Piano Lessons: Music, Love, & True Adventures - Hardcover

The award-winning host of NPR's All Things Considered describes his midlife decision to learn to play the piano, a lifelong dream that made him reevaluate his life achievements and that was bolstered by his admiration for accomplished pianists. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of his fifty-second year--a year already filled with long, fast workdays and too little spare time--as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano.  The twelve monthly chapters span from January--when after decades of growing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in and buys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment.

Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano.  And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with--and insights from--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Go