Dear Listener,
Working at Lemuria makes me feel behind. With so many great books coming out, not being able to read everything gives me physical pain. Finding time to step back and read old Walker Percy or old William Faulkner just seems out of the question. Although I want to, I feel that the relevance of classics doesn’t carry the same hype that a newly released gems do. 
With that said, since I started working at Lemuria, I have read almost exclusively fiction. In the past, I’ve always been good at mixing everything up. After reading a dense Cormac McCarthy, I would switch to a non-fiction book about music writing in the 80s. After finishing a few Hemingways in a row, I would pick up a culture book to give my emotions some rest. This system was successful, until I stopped using it. Lately I have read nothing but fiction, and it needs to stop. 
I have always been a fan of music writing. Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite book isn’t by Hemingway or McCarthy, but Michael Azerrad. In 2001 he released Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 which profiled thirteen indie bands from 1981-1991. His writing on the Replacements and Husker Du and Minutemen broke ground for my eventual taste for their music. In the period that Azerrad wrote about, there wasn’t Myspace or boutique record labels. There were smart men and women who booked their own tours and played music that hadn’t been played before. If this sounds interesting, we have a copy. 
Reading Our Band Could Be Your Life gave me a strong interest music culture and writing. Around that same time period I discovered the 33 1/3 series. Each book in the series profiles one record that was influential to the history of music. Out of the eighty-five that are currently in publication, the names range from My Bloody Valentine to ABBA to A Tribe Called Quest to Ween and everything in between. I can personally attest to the validity of several, but I’d like to make that number. I have made a decision that every fiction book I read will be followed by a book from the 33 1/3 series. (You can find a list of the series here.)
If you have any interest in this series, come see me. Although we only have three of the eighty-five in stock, I will gladly order any one that you want. Below is a song by The Magnetic Fields called Papa Was A Rodeo from their prolific 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs, which is the sixty-ninth book in the 33 1/3 series. Here the song is covered by Bright Eyes.
33 1/3 Electric Ladyland by John Perry
33 1/3 Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti
33 1/3 Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk
33 1/3 Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart
by Simon
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