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| Casey and I strolling on a San Francisco beach, March, 2003 |
Art
What would life be like without art and music and books? It's hard to imagine. They became the "triple helix" of my life when I was young. Although music and reading have been very important to me since I was a kid, my interest in art originated in my early twenties and flourished after I moved to California at the age of twenty-six. Art, music, and books have intertwined for over 50 years.
My first three girlfriends were artists, as were many of my women friends. I began to love art by learning about artists that they loved. When I visited the Art Institute of Chicago to see exhibitions of Hopper, Homer, Monet, and Renoir, I just couldn't resist buying posters of my favorite works. Even though I developed a dear love for the Impressionists, I was also drawn to works by Dufy, Seurat, Van Gogh, Turner, and Rembrandt.
Almost from the beginning of my art
awareness,
Claude Monet was my favorite artist. I've seen his paintings in a dozen
different art museums, and I always thrill at the technique and beauty
in his work. Only a couple days after seeing 96 of his paintings in a
special exhibition at the Art Institute, I saw five more of his
paintings in New York City in 1975. For a long time I thought I was the
only person who had ever seen more than 100 of his paintings in one
week, but then my wife and I went to Paris in 2007 and saw his paintings
in five different galleries, certainly numbering more than 100
paintings. Our
favorite gallery was the Musee Marmottan Monet, where over
50 of his works hang, including the painting that inspired the
movement's name: Impression, Sunrise. The highlight of our
12-day trip to Paris was wandering around his Giverny estate. I took
this photo from Monet's bedroom window. Can you imagine waking up to
this view each April morning? The photo almost looks like an
Impressionist painting by itself!
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| A view of Monet's garden from his bedroom window! |
You
would never guess my second and third favorite artists. They are
Gustave Caillebotte and Gary Bukovnik. Gustave Caillebotte, an
Impressionist painter who used more elements of realism in his works
than other Impressionists did, first came to my attention when I rounded a
corner at an exhibition and encountered his famous painting, The Floor Scrapers,
which is 40"x57" in size. At first I thought it was a photograph and
then
realized it was the most incredible painting I'd ever seen. The realism
is stunning. Since that encounter I've also seen the painting with Suzanne at
the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, which is the painting's permanent home.
Although he did not
paint as many well-known pieces as Monet, Caillebotte's subject variety
is truly incredible, if you delve into his works. I love the detail and
geometry in this painting.
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| Caillebotte's The Floor Scrapers at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Photo taken in 2007. |
When I fell in love with this painting and Caillebotte’s work, I found that my appreciation of art had expanded. No longer did an artist have to be a stalwart of the Impressionist movement to qualify as a great painter to me. That’s when I first started looking at a wider landscape of paintings, such as works by Edward Hopper (Nighthawks) and Johannes Vermeer (Girl With A Pearl Earring) and Winslow Homer (Snap The Whip) and William Bouguereau (The Broken Pitcher). I began going to as many art exhibits and galleries as I could find.
That’s how I found my third favorite painter, Gary Bukovnik. In the 1980's, he began donating a floral-themed watercolor to the San Francisco Symphony each year for their annual poster, and I began buying them about 1990. That tradition continued for over 30 years, and we have since bought and framed 16 of those posters and hung them in our home. Our dining room has been converted into a reading room and Gary Bukovnik exhibit, as the photo below attests. (Please ignore the gates in the photo, which we use for our dog training!)
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| Our converted dining room with Gary Bukovnik posters and one original, at far right! |
This
room is great for the reading I do. In effect, it combines my three
loves--reading, music, and art. I'm able to open the sliding glass door
behind the chair and see, hear, smell, and almost feel our wild
backyard garden. The smaller-framed pieces are San Francisco Symphony
and New Century Chamber Orchestra programs with admission tickets and
showing music selections that were played, and every program is signed
by a famous musician, including Joshua Bell, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang,
Anne-Sophie Mutter, and many others. I can sit in my chair, look at
Bukovnik's artwork, recall the performances, and read my books.
In
2018 we were fortunate enough to meet Gary Bukovnik. I had greatly admired his artwork for over 35
years. We were also fortunate
enough to purchase the Amaryllis II watercolor shown below, which fits
perfectly in our Bukovnik room. Gary is a really lovely person, and we
have talked at length about art over dinners in visits at his home in San Francisco and ours in Mountain View.
