Tulip Frenzy

We’re always a little suspicious of people who publish their long list of favorite books, as you know there have to be at least some chosen for effect.  But as a compendium of favorites go, this list of 100 books submitted by David Bowie is pretty great.

We wish he had listed Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet, instead of Herzog. But he sure picks the right Martin Amis novel when he cites Money.

All of the music histories listed, from Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train to Peter Guralnik’s Sweet Soul Music hit the spot, and there are some truly unexpected gems, like Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death, and that late-70s college fave, Julian Jaymes’ The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.

Okay, it’s undoubtedly great that he has DeLillo’s White Noise, but it would have been so much better if he’d had Great Jones Street, with its evocation of a Dylan-like protagonist with the great rock star name of Bucky Wunderlick whose Basement Tapes analog is sought by one and all while he hides out in Lower Manhattan.  Or how about Running Dog, which is a play on a late ’70s Rolling Stone and the quest for a sex tape starring Hitler?

And where are Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason and Dixon?

Oh, that’s right, it’s his list, not mine.

Still, as rock star reading goes, this is all first rate.

And now from Brian Eno’s list…

This entry was posted on October 3, 2013 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Music with tags Bowie's List of 100 Favorite Books, David Bowie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.