BOOKS

Socializing and general posts on wide-ranging topics. Remember, it's Poststructural!
Post Reply
Michael w6
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:24 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I have played bagpipes for several years. Open heart surgery in 2014 took me out for several months and I have not yet returned. I have begun to pursue the penny whistle instead. I'm looking for advice and friends in this new instrument.

BOOKS

Post by Michael w6 »

I spend a large amount of time reading. I'm curious about what other members suggest as Must Reads. Two or three titles.
A moment of carelessness, a lifetime of regret.
A lifetime of carelessness, a moment of regret.
User avatar
an seanduine
Posts: 1997
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:06 pm
antispam: No
Location: just outside Xanadu

Re: BOOKS

Post by an seanduine »

Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.

Bob
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi
User avatar
Squeeky Elf
Posts: 156
Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 11:50 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10

Re: BOOKS

Post by Squeeky Elf »

an seanduine wrote:Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.

Bob
I came here to post that.
“Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.”
Michael w6
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:24 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I have played bagpipes for several years. Open heart surgery in 2014 took me out for several months and I have not yet returned. I have begun to pursue the penny whistle instead. I'm looking for advice and friends in this new instrument.

Re: BOOKS

Post by Michael w6 »

Related to a tune of the same name?
A moment of carelessness, a lifetime of regret.
A lifetime of carelessness, a moment of regret.
User avatar
Squeeky Elf
Posts: 156
Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 11:50 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10

Re: BOOKS

Post by Squeeky Elf »

Yes, much of the book is about his experiences with Irish music.
“Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.”
User avatar
kkrell
Posts: 4831
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2002 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Mostly producer of the Wooden Flute Obsession 3-volume 6-CD 7-hour set of mostly player's choice of Irish tunes, played mostly solo, on mostly wooden flutes by approximately 120 different mostly highly-rated traditional flute players & are mostly...
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: BOOKS

Post by kkrell »

Reading:
Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.
(I think it should be required reading)

You might enjoy:
Folktales of Ireland, edited and translated by Sean O'Sullivan

Reference:
Companion to Irish Traditional Music, edited by Fintan Vallely
(2nd edition, and expensive, but still can't bring you fully up-to-date).
Last edited by kkrell on Mon Jan 20, 2020 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
International Traditional Music Society, Inc.
A non-profit 501c3 charity/educational public benefit corporation
Wooden Flute Obsession CDs (3 volumes, 6 discs, 7 hours, 120 players/tracks)
https://www.worldtrad.org
User avatar
an seanduine
Posts: 1997
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:06 pm
antispam: No
Location: just outside Xanadu

Re: BOOKS

Post by an seanduine »

To gild the lilly a bit. . .to the same extent talking about music is like dancing about architecture, this is your book. And Ciarán Carson is yer man, being an internationally renowned prize winning poet. Carson was deeply steeped in Irish culture and traditional music in Ulster in the time of ´the Troubles´. Remarkably, the music existed slightly removed from the secular strife and had participants from both sides of that gulf. If you are not familiar with an ´Ulster Fry´, you will be on a more than first name basis with them by the time you finish the book. Each chapter is loosely built around a tune.
I only have to look at the cover of this book, or touch it to move it, and I can recall the quality of the early morning light coming through the lace curtains in San Francisco after my first all-night seisiún as the musicians were being called away for breakfast. The tunes. The musicians. The craic. Life changing.

Bob
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi
User avatar
chas
Posts: 7697
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2001 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: East Coast US

Re: BOOKS

Post by chas »

The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
Tor
Posts: 399
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:23 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Location: Europe and Japan

Re: BOOKS

Post by Tor »

chas wrote:The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.
All of the books in the series are cliffhangers from what I'm told. I never touch those. I hate them.
User avatar
chas
Posts: 7697
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2001 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: East Coast US

Re: BOOKS

Post by chas »

Tor wrote:
chas wrote:The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.
All of the books in the series are cliffhangers from what I'm told. I never touch those. I hate them.
They're all out, though, so you can read them all at once.

I'm not crazy about cliffhangers either, and these didn't bother me all that much. Part of it is that she writes pretty fast, so it was only about six months between volumes. Compare that to Kristen Britain, who comes out with a book about every five years. :moreevil:
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
busterbill
Posts: 731
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2003 8:06 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8

Re: BOOKS

Post by busterbill »

If you are a big reader and enjoy historical fiction, Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin series is a good read. Set in the British Navy in the years of the Napoleonic wars these books are filled not only with action and politics, but surprisingly well developed characters, vivid descriptions of locations all over the world in the early 1800s and examples of the fledgling scientific method developing at that time. WARNING: This is a series of 23 books, and once you get started it is tough to put them down.

If you are the type that likes to "see the movie" before you get pictures of the characters in your mind's eye, don't worry. There are no spoilers in the film. The movie chose broadly among 4 or 5 of the books to give an impression of the characters, but didn't actually follow any specific story line. If you choose to see the film I recommend the biggest screen you have access to, a darkened room, no distractions and a great sound system or set of headphones.


If you like mystery series and stories of the modern American west, Craig Johnson does a series centered on an aging Wyoming sheriff and the people in his life. The first 13 of the 15 book series were very good. This is another book series made into a Netflix series. The books and series really have their own lives and have little in common except the main character. The casting director for the films did not follow the descriptions of the characters all that well, their development or their store lines. So if you read the books and watch the series you'll find brain exploding a tiny bit. Just consider them "loosely based on" and you'll be fine.

I liked The Painter by Peter Heller, a bit of a stand alone mystery. He wrote a second book recently that I would not recommend.

Peter Bowen has a very good Montana/Native American series set around a Metis Indian cattle inspector fiddler and his extended family, the mysteries are good, but the character development and the description of the local is exquisite.


Robert Jordan stuff is good if you like fantasy. But if you like fantasy you likely have already read his stuff.

Then there is the first half of The Goldfinch...

Dsytopian: The Running Man by Steven King, skip the film. Steven King was says in the preface of the latest addition, "Arnold Schwarzenegger is the last person I would cast."
Michael w6
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:24 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I have played bagpipes for several years. Open heart surgery in 2014 took me out for several months and I have not yet returned. I have begun to pursue the penny whistle instead. I'm looking for advice and friends in this new instrument.

Re: BOOKS

Post by Michael w6 »

Thanks for the reply. I cannot imagine undertaking a series of 23 books! I didn't stay engaged to read all three of the Game of Thrones series.

To mysteries - I had read several of a series set in medieval Europe... Brother Cadfeal. They were quite interesting but to me he seemed to sometimes deduce more than the evidence would allow. But perhaps that is a problem of my own lack of detection.

Jordon - Read a novel or two some years ago which I don't recall anything of. So I suppose they didn't engage me.

Movies - I've seen one movie in the last 10 years.

Some of my choices: Serious - "Demon Haunted World" Carl Sagan. "Transcendental Temptation" Paul Kurtz. Enjoyment - "Tailchaser's Song" T. Williams. Various short story collections.
A moment of carelessness, a lifetime of regret.
A lifetime of carelessness, a moment of regret.
Post Reply