Rick Moody, famed author of Garden State, The Ice Storm and The Four Fingers of Death has a new novel on a journey in music. On Celestial Music And Other Adventures in Listening Rick Moody talks about what makes some music cool while also giving a definition on the word cool, as well as talking about what made him like certain bands. This is a novel that reflects the thoughts of the author as if Rick Moody were in the same room telling you in person. From classic rock of The Who to little known bands like Pere Ubu and even a chapter about how to be a good Christian artist.

…AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN LISTENING:
Rick Moody sounds like he knows a whole lot about music, at least it reads like he does. I can’t say for sure on just how much knowledge Rick Moody might have with the music industry because I didn’t know 90% of who he was talking about in his book. He uses so many different bands, members, genres, and styles of music that I was finding it hard to keep in sync with what he was talking about. There are a few instances that I actually knew who he was talking about but those few times pale in comparison to the many bands he talks about.

And talking is exactly what he does in this book. ‘On Celestial Music And Other Adventures In Listening’ reads like it’s a conversation being had with Rick Moody. A one sided conversation because all I got to do was hear his side while not getting to say anything. That might sound like most books but imagine having a conversation with someone that has a lot of knowledge with a topic that they really like, add to it by having that person being a talkerto the point of the loving to hear sound of own voice, and then you just stand there and allow them to talk for 3 weeks. That is how I felt while reading this book, as if Rick Moody was standing there with me talking non-stop about how much this band should not be doing this or the reason why he likes this singer, and so many more topics.

Before I finished the first chapter, which is called “Against Cool”, I figured out how this book was going to be wrote and how much I was going to be disinterested in it. For nearly 46 pages Rick Moody talks about the meaning of “Cool”, when it was first used, how it was first used to how it’s used in today’s speech, while also just talking about his thoughts of the word. This is pretty much the whole book, his thoughts on music, bands, and what he likes and dislikes. I didn’t gain any knowledge from reading this book, which is what I was hoping for, but instead I came away with having an understanding on how Rick Moody thinks in terms of music. I also got out of this that Rick Moody knows a lot more about different musical groups and a really broad range of musical trivia type information, but he doesn’t teach anything. Reading ‘On Celestial Music And Other Adventures in Listening’ had me wanting to go on some other adventure that didn’t involve reading this book.