Staying busy

I am behind on logging what I've read or listened to.

Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy. I read this book after my London visit, on the recommendation of a friend. It was good. It took a little work to get into, in part because there are so many characters in the Forsyte family. The family tree at the beginning was helpful, which meant I spent a lot of time flipping back to it to figure out who was whom. Ultimately, most of the characters introduced in the first couple of chapters are mostly minor characters, and the only ones who are important are those who are directly tied to Soames or to one of the many Jolyons--as in three generations of Jolyons, including two Jolyons in one generation.

Either way, about two-thirds of the way through the first "book", I started to get into it, and by the interlude, I was hooked. It wasn't the best book I've read, but it was a good soap opera, well-written with keen social observations.

Your Brain on Music. I don't remember who wrote it. It's rare that I listen to abridged books, but this was probably the right choice here. It was very scientific and technical, but it gave me new appreciation for music in general and the wonder, the miracle of the human brain. That the simple ability to keep tempo is something that takes a very sophisticated software program to do. The fact that most of us actually have something akin to perfect pitch is rather amazing. I enjoyed it, although I can't say I understood all of the technical stuff. My thanks to the author for explaining how jazz works.


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. This book regularly makes to the list of banned books, and I now understand how wrong those who object to the book are. Yes, the "N" word appears pretty frequently, and yes, it involves a runaway slave. But of all the characters in the book, Jim comes off as the purest one in the book, bright, resourceful, sympathetic, and caring. I sound trite when I say that Twain's contrast of Jim, as a runaway slave, and Huck as a runaway boy, both of whom society has mostly failed, is pure genius. His understanding of the way boys think makes the book fun. And Twain's points about morality are spot on. The twang of the narrator got to be a little annoying, but after all, the key thing is the story. Two thumbs way up!

So, what am I listening to now? The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. Good start so far. We'll see. As for reading, I'm working on Georges, by Alexander Dumas. I didn't realize that Dumas' father was bi-racial, and that consequently, he is as well. The main character in the book is bi-racial. Should be interesting.