Reading Goals for 2018

I have lots of goals for this year. The big one is to listen to all 500 albums listed on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," which I talked about on my YouTube channel (below).

Reading-wise, though, I am definitely scaling the scope of my goals down. Between the 500 albums I'm going to listen to and review, I'm also starting a new musical venture which I expect will take a lot of my time, not to mention a new baby coming into my life in the spring.

Thus, I am setting the meager goal of 2 books a month for this year, both physical and audio.

I think that should be very doable, as I've already completed two books in January (reviews coming soon). I may adjust this goal upwards depending on how the year progresses, an how much time is taken for the 500 Albums project, but I think 2 a month to start is good. It maintains a bit of my momentum gained from last year, but allows me more flexibility. I also want to try to read longer books, several of which I hope to start soon as well.

All in all, it is looking to be another exciting year of learning, looking, listening, writing, and, now, vloggin (I guess I vlog now). 

Thanks for reading and following along! Leave me a comment below if you'd like, I'd love to hear from you. I will keep this blog as a review platform for my books, but if you are interested in my journey to listen to 500 albums you'll want to head to my YouTube channel and subscribe, as I'll be vlogging and reviewing all that over there.

-Jesse

2017 Reflection and Wrap Up

I read more books in 2017 than in any other year in my life. My goal at the outset of the year was to read 50, but I soon found that I would reach 50 well before the end of the year and upped it to 100. I completed the 50th book on June 28 (I think it was ABC-3PO) and the 100th book on November 30 (The Story of Music). Only 7 out of the 109 were books I had read previously. I also read much, much more fiction than I have in a long time; over 40 books were fiction, an unprecedented number for me! 

I had many revelations and takeaways throughout the year, but one that stood out to me as 2017 comes to a close was the knowledge that I pursued this singular goal nearly every day this year. I wonder what else I could accomplish if I worked the next 365 days on a single goal? It is exciting to think about. In fact, I do have several new challenges for myself in the coming year, which I will share soon. For now, here are the stats and the books that made 2017 for me.

Books completed: 109
Books abandoned: 2 (The Sister by Louise Jensen, and BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley)

Pages Read: 25,304

Shortest Book: 18 pages (Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike)

Longest Book: 1,120 pages (Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography)

Most-read authors: J. K. Rowling (7), Francis Schaeffer (5), Arthur Conan Doyle (4)

The Books, Ranked from Worst to Best (bottom 10 and top 20 in bold)

109. Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike, Unknown

108. How to Talk to Anyone, Leil Lowndes

107. English Hymns and Hymn Writers, Adam Fox

106. The Day After Roswell, Philip Corso

105. Cliches, Nigel Fountain

104. Harry, A History, Melissa Anelli

103. If You Give a Pig A Pancake, Laura Numeroff

102. The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth, Ellie Hattie

101. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

100. Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War, Various

99. The History of Music in Western Civilization, Various Authors

98. 10 Little Rubber Ducks, Eric Carle

97. Weight Loss Motivation Hacks, Derek Doepker

96. 101 Amazing Harry Potter Facts, Jack Goldstein

95. Art of War, Sun Tzu

94. How to Manage Your Money When You Don’t Have Any, Eric Wecks

93. Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis

92. The Story of Music, Howard Goodall

91. Laptop Millionaire, Mark Anastasi

90. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

89. Money Management Skills, Michael Finke

88. The Last Juror, John Grisham

87. The President’s First Year, Douglas Cohn

86. The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown

85. The Art of Eric Carle, Eric Carle

84. The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

83. A Christian Manifesto, Francis Schaeffer

82. Blood and Smoke, Steven King

81. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, Arthur Conan Doyle

80. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

79. Jonas and Daphne, Silver Lamb

78. A Natural History of the Piano, by Stuart Isacoff

77. Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Dr. Seuss

76. Draw Me A Star, Eric Carle

75. An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage

74. 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires, by Brian Tracy

73. Creating the Constitution, Christopher Collier

72. The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Tom Clancy

71. If I Ran the Zoo, Dr. Seuss

70. Big Agenda, David Horowitz

69. 80 Proven Ways to Become a Millionaire, Paul Demazo

68. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way, Alice Schertle

67. Put Your Heart on the Page, Anne Perry

66. The Music Teacher From the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler

65. 8 Traits of the Greats, Stan Munslow

64. I Wish My Teacher Knew, by Kyle Schwartz

63. A Good Marriage, Steven King

62. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

61. Next, Michael Crichton

60. Practice Music Like a Pro, Stan Munslow

59. Animal Farm, George Orwell

58. Zen Shorts, Jon Muth

57. ABC-3PO, Calliope Glass

56. Goodnight Darth Vader, Jeffery Brown

55. Crazy Love, Francis Chan

54. Quiet, Susan Cain

53. The Symphonies of Beethoven, Robert Greenberg

52. Selected Short Stories, Anton Chekhov

51. Smart Fat, Steven Masley

50. A Time To Kill, John Grisham

49. World in Balance, Robert Crease

48. The Wrecking Crew, Kent Hartman

47. The Remarkable Farkle McBride, John Lithgow

46. Miles, Miles Davis

45. 1776, David McCullough

44. Narconomics, Tom Wainwright

43. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

42. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr, Seuss

41. The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis

40. How to Make It in the New Music Business, Ari Herstand

39. Write Songs Right Now, Alex Forbes

38. Nazism and War, Richard Bessel

37. Helping Children Succeed, Paul Tough

36. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle

35. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

34. The Speckled Band, Arthur Conan Doyle

33. 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America, Brion McClanahan

