Finished reading Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat (2010), thoroughly enjoyed it, learned a lot from it, and now I'm recommending it to anyone interested in participating and/or better understanding the craft of songwriting. The book is filled with highly detailed, insightful and honest observations about his own work as well as that of others. One particularly cool thing for me is how it provides the context needed to appreciate the lyrics to the songs. For example, I don't know how many times I've heard "Send In the Clowns" or "Losing My Mind" without knowing where they fit into the larger works that they came from - not having seen A Little Night Music or Follies. This lacking, among others, has now been corrected thanks to this terrific book. Here's Sinatra doing the first one listed above, before it became a standard apparently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJvUCDP9u0I. And here's Peggy Lee doing the latter in a way I hadn't heard before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeUvNoWyfQk&feature=related. Two great singers interpreting a songwriter appropriate to their level.