some roleplaying books on the side