I should be somewhere between NYC and Arkansas right now, but my flight was canceled last night, I decided to come into work an extra day, and the “Word of the Day” on the little screen in the elevator this morning was “schmaltz” (swear to God!), which can only mean one thing…
- Ann Powers at the LA Times picked Let’s Talk About Love and Livinia Greenlaw’s The Importance of Music to Girls as “the year’s two outstanding music books.”
- Andy Battaglia at the Onion AV Club picked Let’s Talk About Love as his runner-up for favorite book of the year (they only allow their editors 2 selections. Must have been hard at work on the Best Band Names of 2008 list).
- Michaelangelo Matos at Idolator places Let’s Talk About Love and John Darnielle’s Master of Reality at #25 in their roundup of “the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008.” He praises the books as “what may be the two best titles the series will ever release” and even includes a dig about his own book on Prince’s Sign o’ the Times.
- And while we’re on the subject of those two, Carl Wilson has chosen Master of Reality as HIS book of the year in Toronto’s Eye Weekly.
- The Tampa Tribune has a late (but welcome!) review of LTAL.
- Here’s an old interview with Carl on To the Best of Our Knowledge that has just gone up in a non-realplayer format.
- And finally, a review from the Canadian music journal Intersections.
I recently read John Darnielle’s “Master of Reality” and was blown away by it. I’ve posted a short piece about at my blog http://igotalottosay.blogspot.com check it out if you’re interested.
I’m reading LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE now and, with maybe another 30 pages to read, I’m ready to say it’s the best 33.3 book I’ve read, and I’ve read quite a number of them. Wilson writes on so many different levels here, from the scholarly to the conversational, and does so without ever seeming affected; the book’s tone is always human, passionate and curious. I love the examination of sentimentality particularly. So, as far as I’m concerned, it earns all of these kudos in spades — even though I have no interest in getting to know Céline Dion’s work than I already do in passing.