Fernsehturm

Just like everyone else who is strapped for content at this time of year, I’m going to dive in and do one of those traditional end-of-year cultural review roundup things. It being me, and somewhat behind the times, these are more reflective of what I read, watched, listened too in 2011, if you want a more contemporary look back at the last year I would probably go elsewhere. First up books:

Seasons They Change – Jeanette Leach

I read this back last January and even then I knew it’d be a strong contender for my book of the year, which it is. The subtitle “The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk” sums up perfectly what this weighty tome is about, giving an extensively researched history of strange folk music from its roots in the counter-culture through to its fairly recent wider exposure due to acts like Circulus, Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart. The well-known and obscure rub shoulders, and acts from both sides of the Atlantic are given equal coverage. It is clear only half a chapter in that Jeanette Leach definitely knows her stuff as her writing voice is authoritative, or I should say authoritative but never dull. I found Seasons They Change to be a real page-turner, better than a lot of fiction I have read recently. On top of the sheer pleasure about reading about the origins of New Weird Americana or Comus, this book has been responsible for more hours of  buying music than any other I have ever read – I cannot praise it enough.

A Game Of Thrones – George RR Martin

It would be remiss of me not to mention this book in my annual round-up, after all I spent pretty much all of the summer reading Martin’s Song Of Fire And Ice. There is enough written elsewhere on the internet and beyond about this one – so I’m just going to say buy it and read it, before moving onto…

The Pioneers – Jack Schaefer

Better known as the author of Shane on which the classic Western film is based, Jack Schaefer’s The Pioneers delighted me when I decided to take a small holiday half-way through reading weighty George RR Martin fantasy novels. This is a collection of western short stories told with a slightly magic realist feel. Each of the stories included in this collection are perfect examples of western tales, but subvert the genre enough that I do believe that anyone who doesn’t like cowboy stories would enjoy this volume too. Intelligently written filled with down-to-earth wit, you can pick up this book second-hand for a couple of quid online – a real bargain.