Haven’t been reading much this year, but finally started something new: Molly by Blake Butler. I read a review, and it was hard to resist: it’s a memoir about the author and his wife, another writer who committed suicide. The author then discovered she had kept dark secrets no one knew about. It’s a controversial memoir, according to the review. I can’t resist a setup like that, when it’s allegedly a true story.
Sammy! - 50+ Years Of Winning by Sammy Swindell with Bones Bourcier and Bob Mays: Autobiography of one of the greatest Sprint Car drivers of all time. I did not get into sprint car racing until the late 90’s. By that time Sammy’s career was already half over, but I did get to see him race many times and this book is a great look back at his career. Sammy has always had the reputation as a grumpy sometimes angry race car driver from a fan’s perspective, but in this book he comes across as a guy who is all business when it comes to racing. Not only was he a great driver, but he also built his own cars, maintained his own cars, managed his race teams and was often an innovator with technology. He had some limited shots at NASCAR and Indy Car, but the timing and teams just were not right, so he eventually made Sprint Car racing his main focus. He also talks about his son who was paralyzed in a racing accident. This is a great book for anyone into Sprint Car racing or racing in general.
4.5 out of 5 stars
^ I thought for sure it was going to be Sammy Davis Junior!
Actually, I do have a biography of the Rat Pack in my Kindle that someone else here suggested, but have not gotten to it yet.Originally Posted by JKL2000
^ I thought for sure it was going to be Sammy Davis Junior!
The Sammy Swindell book was lent to me when I had my surgery by a buddy of mine who I go to the race track with a lot. I don't read actual hard cover books very often anymore, but this one was an exception.
Sideman: In Pursuit Of The Next Gig by Mark Rivera: Mark is one of those guys who has played with almost everyone, but few people know his name. He was in the band Tycoon, a touring and recording member of Foreigner, a touring member off Hall & Oats and probably best known as Billy Joel’s sax player for the better part of 40 years. Rivera has also played on many studio albums including Peter Gabriel and many others. I found this book to be remarkably interesting. Mark’s career has been up and down and shows just how much of a roller coaster ride a career as a musician can be. He probably could have used a financial advisor along the way as he seems like for much of his life he would spend money as fast as he made it. He doesn’t dish a lot of dirt in this album, but does talk about many of the people he has played with and how the recording of some of the greatest songs in rock came about. An enjoyable quick read.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Has anyone read The Catcher in the Rye?
Absolutely. It's a bit dated now in some respects, but still a fascinating and thought-provoking read. A true classic, imo.
Bill
Yes, a lot of years ago. Is it true it was/is kind of required reading at US-secundary schools?
Years ago, but to be honest I don't remember a lot about it.
It was definitely included in a lot of "coming of age" curricula, both at the high school and early college levels. My dad taught it in some of his classes at the University of Massachusetts, and my current copy is one of his old teaching copies. I think it's still widely taught but has come under some valid scrutiny of late as the world has changed so much since the book was written, and some of the themes may not resonate as strongly, and surely many of the cultural references would be basically lost on today's students. I'm leaving aside the criticisms of it being "vulgar," or whatever, which have essentially been around since the book was published.
Bill
Yes, a few months ago. I have to say I was disappointed with it. It has been so hyped over the years. I didn't think it was anywhere close to that.
I didn't dislike it, but I didn't think it was worth such high regard.
A Comfort Zone is not a Life Sentence
My mom had all of her five sons read it in junior high. This was outside of school. My brother Freddy got caught with his copy by his 7th grade home room teacher. She confiscated it and had my mom come to school to explain why she had her son read such vulgar and tasteless trash. Mom went nuts on the teacher and told her to not second guess her and her sons' reading choices. Yay, Mom!
I must say when I read it, even at junior high age, I didn't see what was so controversial about it. Like the South Park kids, I got to the end of it wondering, "That's it?! What's the big deal?" Maybe to some junior high school teachers, a book in which some kid blows a big fart is taboo.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
I actually re-read it a year or so ago, and found it didn’t hold me in thrall as I remember it doing when I was much younger. Times change and the world of its creation is far in the past, so it did feel rather dated. I still enjoyed the writing and story for what it is.
