What book are you reading right now?
Posted by: Chillkram on 23 May 2010
I am currently reading Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars'.
How about you?
Just started reading
……… really rather gripping.
I have read a number of Beatles books from Anthology to various biographies of the members but this book is a monumental work that has made me feel I am walking the streets of LIverpool with John, Paul, George and Ringo at my side. I have loved this band for over thirty years and am still in awe of their utter command of melody, pathos, innovation and composition. In short they utterly transcend any other popular music artist in terms of importance and this is their story. There is no question in my mind that if humanity survives the next 1000 years their music will still be listened to by billions.
This book is the first chapter of the definitive history of the most important rock band in history by the greatest living authority on the subject. This is the first of three volumes and runs to almost a thousand pages itself and stops in 1962!! Ten years in the making it is the musical equivalent of Churchill's 'History of the English Speaking Peoples.
I approached it wondering just how interesting a book that stops at the release of Love me do could be? The answer is absolutely fascinating - the drawback is that it's likely to be another 20 years before the trilogy is complete...
Jonathan
I got this book for Christmas on the strength of your review Jonathan. I am really enjoying it, definitely the best book that I have read about the Beatles since the 1969 biography by Hunter Davis.
I read this 30 years ago while at university. Now seems like a good time to re-read it:
Initially I did not want to read it since I am from that neighborhood and was not interested in another personal perspective. However, one of the book groups my wife leads selected it for their reading and my wife was interested in my input so I went through it finding it interesting but at times a bit melodramatic. An interesting point is that Shavit who is an Israeli newpaper columnist chose to write it in English and not Hebrew.
About to start it.
Gian,
If you are in an Afghanistan mode I highly recommend this:
Gian,
If you are in an Afghanistan mode I highly recommend this:
Your tips always welcome Haim.
And please you and your family forgive me for that pic.
Gian,
If you are in an Afghanistan mode I highly recommend this:
Your tips always welcome Haim.
And please you and your family forgive me for that pic.
Or even this (by the way I concur with Haim's recommendation of the Dalrymple):
This glorious book was also the catalogue for the V&A's superb exhibition, which closed a couple of weeks ago:
As evidenced by the recent superb exhibition at the Royal Academy (the first-ever large scale survey of his work outside of his native Italy), the inexplicably underrated Giovanni Battista Moroni (c1520 - 1579) was one of the best portrait painters who ever lived. Time to catch up with the informative exhibition catalogue:
As evidenced by the recent superb exhibition at the Royal Academy (the first-ever large scale survey of his work outside of his native Italy), the inexplicably underrated Giovanni Battista Moroni (c1520 - 1579) was one of the best portrait painters who ever lived. Time to catch up with the informative exhibition catalogue:
That is a superb portrait! You are right in your evaluation of this guy.
Bill, Moroni painted many pictures of the emerging middle classes and craftsmen like the tailor in the painting of the RA catalogue, as well as nobles.
He had a real gift for painting men especially. I think many of his portraits are strikingly modern, not only in their composition and settings, but also in their relaxed informality and their sheer vivacity - in this sense he was decades ahead of his time and unequalled as a portrait painter - except by Holbein - until the arrival of Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Velazquez, the latter two paining almost a century after Moroni.
If you're ever near a gallery, it's always worth seeking out any Moronis they might have (although most seem to be in Italy). Other than that, there are plenty of images to enjoy via the interwebs... 
Just starting:
I've read a lot of Huxley but missed this one somehow.
steve
Bill, Moroni painted many pictures of the emerging middle classes and craftsmen like the tailor in the painting of the RA catalogue, as well as nobles.
He had a real gift for painting men especially. I think many of his portraits are strikingly modern, not only in their composition and settings, but also in their relaxed informality and their sheer vivacity - in this sense he was decades ahead of his time and unequalled as a portrait painter - except by Holbein - until the arrival of Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Velazquez, the latter two paining almost a century after Moroni.
If you're ever near a gallery, it's always worth seeking out any Moronis they might have (although most seem to be in Italy). Other than that, there are plenty of images to enjoy via the interwebs...
I will do that Kevin. You forgot to mention Manet, he was also a wonderful portrait painter but I think more of women than men - well he was French. We went to the Manet event - last year or the year before and I fell in love with one of the women in one of his portaits: The Amazon or Horsewoman, Fullface. The way she stares out at you is mesmerising!
A fascinating account of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose's working and personal lives together:
