Monday, December 31, 2012

December 2012 - Part Two

Books Bought:
  • 21 Days to Glory: The Official Team Sky Book of the 2012 Tour de France
  • The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 (Harvey Sachs)
  • Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781 (Stanley Sadie)
  • From the Clarinet d'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860 (Albert R. Rice)
  • An Incomplete Revenge (Jacqueline Winspear)
  • Among the Mad (Winspear)
  • A Passage to India (E. M. Forster)
  • The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (R. Murray Schafer)
  • The Book of Music & Nature (David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus, eds.)
  • Ecomusicology: Rock, Folk, and the Environment (Mark Pedelty)
  • Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century (Charles Hiroshi Garrett)
  • Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West (Beth E. Levy)

Books Received:
  • Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater's Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate (Stephanie V. W. Lucianovie)
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Susan Cain)
  • Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible (Tim Gunn with Ada Calhoun) 
  • Composition in Retrospect (John Cage)

Books Read:
  • The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)
  • A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)
  • Rebel Angels (Bray)
  • The Sweet Far Thing (Bray)
  • An Incomplete Revenge (Jacqueline Winspear)
  • Among the Mad (Winspear)
  • 21 Days to Glory: The Official Team Sky Book of the 2012 Tour de France
  • From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E. L. Konigsburg)
  • Last Night at Chateau Marmont (Lauren Weisberger)
  • Winds of Change II: The New Millennium (Frank L. Battisti) 

Many of the titles on these lists remind me of a joke one of my musicology friends made when we got back from the AMS/SEM/SMT conference - "Academic Allure: The Role of Colons in Constructing Evocative Academic Titles." It's so true.

I acquired a lot of books this month because I went back to Texas and had access to the wonderful HPB in Rice Village. That's where the three music books near the top of the list came from - my favorite was the book about large size clarinets. I also bought (and read) the fifth and sixth Maisie Dobbs books and the official Team Sky book about Bradley Wiggins' win at the 2012 Tour de France. I actually found A Passage to India at one of the used book stores in Tallahassee - for $2.00! Maybe I misjudged that store when I moved here. The last five are textbooks for two of my classes this semester (Music in the US and a seminar on music and nature) - all look fantastic!


I received four books for Christmas, and I'm excited about all of them. The first two are from my parents - I was a little concerned that they were trying to point out my personality flaws, but both of these books look fascinating. I started reading Suffering Succotash and am already feeling better about being a picky eater! My brother got Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible for me - basically a fashion history book. Erik's sister Laura got me the John Cage book, which will tie in quite nicely with my music and nature seminar this semester. I always complain about not getting any books for Christmas, and everyone always says it's too difficult to choose books for me, so I was pleasantly surprised this year. 

Rereading The Hobbit was probably the highlight of my reading over the break. I think I enjoy that book more every time I read it. I haven't seen the film yet, but if you have and have NOT read the book yet, definitely try to pick it up! Another childhood favorite I revisited was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. This book still makes me wish that I could run away to live in a museum! My musicological read over the break was Frank Battisti's Winds of Change II: The New Millennium. Although not written by a musicologist, this was a great overview of information I need to be knowledgeable about going into my thesis! The best thing I discovered reading this book: there exists a concerto for bass clarinet and wind ensemble that is inspired by Balinese gamelan (so, basically, everything I like). 

Christmas break - definitely a great time for acquiring and reading books!

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