Music to Eat Cake By: Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between

by Lev Parikian

Today's reader has choices: books about love, about life, about death - and everything in between. The variety is overwhelming, bewildering. But what if the reader could play a part in producing something different, something about everything, about nothing, about everything and nothing at the same time? What if the reader could tell the writer what to write about? Lev Parikian asked his readers those very questions, gathered their responses and then set out to write that book. Music to Eat Cake By is the result, a collection of essays exploring everything from the art of the sandwich and space travel to how not to cure hiccups and, of course, his beloved birdsong. Lev considers each subject with his signature wit and warmth, inviting the reader to wonder: what might we ask him to write about next?

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

360 pages, Hardcover

Published November 12, 2020

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a Christmas present from my wife. On the front it says “Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between”. When you know that I am a keen reader and birdwatcher, you can see why Julie thought I would enjoy it.

The book is published by Unbound. From the publisher’s website: “Unbound is the world’s only book publisher to use crowdfunding to raise funds for the publishing process.” For this book, the author took that crowdfunding model one step further and asked people to not just provide the money for publishing the book but also provide the subjects that he would write about.

Then Parikian added two more constraints to his writing. The people who provide the subjects also provided a list of words that he should include in the book at some point. Then, after an initial essay (about amateur musicians - the author is a conductor by trade) that is exactly 4000 words long, each subsequent essay is 100 words shorter than its predecessor until the final essay is just 100 words long.

All this says to me that the author wanted to have some fun writing this book. And the way it reads suggests that he did. It is also a lot of fun to read.

Most reviews seem to talk about dipping in and out of the book due to its short sections and huge variety of topics, but in the introduction the author says…

…it's a book, I think, well suited to dipping, but I'd also hope that those who read it from beginning to end will be rewarded with a sense of its wholeness, and will be able to discern that it's not just a randomly assembled compendium of essays of varying lengths on varying subjects.

I chose to read it from beginning to end. And there are some key themes. Cricket is one (not mentioned on the front but another of my main interests so another reason for me enjoying the book). Music is another (not mentioned on the front but another of my … sorry, I’ve already said that once). Life and death is another (or are two others?).

The future, what's left of it, still lies in front of me.
Except it doesn't. That expression gets it exactly the wrong way round. If anything lies in front of us, it's the past, spread out in all its glory and ignominy for us to pick over and explore, gradually receding into the distance, the biggest landmarks clearly visible for us to regret or celebrate as we see fit.
The future is behind us, unknown, scary, ready to trip us up or jump out and deliver a cruel blow just when we least expect it.

By turns very funny and very poignant this is a hugely enjoyable book to read. And it has a quote that is very close to my heart which says If you’re not looking at nature in a permanent state of astonishment and awe, then something has gone seriously amiss. Which, I’m afraid, it has.

If I have any kind of quibble with the book it is the swearing. I’m not a prude and I think most of the books I read have swearing in them. But here it seemed out of place with the rest of the book. But that’s a minor detail and many will not see it that way at all.

Many thanks to Julie for picking out a book because it said it was about words and birds and turned out also to be about music, cricket and life and death (and a lot of other things).

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were to walk into any bookshop you would be able to find books on most subjects and the bigger the shop the more specialist and wider the range of books available. Most of the time you can find what you are looking for, but what if you had the opportunity to tell a writer a subject that you would like him to write about? And it could be an obscure a subject as you wanted to pick. Foolishly, Lev Parikian has done just that, funding his book through Unbound he gave people the opportunity to suggest things for him to write about.

To add a twist to this concept, he set each of the essays or musings a particular word length starting at four thousand words and dropping by 100 words each time down to the final chapter of 100 words with a subject suggested by his wife, Tessa. Asking people for subjects to write about has given us a book that mines a rich seam of Parikian’s life and background.

To say the subjects are diverse is an understatement, there is a longer essay on Where’s the cue ball going, allotments, scars gelato (most definitely not ice cream) and the link between chocolate, Wombles and musical theatres. There are a few chapters on some of his favourite subjects; cricket, music, and of course birds.

Like Lev himself, this is quite a unique book. He has a way with writing that will mean that you will be falling around laughing fairly soon into the book. I was with his description of just how bad amateur musicians can sound and a handful of pages in. This humour is a common thread in each of the chapters, whether it is him trying to remember the people whose wedding that he went to, the delights of getting older, how to stop hiccups and how to tell what species of elephant you are looking at.

