Reading Wednesday

[yuuago]

Finished reading: Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times by Alan Walker. Finally finished this one! Took me forever - not because of the contents, but because it was too heavy to take to work. It's a very thorough, readable, and engaging work, discussing Chopin's life, his music, and the context that he lived in. A lot of the more detailed music discussion kind of flew over my head, because I don't know much about music and I'm not actually that familiar with Chopin's work, but even those bits were really interesting. Definitely would recommend this one to anyone who likes biographies or music history. I'm tempted to check out Walker's work on Liszt as well - he's written several books about him.

Currently reading: Still working my way through Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum. Straightforward whodunit, nothing groundbreaking, but kind of a comfort read. Feels rather strange to read something that feels so much like historical fiction, even if it actually isn't - it was written in 2002, and computers are present and part of the story, but no cell phones, and the internet isn't used much. So it throws me for a bit of a loop, haa. And most of the computer use reads more like it's on DOS than anything else. (But then again I knew people who were still using DOS for everyday stuff at the time, so maybe that's not weird.)

Reading next: I have The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner on hold at the library, so... that! And I'll probably start some nonfiction as well, but I haven't gone through my book box yet. I do know that I have a book on the Kosciuszko Squadron that's been sitting around for a while, so maybe that. Or maybe I'll try to finish that book about the Northern Wars that I've been trying to get through for ages. (It's just... rather heavy reading, and I keep getting overwhelmed by it.)

Comments

[kiraly]

THE THIEF YESSSSSS! (I would also suggest putting a hold on the next one, The Queen of Attolia, as that's when the series really starts to pick up...but I don't know how you prefer to read series, all in a row or spread out).

[yuuago]

:D

I like to space things out, so I'll probably wait until I have finished the first one.

[thymolphthalein]

The book on Chopin sounds really interesting (and the only book that I know something about, that is to say my limited musician's knowledge on Chopin, aka he wrote nocturnes); I'll check it out. If you can get your hands on a copy of a book with Chopin's letters, I recommend you do it. They're really interesting.

"but because it was too heavy to take to work"
That's one heavy book.

I'll take a look at Don't Look Back and The Thief later. Have fun reading!

[yuuago]

:D Trying to get hold of Chopin's letters is definitely something I might want to do in the future. There are a few short excerpts in this book, and even those were really interesting. (And also all of the counterfeit letters! Apparently that was Quite A Thing)