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Bowie's Books

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Very interesting that Bowie was a voracious reader and interesting to see a list of some he had read, I misunderstood the concept though, I imagined it would be a list of books with Bowie’s notes attached but maybe that’s wishful thinking and maybe this will happen. However, having said all that I did thoroughly enjoy this book and the take on why perhaps Bowie read the books and the influence they had on him.

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David Bowie was not only one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century but also a fine actor, painter and art collector. Perhaps less well known was his love of books and that when on tour he would ensure that he would be accompanied by a travelling bookcase. Here John O'Connell narrates and examines the list that Bowie made three years before his death listing the one hundred most influential books that he read as opposed to the most enjoyable.

It is indeed an eclectic collection that includes fiction, non fiction, poetry and comics. There are some choices that you might expect, Camus, Kerouac and Colin Wilson for instance but others perhaps less so. (Evelyn Waugh for example). Certain themes proliferate including Weimar Germany, Stalinist Russia, the history of popular music and art. The content of each choice is described and also how it influenced and related to Bowie whether at the time of reading or later.

At the end of each selection there is a choice of Bowie's music to accompany when reading and a further reading suggestion. Not only will it appeal to fans of Bowie but also to that other genre (which would include myself as a fan) being books about books. Clive James, Nick Hornby and Susan Hill immediately come to mind as authors of such books. This is was an entertaining and educational read and will I'm sure spur many to seek out titles listed here. Recommended for Bowie and non Bowie fans alike.

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Prior to his death David Bowie listed 100 books which changed his life. Journalist John O’Connell has written an essay for each of these, providing an essay for each book and via a line, passage or idea linked it to one of Bowie’s songs.
This is definitely a book for his fans which can be used as a further insight into the varied and well-read reading preferences into the great man who was an admitted bookworm.

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A fascinating read delving into a great variety of some of Bowie's favourite books. From classics to the unknown (at least to me), the links from these books to his life are so interesting, plus a great way to find out about your next read! An eclectic selection of literature and very well written by O'Connell.

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If you love David Bowie then you will love this book. If gives you an insight into David Bowie’s love & taste for literature. Books that have influenced him and some books that he enjoyed.
As a huge Bowie fan I throughly enjoyed this book.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

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I was a big Bowie fan back in the early seventies, a time when I was in my teens and he was releasing what to me remain his most iconic albums: Hunky Dory & Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. He was fresh, his voice just a little off and his lyrics somewhat strange but always conveying a story. I wasn’t quite so enamoured with the albums that followed but in 1983 he released Let’s Dance in which a re-invented Bowie produced a collection of tracks that everyone I knew loved and played to death. And he would, of course, continue to re-invent himself, as he always had – often when I wasn’t watching.

But what of the man? I knew surprisingly little of him really, and I certainly hadn’t perceived him to be a voracious reader. I suppose his lyrics had to come from somewhere; something had to be feeding his mind, planting seeds for the many varied stories he told in his songs. Bowie is described an an autodidact, who struggled with formal education but spent a lifetime self-educating. So it turns out he was a huge reader, reading constantly including sometimes from a library of circa 1500 books he often carted around with him when he travelled. This book provides a list of the one hundred books he considered most important and influential (note – these are not necessarily the books he most enjoyed).

There’s a real mix here. I recognised quite a few but there are only two books (plus one magazine and one comic) that I can actually claim to have read. There are about half a dozen books I’ve sometimes planned to read but haven’t gotten around to yet (by authors such Hitchens, Martin Amis, DeLillo and Capote), quite a few I really don’t fancy and a fair few more I’d never heard of. There’s a good sprinkling of science fiction, a little philosophy, some poetry and much of the rest is an eclectic mix of the avant-garde and the obscure. Getting on for a third of the books were written before he was born.

The author tries to explain in what way each book was significant for Bowie, what he took from it or how his discovery of the text tied in to a particular song he wrote (for example the phrase homo superior in ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’ was scavenged from Olaf Stapledon’s science fiction novel Odd John). There’s also a thread of autobiographical commentary running through the piece, so we learn quite a bit about Bowie’s development as a person and as an artist as we make our way through the list of books. In fact, I found one if the most interesting elements to be how the books seemed to help shape the man and that the changes wrought duly steered him towards an ever more off-centre collection of books.

I didn’t find myself wishing to rush out and grab many titles listed here but I did find it a fascinating study of this chameleon of a man.

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An exegesis of that list Bowie made of the hundred books which influenced him the most, and one which at its best has some lovely and insightful turns of phrase, really bringing out their interconnections. Of Berlin Alexanderplatz's protagonist, say: "Biberkopf is Shakespeare's unaccommodated man, out on an existential limb – the kind of man Bowie flirted with becoming on the heaviest of his heavy nights out. But he could never quite get there. There was always someone around to step in and pull him out of the mire." And for the books I don't know at all, the potted introductions to the likes of A Grave For A Dolphin and Infants Of The Spring are very informative.