They are very diverse subjects and I am fairly sure that one or two have been deliberately picked to be super difficult. Can’t think why that is… That said, he has risen to the occasion magnificently and each essay is entertaining, opinionated, full of snippets of his life and he often heads of on tangents, mostly because he can. He does manage to sneak quite a bit of cricket in too. As with all his other books, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who have not yet read this book are missing such a treat! It had me in giggly raptures of glee and stitches, not just from the text but also chapter footnotes, vocabulary, the index and word counts, not to mention (so I will!) loads of "Aha!" moments. Absolutely my wheelhouse. The author decided to seek readers' topic recommendations for his book and voila...here we are, bedazzled by wit and humour and stunned with a zillion revelations. He is utterly perceptive of human nature...so often I chuckled and thought, "I gathered that was just MY family" or "Hahaha! It's not just me!" Thoughtfully written and brilliantly researched, this is a big fat wow book. Gushing? Sure. But it can't be helped. It's THAT good. I sniggered, alright.

Where to begin?! So many...isms, so many anecdotes. The beetroot description nearly did me in. And here I thought I knew cicadas. Though the author has a predilection for music, birds, garlic and cricket (and many other things), you needn't even like these objects to enjoy what he has to say about them. As a Canadian, cricket is beyond my grasp, not exactly popular here, but the chapters which included cricket blurbs are still well worth reading for the humour and writing style. If you're like me, you've taken numbers for granted. But did you know not all cultures deal in numbers? Ageing doesn't seem like much fun, though The Magic Roundabout does! The Dinosaur Suite mention couldn't be sweeter. As a nature nut I was happy to learn a ton of information here from birds to limpets to elephants. Every single word in the book has its place.

P. G. Wodehouse lovers rejoice! Ahhh...please read this book. My heart brimmed with joy for a thousand reasons. If you love words, books, music, nature, food or, well, anything, this book is for you. A hard copy belongs on my shelf as it is one to pick up and read again and again.

My sincere thank you to Unbound and NetGally for providing me with an ARC of this marvelous book (running out of adjectives) in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of essays often have a unifying theme; this unusual and very readable book has many themes, and most of them suggested by other people. This book is produced by Unbound, which means that it is sponsored by a number of people. Parikian had the idea of asking people for ideas of what he could write about - subjects for essays, however unlikely. It meant that there is an unusual collection of topics covered in this book, even for a writer who identifies himself as a conductor and keen birdwatcher with interests in cricket and other topics. Just to make it more of a challenge to write and compile this book, he worked out that forty pieces of writing, decreasing in length by one hundred words from four thousand to begin with would also mean that the pieces of writing got shorter as the book progressed. Each piece is carefully written in accordance with these self imposed rules to be the exact length, which is no mean achievement. It also transpires that people “provided” words, which are inserted into the pieces. These range from the German “Sehnsucht” (a nostalgic longing for what might have been) to “sunflowers”. Some words are simple, others polysyllabic, and each word is identified with its nominator.

Within this framework the pieces of writing reveal much about the author and his special areas of knowledge, such as “Getting the Best out of Enthusiastic Amateur Musicians” which as a conductor he understands thoroughly in all respects. His father was a professional violinist who played a Stradivarius, which gave rise to “The 1681 ‘Fleming’ Stradivarius”, a quite moving piece. One of his other interests is cricket, and there are several pieces which reflect this, asking about particular cricketers, commentators and about the sporting nature of the game, the laws and the spirit of fairness which it is supposed to represent. There are also fascinating pieces which extol the virtues of the sandwich and soup, their construction and deconstruction. He looks at the way aging affects people, especially him, and the concept of “Second Chances” through tennis players and a famous actor. Not that he is an expert of everything he writes about, and can be self deprecating, especially in the rather funny “How Not to Cure Hiccups at Midnight on Ryde Esplanade”. There is maths and music, sibling singing groups and a difficult wedding reception or two.

I enjoyed “A Brief History of the Keighley and Worth Valley, which packs a lot into eight hundred words. My favourite is the fantastically named “The Intrinsic Link Between Chocolate, the Wombles and Musical Theatre in Post-Millennial Britain”, a subject suggested which is “clever, perverse, or an irritating mixture of both”. He reveals much about his method of writing, which includes extensive research on people desperately trying to make the link between topics, and in this case failing. With three thousand two hundred words to play with in this piece, he can admit to some diversions and hopeless links. The answer is ingenious, and quite an achievement.

I enjoyed this book for its variety and well written mix of ideas. This is at once a personal book and an academic exercise, a collection of amusing, clever and odd pieces, a real cornucopia of ideas and observations. It is undoubtedly an achievement, a book which it is possible to pick up and put down,having perhaps learnt something, and definitely been entertained. I was pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this book and recommend it as entertaining.

[Paterson Loarn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victoria sponge should be scoffed to the accompaniment of music by Gilbert and Sullivan. This is one of many imaginative and entertaining opinions Lev Parikian puts forward in his latest book. Before I learned that he’s an orchestral conductor and author, I used to follow, on Twitter, Lev’s live birdsong broadcasts, for which he’s widely known and admired. He appears to be the kind of person who’s always up for a challenge, whether it’s patrolling the hedgerows while hoping the local chaffinches are in good voice, or writing a set of essays on random topics.

