Kiraze

heh, I doubt that after reading this book your feelings would be much different as also Orhan Pamuk seems to have some kind of love-hate relationship to the city (well, it helped me to understand better why *I* hate Istanbul so it is an interesting reading)

I myself am currently trying to read "World history of the Dance" by Curt Sachs which is originally written on 1937... that is not very light reading either but good counterbalance for that is to read some B-class fantasy books that are all so similar that I never even remember if I have already read them before or not (last one was Eragon by Cristopher Paolini... quite pathetic and cliched story which is much better as a movie than as a book mostly because movie is much shorter )

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

I love to read especially, Mystery/Suspense , Science Fiction/Horror and a few fantasy titles. My current fave read is the Vampire Huntress series by L.A. Banks. Currently, I'm reading "Wicked", the 8th book in her series and the heroine is Damali, an African-American Vampire Huntress also known as the Millenium Neteru. I'm fascinated by L.A Banks use of historical and mystical lore from Ancient Egyptian,Nubian, Ethiopian, Asian cultures. I'm also waiting for the third book of the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini and my daughter can't wait for the latest Harry Potter book to round out her collection.
Yasmine

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www.visionsofthenile.com

Maria_Aya

Well I'm addicted lol
The last 2 yeas whatever I read is for oriental dance or music, and its my effort to try to be a better teacher and understand more about my life passion.

So these days i'm re-reading a great book (that HAVE - MUST to be transeled in English at least) by Maro Filipou (and my book is signed by the writer )
"The lost music's of Egypt"
It's about:
The lost music's of Egypt are the first music's that have been played by the blind arpists of the faraonic era, are also the later ones that were accompining Great Alexander at his way to Egypt. Are the music's of the first christian times but also the heretic of Alexandria's. Are the music of the desert, the call of the muezin, the reading of the Coran, the cry of Oum Kalthoum. Are, at the end the music's that made more melodic the live's of the people that lived all these 4.000 years at Egypt, and now are lost.
(tryed to translate the back of the book)

Its a great book, photos, writen music from heroglyphics, tabla's etc!!!
Check the outside of the book here:
classicalmusic.gr - ç êëáóéêÞ ìïõóéêÞ óôçí ÅëëÜäá

Also reading again:
"The healing music" by Randall McClellan

The book search the healing method's thru the use of sound and music, from ancient years till today. The writter gives us an inside look to the basic ideas of acoustic, the way we listen, and analize the impact of music on the human body.



Maria Aya

Venefica

Have they actualy found out more on Egyptian music yet? When I as a little girl had my Egypt crase the books read that they had a few guesses based on instruments found and how Arabic music is, but could not know for sure what Egyptian music sounded like.

The Vampire Huntress series sonds alot of fun, I would love to read them and must cheek them out. Thank you for the idea.

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Ash Begets Chaos. Chaos Begets Primordial Life--Haunting Grounds.

Yshka

I'm currently reading Amy Tan's "Saving fish from drowning" but I haven't gotten really far yet because I have to read loads of stuff for courses at uni. Which becomes quite boring. Waiting for me to read are "mayada, daughter of iraq" (mentioned earlier in this thread), some other books by Amy Tan, "the bonesetters daughter" and "the hundred secret senses". Some of them I started reading before but never had time to finish..
And then also "Nanjing 1937, A love story" by Ye Zhaoyan is waiting to be read. I love reading from Asian authors. I didn't just have my Egypt craze (which is also still there lol), I also have been going through a year long China craze .

Venefica

Well I am having a bit of a Japaneese crase after watching Shogun whit my fiancee. It seam like a real interesting culture to read a bit aboute.

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Ash Begets Chaos. Chaos Begets Primordial Life--Haunting Grounds.

Babylonia

Venefica: my daughter spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. She really misses it and can't wait to go back. She stayed in a town called Iida, in the Nagano prefecture. She liked Tokyo alot but really liked the fact that she was in a small town.

Venefica

Sounds wonderful. i so want to go to Japan, take a course in Reiki in the main Reiki center in Tokyo, go to a mange convention, try the food and see the sights and perhaps atend a lecture by Sensei Tanimura, a man I so respect and would love to see real life, even if I did not understand a word he said.

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Ash Begets Chaos. Chaos Begets Primordial Life--Haunting Grounds.

Torihime

I love the Japanese language. I've been trying to learn it, but I really don't have enough spare time at the moment.. I'll definately learn some day though!

Babylonia

My daughter learned it in school. She says that the easy part is that it's phoenetic and unlike Engish when you see a character the sound is always the same. But like anything it takes practice.