by David Byrne
Thanks for a fluidly attended but nonetheless enjoyable discussion.
Just as a quick recap, general evaluation rewards David Byrne’s book approximately 5 points. It was probably one of the less read to completion books of the past few months – myself included. Am not sure whether Fergal or Jim had any comments or a chance to peruse it.
As it was it was found somewhat repetitive past the midway point and as Mike quite appropriately suggested there would be a real opportunity o open this book up as a digital project allowing for appreciation of the various referred styles, performances and tracks by inclusion in the ‘book’ itself. There were questions about who the real audience was for this book (fans, music technicians), whether it would have benefited from more serious editorial attention, and finally why the author felt compelled to actually write this book. I myself wondered whether there was some attempt to choose language to sound far more erudite that the thoughts being discussed which probably put it in a middle found between potential audiences, not quite appealing to either. I don’t think though anyone regretted spending the time with the book nonetheless so onward to so some fiction.
The choice for this next read is : Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes which had attracted some attention in the past six months over its particularly evocative book cover. I note it available via amazon.co.uk but not quite yet in the US.