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7th out of 99 books
—
17 voters
Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves
by
Jason Bitner
An art form combining the skills of a DJ with the intimacy of a letter, a good mixtape was the ultimate audio valentine. Today, when the iPod and playlists reign supreme, the cassette has been rendered obsolete, and the art of crafting these sonic calling cards has been relegated to back-of-the-closet, thirty-something nostalgia. Now, thanks to Jason Bitner, we can relive...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
October 27th 2009
by St. Martin's Griffin
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I fell in love with this book the instant I picked it up. I had been sitting in Shakespeare & Co. for hours, leafing through cover after cover, searching for an epic book to take home with me from this most wonderful of bookstores. I knew this was it before I'd finished the first page.
I started making cassette recordings as a kid in the '90s, with my siblings and a couple friends. I didn't know then that it would turn into a lifelong obsession with creating and giving mix tapes. The tapes ha...more
I started making cassette recordings as a kid in the '90s, with my siblings and a couple friends. I didn't know then that it would turn into a lifelong obsession with creating and giving mix tapes. The tapes ha...more
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Go here for full review with links: http://www.iheartdaily.com/2009/10/ca...
The mixtape was a major art form of the 80s and 90s -- you'd make one for your best friends and longtime crushes, painstakingly choosing every song and then putting them in the right order. Don't even get me started on how much effort went into naming each side and decorating the case. Well, all good art movements deserve a tribute book, and now the mixtape has one: Cassette From My Ex (St. Martin's, $23) is a collection...more
The mixtape was a major art form of the 80s and 90s -- you'd make one for your best friends and longtime crushes, painstakingly choosing every song and then putting them in the right order. Don't even get me started on how much effort went into naming each side and decorating the case. Well, all good art movements deserve a tribute book, and now the mixtape has one: Cassette From My Ex (St. Martin's, $23) is a collection...more
This was just a wonderful book. Short little vignettes that show just how much a mixtape once meant. Being a child of the late 80s, I just barely caught the tail end of the mixtape world, and by the time I was really old enough to swap one that would have any meaning, the format had moved to mix CDs. Now, in an era of playlists and file sharing, it's so refreshing to read a book about the art of the mixtape - not just the song selection, but the presentation, the inside jokes, the art, everythin...more
So yeah. If you know me, you know I love mix tapes. Not mix cds, though I've grown to like them pretty okay over since, say 2004. I was a late-comer and a late-leaver to the mix-tape game, and it's true, they are far superior to CDs.
Mostly, I didn't like this book. Here's why. It's compiled by those Found dudes, and I like that concept in theory, but in practice it gets kind of tedious. As this book did. The vignette authors by and large weren't very good writers and I was reading it all at a c...more
Mostly, I didn't like this book. Here's why. It's compiled by those Found dudes, and I like that concept in theory, but in practice it gets kind of tedious. As this book did. The vignette authors by and large weren't very good writers and I was reading it all at a c...more
2 likes · like · see review
Each story in this book seems to ring true to the reader...doesnt everyone still have that one or 100 cassettte tapes they stilll play? and when they play them arent they magically transported to that amazing time in their life when music meant much more thatn a video on tv or a flashy show of who won what award? classic...
Hmmm... Absolutely in love with the idea of this book (hence why I purchased it), but was ultimately a bit disappointed.
The quality of writing of many of the contributors left a bit to be desired for my tastes, too many of the stories were too similar (which could be a statement about mix tape culture more than the book or authors, I suppose), and there seemed to be too little analysis of lyrical content and why the playlists were what they were...
Still, for someone who is more than a little voy...more
The quality of writing of many of the contributors left a bit to be desired for my tastes, too many of the stories were too similar (which could be a statement about mix tape culture more than the book or authors, I suppose), and there seemed to be too little analysis of lyrical content and why the playlists were what they were...
Still, for someone who is more than a little voy...more
Hit or miss stories, but overall and interesting and memory-inducing read. While I've always been an avid mix maker, I never had friends (especially girlfriends) who were as interested in music as I was. I remember making mixes for myself and various events. In gym class, for example, we could make tapes to be played during stretching. I'll never forget making that tape because I had to be very careful in bleeping out any cuss words which I accomplished by quickly hitting and releasing the pause...more
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Oct 29, 2009
AJ Conroy
marked it as to-read
From Flavorwire:
Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves is a wonderful, nostalgic, charmingly obsessive ode to the mixtape — in particular, to mixtapes made by ex-lovers. Jason Bitner, co-creator of FOUND magazine, conceived of the project while cleaning out his basement, where he found an old mixtape given to him by his first girlfriend in the dark ages of 1991. Inspired by the nature of the tape as a time capsule (and as the “perfect vehicle for expressing love”), he rounde...more
Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves is a wonderful, nostalgic, charmingly obsessive ode to the mixtape — in particular, to mixtapes made by ex-lovers. Jason Bitner, co-creator of FOUND magazine, conceived of the project while cleaning out his basement, where he found an old mixtape given to him by his first girlfriend in the dark ages of 1991. Inspired by the nature of the tape as a time capsule (and as the “perfect vehicle for expressing love”), he rounde...more
Great concept and format. The highlights of this book are the mixtape track listings themselves, along with the photos and scans of the notes that went along with them. The vignettes weren't particularly well-written, unfortunately; I would have liked to see more authors and musicians with whom I was familiar, and all of the narratives were heteronormative, as far as I could see. (I also skipped the stories towards the end and just read the mixtape listings). Apparently I'd better reconsider bef...more
Mini-essays about past loves and the music that went with them.