Music to Eat Cake By, subtitled ‘Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between’, is a collection of essays exploring everything from the art of the sandwich and space travel and, of course, his beloved birdsong. Lev considers each subject with his signature wit and warmth, inviting the reader to wonder: what might we ask him to write about next? The perfect gift for your curious-minded friend or relative, Lev's collection of fact, humour and memoir is like Schott’s Miscellany meets Alan Bennett.

In order to make the challenge even more thrilling, Parikian did not personally select the subjects of these essays. Instead, he asked his readers what they would most like him to write about. In doing so, he was laying himself open to mischief, in a way most authors would not risk. I’d love to see a list of the suggestions he refused. Some of those that made the cut must have been chosen with a chuckle, for example, ‘How Not to Cure Hiccups at Midnight on Ryde Esplanade’. Lev describes the person who suggested it as an old and trusted friend, which explains why they got away with it. As it happens, Lev handles this very demanding topic with admirable style and humour.

There is an essay on ice hockey, another on having an allotment and, my personal favourite, ‘The Art of the Sandwich’. According to Lev, ‘We all know that the Queen of Sandwiches is the bacon sarnie on cheap white’, but he employs 2,800 hilarious words to prove his point. Some of the essays are playful, others touching. One or two, like ‘Growing Old, Growing Older’ are rather serious, to be read when the reader is feeling contemplative. Perhaps because the subjects were chosen by those who know him best, they give Lev an opportunity to show off his vast knowledge and experience. The essay entitled ‘Getting the Best out of Enthusiastic Amateur Musicians’ will be of interest to many, and I particularly enjoyed ‘The 1681 ‘Fleming’ Stradivarius’, a sensitive account of an instrument belonging to his father, and what eventually became of it.

Music To Eat Cake By is ideal for dipping into. The essays are between 3,600 and 800 words long, with a word count helpfully displayed under each title, so the reader can judge which one is just right for enjoying a coffee, timing a soft-boiled egg or a quiet evening with their feet up. My serving suggestion is to add a generous slice of cake and Lev’s choice of music. Appealing to a wide audience, expressing varied moods and with an attractive cover, Music To Eat Cake By will make an excellent gift.

[Ewan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps this book should have been called Parikian’s Compendium or Lev’s Miscellany. It is a book for dipping into and that may be how most read it. I read from the beginning, because that’s how I read and roll. I confess I love a book with footnotes, each one a potential rabbit-hole for a trivialista (bet that isn’t a word) like me. Which brings me to the point – in a somewhat dilatory fashion, true – Mr P wrote this book after requesting from subscribers, crowdfunders, or pledgers, as the publishers Unbound prefer* – subjects and words to be included in it.

Every word contributor is acknowledged in a footnote scattered amongst the author’s dry asides beneath the main texts. The variety and very British contrariness evinced in some of these word-choices was most gratifying for this reader. The person who provided the subject matter has their name under the title of each piece. Immortality at a very reasonable cost!

With essays varied in subject matter from the titular ‘Music to Eat Cake By’ to my own personal favourite ‘Pedants and Pedantry’ (wherein a mirror was held up to my own behaviour and I literally† cringed) Lev Parikian brings a wryly avuncular tone reminiscent of Bryson at times.

I’m convinced it must have taken a great deal of brain-wracking to make this book hang together so well in spite of the variety of subjects on offer. Now I have read it, it will be on a shelf in my office, to be brought out in the case of any cake and music opportunities arising.

This book would be an ideal Christmas present for the discerning reader, buy one for yourself too.

*For legal reasons, I believe.

†As no doubt Mr Parikian’s inner pedant would, if his sensible outer self ever reads this.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a bit of a tricky collection to rate.

I found some of the essays funny. This collection covers a lot of topics from music to cricket and some of the essays didn't really resonate with me. Some are sports heavy and some are very short. There's also a section on whether the term Chinese Whispers, known as the game of telephone in the US, is or isn't racist that I didn't love because I personally think the answer is pretty straightforward. It highlighted for me that I'm probably not the demographic for this book.

There's sarcasm and strong opinions shared in this book that make up a specific brand of humor. I can see why some people like it. For me the overall collection choice was a bit mixed.

[Bookwormbadger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had enjoyed one of this author's previous books so was looking forward to this one. I wasn't overly impressed though. Far too much about cricket and maths. Some of the essays were quite funny but most were not very interesting.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

[Hilary May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is mean. I enjoy Lev Parikian’s six things on Substack and this is very much in the same vein. I did enjoy but it didn’t grab me. I shouldn’t really have read cover to cover but I did - can’t help myself. Very glad the chapters got shorter and definitely enjoyed much of it.

[Twig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It made me laugh, and cry, and I learned interesting stuff too.