Books, again

So, the other night, returning from a meeting downtown, I stopped into Dollar General. I found a few coloring books for Caroline, a fun how-to book of stuff for Angie, and Phil Lesh's autobiography, Looking for the Sound (My Life with the Grateful Dead). I started to read it that night. How many books are written by bass players? I've never been a fan of the Dead. I didn't really get it. I downloaded and started to listen to a Phil Lesh and Friends concert from archive.org. Some of the songs were good, others... not so much.

But this post is about books. This one is interesting. Phil Lesh shouldn't be your role model. Lots of drug use. Now, this was the late '50s and early '60s in California, so one shouldn't be surprised. And no, he hasn't started to play bass, yet. Violin, trumpet. He was in the army and then discharged, he worked for the Post Office, but they didn't like his long hair. He quit. This book is not going to be a literary masterpiece. But it does present a look inside a period of time and space that I'm not familiar with. And it was only a dollar. Hence the name of the store.

I'm also more actively reading Nicholas Basbane's A Splendor of Letters. Very tasty.

A friend of mine blogged about the fact that she just finished John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I've never read it. I pledged that I would read it this year.

Googling for "Grapes of Wrath" on Google's book site gives me plenty to choose from:

• John Steinbeck's 1939 novel
• Mary Harriot Norris' 1901 novel
• Boyd Cable's 1917 novel

I'll go with the Steinbeck.