Haydn: String Quartets Vol.10: String Quartet Op.54 & 55

Advantages: The writing, the setting, the music
Disadvantages: The characters are not sow ell defined or likable

...I bought this book, An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, for the grand sum of one penny on the basis of a review written by Floon. I was enchanted by his description of the storyline and the author?s writing style. I was not disappointed. The author, Vikram Seth states, in an author?s note located on the last page of the book, that, ?Music to me is dearer even than speech?. To convey this, he focuses his novel on the world of music and its performance. The central character, Michael Holme, is the second violinist in a London-based string quartet. His life has settled somewhat into a rut. He plays his violin; teaches the violin; makes love to one of his students, Virginie; rings his father; all as a matter of routine. His comfortable lifestyle is suddenly disturbed by a series of events each connected and occurring in parallel... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastically realised world, focused plot
Disadvantages: Minimalist detail, not a cohesive collection

...The Earthsea Quartet compiles Ursula Le Guin's first four novels set in the Iron Age styled world of Earthsea. The first three books of the original trilogy were published over four years, from 1968 to 1972. A fourth book was released in 1990, erroneously subtitled the last tale of Earthsea but it ended up being the springboard for further tales. The four books are set in the known lands of Earthsea; made up of a central archipelago encircled by four polar reaches and the Kargad Lands. Areas outside the provided map are unknown; however a land of the dragons is speculated to exist in the far west. Earthsea is mostly populated by a dark-browned skinned people. The white Kargs are given a slightly more barbaric presentation than other races, shown to be less literate and superstitious of the practise of magic. Different characters from... Read review

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Advantages: Great well known strings.
Disadvantages: Suck with tone towards the end of their life.

...will now explain :-) ( Thank god I hear you cry! ) The " SLINKY " thing is just part of the product name. For the names such as " 10's " are the guitarists slang for what gauge of string you are using. This might not seem obvious, but because guitar strings are all strung to different pitches on the guitar. In order to obtain a consistent tension for all the strings when being strung ( i.e. put on the guitar so you can play it ) on a guitar, each string must be a different thickness ( gauge - which is measure in 1000th's of an inch ( an inch being 2.54 cm's approx for non imperial folk out there :-)) It?s so important to have an equal tension over the strings because of ease of playing, if all but on sting are tight, and one is like spaghetti, it's not going to help. Also there are then tuning problems to take into account which... Read review

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