Also started Words and Music - A History Of Pop In The Shape Of A City, by Paul Morley. The subtitle in itself attracts hugely obviously, but am finding it curiously uninvolving, despite Morley managing to invoke pretty much all the music I've been into recently with unerring accuracy. I guess it's just the J word - journalism. Even with a good pop culture journalist (like Morley) there's actually very little point to the whole exercise. Morley writes beautifully and has both an instinctive and learned feel for his subject for sure, but reading the results is like surfing along on a wave of beautiful juxtapositions and confections - there's actually very little point to the journey; the ride is delightful, but to what end? In my humble opinion, most (UK) journalism is badly written froth, produced in vast amounts by ill-informed feckless layabouts who have neither the time or commitment to provide little of lasting value. Morley at least has the grace, wit, intellect and desire to avoid those failings. But for all that, it still feels like froth. We'll see. Oh, and the words "people in glass houses..." should be appearing in your head about now of course ;)
Still, there's a place for such books ... and in my apartment, that's by the toilet. So this is now waiting in line behind the current incumbent of 'quality journalism to be read in two minute sequences', the far superior Nobody's Perfect by Anthony Lane.
