What book are you reading?

[Dun Na NGall Darren]

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchitt

[philipchevron]

Heather: read the biography first -- and let us know how you like it.

I decided to read the songwriting books first, mainly for inspiration more than anything.

Consider them books of rules only. Then have fun breaking them. But it's more fun to know the rules first, as the transgression is sweeter then.

[firehazard]

Redemption Song -The Definitive Biography Of Joe Strummer

It's a really good book, Heather. Very well written for a rock biog.

[Frances]

BRANDO, Peter Manso

[Niall]

blackhawk down, by mark bowden

[MacRua]

For Patrick McCabe fans:

'Winterwood' by Patrick McCabe
Horror beneath the surface of an Irish mountain hamlet.
By Tim Rutten, Times Staff Writer

PATRICK McCABE long has been recognized as a stunningly audacious and accomplished writer.

His disturbing but brilliant new novel, "Winterwood," benefits from both those qualities and something more: McCabe's ambition to extend Irish literature's deep Gothic tradition into a completely contemporary context. His successful realization of that aim makes this book a bleak and haunting little masterpiece.

Readers familiar with McCabe's earlier novels know that no writer in contemporary fiction can contrive quite so enthralling an antihero — most memorably Francie Brady, the psychotic young slaughterhouse worker who is the first-person narrator of "The Butcher Boy" (1992), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted for film by Neil Jordan. In "Winterwood," McCabe has, in essence, bifurcated Francie.

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[O'Blivion]

I've been half-heartedly thumbing through "Mad Love" by Andre Breton. Can't say it's really grabbing me - just seems like the sort of book I should be able to say "oh, of course I've read that" about.

[Frances]

The Operator:David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood
Tom King

"...Geffen learned from his fledgling days in the William Morris mailroom that he could lie with impunity, and since then he has often seemed unconstrained by traditional notions of right and wrong.Geffen has demonstrated time and again that he is willing to sacrifice any relationship, business or personal, to get what he wants."

Sounds like a hypocrite.

Stonewall:The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution
David Carter

[The Duke of Ingmar]

Heather: read the biography first -- and let us know how you like it.

I decided to read the songwriting books first, mainly for inspiration more than anything.

Consider them books of rules only. Then have fun breaking them. But it's more fun to know the rules first, as the transgression is sweeter then.

I can´t really imagine any proper rules of songwriting. You need some lyrics (and unfortunately it was never necessary that lyrics have to be meaningful), and you need a kind of structure in the song. And I don´t mean that it CCR-pattern of verse - chorus - verse - chorus - instrumental part - verse - chorus. There are lots of great songs out there which don´t even have a chorus, for instance.

Then, you can´t measure the quality of a song by its length. I think a great song just hits you emotionally, and sometimes you can´t even tell why. So I can´t see any rules to follow after which to measure a song.

I used to write my own songs but it seems that inspiration has left me at the moment. But in 99 % of my songs, I write lyrics first and then go for the music. I know there are a lot of songwriters here on this forum, too. So to all of you - how do you approach songwriting ?

[philipchevron]

Heather: read the biography first -- and let us know how you like it.

I decided to read the songwriting books first, mainly for inspiration more than anything.

Consider them books of rules only. Then have fun breaking them. But it's more fun to know the rules first, as the transgression is sweeter then.

I can´t really imagine any proper rules of songwriting. You need some lyrics (and unfortunately it was never necessary that lyrics have to be meaningful), and you need a kind of structure in the song. And I don´t mean that it CCR-pattern of verse - chorus - verse - chorus - instrumental part - verse - chorus. There are lots of great songs out there which don´t even have a chorus, for instance.

Then, you can´t measure the quality of a song by its length. I think a great song just hits you emotionally, and sometimes you can´t even tell why. So I can´t see any rules to follow after which to measure a song.

I used to write my own songs but it seems that inspiration has left me at the moment. But in 99 % of my songs, I write lyrics first and then go for the music. I know there are a lot of songwriters here on this forum, too. So to all of you - how do you approach songwriting ?

Whatever your view of "rules", it cannot really be denied that the architecture, the structure, the skeleton, is enormously helpful in facilitating comprehension. This is as true of ancient Irish poetry (line of 4 beats followed by line of 3 beats), Mr Shakespeare (iambic pentameter especially) as it is of jazz (32 bar measures) and country music (which has melodic and harmonic templates). When Shakespeare - or Coltrane - break from their self-imposed structures (or "rules"), they are often at their most eloquent, but that is achieved precisely because they have broken the spell and/or corrupted the linear logic.

In addition, the uses of precision rhyme, near rhyme, internal rhyme and non rhyme send out very different messages to the listener's ears and cognitive facilities.

[runjohnnyrun]

Bacchus and Me - Jay McInerney.

What a ponce. McInerenyeyey that is. Not Bacchus.

[body-of-an-american]

im read deadly unna, i had to read it for english, and im reading lord of the rings. Ive started it about 20 times but never finished it.

[Eyeball_Kid]

I *should* be reading Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter for university but instead I devote all my time to Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and some assorted Cechov stories, both of which are wonderful and captivating works of art.

[Frances]

I *should* be reading Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

Luckily, Demi Moore's got ya covered.

[Eckhard]

Stephen E. Ambrose - Pegasus Bridge

Nice report about the British airborne raid during D-Day.