InMySoul77 wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:01 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 11:59 am

As for what I’m reading, I got Thurston Moore’s book from the library. He’s a bit of a golden retriever—everything is the greatest, most mind-evaporating thing ever—but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. He tries to capture the experience of playing and (especially) seeing music, is very gracious in sharing what inspired him and what other people contributed to SY, and largely eschews gossip.

I'm currently reading this, too. Thurston is a great writer. I am still at the early stages of his life but am excited to get to read about the making of SY albums. I want to read Kim Gordons book too. I never got around to reading that one.

I’d like to read her book too.

InMySoul77 wrote:

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 11:59 am

As for what I’m reading, I got Thurston Moore’s book from the library. He’s a bit of a golden retriever—everything is the greatest, most mind-evaporating thing ever—but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. He tries to capture the experience of playing and (especially) seeing music, is very gracious in sharing what inspired him and what other people contributed to SY, and largely eschews gossip.

I'm currently reading this, too. Thurston is a great writer. I am still at the early stages of his life but am excited to get to read about the making of SY albums. I want to read Kim Gordons book too. I never got around to reading that one.

I read Sonic Life over the Xmas break, as well. (Who says there's no sense of community on this forum anymore?) Also from the library, no less.

Liked it a lot.

While it seems rushed and peters out a little towards the end (you could say the same of Sonic Youth itself and um, quite a few books in general), the first three-fourths is a wonderful, wonderful read. Warm, enthusiastic, and the guy can turn a phrase.

I also liked it for precisely the same reason that some book critics did not. Avoids any and all dirty-laundry stuff. I don't look to Thurston Moore for deep emotions or to tell his side of whatever went down between him and Kim Gordon. Many rock memoirs are so fuckin' behind-the-music nowadays, so it was refreshing to read something that was both a little more poetic and a little more old-school dignified. I do look to Moore for info about NYC underground art and music, gigs, bands (others and his own), and records, and all that stuff did not disappoint.

Favorite section: When he meets Eye and Yoshimi ("I am P-We!" [bowing]) from the Boredoms, and is then confounded by their first 7-inch, the gently titled Anal By Anal EP. Fun.

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:13 pm

InMySoul77 wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:01 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 11:59 am

As for what I’m reading, I got Thurston Moore’s book from the library. He’s a bit of a golden retriever—everything is the greatest, most mind-evaporating thing ever—but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. He tries to capture the experience of playing and (especially) seeing music, is very gracious in sharing what inspired him and what other people contributed to SY, and largely eschews gossip.

I'm currently reading this, too. Thurston is a great writer. I am still at the early stages of his life but am excited to get to read about the making of SY albums. I want to read Kim Gordons book too. I never got around to reading that one.

I’d like to read her book too.

Gordon's book is good. Moore's book sounds very different. Gordon's is not gossipy, per se, but it tells one woman's story (a similar story that happens to most women), by that woman, without any qualms about being a woman, if that makes sense. And there's plenty about music and the rest of her life, too.

Does anyone also remember that Eric Bogosian, I think this was the US-90s, wrote a little piece called "Why We Love Kim Gordon" or something like that? I swear I read this somewhere but I cannot seem to find it. I want to say it was in Details magazine.

Knock-Em-Stiff by Donald Ray Pollock

I tore through Kim Gordon’s memoir in two days. I do think it’s a bit gossipy, and the music/art content interested me more than the dirty laundry, but she’s also a much better and more introspective writer than Thurston Moore is. Liked it a lot and wished it had been longer!

Wood Goblin wrote: I tore through Kim Gordon’s memoir in two days. I do think it’s a bit gossipy, and the music/art content interested me more than the dirty laundry, but she’s also a much better and more introspective writer than Thurston Moore is. Liked it a lot and wished it had been longer!

Interesting. I found both the more personal and starfucky stuff in Gordon's book to be harder to take. (Thurston's book has plenty of name-dropping as well, but it's done in a more endearing, enthusiastic, and perhaps less judgmental fashion, i.e. that golden retriever comment mentioned above.) And I thought her writing style was a little dry, albeit more emotional in terms of content, if that makes sense.

Overall, I think Moore is the better writer w/the better book but (and this is a huge but), Gordon is the superior storyteller (Moore's book succeeds more as a series of vignettes). Ultimately, your mileage may vary based on what you're looking for. It's also apples and oranges—and I realize how weird it sounds to say this, given the hyperspecific common subject matter! But stylistically, they're very different works.

Unrelated: Kevin Barry's That Old Country Music is a pretty good short story collection.

Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico by Laurette Séjourné

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:43 pm Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico by Laurette Séjourné

This sounds awesome.

losthighway wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 1:19 pm

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:43 pm Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico by Laurette Séjourné

This sounds awesome.

I really like it! I finally found a copy that wasn’t prohibitively expensive and of course it fell apart in my hands as soon as my daughter looked at.

The author was somehow connected to Claude Levi-Strauss, and I liked Tristes Tropiques so much that I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

Bear in mind it was written in the 50’s, so I’m sure it wouldn’t be difficult to find quibbles with it at all, but I am content to take them with the rest of the book.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:00 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: I tore through Kim Gordon’s memoir in two days. I do think it’s a bit gossipy, and the music/art content interested me more than the dirty laundry, but she’s also a much better and more introspective writer than Thurston Moore is. Liked it a lot and wished it had been longer!

Interesting. I found both the more personal and starfucky stuff in Gordon's book to be harder to take. (Thurston's book has plenty of name-dropping as well, but it's done in a more endearing, enthusiastic, and perhaps less judgmental fashion, i.e. that golden retriever comment mentioned above.) And I thought her writing style was a little dry, albeit more emotional in terms of content, if that makes sense.

Overall, I think Moore is the better writer w/the better book but (and this is a huge but), Gordon is the superior storyteller (Moore's book succeeds more as a series of vignettes). Ultimately, your mileage may vary based on what you're looking for. It's also apples and oranges—and I realize how weird it sounds to say this, given the hyperspecific common subject matter! But stylistically, they're very different works.

Unrelated: Kevin Barry's That Old Country Music is a pretty good short story collection.

The two books definitely do complement one another. The vignettes-vs-stories comparison is apt.

I do think that Gordon strikes a nice balance between the personal/introspective, the salacious/gossipy, and the narrative.