At the start of 2009, I set a goal to read 30,000 pages by year's end. I am measuring progress in pages, rather than titles, to avoid last year's bias toward shorter books. Here's what I read in November:
- The Third Reich at War - Richard Evans (review)
- The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (review)
- The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (review)
- American Pastoral - Philip Roth (review)
Pages Read: 2,579
Year-to-Date: 32,768
At the end of October I had the pleasure of attending a concert at the Fox Theatre featuring Itzhak Perlman with a piano accompaniment. The duo performed violin sonatas by Leclair and Beethoven, Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, and then a series of violin encores selected by Perlman spontaneously, such as John Williams' Theme From Schindler's List. Perlman appeared to have a list of every piece he's performed in Atlanta, and endeavored to play new pieces for the audience. It was a wonderful experience and prompted me to add further Perlman recordings to my collection:
It was particularly gratifying to snag a copy of his rendition of Paganini's 24 Caprices, which Amazon continues to sell only as an import, but which I found on the shelves of my local Borders when I happened to have a 40% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket.