4 posts tagged “books”

Before the holidays, I finished The Librettist of Vencie - a biography of Lorenzo Da Ponte. Though the title and book cover would seem that most of the book takes place in Venice,  Da Ponte in fact spent most of his life on the run from one set of financial trouble or another. He eventually wound in America (New York). His attempts to establish 18th-century style Italian opera in early19th-century America were for me the most interesting part of the book. His attempts were a financial failure, mostly because the kind of aristocratic posturing central to supporting opera in Europe was just not apart of young, democratic America.

I'm now reading Wagner Nights, which covers the huge, frenzied following Wagner had in America (particularly among women) in the late 19th century. Where the Da Ponte book ends in New York (in 1838, when Da Ponte died), Wagner Nights picks up in NYC circa 1860 - and ends at the turn of the century.

For Christmas, Drake bought me Understanding Toscanini: A Social History of American Concert Life. This will pick up classical music in American in the 20th century.

Though I had planned Wagner Nights as a follow-up to the Da Ponte bio, the Toscanini book now makes this a nice little three-part series.

Since I was an infant, I have been a fussy sleeper. My biggest challenge is settling down and getting to sleep at night. Exercise is a huge help, but so is a wind-down routine at night. In my case, I get in bed 30 to 45 minutes before my target "bedtime" and read. Mostly I read biography and non-fiction - a page-turner novel is the worst - I'm not able to put the darn thing down and the next thing I know it's 2 hours later and I'm still wide awake.

This past week, I started in on Population: 485. The reason I have this book is that it's about New Auburn, WI. New Auburn is very close to where my grandfather built a lake cottage - the cottage that was the site of the family gathering in August that we never made it to. My cousin had recommended this as pre-gathering reading; I had bought the book with plans to read it on the plane. Of course, we never made it on the plane and so the book didn't get read.

First, I am absolutely loving the book. The topic, however, wasn't quite what I expected. It's a pretty darn graphic account of what it's like being a first responder in a small community. It's a topic I have at least some familarity with. Drake grew up in a small town (Population 1083). His brother is the former Roseville Fire Chief (now an Illinois State Trooper) and his Dad was recently recognized for 35 years of service on the Roseville Volunteer Fire Department.

The problem is that the writing conveys the experience of going out on various fire calls with heart-thumping accuracy. Not only is this darn book a page-turner, it's an adrenline-elevator. In effect, the worst thing I could be reading before bed.

I should take it off my bedstand, but I'm too hooked on it to do that. Luckily, I think I've just got a couple of more nights until I finish it off.

I have been chipping away at this book for months and final finished it this weekend. Drake had bought this for me because we were planning to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year, but then when the family gathering got suddenly planned for August my vacation time got allocated instead to that. We might have still gone, but I also need to have some minor surgery this fall so we'll just have to plan for 2007.

Anyway, I don't (or didn't) know much about Shakespeare, but I did know that, well, people don't know much about him. A better title for this book might be Shakespeare: A Speculation. It's an interesting book, though, particularly if you enjoy the Elizabethan period. The book knits together little scraps of knowledge about Shakespeare with details about what life was like in Stratford and London at the time. It does read like a biography and it's an easy and entertaining read. And, the book does seem to do a crisp job of differentiating fact from speculation.

I'm excited about what's next on my nightstand: The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte. Da Ponte was Mozart's librettist for Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi Fan Tutte. This year Seattle Opera is putting on a new production of Don Giovanni - probably my favorite non-Wagner opera - and I've always wanted to read more about Da Ponte (he was a pretty wild guy - close friends with Casanova, who I believe might have had some input to the libretto of Don Giovanni - maybe as a subject matter expert :-)). I think this will be a fun read.

Well, I haven't read the whole Bible but in terms of something that has had the most life impact, that would have to be it. Actually, for Father's Day I got my Dad James Earl Jones Reads the Bible.

(And no, it's not a "Darth Vadar" reading of the Bible!) At almost 80 my Dad's still working and has an hour round-trip commute each day. The Bible CDs were a huge hit.

But aside from the Bible, I would have to say David Allen's Getting Things Done.

I have a long history with time management methods and while I appreciate the Franklin-Covey life visioning/planning aspects, that daily A, B, C priority stuff never really worked for me. I never felt like I had my chops down on just, well, getting day-to-day stuff done. GTD has made a huge improvement, not so much in the quantity of how much I do, but in clarity and focus.