Jump to content

What are you reading?


Jack Aubrey
 Share

Recommended Posts

Got back into Roadshow: Landscape with Drums. Started a few months ago and other books took my attention away. Enjoyed this one the first time I read it because he describes the drive to Salt Lake with affection and the BMW dealership who helped him with his bike. I thought re-reading this again would make me sad but now the descriptions of his trip are so good I just want to keep on following him.

 

Neil sure didn't like Florida..forgot his little rant about them. Given the incident with Alex and his son, I can understand that. I thought he was a bit grumpy in my first read of this but now not so much. It just really amazes me how much work it was for him and his crew to do this, I would have given up long ago if it was me.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My hat's off to you! That's quite the long book.

I've found a method to read it with ease and enjoyment.

 

Share! I have something Tolstoy lying around for a rainy day, but it never seems to rain hard enough to commit.

Read every other page? Speed read? Not being facetious (or am I?) but I am a slow reader and perhaps need to shake up my approach to big books.

Tell us your secret.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got back into Roadshow: Landscape with Drums. Started a few months ago and other books took my attention away. Enjoyed this one the first time I read it because he describes the drive to Salt Lake with affection and the BMW dealership who helped him with his bike. I thought re-reading this again would make me sad but now the descriptions of his trip are so good I just want to keep on following him.

 

Neil sure didn't like Florida..forgot his little rant about them. Given the incident with Alex and his son, I can understand that. I thought he was a bit grumpy in my first read of this but now not so much. It just really amazes me how much work it was for him and his crew to do this, I would have given up long ago if it was me.

 

I think his account of being on the road is too often assumed as being a celebrity, and really, he travelled as best he could trying and planning not to be a celebrity. Trust matters, he seemed to have a sense of that.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. I've really enjoyed all the other four Winterson novels I've read so far, but I've only just begun with this one.

 

Strangely enough, lighthouses seem to come up in many books I'm reading at the moment. Maybe I'm finally getting a better view and a safe place in my life.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still ;) Atlas, I just began part 3, chapter 3,

"Then she felt the touch of Rearden Metal, as her hand closed over the stem of the microphone, and it was suddenly easy, not with the drugged disease of indifference, but with the bright, clear, living ease of action."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got back into Roadshow: Landscape with Drums. Started a few months ago and other books took my attention away. Enjoyed this one the first time I read it because he describes the drive to Salt Lake with affection and the BMW dealership who helped him with his bike. I thought re-reading this again would make me sad but now the descriptions of his trip are so good I just want to keep on following him.

 

Neil sure didn't like Florida..forgot his little rant about them. Given the incident with Alex and his son, I can understand that. I thought he was a bit grumpy in my first read of this but now not so much. It just really amazes me how much work it was for him and his crew to do this, I would have given up long ago if it was me.

 

I think his account of being on the road is too often assumed as being a celebrity, and really, he travelled as best he could trying and planning not to be a celebrity. Trust matters, he seemed to have a sense of that.

I finished Roadshow today and it was much better than the first read. I think I will agree with you that Neil tried to blend in so as not to draw attention to himself but then was so upset when fans got too close to him because he was a celebrity. His complaints about traveling (strange people, bad food, lousy drivers et al) at times got to be a bit much. The contrast of the European leg of the tour with North America was revealing. He waxed poetic over the beautiful places he stayed, the fabulous food and wine and the orderly residents while griping why weren't his stays on the back roads of America as nice. Ironic really because luxurious accommodations and gourmet food are so wonderful because they are not every day occurrences. They would become mundane if they were so easily obtained. He had access to them because he toured and they did cost him a lot of effort. He was also his own worst enemy because he had to drive so many miles each day, adding to his aches and pains and fatigue. Touring in and of itself was wearing on the body and soul. No wonder he was so grumpy! I am glad I read it again, was very entertaining.

Edited by Rhyta
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel that often he could be a "bit much". He asked for it, he chose to be the writer, the traveller and prose-to-paper-reporter.

Then at times he wants leniency. But so would I. You do something you love doing (of course, he did five things he loved doing simultaneously), you have the funds, the experience, perhaps he "wrote" himself beyond his initial hopes?

I don't have the guts to do what he did, regardless of resources. And so as a reader, I feel it's almost my obligation to cheer for him and what he accomplished. It's so, so much more than so many other celebrities chose to do.

Frankly, Ghost Rider can get super boring. But again, he chose to include those letters to his friend. I chose to read it. But I need to also understand and accept why he wanted it published in such a way.

 

And then I come back to finding time to go for a winter snowy snow-shoe afternoon in the forest with heavy bows of snow and stopping to listen to the birds. It's my Neil time.

Hard to over analyse. It just works. And feels great!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1405540827000-To-Kill-a-Mocking-Bird-EPB-Cover-Art.jpg?width=300&height=402&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

 

I listened to this on audio a few years back, it was wonderful. I had forgotten so much of it from junior high. A classic for sure.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trying out a free Kindle month just for this.

 

9m8BCYt.jpg

Still look through this from time to time. Again, you don't have to like or be a part of the music genre but as musicians, people telling stories because there has been a period of isolation and no touring, the interviews and recollection of early days of success are so very interesting. Fame, being young, having time to be interviewed and talking about how inter-connected a lot of the bands were "back in the day", really, really revealing.

Thanks invisible airwave for sharing this.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1405540827000-To-Kill-a-Mocking-Bird-EPB-Cover-Art.jpg?width=300&height=402&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

 

I listened to this on audio a few years back, it was wonderful. I had forgotten so much of it from junior high. A classic for sure.

 

I haven't read this book in years and years...what an enjoyable read it was.

 

I was really transported to another time and place...both in the story and in my own memory road.

 

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is also tied for first place in my all-time favourite movies.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Cat 3, that book has bits of it that have stuck in my head, like almost forty years later.

And Rumble Fish. It was a world of young adults I simply had no inkling of, growing up in the safe and moderate society of Willowdale, ON.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Cat 3, that book has bits of it that have stuck in my head, like almost forty years later.

And Rumble Fish. It was a world of young adults I simply had no inkling of, growing up in the safe and moderate society of Willowdale, ON.

 

I grew up in a pretty rough area that bordered a wealthier area with a shared school system and could relate to the book on so many levels growing up.

 

It had been many years since I've read this book and it truly was like reconnecting with an old friend.

 

Much the way music can be connected to times, place, people and memories...this book feels much the same for me.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...