Reading List: Q4 2024
This list has evolved from pure cardinality (hey, look at my library backlog) to a graph of reading connections and referrals. Any time you promote content for two decades, it shifts from update and cadence to professed allegiance and potential signal amplification. With the increased competition for attention, content spend and the scarcity of proper marketing for books, my low-gain repeat of authors’ signals is my contribution to the cause. And if it helps those authors earn a living wage, or explore their next projects, it is rewarding in multiple aspects.
Comment on the last quarter of an incredibly challenging 2024: I read very little. It was equal mixes of trying to get into Cathrynne Valente’s “Space Oddity” when I simply didn’t have the stamina or patience for it, an exhausting month of preparing for work transitions and the side effects of a healthy dose of Metformin to regulate my metabolism which leaves me in inverted energy states - wide awake in the morning and tired enough to regularly drop the Kindle onto my right eye after 9pm.
35. “Brothers,” Alex Van Halen, music, finished November 5
The counterpoint to dozens of books written about Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen specifically; Alex relates stories of growing up as Dutch immigrants to LA that provide a heartwarming backstory to the rock and roll chronicles that seem to fill the rest of this shelf. You can understand both brothers’ issues with addiction, fame, commitment and their passion for music, all bound together by a true brotherhood - deeper than “the band is a family” the family paired the opposite corners of the band. After quite a bit of negative press about Eddie Van Halen’s life and death, this was a healthy dose of older brotherly love and wisdom.
36. “Basics for Bassists,” Murphy Karges, music, finished December 1
An interstitial read between Valente and Stephenson slogs, I bought this on the recommendation of a California friend and Sugar Ray fan. It was more useful than I thought; usually these “learn to play bass” books are variations on the joke about taking two lessons to learn the E and A strings and then getting a gig. Lots of ideas about neck position, listening to find keys, and a lot of ideas on phrasing made this a fun distraction.
37. “Polostan,” Neal Stephenson, historical fiction, finished December 19
My sci-fi brother Marc often says that Stephenson eludes editing, and his publishers let him crank out inexorably long volumes because he can. Not only is “Polostan” long and varied in level of detail and research, it’s the first of another trilogy. I think I liked it, for values of “like” that include Russian history, spy novels and Stephenson’s ability to send half a dozen story lines into the wild to see how they re-weave themselves a thousand pages down the literary road. It would have been more fun as a shorter, more direct book, but the hat tip to historical accuracy mixed with novel ground (think more Cryptonomicon than Reamde) makes me look forward to the next two.
38. “St. Marks Is Dead,” , Ada Calhoun, non-fiction, finished December 20
Ada Calhoun chronicles the epochs of New York’s St Marks Place, a 3 block long street in the East Village that has been home to aristocrats, punks, rock and roll icons, the nitty, gritty and eventually gentrified New Yorker that swept the grime out of Times Square. Each successive wave crests with the call that the “old” St Marks and its culture have died, before it rises phoenix like again with new denizens. There are callbacks to nearly every facet of pop culture, from “Looking For Mr Goodbar” to the Velvet Underground to Debbie Harry and Blondie to skate culture, and the tension between each shift in demographics is palpable. First discovering the hallowed ground as the building comprising the cover of Led Zeppelin's “Physical Graffiti,” it turns out my grandparents and their generation likely spent time in the Ukranian social circles of the area – like my ties to Asbury Park, giving me a sense of place as well as history.
39. “Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair,” Jakko Jakszyk, music/biography, finished December 21
As part of my growing fascination with all things Zappa and King Crimson (a few decades late, as is my pattern) I bought Jakko’s memoir of his life in the music business, a serialization of near misses and passes (he refused to give a song he had written for a friend to some up and coming American singer….named Whitney Houston). His early dabbling in the Canterbury scene and then realization of playing with so many of his musical heroes culminates in joining King Crimson as the lead singer, with lovely anecdotes about band members past and present and their tours. Wrapped around the story is Jakko’s long and tortuous journey of self-discovery, searching for his birth parents and trying to understand the maze of siblings, half-siblings and family history shielded by shame. His relationship with his adoptive parents and dealing with their aging hit home for me, including the source material for the title (which I won’t spoil, but it hits as hard as his vocals on “Epitath” during the last true Crimson tour).
40. “Six Lives,” Lavie Tidhar, fiction, finished December 23
A bit of departure from Tidhar’s imagined histories and closer to Downton Abbey meets Ian Fleming as conveyed by EL Doctorow…full of Easter Eggs and subtle clues, wrapped around an old pocket watch (got me in the first chapter). Six intertwined peoples’ tales told through two centuries with enough thinly veiled contempt for each context.
41. “Hope I Die Before I Get Old,” David Hepworth, music, finished December 24
Inverting The Who’s generational line Hepworth explores rockers entering their third age - the 401(k) tour and merchandising of nostalgia. Much less about the musicians intentions and presences for touring, it is a dissection of the Baby Boomers seeking some relief from our growing sense of mortality. There is a bit of literary distraction jamming along, however - despite the chapter titled artists, the content veers away from them to the financial, social and business contexts. Despite having Springsteen on the cover, there’s very little of a loquacious Boss explaining how to rock into your 70s.
42. “Glass Houses,” Madeline Ashby, near future fiction, finished December 25.
A wary paen to every tech bro who thought he could hack healthcare nestles inside an Agatha Christie level mystery with callback to Charles Stross’s “Glasshouse” and more. Eerie, brilliant, and you’re not sure who to cheer for, if anybody. Bought her other work before even writing this.
Happy New Year, gentle readers, with hopes that 2025 brings much space for reading, relaxation, family and friends and enough room to dance away.