: What Books Are On Your Night Table?
If you are a regular reader of the Sunday New York Times Book Review section, you will recognize this question. Some well known person gets asked this question and they get to expound on various deep thoughts about literature. Of course this is assuming that you have a night table and that there is even room on your night table for books. I have the former but lack the later, so any books that I happen to be reading before zoning out end up on the floor. In fact, said books are typically scattered about the house, and it takes me a while to find them – although not as long as it takes me to find my cell phone.
But I will endeavor to honor the spirit of the question. What am I reading? For starters let me tell you what I am not reading – pretty much anything published since, ummm…1950 or thereabouts (with exceptions to be noted). This hostility to current literature stems from the fact that modern fiction writing is almost uniformly depressing.
Case in point – the short stories in The New Yorker. We have a subscription to The New Yorker and every issue I try to read the short story. I’ll get through the first few paragraphs and then I say to myself “This is gonna be a real downer” – and I skip to the cartoon contest at the end. Now it would be unreasonable to expect every book to have a happy ending. I’m OK with the occasional tragedy. But this stuff is relentless. If I want to be depressed all I need do is to turn on the evening news.
So what do I read? For starters, the classics. Last year I was on a Russian kick. I went through most of Tolstoy, Crime & Punishment, Fathers & Sons, etc. Do all of these have happy endings? No, but somehow the fact that the events described happened 150 years ago makes it more bearable. Plus I find it fascinating to read how people used to live.
Now I do make an exception for contemporary Science Fiction. Most Sci-Fi stories end on a positive note. On the downside, most Sci-Fi writing is pretty formulaic – evil bad guys are out to control the universe and lone outcast hero saves the day. But there is a lot of very good writing out there as well and a lot of imaginative story telling. I can recommend Ann Leckie & Martha Wells for starters.
Meanwhile, the “What’s on your night table” column typically finishes with the question “You’ve inviting 3 famous authors, dead or alive, to dinner. Who are they?” I dunno – maybe Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, and Dave Barry? Let me know who you’d invite and maybe I’ll print them next month.
Meanwhile, I have no plans to sneak into your house and hover menacingly around your night table, but you can catch me this month in a rare NYC gig – and there is a concert with a new composition of mine.
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Saturday November 13th, 8:00PM -10:00PM
Dave Rudbarg at The Shrine,
Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (7th Avenue), just below 134th Street, Manhattan, NY (212) 690-7807
Dave Rudbarg is a powerhouse vocalist who has released several albums. I will be backing up Dave and sharing the stage with some top notch musicians – Doug Greenberg on drums, Andy Fuchs on guitar, Steve Soltow on bass, and Wendy Haskin Meyer will join in on vocals. The Shrine is a premier showcase venue in Harlem – there is no cover charge and I have it on good authority that the food is top notch. As this is in NYC, all attendees must follow NYC health restrictions.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063610720802
https://www.shrinenyc.com/
Saturday November 20 – 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Composer’s Collective of New York at Tenri Cultural Institute
43 A West 13th Street, New York City
Exponential Ensemble (a collective of NYC based chamber musicians) will be premiering my new composition Short Story for Mixed Ensemble along with seven other new musical works by members of the Composer’s Collective of New York. I know you likely hear this all the time, but the Tenri venue is quite intimate and seating is VERY limited. Here is the link to buy tickets. As this is in NYC, all attendees must follow NYC health restrictions.
https://www.exponentialensemble.com/
http://www.composerscollective.org/e.org/