It's Monday; What are you Reading?

Joining in again at Book Journey; come and see what is being read by others!  I like to check out the posts by others to get ideas of what to read in the future, although my "Books I want to read" list just grows exponentially!  So many books, so little time!  I feel a little odd reporting that I am STILL reading the same book I posted 2 weeks ago.... A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

I am really enjoying it!  Along with delighting in the amazing prose of Dickens, I am learning a bit about the French Revolution and a period in history I didn't know much about.  I usually read through books more quickly than this, but... well there was a Thanksgiving Vacation thrown into the mix, and then an injury to my shoulder (which actually gave me MORE time to read, but the pain medicine made me drowsy so I would fall asleep while reading!)  But also, I am just taking time with this book.  It's like a delicious home cooked meal made by a master chef.... something to be savored and eaten slowly to fully enjoy every flavor.  Sometimes I go back and re-read a paragraph a few times just to let the words swirl around my brain a few times the way that one would taste a fine wine.

"The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had ancient faces and grave voices; and upon them, and upon grown faces, and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming afresh, was the sign, Hunger.  It was prevalent everywhere.  Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared down from the smokeless chimneys and started up from the filthy street that had no offal, among it's refuse, of anything to eat.  Hunger was the inscription on the baker's shelves, written in every loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread; at the sausage shop, in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale." - from A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Also lately, when I am not reading I am listening to music.  When a song strikes me, I like to look up the lyrics and read along while I listen to the song.  So here is what I have been reading/listening to today; Amanda Palmer!
I really enjoyed the lyrics to Ukulele Anthem so I will share them here for you; Enjoy!  Oh and I might actually ask Santa for a Ukulele for Christmas, just because of this song!

Ukulele Anthem
by Amanda Palmer

sid vicious played a four-string fender bass guitar and couldn’t sing
and everybody hated him except the ones who loved him
a ukulele has four strings, but sid did did not play ukulele
he did smack and probably killed his girlfriend nancy spungen
if only sid had had a ukulele, maybe he could have been happy
maybe he would not have suffered such a sad end
he maybe would have not done all that heroin instead
he maybe would’ve sat around just singing nice songs to his girlfriend

so play your favorite cover song, especially if the words are wrong
‘cos even if your grades are bad, it doesn’t mean you’re failing
do your homework with a fork
and eat your fruit loops in the dark
and bring your etch-a-sketch to work
and play your ukulele

ukulele small and forceful
brave and peaceful
you can play the ukulele too it is painfully simple
play your ukulele badly, play your ukulele loudly
ukulele banish evil
ukulele save the people
ukulele gleaming golden on the top of every steeple

lizzie borden took an axe, and gave her father forty whacks
then gave her mother forty-one, and left a tragic puzzle
if only they had given her an instrument, those puritans
had lost the plot completely
see what happens when you muzzle
a person’s creativity
and do not let them sing and scream
and nowadays it’s worse ‘cause kids have automatic handguns
it takes about an hour to learn how to play the ukulele
about same to teach someone to build a standard pipe bomb
YOU DO THE MATH

so play your favorite cover song, especially if the words are wrong
‘cos even if your grades are bad, it doesn’t mean you’re failing
do your homework with a fork
and eat your fruit loops in the dark
and bring your flask of jack to work
and play your ukulele

ukulele, thing of wonder
ukulele, wand of thunder
you can play the ukulele, too
in london and down under
play joan jett, and play jacques brel
and eminem and neutral milk hotel
the children crush the hatred
play your ukulele naked
and if anybody tries to steal your ukulele, let them take it

imagine there’s no music, imagine there are no songs
imagine that john lennon wasn’t shot in front of his apartment
imagine if john lennon had composed “imagine” on the ukulele
maybe folks would have more clearly got the message

you may think my approach is simple-minded and naïve
like if you want to save the world then why not quit and feed the hungry
but people for millennia have needed music to survive
and that’s why i’ve promised john that i will not feel guilty

so play your favorite beatles’ song
and make the subway fall in love
they’re only $19.95, that’s not a lot of money
play until the sun comes up
and play until your fingers suffer
play LCD soundsystem songs on your ukulele
quit the bitching on your blog
and stop pretending art is hard
just limit yourself to three chords
and do not practice daily
you’ll minimize some stranger’s sadness
with a piece of wood and plastic
holy fuck it’s so fantastic, playing ukulele
eat your homework with a fork
and do your fruit loops in the dark
bring your etch-a-sketch to work
your flask of jack
your vibrator
your fear of heights
your nikon lens
your mom and dad
your disco stick
your soundtrack from “karate kid”
your ginsu knives
your rosary
your new rebecca black CD
your favorite room
your bowie knife
your stuffed giraffe
your new glass eye
your sousaphone
your breakfast tea
your nick drake tapes
your giving tree
your ice cream truck
your missing wife
your will to live
your urge to cry
remember we’re all going to die
so PLAY YOUR UKULELE

credits

released 31 October 2011
Written and performed by Amanda Palmer (hear the song here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZaR_4us6Ec )
It's Monday!  What are You Reading?