33 1/3 Book Series

Is anyone familiar with or read any of the books in the 33 1/3 series?

http://333sound.com/33-13-series/

From what I understand, they are basically short reads, kept between 100-125 pages, focus on one band and album per book, are mostly written by fans (ie not professional writers) and are supposed to be stories of the albums. They cover a pretty wide variety of band genres and albums, seeing how it's mostly fan submitted ideas.

A co-worker turned me on to them. He's read a couple and said they are pretty cool. However, some of the reviews I've read over at Amazon are overwhemingly negative, mostly focusing on the writers (non)abilibties and lack of fact-checking.

In other words, it's music geeks waxing philisophic about their favorite albums. Kinda like what we do here. Just in book form.

I'm not sure I want to plunk down any hard cash for these, so I might see if I can borrow one or 2 from said co-worker to see if they are any good.

Just wondering if anyone else has read or heard of these.

PS If a mod wants to move this out of the "music" section, feel free. I just thought it might get more exposure here.

A few choice topics...

Interesting. I might be curious enough to read the one on Master of Reality if I ever come across it.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

A few choice topics...

ya had me going until Celine Dion   

These always pop up on gohastings when I look for music books. Never knew what the hell they were - but I like the concept. I'm a big fan of people telling the story of how they became a fan of albums and the meaning it has to them.

Sounds like we should be writing a few of these.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Sounds like we should be writing a few of these.

As much as I love Appetite for Destruction and what that album means to me, I know I couldn't write 100 or so pages about how awesome it is.   

My co-worker said you need to read some of the Amazon reviews before buying. Even though some folks just like to be negative, they'll give you a little insight on the book contents. Lotsa filler, pointless stories, biased opinions, ect.

Quote :

Lotsa filler, pointless stories, biased opinions, ect.

I could probably write a couple. Lord knows I'm full of pointless stories, biased opinions, etc.  

*Edit* Dammit, someone already did the first Ramones album.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Lotsa filler, pointless stories, biased opinions, ect.

I could probably write a couple. Lord knows I'm full of pointless stories, biased opinions, etc.  

Have at it, big guy. They take fan submissions and I haven't seen any WASP or Raven editions yet.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Lotsa filler, pointless stories, biased opinions, ect.

I could probably write a couple. Lord knows I'm full of pointless stories, biased opinions, etc.  

Have at it, big guy. They take fan submissions and I haven't seen any WASP or Raven editions yet.

I'm looking over their guidelines for submissions right now...haha.

It looks cool but I would have to read a couple of these first to get an idea of their format and what they're looking for before I threw my hat into the ring. Their next deadline for new "proposals" is next month, I'd have to wait till the next round.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Lotsa filler, pointless stories, biased opinions, ect.

I could probably write a couple. Lord knows I'm full of pointless stories, biased opinions, etc.  

Have at it, big guy. They take fan submissions and I haven't seen any WASP or Raven editions yet.

I'm looking over their guidelines for submissions right now...haha.

It looks cool but I would have to read a couple of these first to get an idea of their format and what they're looking for before I threw my hat into the ring. Their next deadline for new "proposals" is next month, I'd have to wait till the next round.

You could write one on Killen!

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You could write one on Killen!

I'd have to write it in tr00 arkayne vinyl steele warrior-ese though. That would get a little annoying after a couple of pages. Ehehehehehehe

Plus in these times it's getting harder to find the virgin's blood for the ink that a Killen book would trOOly deserve.

I think the problem with most music books is they try to be too intellectual or profound in writing about albums. I much prefer the style that falls under the "so we used to get drunk in a field rockin out to this" school.

The Celine Dion one is puzzling, but then again I can go on Wikipedia and see a 10 paragraph dissertation of a Madonna single and one sentence for an album from a 20+ year old metal band.

I never read any of these books, but I am going to look into them