Context – reading background music

Being the week between Christmas and New Years, today has been a very slow day indeed.  As such, I’ve mostly been a body in a chair, guarding against the decay of disuse.  I’ve spent most of my day reading Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind.

The book is pretty good.  So far it’s a shade better than the second book in the series, Stone of Tears, but still doesn’t quite capture the magic of Wizard’s First Rule.  Goodkind has a pesky habit of slogging along for up to 700 pages, with the last 100-200 being impossible to stop reading.  Knowing this is good when embarking on a series of 15+ books, with each being well over 500 pages in length.  If I didn’t believe in his ability to engage me during the home stretch, I’m not sure I’d have the strength to get through these books.  Blood of the Fold is only book 3, so who knows how long I can keep this up.  But when looking to disengage your brain-follicles with some pulpy high fantasy nonsense, look no further than The Sword of Truth series.

All of which is just to say I put Toe on in the background, knowing little about them aside from their being a post-rock/math-rock kind of outfit with mostly instrumental music, which is key to my being able to read while listening to music (the instrumental more than the post/math).  If you’re into Battles or Don Caballero or the like, Toe is probably right up your alley.  It’s got all the hallmarks of the genres assigned to them, which is either a sell or deterrent depending on your affiliation with the genres.  If you aren’t familiar with post-rock or math-rock, I don’t know how to help you.  Just dive right in.