Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s a roundup of your comments and photos from last week, including reads on jazz that will grow your to-be-listened-to list, a book on the maths of The Simpsons, and why you should go back and read Agatha Christie, if you haven’t already.
ShutUpBanks read The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton over the weekend for the first time:
I found her writing to be sharp and insightful and the story, though it’s become hackneyed through overuse since then, was compelling and interesting. What surprised me, though, was my reaction to the setting: I despised nearly every character and couldn’t bring myself to give a damn about them. They lived all across the world but only concerned themselves with several dozen people in it. The main character was having an existential crisis about who he loved and what he thought he stood for, but was able to take weeks off from his job at a time for frankly spurious reasons. I get that they lived in a different world with completely different concerns and priorities but it caused a huge disconnect for me that I’ve rarely experienced in literature before. But I did read the introduction which included a brief biography of Ms Wharton and I’d love to read more about her: she seems to have led an amazing life.
As a fan of the programme it was interesting to see how the writers worked in various maths references but I found the format a bit repetitive after a while. Also I didn’t feel like I actually learned much about maths – as I said last week I’m not a maths person so this might be why, but I didn’t get a lot of the more complex “jokes” in the tests between sections. That said it was a fairly easy read (so maybe not one for those who like their maths reading more challenging) and the chapters were bitesize enough to read one over lunch.
I’m now onto And Then There Were None. Gosh it’s good. Even though I know what happens from the TV version that was on over Christmas, the characters are so well-drawn and I love the flitting back and forth between each one, as well as the little snippets of each person’s backstory. At the risk of spoilers – although I am pretty sure most people here have seen/read it – there does seem to be a bit more focus on characters who become more prominent later on, but I suppose that makes sense; no point doing loads of background stuff for the ones you bump off first. If they’re all this good I suspect there’ll be lots more Agatha Christie in my future reading.
Evans is one of my favourite jazz musicians and I already know his music quite well. I was hoping to learn more about the man himself but this “biography” is more of a “discography” with a forensic examination of virtually every one of the pianist’s recordings and performances. Pettinger is himself an international concert pianist and is certainly impressive at describing Bill’s compositional methods and analysing his music, though it felt like over-analysis at times (a whole page enthusing about one single opening note, for example). But as for Evans’ personal life, Pettinger only gives us bare-bones glimpses, and only when they impinge on the minutely detailed musical journey. I was left wanting to know more. (I was also left with a long list of CDs that I need to buy!)
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