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Thread: Favorite Books to Read?

  1. #26
    Registered User smokinop's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    I'm currently reading Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume 1 & Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo. The former is very much in the same vein as Effortless Mastery. A very quick read but lots of information & thoughts that need to be absorbed or as Brian said above...cosmic. I love biographies, especially about musicians I respect & follow. The aforementioned Clapton's Guitar & Blind But Now I See are both wonderful reads. Has anyone read Al Kooper's autobiography Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards? What a fun read...reads like the Forrest Gump of the music business.
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  2. #27
    Registered User Jon Hall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    One of my favorite "reads" is a biography of the Carter Family "Will You Miss Me When I"m Gone".

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  4. #28
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Hall View Post
    One of my favorite "reads" is a biography of the Carter Family "Will You Miss Me When I"m Gone".
    Noted. Had missed this one. Thanks for the heads up.
    ...

  5. #29
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    I got a lot out of "The Inner Game of Music". Looking back, I think it was the right prescription for the right issues at the right time. YMMV.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  7. #30
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandolin Cafe View Post
    I second this recommendation. It is very much like looking in the doorway of a different time, while participating in the life of that time. I read it twice, and loved it more the second time.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  8. #31
    Registered User gweetarpicker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Lots of possibilities depending on your interests, here are a few...

    New Orleans Style - Bill Russel (about many of the great New Orleans jazz musicians)

    NAMM 100th, A Century of Service to the Music Products Industry (a pretty cool history lesson)

    The Guitar in America, Victorian Era to Jazz Age - Jeffrey Noonan

    Guitar, An American Life - Tim Brooks (about Tim having a guitar custom made and about guitar cultural history, surprisingly good read)

    The Classical Mandolin -Paul Sparks

    The Mandolin, A History -Graham McDonald

    This is Your Brain on Music -Daniel Levitin (perception of music in the human brain, easy to read and interesting I thought)

    That Half Barbaric Twang, The Banjo in American Popular Culture - Karen Linn

    The Science of String Instruments -Thomas Rossing (serious science - some cool stuff on guitars and mandolins)

    Million Dollar Les Paul, In Search of the Most Valuable Guitar in the World - Tony Bacon

    To Have and To Hold, An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting - Philipp Blom

    and humbly my book... Vintage Fretted Instruments, A Compendium and Guide to Collecting - Matthew Woods

  9. #32
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Great suggestions. I just picked up "Violin Maker" and "Escaping the Delta" on Jim and David's recommendations.

    From the above offerings, I read "Satan is Real" and "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" and thought they were both terrific. Gifted them to friends and family.

    Fiction? "Accordion Crimes" by Annie Proulx. (I know I'm not the only mando/accordionist here ) No spoiler on the ending, which was wonderful.

    Mick
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  10. #33
    Registered User Louise NM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Oliver Sacks: Musicophilia (a collection of pieces about neurology and music)

    Patti Smith: Just Kids (mainly about her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. The woman can write!)

  11. #34

    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    The Music Lesson has been mentioned and I’ll second it, a very good read. I’ve read a few Bill Monroe bios...Can’t you hear me callin’, come hither to go yonder, the music of bill Monroe, I hear a voice calling. I’m reading Ralph Stanley’s bio now. Other fiction books I’ve read recently are The Son and Beartown. I also read a book on the western fires of 1910, very interesting to see how fighting forest fire has evolved over the last century. And another great book on the impact of fires in the last century is under a flaming sky the great hinckley firestorm of 1894...the account of the efforts of the railroads to evacuate survivors is riveting.
    Northfield F5M #268, AT02 #7

  12. #35
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    I just added 5 books to my "need to read" list from the above suggestions - Thanks!

  13. #36
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandolin Cafe View Post
    I’ve still not read this book, but I recently came across an EXCELLENT podcast featuring the Louvin Brothers’ lives and music and wanted to recommend it. Lots of mandolin content, and be warned that there is some foul language if that bothers you. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...=1000395350536
    ...

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  15. #37
    Registered User Charlie Bernstein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Guitar Man: A Six String Odyssey by Will Hodgkinson. Will is a music critic who decided to learn guitar in six months and then play a concert. To get there, he took lessons from a cavalcade of guitar heroes.

