what are you reading?

For most ukulele players, just the mention of Tiny Tim is enough to make them tremble and gnash their teeth, but I am going to admit that I was a bit of a Tiny Tim fan when I was younger, and a fan of Doctor Demento and Weird Al Yankovic as well. I always thought that Tiny Tim was very entertaining. And, if anyone ever listened to some of his albums they would realize how unfair it is for him to be defined by just one song. I just got through reading Eternal Troubadour, The Improbable Life of Tiny Tim. It was a pretty good book, but sad in many ways. Anyway, I recommend it to any ukulele players that suffer from a Tiny Tim complex. Actually, even if you don't have a complex. A little understanding of the musician beyond hearing him sing Tip Toe Through The Tulips in his falsetto voice is cathartic. Frankly, learning the song Tip Toe Through The Tulips is enlightening. Anyway, read it.

I couldn't agree more, Rollie. After all, he was an entertainer, and I enjoyed his antics too. I can remember enjoying Spike Jones and some of the Hee Haw comics too.

I think some ukers are just very sensitive about playing ukes and want them to be accepted as serious instruments. :eek:ld:
 
I couldn't agree more, Rollie. After all, he was an entertainer, and I enjoyed his antics too. I can remember enjoying Spike Jones and some of the Hee Haw comics too.

I think some ukers are just very sensitive about playing ukes and want them to be accepted as serious instruments. :eek:ld:
I agree Dick, sensitive and maybe insecure. Do you want the book?
 
For most ukulele players, just the mention of Tiny Tim is enough to make them tremble and gnash their teeth, but I am going to admit that I was a bit of a Tiny Tim fan when I was younger, and a fan of Doctor Demento and Weird Al Yankovic as well. I always thought that Tiny Tim was very entertaining. And, if anyone ever listened to some of his albums they would realize how unfair it is for him to be defined by just one song. I just got through reading Eternal Troubadour, The Improbable Life of Tiny Tim. It was a pretty good book, but sad in many ways. Anyway, I recommend it to any ukulele players that suffer from a Tiny Tim complex. Actually, even if you don't have a complex. A little understanding of the musician beyond hearing him sing Tip Toe Through The Tulips in his falsetto voice is cathartic. Frankly, learning the song Tip Toe Through The Tulips is enlightening. Anyway, read it.

I guess I never understood why many ukulele players felt the hate, disdain, embarrassment or whatever for Tiny Tim. Maybe they didn't like his style but if anything, they should still owe him a debt of gratitude for giving the ukulele so much exposure. I always found him to be an interesting curiosity. He was such an oddity that many people thought he had to be a put on, that it was all an act. I'm sure he played it up a bit but I was just a kid when he hit the height of his popularity and I understood pretty quickly that he was just a gentle eccentric who was true to himself and marched to the beat of his own drummer despite being perceived (and in some cases actually) being out of step with "normality". I think that just makes him more interesting. I was surprised when I learned that he lived his final years in Minneapolis. I live only 12 miles away from where he lived! I'll have to check out that book.
 
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My current read, the first Jack Reacher novel - Killing Floor by Lee Child. I like thrillers and I'm still trying to decide if this is a series I want to turn on to. I like the premise and the character so it's promising but the jury is still out. It's good enough that I'll at least read another book in the series to get a better feel for it.
 
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Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations" currently interrupting my re-reading of "Jim Bridger, Mountain Man" by Stanley Vestal.
 
My current read, the first Jack Reacher novel - Killing Floor by Lee Child. I like thrillers and I'm still trying to decide if this is a series I want to turn on to. I like the premise and the character so it's promising but the jury is still out. It's good enough that I'll at least read another book in the series to get a better feel for it.

This book turned out to be a bit of a turd. It's disappointing because I really wanted to like it so initially I was judging it leniently but it never redeemed itself. It read like a rough draft sorely in need of a judicious editor. I understand that it is fiction but there were too many important aspects that were just too implausible, didn't make sense or left totally unexplained. My reading list is too long to make room for this kind of nonsense. It had that air of James Patterson hackiness.
 
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The Bat - Jo Nesbo No I'm not a fast reader, I'm just trying to clear the decks of books I've started and temporarily put down to read others. This is another police/murder/thriller and the difference in writing and story between this and that of Lee Child mentioned above is night and day. I'd be interested in reading more of Nesbo. I enjoyed it but probably didn't give it a fair shake. I put it aside a little too long so I was a bit lost and it took a while to get back on track. It had a great ending!

Now to finish that Frank Sinatra bio I started months ago....
 
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I'll have to get the Cohen book.

I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman's "Trigger Warning". Beautiful book!
 
