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Books About Music? They Don't Have To Sound Flat

My friend Jacki recently asked me, "Are you one of those folks who prefers music to people?"

I had no idea she knew me so well. For a music fanatic, getting lost in the vibrations is as easy as letting a riptide drag you out to sea.

The power of music is similar to the power of books — but books are notoriously poor at describing the abstraction and subtlety of a melody. Still, authors keep trying to bottle the magic. Here are three books — one about a fan, one about a critic, and one about an unlikely musician — that sing like the real thing.

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Will Layman