Bedside reading

I didn't get outside the house at all today because of work on the quarterly magazine (with far too much time spent doing a mockup of a 2-page spread to prove to the client that the word-count of one of the articles was way too high).

I woke before the alarm went off and came downstairs to begin. This was taken with the iPhone when I went back upstairs at 5:30 am for a return to noddyland. This is the current pile of books on the bedside table. From top to bottom they are: A Merry Heart (essays and lectures by the Canadian author Robertson Davies; Hard Times by Charles Dickens (finished recently, and due for return to the bookcase downstairs); Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (one of my last batch of books, which is proving a hard nut to crack); The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker (a superb book about classical music in the 20th Century, subtitled 'Listening to the 20th Century'); and, on the bottom, the User's Manual for my recently acquired Denon Ceol music system.

My mate Derek called in for coffee and chat before lunch, giving me a handy excuse to take a work break. I'd mentioned recently to him that I'd become disillusioned with the Denon (hard-edged distortion in upper frequencies, especially noticeable with female vocals and violin). He'd had a quick listen the last time he was here and agreed with me. Before he left today we switched the speaker connections back from my new Wharfedale bookshelf speakers to my KEF floorstanders, to establish if the problem was because of the speakers or the amplifier. We both doubted if the speakers were at fault, and the switch proved that they weren't. Now I don't know what to do with the Denon. As it stands, I've lost faith in it, and am very disappointed.

More work afterwards, and still more ahead of me tonight.