Arts & Music Books > Literary Criticism & Theory Arts & Music Books > R

Advantages: Curmudgeonly cultural commentator criticises crass commercialism
Disadvantages: Can be crusty and cranky

...and loan sharks. The commercial mass media has a self-serving interest in keeping us on the ‘carousel’, rather than the ‘escalator’ of rising standards and expectations. In response, Hoggart calls for true public-service broadcasting, where programmes are made with quality, rather than audience figures, in mind. You feel here he is attempting to turn back an unstoppable tide: he clings to BBC4 and the Channel 4 News like a drowning man. But I couldn't ...
...people. Look at the success of writers like Lynne Truss and Michael Moore. That suggests we do want standards in language and politics. There is more hope than Hoggart realises: he may be pushing at an open door. Some of his other concerns may be unfounded too. For example, I don’t think all Sun readers take the paper seriously as a source of news. Sadly or not, there’ll always be a market for such ‘entertainment’. Just the evidence of the broad ... Read review

Advantages: hugely informative, overwhelming amounts of knowledge
Disadvantages: can be confusing at first, book is written in fragmented format

...the subject can change (by performing the change on you). Tricks Of The Mind is an incredibly enjoyable and informative education read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the world of the human mind, beliefs and expectation, hypnosis and NLP, body language and psychic abilities. ... Read review

Advantages: Everything you could ever want to know
Disadvantages: Slightly upsetting in places

This is quite a significant book to me. I grew up listening to Thin Lizzy and being Irish, my whole family was totally in love with their music. Phil Lynott was such a complex character I felt I owed it to him to read this book, just to prove that there was more to him than just the drugs. I learnt so much about him and the band that at points I felt I knew them. It was strange to think that if only Phil had stopped the drugs, he'd still be here. ...
...gives us all the gory details of his life, it tells tales of Phils hilariously flirtatious character, his obsession with music and showed us what a loving father he was and how much he loved being a father. Last year I had the privelige of meeting his son and I felt like I knew everything about his father and he knew so little (he had only just found otu Phil was his father due to Phil giving him away because of his religion). It was amazing, it ... Read review

Advantages: really interesting book, very inspirational
Disadvantages: may not suit young children and specific to certain intrests

This book is very inspirational and after reading it fills your mind with ideas and creation. I bought this book not long ago and since i haven't put it down. I call it a book but to me its more like a gallery. Banksy expresses very political views by doing stencil art in some of the main cities of the u.k such as London and Liverpool. This book simply takes you on a journey through his work. The book documents his work in gallery's and current projects ... Read review

Advantages: vital factors covered
Disadvantages: not to much detail

...: 1. Notes on the Fretboard (very important factor to learn) 2. The major scale 3. Two movable chord Shapes 4. The 1st 3rd and 5th chord families 5. The DAF Roadmap 6. Chord Fragments/families 7.The circle of Fifths 8. Variations on two movable chord shapes 9. movable major scales 10. Movable blues scales 11. sliding pentatonic scales 12. A Movable double note lick Over all the book provides strong key information into building your knowledge ...
...much detail in each section but provides good step by step instructions to give the basic understanding of the theories. I would recommend this to players who want to get a quick grasp of alot of different basic skills without having to read hundreds and hundreds of pages. In fact the whole book only has 64 and it covers all of the above. All in all a good little book for beginners especially and intermediate players wouldn't be sorry for reading ... Read review