Zorro
06-10-2006, 11:07 AM
Do people still read books? I do when I can. Here's a few recent reads:
Shakey - just finished my second read of this "authorized" biography of Neil Young. Author Jimmy McDonough spent 10 years researching and writing this book, talked to all the right people, and finally got access to the man himself.
To paraphrase Neil, this book is extremely "innarestin' " - I would say fascinating - in it's examination of an artist who has never compromised - who has always done what he believed was right - no matter the cost - personally, professionally, or monetarily. The resulting portrait is of a great artist who has been all over the map musically and creatively but who has never become stale, a self described "terrible businessman" who has become incredibly wealthy because he always followed his heart (perversely refunding Geffen half his million-dollar signing bonus because the record company wasn't happy with his subsequent "non-commercial" records, and purchasing [and designing new technologies for] Lionel Trains primarily as a way of communicating with his severely handicapped son are just two examples). He's pissed off a lot of people over the years and confounded many more, but 40 years down the road Neil Young is still cool precisely because he never cared about being cool - unlike so many of his calcified contemporaries who rested on their laurels and "became park bench mutations". I think I sorta' love this guy.
In Cold Blood - I was inspired to read this after seeing the movie "Capote". I knew it was a classic but wasn't prepared for Capote's stark but vivid portrait of the victims, perpetrators, lawmen, and the stolid heartland community affected by such a senseless, violent, but seemingly inevitable murder of an entire American family. Capote's writing is spare and precise - almost the polar opposite of the over the top "affected" personality some of us remember from 1970s television. He truly was a great writer and this truly is a great book. The film version with Robert Blake is also one of the best screen adaptations of a novel that I have ever seen. Read the book. Then watch the movie. You won't be sorry.
On The Road - another "classic" I had overlooked because I was convinced that it would be "dated" - you know, 1950s hipster writes entire memoir in one fevered stream-of-conciousness burst of genius on a single 300-foot roll of telegraph paper. Like, Wow man, Flip City! Well, again, there's a reason certain "great books" are considered "great books" and I have to say that "On The Road" is an absolute revelation. Jack Keroauc truly does create a "new language" - using crazy word combinations that shouldn't work at all but which vividly evoke the metamorphising American landscape post WW II - a very different landscape than the one Americans saw on postcards - a "hidden" America that was alive and authentic and gritty and sensuous and 180 degrees opposite the antiseptic, perfectly polished "Father Knows Best" hallucination mainstream America was dreaming at that time. If "On The Road" was a revelation when it was first published in 1957, it is no less a revelation now. An essential work of American literature and a truly great book.
.... so, read any good books lately?
Shakey - just finished my second read of this "authorized" biography of Neil Young. Author Jimmy McDonough spent 10 years researching and writing this book, talked to all the right people, and finally got access to the man himself.
To paraphrase Neil, this book is extremely "innarestin' " - I would say fascinating - in it's examination of an artist who has never compromised - who has always done what he believed was right - no matter the cost - personally, professionally, or monetarily. The resulting portrait is of a great artist who has been all over the map musically and creatively but who has never become stale, a self described "terrible businessman" who has become incredibly wealthy because he always followed his heart (perversely refunding Geffen half his million-dollar signing bonus because the record company wasn't happy with his subsequent "non-commercial" records, and purchasing [and designing new technologies for] Lionel Trains primarily as a way of communicating with his severely handicapped son are just two examples). He's pissed off a lot of people over the years and confounded many more, but 40 years down the road Neil Young is still cool precisely because he never cared about being cool - unlike so many of his calcified contemporaries who rested on their laurels and "became park bench mutations". I think I sorta' love this guy.
In Cold Blood - I was inspired to read this after seeing the movie "Capote". I knew it was a classic but wasn't prepared for Capote's stark but vivid portrait of the victims, perpetrators, lawmen, and the stolid heartland community affected by such a senseless, violent, but seemingly inevitable murder of an entire American family. Capote's writing is spare and precise - almost the polar opposite of the over the top "affected" personality some of us remember from 1970s television. He truly was a great writer and this truly is a great book. The film version with Robert Blake is also one of the best screen adaptations of a novel that I have ever seen. Read the book. Then watch the movie. You won't be sorry.
On The Road - another "classic" I had overlooked because I was convinced that it would be "dated" - you know, 1950s hipster writes entire memoir in one fevered stream-of-conciousness burst of genius on a single 300-foot roll of telegraph paper. Like, Wow man, Flip City! Well, again, there's a reason certain "great books" are considered "great books" and I have to say that "On The Road" is an absolute revelation. Jack Keroauc truly does create a "new language" - using crazy word combinations that shouldn't work at all but which vividly evoke the metamorphising American landscape post WW II - a very different landscape than the one Americans saw on postcards - a "hidden" America that was alive and authentic and gritty and sensuous and 180 degrees opposite the antiseptic, perfectly polished "Father Knows Best" hallucination mainstream America was dreaming at that time. If "On The Road" was a revelation when it was first published in 1957, it is no less a revelation now. An essential work of American literature and a truly great book.
.... so, read any good books lately?