I'm sorry. Did I say 2000 songs and 8.5 gigs when referring to my iTunes importing?
Correction: 2500 songs and 10 gigs. Ugh.
But now it's finally over! The last of my Vladimir-Ashkenazy-plays-all-the-Beethoven-sonatas CDs (a 10-disc set) has been imported, and my iTunes library, as defined by "every blasted CD that I own," is now complete. I also bought a new 100-CD wallet at Target this evening, since the two 48-CD wallets that I had were overstocked thanks to the nine new CDs I got for Christmas (plus two extra ones given to me by Mom and Uncle Ted, and two U2 CDs I bought myself with gift cards). So now all my CDs have been rearranged, and apart from 1) my comprehensive Beethoven sonata collection just mentioned, 2) my comprehensive András-Schiff-plays-the-whole-Bach-Well-Tempered-Clavier-(both-books)-CDs (a 4-disc set), and 3) some random CDs that I got for free and don't care about, my entire CD collection fits into the 3 wallets, which means I can now take everything in my car. Although I can never really listen to classical music in the car; it has a much wider range of sound frequencies and volume than rock/pop music does, and the subtleties are lost in the ambient noise which is so plentiful on the road. But at least it's much more organized, and more easily stored and transported. (The J in me is very happy.)
In other news, I'm currently more than halfway through Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code. My dad, who was kind enough to loan me both books knowing he wouldn't get them back for years, told me that it was better to read Angels and Demons first, so I'm doing that. My opinion of the book is divided. Dan Brown has an excellent mind for details and for storylines--the plot is very exciting and quite thrilling. I really like the fact that the story unfolds in real time, and I'm finding that I can't put the book down. However, he doesn't have quite such an excellent mind for the actual writing. His writing style is pretty weak: he tells much more often than he shows, his characters aren't always believable (you would think that, at some point, Langdon would get used to the crazy things that are happening and his jaw wouldn't drop for the ten thousandth time in disbelief), and he's EXTREMELY melodramatic--every chapter (the chapters range from two to maybe eight pages apiece) ends with a "dun-dun-DUN!" cliffhanger.
So, the tip of the day from AJ is: Get Dan Brown a ghostwriter. That way, he could dream up storylines and do what he does best, while leaving the actual writing to someone a little more qualified.
The most ridiculous quote of the day is: "Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country" (Nelson DeMille; laudatory quote on the back cover of Angels and Demons). Obviously Mr. DeMille doesn't read too much. He should meet my brother.
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2 comments:
In addition to that, Dan Brown introduces knowledge that is decades old as if it were new and surprising.
Like creating matter from energy (which technically isn't what they accompilshed, but whatever).
Or antimatter
Or the entire facthood of how the canon of the bible came to be.
Ya know. But he does write a catchy thriller.
And that, in a nutshell, is why iPods are ridiculous. Now don't get me wrong, I love my Nano, and have seen the error of my ways in thinking they were all stupid. But AJ, Mr. Music Nut himself, has a total of 10 gigs on the CDs that he owns. 10. The standard iPod size is 30. Three times AJ's library. Now, I find it hard to believe that AJ could possibly listen to all 2500 songs he has on a fairly regular basis. How could someone listen to 7500 songs? I just don't understand . . . my iTunes library is 788 songs, 3.11 GB, and I don't listen to all of it.
So yes . . . that's just my take on that.
As for Dan Brown, I committed one of the cardinal sins and went to see the movie The DaVinci Code having read neither the book nor the prequel. So reading DaVinci Code, at least, probably a lot of the tension and excitement would be lost on me, because I already know what happens (assuming that the movie followed the book relatively closely, which I believe Dad said it did). And whether he's one of the best and smartest writers in he country or not, he probably is one of the most accomplished.
Which were the two U2 CDs you got? I'd assume War was one of them . . .
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