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| Amaryllis II, purchased in 2018. |
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| Gary and I at an exhibition of his artwork in 2019. |
Our home has no single art theme; it is an eclectic mix of our broad tastes in art. Our family room is filled with African art--abstract painting reproductions by Ethiopian artist, Wosene Kosrof, Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe, tribal masks from the Ivory Coast. Our kitchen, living room, and master bedroom are filled with watercolors (see Three Boats below) painted by our old friend, John Muir Reid, who passed away in 2016. In our stairwell we have hung posters of famous Monet works, and in our bathrooms are watercolors by Lary McKee. In my office I have another Bukovnik poster and a Raoul Dufy poster, entitled l'art et la musique.
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| Three Boats by John Muir Reid |
Art and music.
If you cannot surround yourself with things that you love to look at and
listen to, then your life is greatly diminished. Although art has
surrounded me for decades, however, it is still the little sister to Erato, the
muse of music, in my life.
Music
In
several of my essays, I have portrayed the ever-expanding importance of
music for me, from when I was a little child all the way up to
today. Rather than repeat the genesis and progression of music in my life, I
want to reflect on ways that music has impacted and changed me.
What music have I enjoyed? How do I rank the genres of music in importance to me? Let me give you a top-ten list of genres, with some representative favorites:
- Classical (Composers: Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Vaughn-Williams, Mendelssohn, Bach; Performers: Yo Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuja Wang, Artur Rubinstein, Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg)
- Acoustic/Folk (Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Thom Bishop, Dan Fogelberg, Jim Croce, Paul Simon, Laura Nyro, Karla Bonoff, Donovan, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Janis Ian)
- Country-rock (The Eagles, Pure Prairie League, Poco, Jonathan Edwards, Linda Ronstadt)
- Contemporary jazz (Jean-Luc Ponty, Andy Narell, Keiko Matsui, Marion Meadows)
- Big-band classics (Henry Mancini, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, the Dorsey brothers)
- Rock and roll (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac)
- Bluegrass (Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs)
- 1940's pop (Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Jo Stafford)
- Disco and contemporary pop (The Bee Gees, Boz Scaggs, Al Jarreau, Michael Jackson, Basia)
- Motown (Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas)
Some genres made my "honorable mention" list--show tunes, rhythm and blues, traditional jazz, reggae, while there are many genres I never really enjoyed--country, hard rock, heavy metal, rap, electronic, soul, gospel, African.
How much music is in my life? If I am not sleeping,
reading, watching TV, or walking my dog, music is there almost all the
time. In my car I listen to stations of classical, contemporary
jazz, Beatles, 1940's pop, and bluegrass music. While I work on these
personal essays on my laptop, I listen to either of two phenomenal
stations from Switzerland--Radio Swiss Jazz or Radio Swiss Classic. On
the former station, I hear a lot of jazz from Europe which you'd never
hear on U.S. stations. Last year I organized my vinyl record
collection, which is mostly classical, acoustic folk, and rock and roll,
and I received a Bluetooth turntable for Christmas. There is music in
every room of the house if I want it.
In the years I worked
at software companies, I rarely listened to music except when I was
driving or exercising. I loved jogging to the music of Jean-Luc Ponty's
jazz violin or Andy Narell's steel pans, because each of their pieces
was seven or eight minutes long--energizing and hypnotic.
And, of course, I've played music on my guitars, off and on, since I was 13 years old. I have a piano, violin, ukulele, mandolin, and two recorders, none of which I can play but always have available for friends, should they feel the need. If I am not playing or listening to music, I am usually humming a tune or thinking about a piece. I also love reading biographies of musicians and songwriters. Music is everywhere in my life.
Between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five, I was usually occupied in writing songs. With friends or alone, I went to hundreds of concerts of one form or another--held in concert halls, clubs, coffeehouses, dorms, and basements. Early rock and roll and big band sounds of the 1950's awoke my interest in music, and folk music and rock and roll of the 1960's provided the fertile ground from which my deep love and attachment to music grew. The 1970's fostered my conversion to country-rock, bluegrass, and disco pop. Then in the 1980's I became very much devoted to classical music, and in the 1990's I discovered many great contemporary jazz musicians. Since 2000 my tastes have been varied and ever-changing, although classical music remains my bedrock.
I'll mention ten epiphanies in my music
appreciation history--ten pieces of music that rocked my world and set
me off in new, devoted directions. These pieces are described in
chronological order, according to when I first heard them.
Peter Gunn. The very first music that caught my attention was Henry Mancini's big band jazz sound from the TV show, Peter Gunn.