32. How Children Succeed, Paul Tough

31. Why Don’t Students Like School, Daniel T. Willingham

30. Little Blue Truck, Alice Schertle

29. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

28. Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose

27. Seizing the Enigma, David Kahn

26. What Teachers Make, by Taylor Mali

25. The Mark of the Christian, Francis Schaeffer

24. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling

23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling

22. The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

21. Exploring J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Corey Olsen

20. Between Heaven and the Real World, Steven Curtis Chapman

19. He Is There and He is Not Silent, Francis Schaeffer

18. Extra Virginity, Tom Mueller

17. Art and the Bible, Francis Schaeffer

16. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

15. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling

14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling

13. I Want My Hat Back, Jon Klassen

12. A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Tom Standage

11. The Secrets of Story, by Matt Bird

10. Make It Stick, Peter Brown

9. The God Who Is There, Francis Schaeffer

8. The Courage to Teach, Parker J. Palmer

7. The Song Machine, John Seabrook

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling

5. How Star Wars Conquered the Star Wars Universe, Chris Taylor

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling

3. What If?, by Randall Monroe

2. Adolf Hitler, John Toland

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling

109, Seven Short Stories

Seven Short Stories
by Anton Chekhov

I like short stories. They get in, tell a snippet of a life, and get out. They don't have time for lengthy descriptions or digressions or too many characters and sub plots. I've never read Chekhov before, but he was, apparently, a prolific short story writer. The stories in this collection were varied and poignant. The only thing that connected them was a sad, modernist metaphorical narrative of alienation. The characters in these stories do not know themselves, nor others--indeed, they are incapable of knowing or being known. Chekhov tells us that man is essentially and whole alienated from other people and even himself, an existential vacuum. He exists, as Francis Schaeffer put it, "beneath the line of despair," disconnected and lost; though he yearns, as the bereft cabbie in "Misery" does, to connect to others, ultimately, to Chekhov, such yearning is a hopeless endeavor.

#104, "A Christmas Carol"

A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens

Though I've seen and known this story many, many times in various media (film, stage, radio), I realized this year that I'd never read the book before. Well, that is now taken care of. I enjoyed it very much. I'm not sure why, but I really like the style in which Dickens writes. It might be that I've read so many books of that period that I associate it with good writing. Whatever the reason, he has a clear voice and a moment-by-moment progression that works wonderfully in this classic story. There seems to be some debate as to whether it is merely a cautionary tale, or a full allegory. I lean toward the former, personally--though the fantastic elements are boldly drawn, I didn't read it as anything other than the story of a transformation. I do advocate reading meaning into a text, however, to speak to your own world and circumstances. Overall, it was a worthy read.

103, "The Wrecking Crew"

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
by Kent Hartman

The Wrecking Crew was an extraordinary group of musicians who provided the largely-uncredited musical backdrop for thousands of pop and rock songs in the 1960's and 1970's. It was an unofficial collection of roughly 20 drummers, guitarists, horn players, bassists, and others, including drummer Hal Blaine, guitarist Glenn Campbell, and bassist/guitarist Carol Kaye (whose careers the book highlights in particular). This book is a mostly chronological collection of anecdotes, stories from the studios and the road, that tell of the origins of the "group," the development of pop-rock in the early 60's, the explosion of Top 40 hits and its contribution to the expanding importance of session musicians in entertainment centers such as LA, the heyday of the Wrecking Crew, and finally its decline in the mid 70's with the turns in recording technology and techniques and changing public taste. People like Phil Spector, Sonny Bono, Brian Wilson, and others are introduced, along with their innovations to the cutting-edge of recording technology at the time. The group and the times are fascinating, all the more so when compared to how different the music business is today, or even when comparing it to my most recently-read book on music.

Hartman writes very colloquially, which is fine most of the time, though I couldn't help but notice he uses a lot of cliches. The depth of research into such an obscure and little-known portion of the music of the 20th century is impressive and is presented pretty well. Great reading if you're into music recording history.

The Remarkable Farkle McBride

I didn't know John Lithgow was an author of picture books. This is a story of a musical prodigy who, after seeing and discarding different instruments, finally finds his true calling as a conductor. I loved it. The story is cute, the illustrations are excellent, funny and singular, and--well, I love stories about kids who love music. Great book.

