Reading - March 2019

The Guitar Magazine (April 2019)

They're still persisting with the "blues essentials" lessons and we have yet another history of the 58/59 Les Paul 'bursts, although at least this is written by Tony Bacon from original source interviews. Otherwise a good mix of interesting and less common gear alongside the usual suspects (we get a Fender and a Gibson review this month).

Over Here by Raymond Seitz (1998)

This is a really interesting entry in the small category of books I own that try and identify and classify the British character. Raymond Seitz was the first career diplomat to be appointed US Ambassador to the UK and spent time here on other postings too. As he says, much as he dislikes the word, he would probably be classed as an anglophile. Given his position (in particular, the ultimate one), his view of British society is almost certainly a fairly narrow one; he visits Chequers and associates with earls. Nevertheless he makes some interesting comparisons between the US and the UK. I like the the way he describes how the different political systems influence and are influenced by the way the country thinks and feels about itself. His writing is beautifully fluent, witty and expressive and this is a most enjoyable book (even though my edition had an error in production and is missing two chapters!)

Flirting With The Forbidden by Joss Wood (2014)

The first in a Mills & Boon/Harlequin "By Request" triple header, this is a decent enough romance - my first in quite some time, I think.

Hot Island Nights by Sarah Mayberry (2010)

While this, the second novel in the "Romance in Paradise" trilogy, starts off as regular bonk-fest (I counted six, erm, encounters in the first four chapters), it develops nicely into something a little more complex and emotionally rich. She rescues him, he rescues her. Very sweet.

Good Night And Good Riddance by David Cavanagh (2015)

Unlike a lot of my friends, I never listened to John Peel much. I've always been into pop music - albeit with a fairly wide interpretation of "pop" - and so a show that steered as far away from pop as possible wasn't going to be my cup of tea. I only read this because I heard David Cavanagh being interviewed on the Word Podcast, and it sounded interesting - although when I got it, I was put off again because it's quite a chunky tome! But, against my expectations, I've really enjoyed it. One of the things it points out, again and again, is how often, and how far, Peel was ahead of the curve. What he played could well end up being "pop", a year or two later - and consistently, right across his 30+ year broadcasting career, he gave bands their first exposure on radio. Amazing, really. The format - a brief entry for many of the hundreds of the shows that still survive - is surprisingly readable. While the subtitle - "How Thirty-Five Years Of John Peel Helped To Shape Modern Life" - is a touch over-the-top, you can't argue with his influence on modern music. Time to go and re-read Margrave Of The Marshes, I think.

From Fling To Forever by Avril Tremayne (2014)

One of the signatures of all Mills and Boon/Silhouette/Harlequin (all the same company) novels is the "emotional drama" of falling in love, but this falls firmly into melodrama, and is the worse for it. The two main characters spend ages blaming each other for their feelings - in particular, the man, although to be fair the woman does call him on this - before getting together over half-way through the book in something borderline non-consensual from the woman's point of view, which made me uncomfortable. A bit of a slog and I only bothered because I needed the happy ending.

1001 Guitars To Dream Of Playing Before You Die by Terry Burrows et al (2018)

As with all books of this nature, it's physically hard to read - at nearly 2kg and over 900 pages of thick, quality paper - and frustratingly unevenly edited. There are a number of entries with entirely the wrong picture and too many dull write-ups. Most of this is caused by the need to meet the arbitrary 1001 guitars of the title. That said, there's loads of instruments in here I've never heard of, many beautiful pictures to gaze at and no omissions that I can think of. Full marks for including a healthy number of bass and classical guitars too (although this is probably for practical reasons, since it made it easier to reach the magic number). I'm pleased to have read this but it took ages and it will now be used as a reference only.

Think Like A Freak by Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner (2014)

Kind of a mix between advice on critical thinking and the kind of unusual facts from the previous Freakonomics books. Very readable, but surprisingly short, since almost 20% of its length is made of up notes on the facts in the main body of the book!

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1953)

The first Bond novel and a surprisingly slim volume and plot. Still, it's well-paced and has all the basic ingredients that came to define the genre, and probably made quite a splash at the time.

Pride/Prejudice by Ann Herenden (2010)

I came across this in the library app while searching for Pride & Prejudice itself, and was intrigued enough to have a look. It's a kind of companion piece to the original, intending to fill in some of the gaps in time and motivation that have occasionally puzzled readers - much like many other spin-offs (for example, Mr. Darcy's Diary). What I didn't realise until afterwards was the significance of the slash in the title. This books focuses very much on the sexual motivations of the characters, and in particular the relationship between Darcy and Bingley, which is extended to be a sexual one. Obviously people had sex back then and equally obviously it wasn't talked about - or not written about, anyway - so it's kind of interesting to think about what must have happened in real life. However, too much of this doesn't really ring true for me, and the book doesn't hold up as a story in its own right. I suspect I'm not really the target audience. Still, an interesting diversion.