A new translation of "War and Peace", and a reminder from a onegoodmove regular that I hadn't read it, started a couple of weeks of very enjoyable reading. I'll tell you just part of the story.

I've started "War and Peace before, haven't we all, but didn't finish it the first time. When I purchased a copy of the Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky translation several months ago I promised myself that I would read it this year, and now I've begun. But this isn't about "War and Peace". It's about what happened when I'd read about 200 pages.

I took a break, and went out to check the mail. Oh no another book from Amazon, the result of a twitchy finger, and the belief that I have time to read everything I want to. The book "A Romance on Three Legs", by Katie Hafner, is the story Glenn Gould's obsessive quest for the perfect piano. I read the prologue with the intention of setting the book aside until after I finished the aforementioned "War and Peace" but it was not to be. The prologue lead to Toronto, to Saskatchewan and a blind piano tuner, and then on to Astoria, and the trouble with pianos. A bit about the funky chair Glenn used for all his important recordings, the piano, the CD 318. His work in the studio, and on and on.

Several hours later I was at the end of the book and what was to have been a prelude was a finale, and what a wonderful time it was. A history, a biography, and more. I learned how pianos are tuned, and regulated, and voiced. I learned of Steinway and Sons and the others including Yamaha which in the end replaced the beloved CD 318, the Steinway the victim of a mysterious accident. If you have even the slightest interest in classical music, or pianos, or Glenn Gould this is a must read. Here are a couple of my favorite pieces performed by Glenn Gould, the aria from the Goldberg Variations and the Sarabande from BWV 828 -5.