I used to pick up books about music -- especially Irish and Scottish music -- all the time, and sometimes I'd read them, sometimes they'd end up on a shelf with a vow to read them "someday." As is the case with all of my books, my intentions reach further than my reading capacity. (And that's coming from someone who reads fairly voraciously.) Recently, while tidying up my music library, I pulled a few from the shelves and decided to give them a spin -- in some cases, a decade or more after putting them there.

One I decided to try is Dianna Boullier's Exploring Irish Music & Dance, published by Dublin-based O'Brien Press in 1998. What would this Irish publisher have to say on the subject?

Boullier is a writer and musician, although I am otherwise unfamiliar with her work. Here, she has penned a basic history of Irish music, styles, commonly used instruments, notable musicians, dance techniques and more, all in just over a hundred pages. Given the book's brevity, don't expect a comprehensive exploration of the topic. What we get instead is a pretty simple breakdown of the basics, written in a narrative style far more appropriate for young readers who are not overly familiar with the subject.

That's not a criticism, by the way; I believe the book was written with younger readers in mind, and certainly I approve of any attempt to hook readers on Irish music at an early age.

Sprinkled throughout the text are brief snippets of folklore related to music, as well as more than three dozen popular Irish tunes. (Don't get excited, guitarists -- Boullier is only supplying the melody here, without any additional notation for non-melody instruments.) There also are ample black-and-white photographs, mostly of notable musicians over the years, as well as cartoony illustrations by Julian Friers that, frankly, I could do without. Oh, and there's an enthusiastic, two-page introduction written by the late, great Chieftains harper Derek Bell.

Overall, Exploring Irish Music & Dance is a nice introduction to a topic that is near and dear to my heart. While I am definitely not the target audience for this one, I respect its intentions and believe it's a useful took for getting youngsters interested in the greater world of Irish music. If it inspires anyone to pick up an instrument -- or even to buy a few CDs -- then it did its job.