The eighth classical recording: #266 Frederic Chopin - Etudes
My frequent lamentation here has been that I don't necessarily have the vocabulary to talk about classical music, and cannot give as indepth a commentary on them - in fact, that's part of the reason we're taking on the list in the first place. I am starting to develop a further understanding, though, and these suit better. Solo piano pieces (which I'm learning is what etudes are) lead to some challenging and complex pieces, with some immediate musicality that sounds good and puts in different moods - some calming, some enticing, but most are really pleasing. The skill in them, the attention to detail, it all comes together really nicely.
The twenty-second book: #22 Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Dufoe
Reading this book now, rather than one of its numerous adaptations, is putting an interesting spin on the story. The introduction of the novel, before the shipwreck, actually takes up a fairly large section of it, and goes into Robinson's travels, being captured by Moors, getting a plantation in Brazil and, well, getting involved in the slave trade (which in part leads up to his shipwreck). At the end, he becomes governor of the island he's shipwrecked on, with the others following him. He's a natural leader, but there are tendencies of the British aristocrat in there.
The real meat of the book is, in a way, the most interesting. Once it's about survival, how he sets up his place to survive for the 28 years he's there, there's a lot of details, things he thought about and had to prepare for. It's full of small touches and it does feel like the character grows in that. It's at its best when it's just him, having to fend for himself, and becomes a bit weirder for modern readers once the preconceptions about his good friend and servant Friday come in. A lot of it is realistic, but it feels a bit uncomfortable at that point. Even so, as it has 28 years, it can take the time to explore things and give him a month of bad illnesses as he learns how to survive. It's a fascinating story at least, even if coloured by the ages - but could you get lost for that long nowadays anyway?