The show only appeared for three seasons, 1958-1961, but my dad and I
watched it every week. Those were the days when new music was composed
for each episode, and I loved all of what I heard. It was the
show's theme song that I first loved, and then it became the first album
I owned. I still thrill to that tune, more than 60 years since its
first appearance. Mancini's band was an all-star cast of great jazz
musicians, including Plas Johnson and Ted Nash. But one of my favorite
bits of music trivia is the name of the piano player on Peter Gunn--Curly
Williams, later to be known simply as John Williams, who composed
scores for many of the Lucas and Spielberg movies, including Star Wars.
Mancini recorded over 90 albums in his lifetime, including dozens of
movie scores. I saw him and his big band in concert while attending the
University of Illinois.
She Loves You.
The music world was changed when the Beatles first hit America, and the
song that did it for me was "She Loves You." It was a new brand of
rock and roll--one that featured tight, but non-standard harmonies, a
pioneering drumming style, and raw, high energy that they could
duplicate in live performances. The Beatles' music, played by four
musical geniuses, in my opinion, was a generation beyond the 1950's
skiffle and rock and roll bands we were familiar with. When I hear this
song on the radio, I always turn up the volume. While I never saw The
Beatles in concert, I did see Paul McCartney and Wings in the early
1990's.
For What It's Worth.
In the fall of 1966, a new band called Buffalo Springfield released a
song that would be considered a groundbreaking piece in the folk-rock
genre. The group featured two young lead guitarists, Stephen Stills and
Neil Young, along with singer/guitarist Richie Furay, who later
co-founded Poco. The mix of sounds on "For What It's Worth" was
revolutionary, with a lead vocal and electric guitar on one channel, and
an acoustic guitar, electric bass, drums, harmony vocals, and hand
claps on the other. I was thoroughly enthralled by how well the
electric guitar (with alternating two-note harmonics played by Young)
and acoustic guitar (played by Stills) blended to produce such a new,
fresh sound. With its anti-war lyrics and call to unite, the song
became an anthem for my generation of young people. I never saw Buffalo
Springfield in concert, but I've seen Stephen Stills and Neil Young a
couple times with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Canadian Railroad Trilogy. Although much of the mid-1960's brought album after album of folk music into my life, Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" was the first song that really got me interested in playing 12-string guitar. I first heard it in 1967, three years before I bought my Martin 12-string, and it remained my favorite acoustic guitar song for years. On Lightfoot's second album, the piece was composed to commemorate the Canadian Centennial. It was almost 6-1/2 minutes long and featured gorgeous lyrics and tempo changes. I learned the song and played it many times on stage. Not only have I seen Lightfoot in concert six times, but I met him in 1970. (See my Twelve Stories essay!)
The Actress and The Artist.
Chances are you've never heard of this song, for it was never released
on a major recording, but only on a coffeehouse record. The Actress and The Artist
was the first original song I heard Dan Fogelberg sing, and I was
sitting about ten feet from him when he sang it on the Red Herring
Coffeehouse stage at the age of eighteen, in 1969. It redefined what I
thought was possible in writing and singing personal songs. With his
clear, high voice, excellent guitar and piano playing, and incisive,
poetic lyrics, he went on to a long career of producing beautiful
songs. Dan and I were good friends. I not only saw him perform dozens
of times, but I also played with him on stage often. (See my story
about Dan Fogelberg in Meetings With Remarkable People.)
Desperado.
By the early 1970's, country-rock music was emerging into the
mainstream, led by The Eagles. I first really noticed the group after
Linda Ronstadt recorded their song, "Desperado," in 1973, which was the
same year their album of the same name was released. I loved both
versions of the song, which I long thought of as having the most
perfectly written lyrics of any song I'd heard. The Eagles' version was a sheer production
masterpiece, perfectly sung by Don Henley, with an ever-building mix of
instruments and voices. The gradual use of piano (0:00), lead vocal
(0:19) strings (0:55), low background voices (1:27), drums (1:58), high
background voices (2:01) and second harmony vocal (2:30) showed a
restraint and attention to detail so rare with groups in that era.
After The Beatles disbanded, The Eagles arguably took over the top slot
in the mid-1970's. I learned the tune and played it for friends, and it
is one of my favorite songs still. I've seen The Eagles twice in
concert. The last time, in 2014, was my all-time favorite concert of
any type, ever! I saw them during their "History of the Eagles" tour.
