Brief Books

Melody And Melodrama

Emma Fergusson | Bright Wall/Dark Room | 2nd June 2022

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard play the lovers in David Lean's Brief Encounter, but the real star of the film is an "unbearably splendid" musical score drawn from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which multiplies the emotional pull of the story. "Is music too powerful a tool? When combined with effective images, does music give the creator too much power over an audience?" (2,640 words)

Books I've Read

Derek Sivers | 3rd June 2022

More a resource than a one-stop read, and a very generous one too. Books noted here: 322 at time of writing. A short (20-80 word) description for each book links through to a page of informal notes and quotes. These are mostly recent books, and mostly books about big ideas and upmarket self-help, so plenty of Seth Godin, Oliver Burkeman, Jordan Peterson, N.N. Taleb. Robert Greene etc. (25,000 words)

Derek's read books by the hundred,
But still words are out there left unread.
Which words to imbibe?
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And we'll make sure your reading time's fun. – Ed.