Musings and Mutterings

Got an update from our chorus manager today.

The search for a new chorus director is still getting organized and won't be done until late in the calendar year. They've decided to let the orchestra's associate conductor act as the interim director for our fall performances (B9 & Messiah). He was already going to be conducting the Messiah anyway.

Turns out the reason Carmina Burana wasn't included on the symphony's concert schedule is because we're inexplicably doing it with the local ballet organization instead. Interesting.

We've also been told to pencil in a possible one-night performance in late February, but not what it might be. So there's at least a slim chance we might still do something this season that I haven't already done at least 3 times before. We had earlier been told that we would be involved with The Polar Express, but then they decided to do Muppet Christmas Carol instead.

I just finished watching John Green's latest video, in which he talks about the vagaries of the NYT bestseller list and how you will miss out on a lot of excellent books if you use that as your primary source of book recommendations. So that got me to wondering how other people discover the books that they want to read.

Personally, I am such a F/SF devotee that a huge number of the books I end up checking out are sourced directly from Tor's lists of new releases. They publish the lion's share of my current favorite authors and seem to be responsible for the majority of recent Hugo nominees.

I also rely heavily on my local libraries. There are two in particular with good F/SF sections and I am able to find most of the books that I want to read in their collections instead of having to purchase them. I also regularly browse their nonfiction new releases and recommendations for younger readers.

The other major source of recommendations for me is social media - mostly you all here on Dreamwidth, but also Bluesky, Facebook, and Discord. I'm always paying attention to what my friends are into.

Occasionally I'll see an interesting book on the shelf at Target or Barnes & Noble, but I'm not located near any independent bookstores, alas.