Lavinia Greenlaw - The Importance of Music to Girls

This was an impulse purchase that I made when Lanie and I were at an Urban Outfitters in Baltimore a few weeks back, the weekend before my birthday, I think. I picked it up because I liked the title, and because I liked what the back presented to me.

The book is Greenlaw's memoir, but it's so much more than that, as well, to someone who can define their life by music trends. Greenlaw grows from disco to being a hippie, to being a punk, and by way of these things discovers who she is as a person.

The book is easy to relate to, even though Greenlaw grew up in an entirely different era than I did. She has disco vinyl that she doesn't want to part with but is embarrassed to own. I have mp3s I try not to let get scrobbled to last.fm because they're a guilty pleasure.

(I'm not, however, fighting it quite as hard as Greenlaw. But then again, I'm much older than she was at this time - the book spans from when she is a child to seventeen or eighteen, then skips ahead to a quite poigniant chapter about the birth of her first child, the first boy she loved, and music.)

As I said, I can relate to this book. Music defines my world, much as it did Greenlaw's as she was growing up. I think anyone who is defined by music can enjoy the book, though it might be harder for a boy to understand than a girl. A lot of the book is about trying to fit in and find your place as a girl, changing yourself to be things you aren't because there's something or someone you want, or want to like you.

Impulse book buying can be hit or miss, but I feel like this one was definitely a hit, at least for me.