    Does he pull it off? The subtitle says it all: You Love That Guitar More Than You Love Me.

    Very funny book, and it reminds you of what it was like to get started.

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  17. #38
    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    "Glimpses" - Lewis Shiner
    Very good Sci-fi with a rock music story.

    https://www.amazon.com/Glimpses-Lewi...hiner+glimpses


    The Real Frank Zappa Book
    Very entertaining and hilarious
    https://www.amazon.com/Real-Frank-Za...ank+zappa+book


    and, no doubt most of you have seen the movie, but The Commitments by Roddy Doyle is really good, as was the movie.

    Niles H
    Last edited by mandocrucian; Mar-07-2018 at 10:05pm.

  18. #39
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    No mandolin content, "Red Notice".

  19. #40

    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    This book looks promising: Learning Strategies for Musical Success

    This is the most thorough and up to date book I have seen about applying research-based strategies to learning music. A shortcoming for some might be that it does not appear to address improvisation.
    Object to this post? Find out how to ignore me here!

  20. #41
    Registered User Charlie Bernstein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Just started a good one!

    Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South
    by Stanley Booth.

    Rythm (sic) Oil was a magic potion Memphis musicians bought on Beale Street to improve their chops. The book goes into the history of the town and focuses on a few of the artists and others who where there in its tawdry, magestic heyday.

    I'm only on page 23, but it's already proving to be a great read.

  21. #42
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Chronicles
    The only book of Dylan, written by Dylan

  22. #43
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandolin Cafe View Post
    I know am late to the conversation, but just finished this, could barely put it down, things are different today then they were in 1942 when the Louvin Brothers started, but if you are thinking of a career in music performance, this is mandatory reading!
    Charlie Louvin was as real as the day is long!

  23. #44
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by jesserules View Post
    A couple of really interesting books that focus on pianos but go way beyond also:

    The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart ...
    An exceptional book. Nick Lyons, the famous fishing author said there are two kinds of fishing books, devotional and instructional. Kind of applies here, because while I learned a lot, the book is really about loving the piano and making ones own life in music.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  24. #45
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by mandocrucian View Post
    The Real Frank Zappa Book
    Very entertaining and hilarious
    A really fun read, by one of my favorite "no BS here" curmudgeons.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  25. #46
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Clapton's Guitar.

    "New York Times bestselling author Allen St. John started off looking for the world's greatest guitar, but what he found instead was the world's greatest guitar builder.

    Living and working in Rugby, Virginia (population 7), retired rural mail carrier Wayne Henderson is a true American original, making America's finest instruments using little more than a pile of good wood and a sharp whittling knife. There's a 10-year waiting list for Henderson's heirloom acoustic guitars—and even a musical legend like Eric Clapton must wait his turn. Partly out of self-interest, St. John prods Henderson into finally building Clapton's guitar, and soon we get to pull up a dusty stool and watch this Stradivari in glue-stained blue jeans work his magic."
    Riley

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  26. #47
    Registered User Bob Visentin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Grieser View Post
    The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten is a good read. It's a little out there, but lots to think about.
    I will second that!

  27. #48
    Registered User Bob Visentin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    I just finished two autobio's. Doc John's and Jorma Kaukonen's. Mac's was ok but Jorma's was very disappointing. He talked more about cars and motorcycles and speed skating and had no interesting stories to tell. It was like "then we played at Woodstock" and "then we recorded our fourth album".

  28. #49
    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out
    https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Graham-P.../dp/0306813491

    Billion dollar baby: A provocative young journalist chronicles his adventures on tour as a performing member of The Alice Cooper Rock-and-Roll Band by Bob Greene

    No One Here Gets Out Alive: The Biography of Jim Morrison. - Jerry Hopkins, Daniel Sugerman

    Temptations - Otis Williams
    https://www.amazon.com/Temptations-O...+otis+williams

  29. #50
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    Default Re: Favorite Books to Read?

    No mandolin content, but a great biography of a musical giant: Say No to the Devil. A bio of Rev Gary Davis. Maybe read that one right after Satan is Real.

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