Literary Notes

Of late I'm trying to re-engage literary habits, that is reading books. My latest arrangement is reading non-fiction in the mornings and fiction before bed. This is going quite well and I thought I'd mention a few of the interesting titles I've been diving into recently.

First off, after years of resisting my brothers exaltations I finally got into the Harry Potter series. Yes, they are very good books. A few weeks ago I finished the final installment, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' and my my if it wasn't an exciting read. Stayed up till dawn to finish it.

Now my fiction read is 'HMS Surprise' by Patrick O'Brian, well-known for the film adaptation of 'Master and Commander'. He writes meticulously detailed historical nautical tales. A tad difficult going at times due to arcane vocabulary but since one of my secret ambitions is to become a sailor an important read.

For non-fiction I've just finished 'The Professor and the Madman', a most interesting story by Simon Winchester. It has to do with the creation of the Oxford dictionary and the friendship that developed between the head developer, the Professor, and one of the dictionary's leading contributors, the Madman. As a side note, if anyone would like to purchase for me the complete Oxford dictionary I'd be much obliged. (On CD ROM please, I haven't got the space for the 20 volumes)

My next book is 'This Is Your Brain On Music' by Daniel Levitin who is currently a neuroscientist in charge of McGills's Labratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise and who has past experience as a session musician, sound engineer and record producer. I've just read a little of this fascinating book but wow this man knows a lot! And the book is packed with loads of interesting bits of information. Did you know, that if you take the recordings of several different instruments individually playing the same note, then edit the 'attack' from the recording that the instrument's identity is no longer, well, identifiable. That is, without the initial sound an instrument makes, different instruments playing the same note cannot be distinguished. I think your mind was just blown...! Anyway apparently this experiment was done first by Pierre Shaeffer, one of the originators of musique concrete back in the day.

Lest you think all I do is sit home and read books, don't worry I still watch plenty of junky TV too. Lately I'm seriously hooked on an American teenage drama called 'Veronica Mars'. She's a young, smart-mouthed P.I. going to a rich kid's school in Southern California where people are always getting double-crossed, murdered or roofied. Don't know why but am seriously sucked into Veronica's world...Oh and the second season of 'The IT Crowd' (HT to Ian) is underway. Hurrah! We love you Moss!