I’ve really been enjoying non fiction more than usual lately- it’s been super easy to find really interesting topics to read about. I am absolutely loving this project for having a good excuse to get really deep into some topics I otherwise wouldn’t know much about.
As anyone who’s ever spent time in a car with me can attest, I am completely, utterly and hopelessly tone deaf…but I absolutely love to sing. (Sorry, friends.) I think that adds to the appeal, frankly, as music is something I can really only enjoy from afar. A cappella in particular is fascinating- the creativity of some people is amazing.
The movie Pitch Perfect is based on this book by Mickey Rapkin and it absolutely did not disappoint. The movie was phenomenal, so I was very excited to read this book. It wasn’t an exact adaptation, which was nice, but there are certain aspects or situations that are evident in the movie, so it was doubly fun to pick out some of those points as the book went on.
It was at times confusing- there is a lot of lingo and there are a lot of characters, meaning that it can be tough to keep up with the exact facts of the story, but the author does a great job of outlining some of the politics of the a cappella community. It is an enormous operation and much larger than I anticipated. It was similar to attending a greek life conference in my junior year when I served on the Panhellenic Association E-Board- it was the first time I really felt like I was part of something much, much larger than I could have imagined.
With my previously admitted celebrity gossip interest, I loved all of the mentions of celebrities who were in a cappella groups. Ed Helms ended up quitting his a cappella group (at Oberlin, not Cornell)…which still ended up pretty okay for him. John Legend wasn’t a surprising former a cappella group member, but James Van Der Beek, Diane Sawyer and Peter Gallagher weren’t ones I was expecting.
I also loved the fact that the main championships took place at Alice Tully Hall- where I got to see the new movie Wish I Was Here for the first time. Personal plug: definitely go.
This is a great book that is for sure worth reading if you want to get in depth into a topic that has a lot of interesting politics and history. Pretty quick read as well- it helps if you’re good at keeping track of names.
You’ll like this if: you had Cups stuck in your head for about six months and can’t wait for the sequel to Pitch Perfect to come out in May 2015. Also probably pretty good for fans of Glee.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 