Beethoven's Fifth.
To date I have been to 362 classical music concerts at Davies Symphony
Hall in San Francisco, but it was my very first concert that sold me on
the genre, when I heard (witnessed!) Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It was
the only time in those 362 concerts when I sat in the balcony looking
directly at the conductor, who was Edo de Waart. Of course, everyone
has heard the first four notes of that famous piece, but the entire
symphony is overwhelming, especially the fourth movement. In the
following months I bought albums of classical music by Grieg,
Mendelssohn, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Vivaldi. I continued
attending classical music concerts and had season tickets to San Francisco
Symphony for the next 37 years. I have
heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony performed in concert six times.
Chocolate Fog.
My radio at work in the 1980's was usually tuned to a contemporary jazz
station in San Francisco. The music was pleasant and interesting
without being too distracting. One day in 1987, I heard a piece that
captured my attention right away. It was Chocolate Fog by Andy Narell. I went out and bought the CD in the next couple days. Narell's album, The Hammer,
is filled with six great Caribbean-influenced tunes he composed. He
learned to play steel pans growing up in New York City and then played
jazz piano at U.C. Berkeley. I've seen him in concert several times.
He provides the highest energy and happiest feelings on his songs, which
are mostly instrumentals. To me, he is one of the best contemporary
jazz musicians.
Time and Tide. In the same year I discovered Andy Narell, I heard a young Polish singer named Basia Trzetrzelewska for the first time and immediately went out to buy her debut CD, Time and Tide.
It was the hit song by that name which made her an instant sensation in
the music world. The album was produced by her fellow-member of the
Matt Bianco group, Danny White. For years I'd followed Matt Bianco, a
group from England that did Latin jazz. Basia's songs were catchy,
high-energy, filled with Latin rhythms, and extremely well-produced.
But really, I was most amazed by her voice. The vocals on the Time and Tide album are extraordinary, and all of them
were done by Basia! She learned English by listening to Aretha
Franklin albums, and you can hear a slight Eastern European accent in
some songs. I think Basia has one of the top five female voices I've
heard in my lifetime. And, yes, I did get to see a live Basia concert
in S.F. years later, and it was incredible! The real significance of Time and Tide
is that it exposed me to some of the pop music played in Europe and
Brazil. It led to another favorite singer of mine, Marisa Monte.
Over the Rainbow. I'd always thought of Over The Rainbow
as a unique, whimsical song sung by a 16-year-old girl or a 1000-pound
man playing ukulele--until I heard Eva Cassidy cover it. Her recording
of the song, which was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg in 1939,
was released five years after she died at the age of 33 in 1996. I
first heard her version in 2002, and at that moment it became my
favorite song, never to be topped. With a range of at least three and a
half octaves, her interpretation and solo-guitar arrangement of the
song exceeds all other versions. Only one video recording exists of Eva
Cassidy, from a gig at Blues Alley in Washington D.C. ten months before
she died. I watch the video of Over the Rainbow several times a
year, and I'm still amazed by it. Hearing her rendition made me
realize that a good song can be turned into a truly great song with the
right interpretation and performance. Spend a few minutes listening to
Eva Cassidy's version on YouTube, and listen to the whole song. See if
you aren't blown away at the 3:58 mark!
Of these ten pieces, it occurs to me that I've heard eight of them performed live in concert by the composers. Beethoven was long gone, of course, and I've only heard Over The Rainbow covered by other singers in concert. Each of these pieces awoke a love in me for a different genre or sub-genre of music, including big band jazz, folk rock, Canadian folk, rock and roll, country rock, contemporary jazz, classical, and show tunes.
As varied as my tastes have been in music, its presence has served even more purposes in my life. I've listened to music for entertainment, comfort, inspiration, discovery, instruction, reminiscence, and background filler. When I am happy and filled with energy, I tune in bluegrass, contemporary jazz, or rock and roll. I can listen to the Beatles channel on Sirius XM for hours. When I'm contemplative or serious-minded, I'll listen to classical or folk. When I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll switch to a 1940's pop, big band, or disco station. I have known so many singer/songwriters that I can often pull out an album made by one of my friends when I'm missing them!
Music fills the gaps in my life. As I think over what I'm going to write for these personal essays, I'm almost always listening to music. When I'm in my car, music is playing most of the time. When I'm cooking a Chinese or Italian dish (which is about the only cooking I do), I'll listen to a jazz station in the kitchen. When I record specials on television, they are almost always music-related--interviews, concerts, documentaries. I'm certainly not unique in how music pervades my life, but I have probably put more thought into how music has crept into every single aspect of living.