I think this speaks to what I was saying, that the book is sort of "dated." Time has kind of passed it by. When this was released, it was timely, shocking, and ground-breaking in the sense that it explored the "unreliable narrator" in a fresh, interesting, and sometimes disturbing way. It's such a classic, that its themes have been explored, built upon, and in some sense surpassed since the 1950s. As such, it simply can't possibly hold the cache it did for readers 75 years after it was published. It's like when I read "The Scarlett Letter" in high school. It's a great book in its own way, but the theme has been done millions of times since then, and in far more timely, relevant, and even more shocking ways.
I'm still glad I read it, like I am with "Catcher" (which I liked far better), but I totally get why it doesn't pack the same punch it once did.
Good for your mom! What's unsettling is that there are people today who have the same reaction (by and large, not teachers). This kind of small-mindedness can never be killed. Like the Tarkus, the best you can hope for is to temporarily blind it before it inevitably rears its ugly head again and bulldozes through the pillars of culture. People who enjoy books like this better be lining up their inner Manticores.
Bill
Yes, a lot of people have. Why do you ask?
I read it around 1971-2 at my mother's behest. Her recommendations were usually good (the previous book, if I recall, was Asimov's best short story collection, Nightfall and Other Stories); but Catcher just didn't work for me. I did not like, care for, or even understand the protagonist (I was 13 or 14, mind), thought his language/style was atrocious, and didn't care what was happening in the book. I've never been even slightly tempted to reread it.
This is unusual for me. I have reread many of the books I was assigned in jr. high/high school, and found I liked them much better when I was a youngsta, my prime example being Evan Connell's Mrs. Bridge, assigned in my senior year. A friend best summed up my opinion at the time: "It sets out to prove how dull this woman and her life are, and succeeds admirably." A couple of decades later, I reread it and found it quite funny... Go figure. But you couldn't pay me to re-read Catcher in the Rye -- well, all right, I suppose someone could, but it would take enough money for me to be able to actually retire...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Love the analogy, Bill. A progman through and through.Like the Tarkus, the best you can hope for is to temporarily blind it before it inevitably rears its ugly head again and bulldozes through the pillars of culture. People who enjoy books like this better be lining up their inner Manticores.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Going to start in: Mark Vail - Vintage synthesizers, which I just received, together with Patch & Tweak with Moog
I bought the 2000 edition in 2001. I didn't actually read it, but just browsed through it, looking at all those wonderful pictures and sometimes reading a short piece on certain instruments.
Mine is the 2000 edition as well. If you are interested in pictures of synthesizers, you might go for Synth Gems 1 by Mike Metlay, which is a kind of coffetable book. There are even pictures and a description of a Dutch synthesizer.
Just started reading a translation of The Singularities (2022) from John Banville. Haven't read anything from this Irisch author before. The first pages promise a well written thriller.
Charles Williams, The Forgiveness of Sins. Very abstract theology from an amateur but very abstract theologian (and novelist, critic, poet, biographer, historian...)
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Ray Garton's Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth. Six horror stories with religious themes.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Just finished The New Farmers Almanac Vol VI : Adjustments & Accommodations . A series of essays, poems and art put together by a group called Greenhorns.
Sustainable agriculture, organic farming, metaphysical mumblings , back to the land 21st Century style.
It was pretty good, laid on the gender/culture studies lingo a bit thick, but it had some interesting stories to tell.
Just started The Last Empty Places by Peter Stark. A travel writer sought out places on the US map that had blank spots in their habitation. He then took his family on trips through those places and uncovers the traces that covered the land before they thought it blank. Lots of history in those 'empty areas'.
Well written travel/adventure stories. About 1/3 through and it's a page turner.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Not reading now per se; but while organizing the book closet, broke out this old collection
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Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
Nice collection.Not reading now per se; but while organizing the book closet, broke out this old collection
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