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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Totally could relate to how music ties so closely with feelings at any point in our lives. A little slow but very full emotion. Great for music lovers from the 90s-ish era!
Beautifully written memoir. I could feel the warmth while reading their love chapter, then pain after all of that happened so suddenly.
My heart was broken when I read: “I knew I would have to re-learn how to listen to music, and that some of the music we’d loved together I’d never be able to hear again.”
My heart was broken when I read: “I knew I would have to re-learn how to listen to music, and that some of the music we’d loved together I’d never be able to hear again.”
This book was well-written, funny, clever, and very good. It just didn't appeal to me. It's definately a good read, though.
Reading this felt like hearing your dad tell you nostalgic stories of a different life and world. The experience was thoroughly enjoyable and moving. The music adds to the expanse of the world and makes it breathe. I am not going to lie and say that I did not feel emotional when the book talks about loss. I might not understand the moving on process or even relate to leaving people behind in memory and filling the space with new people and a better life. But what I can relate to is the grieving process. Some of the book was just comprised of spot-on insights about life. I wish the story end was different but it is not my story to tell or live.
At once the most entertaining music book and most devastating love story I've read in some time. I have a burning desire now to make everyone I know a mix tape.
I think if I knew more of the music he references, this book would have meant more to me. I'm a huge music fan, but not of 80s indie rock in particular, so I felt a little out of my depth. I care more about music than perhaps the average person, but I am by no means as well versed as some of my friends. Reading this sort of felt like a long conversation with one of them about all the music they assume I know. On the other hand, it also makes me want to look up a lot of it. I wish I had read it with some of the songs playing in the background.
I also was just on the tail end of mixtapes. I recorded songs off the radio as a kid, but when it came to making mixes for friends and moments, it was all about the mix CD. But I understand him holding on to the cassette for so long. I do love cassettes. I also still use CDs and make new mixes all the time even if it has fallen out of fashion.
Even not knowing the songs themselves, being someone who loves music means you can relate to the ideas.
Overall an enjoyable journey for any music fan, though obviously a sad one as it is chronicling his relationship with his late wife through music.
The lines that sum it all up the best:
“What is love? Great minds have been grappling with this
question through the ages, and in the modern era, they have
come up with many different answers. According to the Western
philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank
Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. The
stoner kids who spent the summer of 1978 looking cool on the
hoods of their Trans Ams in the Pierce Elementary School
parking lot used to scare us little kids by blasting the Sweet hit
“Love Is Like Oxygen”—you get too much, you get too high,
not enough and you’re gonna die. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love
bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times
all agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to
show them.
But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”
I also was just on the tail end of mixtapes. I recorded songs off the radio as a kid, but when it came to making mixes for friends and moments, it was all about the mix CD. But I understand him holding on to the cassette for so long. I do love cassettes. I also still use CDs and make new mixes all the time even if it has fallen out of fashion.
Even not knowing the songs themselves, being someone who loves music means you can relate to the ideas.
Overall an enjoyable journey for any music fan, though obviously a sad one as it is chronicling his relationship with his late wife through music.
The lines that sum it all up the best:
“What is love? Great minds have been grappling with this
question through the ages, and in the modern era, they have
come up with many different answers. According to the Western
philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank
Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. The
stoner kids who spent the summer of 1978 looking cool on the
hoods of their Trans Ams in the Pierce Elementary School
parking lot used to scare us little kids by blasting the Sweet hit
“Love Is Like Oxygen”—you get too much, you get too high,
not enough and you’re gonna die. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love
bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times
all agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to
show them.
But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”
Rob Sheffield lost a wonderful woman: Renee.
I almost always prefer reading text over listening to audio, but part way through the book, I ran across his website and heard him read.
He's not the greatest voice, but I could feel/sense his love for Renee that I actually had to locate a copy of the book on cd! At the end of the book, I also fell in love with Renee.
I know lots of people who are married to someone for a lot longer than Rob was married to Renee. What he had with her for a short period of time was amazing. *sigh* If only I can have something like that.
Thank you Rob for taking me along for the ride. May music always fill your life and may you never forget Renee.
I almost always prefer reading text over listening to audio, but part way through the book, I ran across his website and heard him read.
He's not the greatest voice, but I could feel/sense his love for Renee that I actually had to locate a copy of the book on cd! At the end of the book, I also fell in love with Renee.
I know lots of people who are married to someone for a lot longer than Rob was married to Renee. What he had with her for a short period of time was amazing. *sigh* If only I can have something like that.
Thank you Rob for taking me along for the ride. May music always fill your life and may you never forget Renee.
I thought I knew music but this book made me wish I knew music more. It's a junk food book, but I think that's okay because I think writing this helped the author. And that's the sustenance.