Alex Ross about the Five Most Important Books for Him

Alex Ross is the musical critic for the New Yorker. His musical preoccupations cover a broad spectrum (from Mozart to Schoenberg to Bob Dylan, within a continuum, setting aside categories and classifications that impede the appreciation of works on their own terms - MacArthur Fellows). His book, The Rest is Noise, leads a whirlwind tour from the Viennese premiere of Richard Strauss's Salome in 1906 to minimalist Steve Reich's downtown Manhattan apartment (Starred Review).

Here is the list of Five Most Important Books for Alex Ross, as it was published by Newsweek:

1. Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann (the ultimate book about music: a beyond-dark tale of a composer in league with the Devil)
2. The Infinite Variety of Music by Leonard Bernstein (when Ross was a kid, he wore out an LP of Bernstein talking about Beethoven's Eroica symphony)
3. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (her evocation of Old Europe on the eve of World War I is popular history at its most potent)
4. We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live by Joan Didion (an awe-inspiring nonfiction collection; Didion imposes her style on the world, yet records the world as it is)
5. The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (the pragmatist worked all his life to reconcile dogma and doubt. We need him now more than ever)

You should also consult Alex Ross' blog.



(A Life in Books)