Books
How many books have you read in your lifetime? Not long ago someone asked me that question, and I tried to give an intelligent estimate, after much thought. I read a lot as a teenager and in my twenties, and I still have about a third of those books. I read little during my thirties, but I became an avid reader again when I turned forty, and I haven't curbed that addiction.
In my Puzzles, Games, and Mysteries essay, I tell why I love reading mysteries, so I won't repeat that discussion, except to say that I still own over 400 mystery books, and that number is growing each month. I have a couple hundred other books, mostly "serious" classics, books on philosophy, music biographies, and "self-help" books. I belong to a two-person book club with close friend, Peter Panfili, and we finish about fifteen books a year now.
It's reasonable to estimate that I've read between 900 and 1,000 books in my life, which was a real revelation to me. I currently try to read five books a month--sixty books a year--so if I maintain that pace for another fifteen years, I will have read another 900 books! So, as I see it, I'm only half done.
Along with art and music, books are part of my "triple helix" of life. I could not do without books. I only read hard-copy (soft- and hard-cover) books, not e-books. I love the feel, the smell, the weight, the design of those books. I love supporting my local bookstore, but I also peruse the internet for hard-to-find mysteries. I have located new copies of out-of-print paperbacks from many different states around the country--little bookshops in little towns.
There is nothing so wonderful to me as opening a new book to read. I'm careful not to crack the spine or fold the pages, caring for it as if it were a living creature. I read the publishing history, the introduction (if it has one), and then dive into the first chapter. I must have fifty bookmarks, so I'll grab one of them for the new book.
When I retired in 2015, I suggested to my wife that we switch the furniture between our living room and dining room, which are connected. We almost never sat in our living room, and our table and chairs always seemed a little cramped in the dining room, so we switched them. In addition to having a spacious dining room now, I use the old dining room space as my reading room! You can see a photo of that room in the Art essay.
I used to write notes in all my books, but now I only use a pen to correct typos. I just can't resist fixing a typo, as if it allows the book to breathe more easily. Ahhhh!
Now I read every day. Why do we read books? We read for entertainment, distraction, comfort, filling time, knowledge, inspiration, therapy, personal development. One of the few comments that makes me speechless is when someone says, "I can't find anything good to read." Hmm. Let me suggest a hundred or so titles for you. If I get to the end of a day and haven't read anything yet, I feel cheated. That's not supposed to happen!
I'd
like to offer ten of my favorite books, just as I wrote in the previous essay about ten epiphanies I've experienced with pieces of
music. These ten books, whittled down from a mental list of over fifty,
hold a special place for me, because they opened new worlds--as a new
piece of music or work of art might expose a new genre. I've read some
of these books multiple times; they're so irresistibly good. They are
presented in the approximate order in which I read them.
(I should clarify that many books from my childhood, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
were read to me, not by me. They were very important in my
development, but I never owned them, and so they don't appear on this
list.)
Let's see what's on this shelf....
The Complete Sherlock Holmes. As I mentioned in my Puzzles, Games, and Mysteries essay, I was given this book when I was very young. Over 1,100 pages long, it contains every story Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote about the fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Although I received the volume in 1962, my uncle may have given me a book he'd had for many years, for the last copyright date in it is 1930. The pages are long, and the print is small, so I struggled through the entire book. It was my first taste of adult mystery stories, since I'd only read Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries before diving into Sherlock's adventures. Although I only realized it many years later, it was also my first exposure to deductive versus inductive reasoning, which was critical in my math training. Mysteries with deductive solutions are by far more common, but Doyle could write both types very well. Inductive reasoning is where clues are given and you induce that a crime will be (or has been) committed, without knowing the crime. This book provided hundreds of hours of joy for a little boy and teenager.
The Temple Of Gold.
William Goldman is more famous for his screenplays ("All The
President's Men," "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid") than he is for
his novels, but I read several of the latter when I was a teenager.
"The Temple Of Gold" was his first novel, written right after he got out
of college. It's a story about growing up, written for young people
growing up. My great friend, Paul Anderson (see his profile in Meetings With Remarkable People),
turned me on to writers like Goldman and Evan Hunter. They wrote books
that were easy to read, filled with "real life" issues, and not
mysteries!
