My reading list
So to start off this blog I just want to share what's currently on my reading list. I almost always have at the very least one solid stack of books in my domicile (I move so frequently I've taken to referring to wherever I'm living as my domicile, because one month or year it might be an apartment, flat, my mom's basement, or even a friends couch, god knows).
At one point in time I remember moving domiciles and having to box and move up to ten boxes of books I'd acquired over the years. I've since taken to to only purchasing books under rare circumstances so as not to become a tsundoku, literally a Japanese term for someone who hoards books without ever reading them. I think books definitely have an aesthetic and cultural value coming from a graphic design background, but I've come to accept my nomadic existence by conscientiously making the decision not to acquire many personal possessions.
This makes libraries my primary means of acquiring reading materials, ebooks are also something I'm getting into reading more of because of their portability. I purchased a nook last year and so far have a handful of titles, mostly because I'm extremely frugal.
I typically read between 10-40 pages in each book in my stack a week, so I jump around from one to another pretty rapidly. I saw a really good youtube video that explained how to go about reading a book a week. It really only takes scheduling 45 minutes to read a day to finish a book a week on average so that was pretty motivating. What I find is that by scheduling 45 minutes a day to read I not only look forward to my reading time as a special treat, but I also engage more with what I'm reading. Strong coffee also make the experience more pleasurable.
So to my reading list!
The list this week as it stands is:
"The Music of the Spheres", by Jamie James. I've had this book in my stack for a while and I've gotten through about the first 40 pages thus far. It's a really great book as it talks about the origins of philosophical thought that gave birth to western music and science. The writing style is easy to follow and the author explains things very well without being too erudite. It's really expanding the way I think about my approach to music composition and so far is really motivating.
"Boudica Britannia" by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. This is a great book about the legendary Boudica. Boudica was a warrior queen in Britain around 50 AD (I could have the dates wrong lol) who led an uprising against Roman colonialisation of Britain. I'm about 93 pages in and so far it explains in great detail but also with enough breadth so as not to be overwhelming the political landscape and changes going on throughout the Roman world and Britain leading up to Boudica's rebellion. So far it's a really great read and sheds light on a lot of interesting facets of early British civilisation.
"The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music" by Nick Collins and Julio d'Escrivan. This is a great book that covers the history and development of electronic music practices and even goes into talking about the earliest concepts for electronic music that started out as science fiction and eventually became part of our current experience and practice of electronic music making and consumption. Some of the material I've already come across from reading other books on electronic music but it sheds some noteworthy little tidbits that other texts missed so it's a good supplement to an electronic music library.
"Spiral, fur einen Solisten", by Karlheinz Stockhausen. I love me some Stockhausen! He is probably one of the most enigmatic and influential early electronic music composers and was very prolific. Spiral is a score for a piece he wrote in 1969 that was later performed for the world fair in 1970. It's a fascinating piece and I plan to do some digging and see if I can come up with a recording to listen to. The score so far seems like a very open graphic system of notation. It comes with a diagram of the spherical space that the work was performed in along with instructions for the positioning of loudpseakers. I have to be honest and say I'm still wrapping my head around this one.
"The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera" by Roger Parker. I haven't started this one yet but it's in the stack so it must be read!
"The Computer Music Tutorial" by Curtis Roads. This is a mammoth sized book! I originally came across it by looking through the bibliography of either "Listening through the Noise" or an article by Nick Collins but I can't say for certain. This is essentially the electronic music producers bible. It covers so many facets of electronic music that to finish reading it could almost be equated with a year or two of undergraduate study in electronic music or sonic arts. Highly recommended for anyone serious about learning electronic music composition, theory, or history.
"Pet Semetary" by Stephen King. I love Stephen King's writing style and his stories genuinely terrify me so I've been meaning to read more of his books. I've only gotten one chapter in so far and really like it, although I have a suspicion that the initial set up is going to take several chapters.
"Dracula" by Bram Stoker. This is one of those bucket list classics for me so I HAVE to read it before I die. I'm 62 pages in and have to say it's a really good read! The description of Dracula in the book is so different than the way most pop culture presents him so it's interesting to finally get around to reading this one.
"The Tain, From the Irish Epic Tain Bo Cualinge" Translated by Thomas Kinsella. This was one of my very few book purchases in the last year. I initially fell in love with the cover design and picked it up to see what it was. The Tain (for anyone reading this who doesn't know) is one of four groups of ancient Irish literature or heroic cycles that have survived to the present day. Most of the ancient stories are preserved through old texts of which there are a few or more surviving manuscripts (which can be said about a lot of old ancient stories) from which modern translations are made. Most of these ancient manuscripts are preserved in museums or as part of University special collections/archives or as part of private collections in some cases. I'll have to do some digging and find out where some of the manuscripts are preserved. So far it's a really good translation, although this is the first one I've read of the Tain so take that with a grain of salt! I really like the maps that are provided in the first few pages to provide a reference as you read through the text.
"The Moon: Myth and Image" by Jules Cashford. This a really beautiful book about the mythological origins and importance of the moon. It's a fascinating read, and one of the better anthropology texts I've read in a while. The author's writing style is superb and she has such an amazing list of references the bibliography alone is a treasure! So far I think I'm around 100 pages in and I'm fascinated by everything the book sheds light on! I'm excited to continue this one and possibly find more books by this author :)
That's it..I think. So far I've got a nice variety going and hopefully I'll have these finished soon so I can update the reading list. In the meantime I plan for future blog posts to include my listening list (Yes, I have lists for everything) as I also usually have a healthy stack of albums and such to listen to at any given time. As I learn more interesting tidbits or explore more topics I'll make sure to share on this blog. Thanks for reading!
