No Depression is a magazine that I sometimes browse through, usually while listening to something at a listening station in Basement Discs in the city, but I've never read it enough to have gotten a feel for its style (as opposed to its subject matter, which is reasonably well-defined in a loose sort of way); this book is a collection of feature articles about particular artists which have previously appeared in the magazine's pages.
So I've read all the ones about those I know, and most of the ones about those I don't, and while they're well put together, for the most part they don't really make me want to go off and listen to the music in question - not that they have the opposite effect either, but it's just that they don't inspire. I think that maybe part of the problem for me is that the articles tend to focus more on the artists than on their music; of course the two can never be taken in isolation from each other, but the balance is skewed so far as my tastes go. That said, of course it's still fun to read about so many of my favourites - Lucinda, Gillian, Kasey, Buddy & Julie, Wilco and others.