Ernest Hemingway - The Short Stories (the first 49 stories). I read several of these stories in a college English course in 1968-69. Taught by Paul Friedman (see his profile in Meetings With Remarkable People), his course brought the magic of short stories alive for me. I've read this book three times. Stories like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Big Two-Hearted River, Parts 1 and 2," "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and "The End of Something" remain in my list of all-time favorite short stories. This book got me interested in Hemingway, who remains my favorite writer to this day.
Crime And Punishment.
Of all the Russian novels I've read, Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece is
my favorite. Russian novels aren't generally easy to read; my 1969
edition of this book is over 550 pages long, but I've read it twice--for
two different college courses. It is Raskolnikov's character
development that distinguishes this book for me. Dostoevsky paints a
searing portrait of a young man who commits murder and can't escape his
guilt. I forget the names of characters--even main characters--from
most of the books I read, but I've never forgotten the name of
Raskolnikov.
Zen In The Art Of Archery. I discovered this 81-page book in about 1990, and I forget who brought it to my attention. German philosopher Eugen Herrigel wrote it in 1948. It is the one book I try to read every 8-10 years. Although it was far from being the first book I read on philosophy, it was my first encounter with Zen philosophy. It is written so beautifully that one can actually understand Zen as it pertains to any art form. I get impatient with books on philosophy, but this book slowed me down enough to think. In the introduction by Daisetz T. Suzuki, a Japanese-American philosopher and monk, he writes, "In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer opposing objects, but are one reality." If that appears to be too profound, imagine shooting an arrow and hitting the bullseye while blindfolded. This is the story of Herrigel's journey from novice archer to that degree of mastery.
The Nine Tailors.
Dorothy Sayers' "finest literary achievement" (NYT, 1957) was the first
mystery I read when I returned to reading mysteries in 1988.
Recommended by Gail Montgomery (who I profile in Meetings With Remarkable People),
this book was written in 1934. Hailed by many as one of the greatest
mysteries ever written, this book is about a bunch of bell ringers in a
quiet English village, just my cup of tea on a quiet evening. After
this book, I began reading mysteries non-stop as nighttime fare, and I
haven't stopped.
This Wheel's On Fire.
Of all the music-related biographies I've read, this one's the best.
Written by Levon Helm, drummer in The Band for nine years, this is a
fascinating tale of a band's birth, reign, and demise. Originally Bob
Dylan's studio band, the group first became nationally popular in 1968,
and I fell in love with their sound. All of the five members were
multi-instrumentalists, and four of them sang vocals, making them
perhaps the most versatile country-rock band that ever performed. If
you're a music lover, this is one of the best books you'll ever find.
Sense And Sensibility.
I was almost 70 years old when I read my first Jane Austen novel, but
it immediately became one of my favorite books ever. Published in 1811
anonymously (written "By A Lady") , "Sense And Sensibility" tells the
story of the Dashwood sisters. It's a well-paced, romantic drama, which
is not uncommon in English literature. What surprised me was the
beautiful writing. One might argue that no writer ever used the English
language so exquisitely as Jane Austen. This is not considered
Austen's best book, but it is my favorite book of hers because it was
the first one I read. The edition I have was published in 1902 and is
illustrated by Hugh Thomson, so it is a gem in many ways.
The Woman Who Smashed Codes.
This is the biography of Elizebeth (not "Elizabeth") Smith Friedman,
"an unsung heroine who used her genius to hunt Nazi spies, steal enemy
secrets during both world wars, and help invent a powerful new science
that shaped the course of history," as the book's synopsis says.
Written by journalist Jason Fagone, it's a math book and an adventure
book and a biography wrapped into one. Some of the code-breaking
descriptions may be a bit obtuse for a non-math person, but it's still
an amazing book. I've read several math-related books; this is the best
one.
...and Honorable Mention. There are many, many books which deserve "honorable mention" on my list of ten favorite books. Here is a list of fifteen other books and their authors, in no particular order, which I would categorize as “favorites” in my literary conversations:
- Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence
- The Remains Of The Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
- Look Homeward, Angel - Thomas Wolfe
- A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway
- The Sound And The Fury - William Faulkner
- Fermat's Enigma - Simon Singh
- The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford Stoll
- Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
- Dubliners - James Joyce (a collection of 15 short stories)
- Emma - Jane Austen
- My Antonia - Willa Cather
- The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- O Jerusalem! - Laurie King
- Daughter Of Time - Josephine Tey