#101, "The Song Machine"

"The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory"
by John Seabrook

"The Song Machine" is a truly outstanding book on the history, mechanisms, and backstory of modern pop music. I enjoyed the heck out of reading it and place it in the top 20 of my favorite books of 2017. Seabrook starts in the 1980's and traces the development of pop music through the stories of producers, songwriters, singers, technologies, and businesses through about 2015. The story begins largely in Sweden, where a collective of DJs started combining early hip hop, reggae influenced electronic music, and dance with Swedish production and sensibilities. From there, the confluences grow bit by bit, each group and artist influencing and streaming into the next. Many of the biggest bands and stars of the last 30 years are included in the history; how the success of New Kids on the Block inspired a blimp-owning millionaire, Lou Perlman, to create the Backstreet Boys from scratch; how Britney Spears and *NSYNC got their careers started and/or derailed; how the landscape of music changed with the hits of the last half of the 1990's. Hitmakers and gamechangers like Denniz Pop, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke are examined, their methods of production and writing explained. One of the most interesting parts of the book was on the technical aspect of modern songwriting. In "song factories," classic techniques of songwriting, such as one songwriter coming up with the music and words, or perhaps a composer and a lyricist working together, are now splintered into as many as 6 (or more) different jobs: track maker, hook creator, lyricist, topliner, bridge or vibe guy, producer, artist/singer, and so on. Instead of developing the classic combination of words and melody, current techniques are closer to track-and-hook: the track provides a bed of sound, usually simple chord progressions and a beat, and the hook (or, more likely, hooks) is layered over the top, either in an instrument or in the vocal.

Seabrook even goes into the artist-song-making machines of South Korea, which have multi-million dollar corporations creating artist careers from childhood, using a construct called "cultural engineering" to devise musical products that will hit the most people. This last note is something that runs, rather disturbingly, through the entire book: the commoditization and productization of music. Modern pop songs are hybrid creatures that are curated, compiled, and created in the mad scientist lab of the studio, each note and beat carefully plotted with the help of data, demographics and figures, and always with the goal of a million-dollar "hit" in mind. Artistic intent is secondary--possibly tertiary--to producing a well-packaged product that will sell. Of course it would be irresponsible and ignorant to suggest that that process, the commercialization of art, is new. No, it's been around probably as long as art has. It is, in many ways, the most difficult of all philosophical hurdles an artist must clear: the dilemma of creating something true and from the heart (pure, to use a word of dubious worth), that also manages to satisfy public tastes and get the artist paid. It is very difficult to satisfy both of those criterion, and thus we have broke but brilliant musicians and millionaires making mediocrity.

My philosophical reflections on artistic integrity aside, stories of people making music are always exciting and inspiring. The story of modern pop is, by definition, constantly changing--popular music this year will be out-of-date by next Christmas--and modern hits will, in one way or another, always be with us. Someone has to do it; it may as well be the song machine.

#100, "The Story of Music"

The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles
by Howard Goodall

This book was not written for professionals, which made it surprisingly difficult to maintain focus as I read. He took what seemed to be a long time to explain such foundational things as the harmonic series, triads, and serialism, among other more or less technical aspects of music, that slowed down the continuation of the history. Even worse, these concepts seemed to be rather poorly or confusingly described. Maybe it just was that way to me because I came to the book with prior understanding, but I think it is equally possible that for Goodall, an accomplished composer himself, wiring about basic elements of music is more difficult than writing about the complicated ones. As a teacher, that is a problem I deal with regularly. When we know something because we have done it every day for years, it becomes particularly difficult to break it down effectively for those who don't know it already. In my opinion, he did not succeed in that breakdown. The historical parts of the book ranged from interesting to rather controversial. He spent a lot of time on Wagner, which I suppose is his call. I have two main and unforgivable complaints. One, he referred to Indiana Jones as a bounty hunter. Um, what? And two, he did not mention Rachmaninoff a single time. I did enjoy his analysis of the minimalism of the 1980's. I can't say I enjoyed the majority of the book very much.

#99, "What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions"

"What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions"
by Randall Monroe

One of the most enjoyable books I've read all year. Monroe looks at the craziest scenarios and attempts to answer each in incisive and complete detail, usually to a disastrous end. His style is hilarious and very readable, as befits a scientist-turned-webcomic. The book was read by Will Wheaton, as well, which made it even better. This one is going to end up near the top of my favorites from the year.

98, "Murder on the Orient Express"

"Murder on the Orient Express"
by Agatha Christie

This is the first book from Agatha Christie I'd ever read. I was happy that this one was another that my wife Jessica read along with me. The version we had was an excellent reading by Kenneth Branagh, who stars in the new film adaptation (which I have not seen). Branagh's performance is truly awesome, and in some ways was more impressive and compelling than the actual material from the book. The mystery is pretty good, however, with a decent build of odd and seemingly unrelated happenings that come to a head at the conclusion well enough. I don't think it is a perfect novel. The conceit behind the final reveal is, to me, a little far-fetched, and I didn't buy it one hundred percent. Jessica guessed the ending, more or less, about halfway through. It was enjoyable, though--in no small part due to Branagh's performance, as I said--and I am glad to have finally gotten around to reading Agatha Christie.

#whatIreadin2017