Last night I finished Vikram Seth's
An Equal Music. I'd previously read
The Golden Gate (a novel composed entirely of sonnets, even the contents and acknowledgements) by him, and while there were elements of it that I was dissatisfied with, I thought it was brilliant. But
An Equal Music is even better; I was just blown away by the beauty of the prose. It wasn't consciously beautiful in that purpley-but-not way, but just this quiet, gentle, poignant, questioning lyricism and it was the main reason why the main character didn't come off as a self-centered jerk, which he really could have. His name is Michael and he's a violinist, which is the other reason I adore this book. I know much, much less about classical music than I would like to and this book was absolutely fascinating in that it gives you an idea about what it's like to be a clasical musician. Anyone who loves music passionately, even, I reckon, if they're not fond of classical music, would love this book. It's about what music does to us, does for us, about why it's so important. And the woman Michael loves has a certain medical condition which I won't spoil because I can't be fucked to use the cut tags but Michael's musings on it are absolutely heartbreaking. Plus, it's also set in Vienna and Venice and the descriptions of the cities are wonderful. Just, a fantastic book; if you get the chance, check it out.
And now for something completely different:
For 5 of your fandoms, name:
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
6. The character 'ship everyone else loves that you don't:
7. The character 'ship you love that everyone else hates:
( SV, DS, BtVS/Angel, LotR, SN. Bearing in mind that I'm rather conventional and OTPish and have no real idea who fandom at large does and doesn't hate )