I'm so busy plowing through unread magazines and "how to play ..." books, that I don't have time to read a book! :eek:ld:
 
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Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life Of Tiny Tim

I just finished this book and I enjoyed it. Tiny Tim was certainly an interesting and curious character. What you saw of Tiny is what he was, it wasn't an act. I wasn't aware that he was so devoutly religious which lead, most notably, to his interesting views and approaches to sex, sexuality and marriage. He was horribly mismanaged and taken advantage of throughout his career and was his own worst enemy when it came to finances. He probably made millions in the course of his career but never saw much of it. I don't know that he really cared. I think all he really wanted was to perform. He was definitely one of the most famous ukulele players in the world. If you are curious about Tiny Tim, it's definitely worth the read.

**This book was passed on to me from another forum member who asked that I do the same once I finished it. I will mail this book free of charge to anyone in the USA if they would like to read it and then pass it on when they are finished. PM me if you are interested. **
 
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I'm finally nearing the end of the 21 books of the The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters!

Non-fiction books I'm currently reading are Gunnar Dickfeld's "Leben und Tod" (a German book on the fundamentals of life and death in the game of Go) and Josh Waitzkin's "The Art of Learning".

Ukulele-wise, I bought the three volumes by Ukulelezazza which he shipped today, so these will be my songbooks for a while, at least for re-entrant! I really want to start to properly study the "Everything" book on music theory.
 
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Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life Of Tiny Tim

I just finished this book and I enjoyed it. Tiny Tim was certainly an interesting and curious character. What you saw of Tiny is what he was, it wasn't an act. I wasn't aware that he was so devoutly religious which lead, most notably, to his interesting views and approaches to sex, sexuality and marriage. He was horribly mismanaged and taken advantage of throughout his career and was his own worst enemy when it came to finances. He probably made millions in the course of his career but never saw much of it. I don't know that he really cared. I think all he really wanted was to perform. He was definitely one of the most famous ukulele players in the world. If you are curious about Tiny Tim, it's definitely worth the read.

**This book was passed on to me from another forum member who asked that I do the same once I finished it. I will mail this book free of charge to anyone in the USA if they would like to read it and then pass it on when they are finished. PM me if you are interested. **

PM sent. This sounds really enjoyable. I recall a brief mention of Tiny Tim in Suze Rotolo's memoir about Greenwich Village, and have always been curious to know more.
 
I'm finally nearing the end of the 21 books of the The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters!

Non-fiction books I'm currently reading are Gunnar Dickfeld's "Leben und Tod" (a German book on the fundamentals of life and death in the game of Go) and Josh Waitzkin's "The Art of Learning".

Ukulele-wise, I bought the three volumes by Ukulelezazza which he shipped today, so these will be my songbooks for a while, at least for re-entrant! I really want to start to properly study the "Everything" book on music theory.

I read and enjoyed some of the Cadfael books, and my wife and I watched all of them on TV. Some of them twice. My wife likes mysteries, and I like history.

Derek Jacobi is terrific in whatever he plays. "I Claudius" was another good series. :eek:ld:
 
"Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders.

I bought the book expecting it to be about, well Abraham Lincoln in the bardo, and it is not. It is about his son Willie in the bardo. Lincoln spends time in grief and contemplation while visiting his son's body in the crypt in which he was laid. He is profoundly affected and his state of mind is depicted, and acted upon, by those nearby souls who are actually still stuck in the bardo. Those souls are enraptured by the "sight" of Lincoln grieving for his son, of his deep love and suffering over the loss of his boy, and of the boy in soul form trying to connect with his father as he had in life. The majority of the book depicts those characters, so I feel the title is a little misleading.

Lincoln has to find the psychological strength to continue his leadership of the divided country in the face of the tragedy that is the Civil War while floored by such a tremendous personal loss. Losing his son increases his empathy with all the others who have lost their sons to the war, and solidifies his need to bring an end to it in the quickest way possible. The book provides an account of how he managed to continue on in the face of so much personal grief without falling into the refuge of, and thus becoming lost to, a deep depression.

It's an unusual format, not a narration so much as conversation followed by observation. There is a lyrical beauty to the writing. Through the majority of characters the reader vicariously comes to terms with the transience of life and the inevitability of death.

I am now reading Neal Gaiman's "M is for Magic".
 
"Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders.

Your couple of paragraphs actually made me want to read this more than any other writeup of it I've seen. Might have to put it on the library list!

On the bardo topic, I'm reading Robert Thurman's Tibetan Book of the Dead right now (and wishing all the while I had bought it hardcopy rather than on my iPad, since I've concluded I really hate reading e-books).
 
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