Comments on: bookish advice

By: Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:28:26 +0000

I go for “Really The Blues” by Mezz Mezzrow. First published in the 1940′s. Mezz is an early jazz musician – a Jew who wishes he was Black because he loves the blues and jazz and the warmth of the black culture that goes with it – he says that everyone who has helped him has been black and everyone who has done him down has been white. In prison he convinces the authorities to put him in the wing reserved for blacks! The book reads true to me and has a fabulous use of language (joints are not reefers but “muggles” etc) and he is in awe of people like Bix Beiderbecke but sneers at the phony musicians. Full of tons of great descriptions and anecdotes – Bessie Smith tells him his straight / wavy hair makes her seasick! Always cheers me up when I read even a page or two!

By: Per Aronsson

Per Aronsson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:00:11 +0000

Miles Davis – The Autobiography.

Fascinating story about his life, music and all those great jazzmusicians he met and worked with.

Not always a nice man and his language is pretty rough, to put it mildly. His faveword must have been “motherf***er!

By: Miriam

Miriam — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:25:28 +0000

Dag Solstad – “Shyness and Dignity”

By: Gabriel Collins

Gabriel Collins — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:52:45 +0000

G.H. Hardy’s 1940 classic “A Mathematician’s Apology” is a visceral accounts of artistic inspiration and ‘art for art’s sake’ (though, indecently, he happens just to be writing about “the muse’s” heavy-handed guidance in his mathematical output).

http://books.google.ca/books?id=beImvXUGD-MC&dq=a+mathematician's+apology&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Ob5wSpbAK4H8tQOGkfX5CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4