Readability Index: Readable

I’m reading a book called Blues People by LeRoi Jones AKA Amiri Baraka. It’s really good, but I am rushing through it. I just keep rushing through books lately. I had to look for this one passage I liked for like ten minutes just now because I couldn’t even remember where it came from, and as I looked over the pages I didn’t remember reading half of them. Here’s the passage:

“Music, as paradoxical as it might seem, is the result of thought. It is the result of thought perfected at its most empirical, i.e., as attitude, or stance. Thought is largely conditioned by reference; it is the result of consideration or speculation against reference, which is largely arbitrary. There is no one way of thinking, since reference (hence value) is as scattered and dissimilar as men themselves.”

That’s some deep shit right there. The book isn’t mostly about that kind of thing, I think it’s about how Jazz and Blues came from the perfection of the way black people thought about their place or lack thereof in American society.

I’m going to have to read it again I suppose. Is it better to read more books or know more about one book?