Elsewhere, it's less sure-footed, sometimes just stating the bleeding obvious (eg on A Clockwork Orange), and elsewhere verging on outright wrong. For instance, it traces the notion of 'homo superior' back to Odd John, which is fine, and then talks about it being everywhere as a notion in the sixties that there was a hidden elect who oversaw human development and diffused knowledge, which is also fine. But then quotes Lovecraft in a list of examples, which...well, you can twist that around and see how it works, but if you don't already know Lovecraft's stuff, that passage could give you a very odd idea of it. Or when addressing Day Of The Locust, which is contrasted with West's mate Fitzgerald, who we're told only addressed Hollywood's upper echelons in The Last Tycoon, not the bottom-feeders who interested West. Well, true as far as it goes, but by failing to note the existence of the Pat Hobby stories, also deeply misleading. As for the notion that Burgess' Earthly Powers is a book which physically has to be read on Kindle...well, I never knew the old stereotype of Bowie fans as limp-wristed was intended so literally. Basically, you will learn something from this, but fundamentally it's a loo book. Although considered as such, not a bad one. Even within that category, mind, I could probably have done without the occasional cartoons.

(Netgalley ARC)

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On the one hand, I like the premise of this book. The idea of looking at books that Bowie enjoyed reading. However, it came across as too tangible links between the man and the library. There’s few details of Bowie’s thoughts regarding individual books and more of a historical context.
I found it a little crass and a name drop to cash in on Bowie’s popularity. I found some of the writing, ‘when David read for the lols’ in particular quite lazy and clashing with the audience who would purchase this book.

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This is a great read for all Bowie fans and indeed those of books. It gives a great insight into the literary influences of Bowie, how they affected him and his songwriting. For books lovers, the snippets provide great synopsis for a varied selection of books, it’s a great way of finding your next read. The book has been well researched and well written.

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Quite fun, if inessential, overview of the 100 books David Bowie put out as being most influential on him. Overall, the book has a lightness of tone and generosity that makes it a pleasure to dip into. However, while O'Connell is good on the potential links between individual books and Bowie's life and work, I would have liked more of an overview about what this choice of books says about him. Also I could have done without the 'Read it while listening to' choices (You'd be fed up of 'Without You' before you got very far into 'Herzog', for example) and, as has been pointed out, the 'if you like this, try' suggestions could have been a bit more surprising. There are a few errors (Schoneberg in Berlin has never been mostly Turkish; Germany occupied Czechoslavakia in 1938 not 1939) and he's harsher on 1980s Bowie than he needs to be (even 'Tonight' has a couple of very good songs), anyone who emphasises the greatness of both 'Low' and 'The Laughing Gnome' in a single sentence is OK with me.

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Interesting premise here, delving into Bowie's bookshelf, but actually each of the mini-essays on an individual book feels too short and slight to be saying anything meaningful, especially as O'Connell does a lot of storytelling.

For example, in discussing the Iliad, he claims that Achilles' armour is 'enchanted' (nope: it was created by the Olympian Hephaistion but it was never enchanted) and that the story foregrounds Bowie's interest in how clothing intertwines with identity - um, sure, Bowie was fascinated by fashion and personae, but the link to the Iliad is a big stretch.

More tied down is the relationship between 1984 and the Diamond Dogs album - and I didn't know that the former inspired the latter - cool!

It's certainly fascinating to see again the books that Bowie himself identified as significant to him even if the list itself has been revealed and discussed before. For me, though, too much recounting of plot and not enough evidential connection to Bowie and his eclectic, wide-ranging ideas and interests.

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This is an interesting idea which is done well. John O’Connell has taken the list which Bowie made of the 100 books which had most influenced him (but not necessarily his favourite books, as O’Connell firmly points out) and has given a brief description of each book, something of its history and a suggestion of how it came to influence David Bowie.

In general, O’Connell does this very well. There is a lengthy introduction in which he describes Bowie’s almost addictive reading habit and relates this to the man and his extraordinary art. He generally (but not quite always, I think) manages to avoid pretentiousness and gives us a good idea of the influence of reading on Bowie himself. I liked this little passage: “This isn’t the story of David Bowie’s life… But it is a look at the tools he used to navigate his life, not to mention a shot in the arm for the unfashionable theory, one that I’ve always liked, that reading makes you a better person.” That gives an idea of the aims of the book and O’Connell’s style, both of which I liked.

The list is extremely eclectic, from Camus to Viz and The Beano and from art and philosophy to thrillers. O’Connell takes each book in the list and relates it to Bowie’s career and personal life. This is a tricky task, necessarily a little speculative in places, and he manages to do it credibly and engagingly. It’s one to dip into rather than read at a sitting, but a couple of sections at a time are rewarding and have suggested several things I may want to read myself.

I did baulk slightly at the end of each section where there is a “Read while listening to...” with suggestions of Bowie tracks. I wouldn’t dream of listening to Bowie while reading anything – it would be an insult to both Bowie and the book. Perhaps “After reading, listen to...” would have been better. This is followed by an Amazon-style “If you liked this, then try...” suggestion which I have to say I found rather patronising.

Minor quibbles aside, this is an interesting, readable book which I can recommend.

(My thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley.)

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