August reading
This is pretty sad, but I've mostly read just one book this month, and I didn't finish it. I should have loved I Am a Cat, by Natsume Sōseki, which was advertised as very funny and told from the perspective of a stray cat who is taken in by an English teacher during the Meiji period in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the Meiji period in Japan to get most of the humor, and the book loses the cat perspective as it goes on. It was originally a short story, and Sōseki was encouraged to expand it into a series, which then (I think) goes on too long. I might finish it someday--perhaps as a cure for insomnia.
The other book I read is the Thelonious Monk biography, chapters 9 to 12. I have a couple more to read before our next discussion on Tuesday. The book is excellent, and the listening session a couple of weeks ago was also great. I was having a lot of trouble hearing the genius in Monk's playing. It turns out that I just have to concentrate and not do anything else, which is also how I have to listen to classical music to get anything out of it. I still don't know enough music or jazz theory to really appreciate Monk, but I can at least hear the stride piano influence and the melody in "'Round Midnight." Baby steps!
Padding out the entry, I can mention that I watched Akira Kurosawa's movie Ikiru for the first time. I heard about it because Kazuo Ishiguro wrote a screenplay for an English adaptation (called Living), and I figured I should watch Ikiru first. I could absolutely see why Ishiguro was drawn to Ikiru--it fits into his artistic perspective perfectly: meticulous repetition, small but devastating insults, illuminations of human nature, and the effects we have on one other. I guess I should also read the Tolstoy story at some point.