Interim Review: This Is Your Brain on Music

This is going to make me sound like a snob, but it has to be said: I do not understand how this book ever became a bestseller in the U.S.  Same goes for Guns, Germs, and Steel for that matter.  They are too bloody hard.

They wouldn't be too hard for most of the people I know; I mean that they'd be too hard for Joe Public, and a fair few Joe Publics have to buy a book for it to hit the New York Times bestseller list, which both of these did.  I suppose you could make the argument that people wouldn't have to read them, just buy them, and that's true.  But I can't believe that ALL of those people bought the books and NONE of them read the books.  So either people in the U.S. are much smarter than I give them credit for, or so few books are being bought that a relatively small number of science nerds can throw off one of the most important measures of English-language book success.  I'm not sure which of those ideas is more upsetting to my world view.

Look, these books aren't unfathomable, and I don't want to put anyone off reading them.  But neither of them is the 'pop science' you might expect from such big sellers.  This Is Your Brain... is easier reading than Guns..., but not substantially; I think the difference is more down to the scope of the books rather than the level of the content.  I'll talk more about this in the full review, though.

In other news, my Christmas books have all arrived, and I've had to put the box on a very high shelf to keep me from diving right into them.  Must resist!

XOXO

Why I Can't Be Trusted

So despite the stated aim of this blog being to broaden our literary horizons, I have to cop to slacking: I have now started the third book that was entirely my choice, rather than a recommendation from Jac.  I have picked them all from the recommendations y'all have sent in, so I'm not a total degenerate, but To the Lighthouse is still hanging over my head, and in the meantime I've picked up This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin.  This was another of Tim's suggestions, and like my two previous reads was selected as much on the basis of accessibility (it was sitting on Tim's shelf) as my interest in it.

I'm only a couple of chapters in, not even enough for an interim review yet, so I won't talk much about it.  I will say that it's a bit drier than I'd expected, but I think that's because Levitin's introducing the music theory and science on which everything subsequent will be based, and it's hard to jazz up (no pun intended) information that dense.

As for To the Lighthouse, I am committing here and now to reading that while I'm in Boston, i.e. in the next three weeks.  It's the least I can do, and it'll keep me from tearing through my Christmas books too quickly.  I hit up Amazon for a bunch of books, and I'm wicked excited:

* Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby and Sarah Vowell

* Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World by Sarah Vowell

* Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

* Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category

* Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Libralism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show by Geoffrey Nunberg

Apart from the last one, which is by the author of the recently-read and -reviewed Going Nucular, it's a bit of a McSweeney's fest.  I mostly hate Dave Eggars (in a really annoying way, because I fully respect a lot of things he's done with his life, but there's just something about him that's crying out for a good kicking.  See also Butler, John.), but I do love a lot of what comes out of McSweeney's, especially from the folks who manage not to take themselves too seriously.  The extracts I've read from Created... about killed me, and I think I'm going to have to fight not to devour it the second it arrives ('I'm ravenous, Fran.').

Shakespeare... is the last installment in Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree collection, and if you like the idea behind this blog, I would urge you to check them out: there were two previous books, The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, which were also published together as The Complete Polysyllabic Spree.  Over a few years, Hornby had a regular column in the Believer, the McSweeney's magazine, in which he would talk about the books he'd bought and the books he'd read in the last month.  The interesting wrinkle, though, was that the Believer has a strict no-meanies policy, so if he didn't like a book, he couldn't talk about it by name.  (This policy was designed to ensure that the Believer would remain a safe space for writers, where they could discuss and contribute without feeling at risk of an attack.  I'm not entirely convinced of the validity of this policy - it's a bit touchy-feely for my liking - but it seems to work just fine for them, so whatever.)  As a result, his column was much more a conversation than a critique, and over time became an interesting discussion of why we like what we like.  Hornby has no time for the pretentious literati, and that's surprisingly refreshing.  And he's a complete riot to boot, which always helps.  Not being a regular subscriber to the Believer, I had thought that his column had finished, and I was thrilled to see that there was a new collection.

Sarah Vowell features prominently on the list as well, and I'm pretty excited about that.  I've been meaning to read her books for ages, but I don't think she's particularly well-known in Australia (the McSweeney's cabal doesn't seem to have much distribution there, which surprises me a bit): you'd be more likely to know her as the voice of Violet in the movie 'The Incredibles' than for her writing or NPR (radio) work.  I'm happy to finally have my hands on a couple of them.

While none of these were recommended, and therefore don't qualify for the full review treatment, I will let you know if any of them is particularly spectacular.  I don't intend to make a habit of discussing 'outside reading' on this blog, but I also feel that good books are worth making noise about.  There's far too much ordinary in the world to ignore the good bits.

XOXO

Review: Going Nucular

So yes, I loved it.

Those of you who know me know that I am a language dork.  I like talking about it, reading about it, and thinking about it: how it's used, what it means, where it came from.  Geoffrey Nunberg has similar interests and infinitely more knowledge, so I was bound to enjoy his work.  And I did: he's funny, insightful and articulate.  And the articles are short essays (mostly transcripts of his NPR pieces, with the odd magazine bit thrown in), which means that it's a good book for the way I read (mostly bus rides, with the odd bit before bed thrown in).

The San Francisco Chronicle said, 'If there is such a thing as a standup linguist, it's Nunberg.'  While I wouldn't go that far (I reckon that'd be Richard Lederer if it's anyone), I do agree with the basic sentiment: he's funny and accessible without talking down to the audience.  He's also topical, taking his inspiration from events of the day and investigating the role that language plays in them.  This does mean that his material doesn't always age well - I've also just read The Way We Talk Now, his collection from the early- and mid-'90s, and some of the pieces do feel a bit dated - but even so, it's interesting to watch him pull it all together.

I will say that I didn't enjoy either of his books as much as Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but Nunberg and Truss are writing very different books: Nunberg notes that his books are not for the 'grammar sticklers' - which seems to be an unnecessarily narky dig at Truss - but it's not that Nunberg doesn't care about grammar; it seems to be more that he's interested in meaning and usage, not in grammar for grammar's sake.  I don't think that's all that far from Truss, really (her argument that good punctuation is important because it's the good manners of language, rather than just because it's grammatically accurate, would indicate that they're actually pretty close) but Eats... is much more instructional, while Nunberg's essays are more observational in nature, and they have a very different feel as a result.

I would heartily recommend either Going Nucular or The Way We Talk Now to anyone who's interested in language, even if - or even especially if - you don't consider yourself a grammar stickler.  Four strings.

XOXO

Interim Review: Going Nucular

Yes, yes, I know I'm meant to be reading To the Lighthouse.  I'll get there, but it involves a trip to the library and setting up a membership and blah blah.  In the meantime, I picked up Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times by Geoffrey Nunberg.  This was one of Tim's recommendations, and, conveniently, it was living on our shared bookshelf.

And I LOVE it.  Love love love.  I'd not heard of Nunberg before, though he has a regular spot on NPR's 'Fresh Air', but he's excellent: smart, funny and with lots of insight into the uses of language, particularly in public life.  I won't get into too much detail because I suspect I'll get through it pretty quickly and will return with a full review then, but go read it.  Absolutely.

XOXO