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My Back Pages - July





Five books this month. Not bad considering I spent the month lazing at the cottage. It brings my yearly total to 35 books.

I began the month with Money For Nothing, an interesting history of the music video industry by Saul Austerlitz who takes things back to the Beatles. It must have been a Beatles month because the next book was a history of the influence of black Americans on popular music called How The Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll. Elijah Wald's premise is the music was never more popular than when it was performed by white artists.

The next book was Dreaming the Beatles by Rolling Stone columnist Robert Sheffield. In a humorous series of essays Sheffield explains why the Beatles are still important to music and culture nearly 50 years after they broke up. I really enjoyed this one.

Now don't laugh but get the title of the next book I read. Gimme A Show! 50 Years on th Rock and Rollercoaster: An Unauthorized Biography of James Pankow, Trombonist with Chicago. I don't know why I picked this one up but I dutifully read it right through. Meh. Unless you're a Chicago fan. I'm not not.

I capped off the month with an excellent spy thriller called I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. This one was over 800 pages but a real page-turner. He's apparently writing a second book in this series. I can't wait.

My TV watching was pretty limited this month as I spent all my time at the cottage. But I have been catching up on Game of Thrones. And I'm wondering if there'll be a second season of the excellent Handmaid's Tale. Time will tell.


Noname's Books
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Janna said…
So, wait, do you still have Disqus?
I finally get an awesome phone which totally understands Disqus, and now I don't see it here anywhere...

Anyway, yay for the whole bookreading thing. What a great idea!

I've been doing a lot of online reading lately, but it just so happens that I have a book out there in my mailbox right now which I have to carry in (as soon as I find the strength). It's called Guarding Sing Sing, and it's by a prison guard who worked at a maximum security prison.

Before that, I read some Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde.
Always love Poe.
Couldn't stand Wilde.
1 August 2017 at 14:42
nonamedufus said…
Janna: Are you back in the land of the living? It's so good to hear from you. Have disqus but when I changed my background recently I lost it. I like Poe too. You know Oscar is a little too Wilde foursome people's taste.
3 August 2017 at 09:12
Janna said…
Barely living, but hey.

I imagine living is sorta like being pregnant; either I am or I'm not.
7 August 2017 at 17:15
nonamedufus said…
Janna: And you are. Living not pregnant. Unless there's something you're not telling me.
9 August 2017 at 10:24
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