At one point in time I remember moving domiciles and having to box and move up to ten boxes of books I'd acquired over the years. I've since taken to to only purchasing books under rare circumstances so as not to become a tsundoku, literally a Japanese term for someone who hoards books without ever reading them. I think books definitely have an aesthetic and cultural value coming from a graphic design background, but I've come to accept my nomadic existence by conscientiously making the decision not to acquire many personal possessions.
This makes libraries my primary means of acquiring reading materials, ebooks are also something I'm getting into reading more of because of their portability. I purchased a nook last year and so far have a handful of titles, mostly because I'm extremely frugal.
I typically read between 10-40 pages in each book in my stack a week, so I jump around from one to another pretty rapidly. I saw a really good youtube video that explained how to go about reading a book a week. It really only takes scheduling 45 minutes to read a day to finish a book a week on average so that was pretty motivating. What I find is that by scheduling 45 minutes a day to read I not only look forward to my reading time as a special treat, but I also engage more with what I'm reading. Strong coffee also make the experience more pleasurable.
So to my reading list!
The list this week as it stands is:
"The Music of the Spheres", by Jamie James. I've had this book in my stack for a while and I've gotten through about the first 40 pages thus far. It's a really great book as it talks about the origins of philosophical thought that gave birth to western music and science. The writing style is easy to follow and the author explains things very well without being too erudite. It's really expanding the way I think about my approach to music composition and so far is really motivating.
"Boudica Britannia" by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. This is a great book about the legendary Boudica. Boudica was a warrior queen in Britain around 50 AD (I could have the dates wrong lol) who led an uprising against Roman colonialisation of Britain. I'm about 93 pages in and so far it explains in great detail but also with enough breadth so as not to be overwhelming the political landscape and changes going on throughout the Roman world and Britain leading up to Boudica's rebellion. So far it's a really great read and sheds light on a lot of interesting facets of early British civilisation.
"The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music" by Nick Collins and Julio d'Escrivan. This is a great book that covers the history and development of electronic music practices and even goes into talking about the earliest concepts for electronic music that started out as science fiction and eventually became part of our current experience and practice of electronic music making and consumption. Some of the material I've already come across from reading other books on electronic music but it sheds some noteworthy little tidbits that other texts missed so it's a good supplement to an electronic music library.
"Spiral, fur einen Solisten", by Karlheinz Stockhausen. I love me some Stockhausen! He is probably one of the most enigmatic and influential early electronic music composers and was very prolific. Spiral is a score for a piece he wrote in 1969 that was later performed for the world fair in 1970. It's a fascinating piece and I plan to do some digging and see if I can come up with a recording to listen to. The score so far seems like a very open graphic system of notation. It comes with a diagram of the spherical space that the work was performed in along with instructions for the positioning of loudpseakers. I have to be honest and say I'm still wrapping my head around this one.
"The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera" by Roger Parker. I haven't started this one yet but it's in the stack so it must be read!
"The Computer Music Tutorial" by Curtis Roads. This is a mammoth sized book! I originally came across it by looking through the bibliography of either "Listening through the Noise" or an article by Nick Collins but I can't say for certain. This is essentially the electronic music producers bible. It covers so many facets of electronic music that to finish reading it could almost be equated with a year or two of undergraduate study in electronic music or sonic arts. Highly recommended for anyone serious about learning electronic music composition, theory, or history.
"Pet Semetary" by Stephen King. I love Stephen King's writing style and his stories genuinely terrify me so I've been meaning to read more of his books. I've only gotten one chapter in so far and really like it, although I have a suspicion that the initial set up is going to take several chapters.
"Dracula" by Bram Stoker. This is one of those bucket list classics for me so I HAVE to read it before I die. I'm 62 pages in and have to say it's a really good read! The description of Dracula in the book is so different than the way most pop culture presents him so it's interesting to finally get around to reading this one.
"The Tain, From the Irish Epic Tain Bo Cualinge" Translated by Thomas Kinsella. This was one of my very few book purchases in the last year. I initially fell in love with the cover design and picked it up to see what it was. The Tain (for anyone reading this who doesn't know) is one of four groups of ancient Irish literature or heroic cycles that have survived to the present day. Most of the ancient stories are preserved through old texts of which there are a few or more surviving manuscripts (which can be said about a lot of old ancient stories) from which modern translations are made. Most of these ancient manuscripts are preserved in museums or as part of University special collections/archives or as part of private collections in some cases. I'll have to do some digging and find out where some of the manuscripts are preserved. So far it's a really good translation, although this is the first one I've read of the Tain so take that with a grain of salt! I really like the maps that are provided in the first few pages to provide a reference as you read through the text.
"The Moon: Myth and Image" by Jules Cashford. This a really beautiful book about the mythological origins and importance of the moon. It's a fascinating read, and one of the better anthropology texts I've read in a while. The author's writing style is superb and she has such an amazing list of references the bibliography alone is a treasure! So far I think I'm around 100 pages in and I'm fascinated by everything the book sheds light on! I'm excited to continue this one and possibly find more books by this author :)
That's it..I think. So far I've got a nice variety going and hopefully I'll have these finished soon so I can update the reading list. In the meantime I plan for future blog posts to include my listening list (Yes, I have lists for everything) as I also usually have a healthy stack of albums and such to listen to at any given time. As I learn more interesting tidbits or explore more topics I'll make sure to share on this blog. Thanks for reading!
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