I don't think I ever made a mixtape for a love interest, and I'm 99% sure I never received a mixtape from a love interest. I've made and received mixtapes and mix CDs for/from friends and people I didn't know, but never as part of a romantic situation. I obviously missed out on good times. Still, as someone who loves music, loves sharing music, and is anally retentive about getting mixes *just right*, I thought this was a charming bo...more
I don't think I ever made a mixtape for a love interest, and I'm 99% sure I never received a mixtape from a love interest. I've made and received mixtapes and mix CDs for/from friends and people I didn't know, but never as part of a romantic situation. I obviously missed out on good times. Still, as someone who loves music, loves sharing music, and is anally retentive about getting mixes *just right*, I thought this was a charming bo...more
A brilliant nostalgia-fest extolling the virtues of the nearly-lost art of the mixed tape. The quality of the essays is wildly uneven, but it hardly matters - the point of the stories and carefully recreated playlists is to stimulate memories of your own mixed-tape moments, and this collection more than does its job. Complete with do and don't lists on every aspect of mix making, Cassette from my Ex is a blast from the past that makes you laugh, cry, and maybe even hum along.
This book is put together by one of the editors of Found magazine and I recognized a few of the contributors. It's a nostalgic, of course, and I liked the stories and the feel of the book, reminding me of so many of the 'zine-y books that came out in the early 2000s. I love making mixed tapes and I've been on the receiving end of some pretty fantastic ones so I'm giving it a half star bump on nostalgia grounds. 3.5 stars.
this is a very special read. i used to make mix tapes all of the time, especially for girlfriends. this collection of essays hits some of the same notes as "high fidelity" but in more of an autobiographical nature of course. some stories really stand out, especially when they speak of heartbreak. if you love music and lists, and mix tapes, i highly recommend this book.
oh man, the MIXTAPE. i can't tell you how many hours were spent on these things . . . and getting the timing right, so a song didn't cut off - it's kind of sad to me that we have lost these tangible letters in music. you know?
anyway, looking forward to this one.
anyway, looking forward to this one.
Nov 14, 2010
Ryan
is currently reading it
this is interesting so far, not what I expected.
I kind of wish that the music was more current and not from the 80's for the mixtapes but hey can't make it perfect. So far it's intriguing.
I kind of wish that the music was more current and not from the 80's for the mixtapes but hey can't make it perfect. So far it's intriguing.
I really enjoyed reading and browsing through this book and it made me nostalgic for the days that my friends and I would trade mix tapes. I remember pouring over my records and CDs looking for the perfect songs to complete each mix tape. I remember listening to and analyzing the possible hidden meaning in the songs on a tape made for me by a crush. This book is full of personal stories involving the making of or receiving of a mix tape. Some are sad and painful to read, while others are full of...more
DO NOT BUY/READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE OCD about your music collection. After picking it up out of the bargain bin, I ended up staying up til 2am on a work night, giddily figuring out which songs I had in my music collection and which re-discovered "lost loves" i needed to acquire by download or used hardcopy. An amazing read, but definitely the basis for a compulsion!
... a week and more down the road and I am STILL using this book as a reference to find music and songs, whether I'm downloading th...more
... a week and more down the road and I am STILL using this book as a reference to find music and songs, whether I'm downloading th...more
As with any compilation of stories by different authors, some tales were better told than other. I enjoyed this book, overall, but there was a sense of same-ness to it all - all the relationships are of a certain age and generation (the one that exchanged mix tapes), the relationships are all hetero, and, of course, they all end in break-up. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had set the book down between stories, rather than read them one right after the other - the same-ness might not h...more
I only sort of read this because it just wasn't that interesting.
Amazing!
Nov 28, 2010
Carla Jean
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who ever made or received a mix tape
Recommended to Carla Jean by:
Josh Mallory
I like the design even more than the text (although many of the essays were very amusing). Beautiful book.
I really thought I was going to like this book more considering my love for making mix tapes. It is a compilation of cassette-tape-related memoirs from different writers. About half way through the book I just got kind of bored with reading everyone's only slightly varied versions of the same angst-y, teenage relationships that played out on tapes.
The mixed tape is a lost art. It was fun to revisit it in these short essays. They were mostly about lost loves but there were a few about friends, family, and muses mixed in. It inspired me to dig in the vaults of my mixes. The book even included snapshots of the cassette and the artwork on the case, which made the experience even more enjoyable.
fun concept, but not very innovative. really enjoyed the first 100 pages but it was too predictable. would have enjoyed a more thorough explanation from 6-8 of the authors, instead of new, quick stories every 3 pages.
however, i still really appreciate the sentiment: mix tapes are special and memorable. and so is love!
however, i still really appreciate the sentiment: mix tapes are special and memorable. and so is love!
Feb 28, 2010
Sarah
added it
A collection of essays in which you will find little bits of yourself scattered throughout. I loved it.
This is a collection of stories from people who have given or received mixed tapes. A great book that will make you feel nostalgic for cassettes, music and summer loves.
An interesting series of stories that all come together with the common theme of the mix tapes. This is a medium I find needs a come back. Mix CDs are good but they just don't have the same intimacy as a gray Maxell cassette....
I thought this would be more tired old "oh tapes were so good here's the tracklist i love that replacements song so much it reminds me of kimmy" nonsense, but there's actually some fairly nice stories in here.
(Non-Fiction -Music) I loved the idea behind this book, but found myself feeling blase' toward the stories and the music on the mix tapes.
Quick read...lots of mix tapes from Chicago it seemed. Good to know there are more crazy mix tapes out there than mine!
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