Bowie's Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life

by John O'Connell

Overview

Named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 12 biggest music memoirs this fall. “An artful and wildly enthralling path for Bowie fans in particular and book lovers in general.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” ―David Bowie

Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life. His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities.

In 100 short essays, music journalist John O’Connell studies each book on Bowie’s list and contextualizes it in the artist’s life and work. How did the power imbued in a single suit of armor in The Iliad impact a man who loved costumes, shifting identity, and the siren song of the alter-ego? How did The Gnostic Gospels inform Bowie’s own hazy personal cosmology? How did the poems of T.S. Eliot and Frank O’Hara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, the comics of The Beano and The Viz, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowie’s lyrics, his sound, his artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation?

Heartfelt, analytical, and totally original, Bowie’s Bookshelf is one part epic reading guide and one part biography of a music legend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982112547
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	139,643
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John O’Connell is a former Senior Editor at Time Out and music columnist for The Face. He is now freelance writing mainly for The Times and The Guardian. He interviewed David Bowie in New York in 2002. He lives in south London.

Editorial Reviews

Entertaining and informative (and, perhaps, a template for your book club picks for the next decade or so).”
—Vogue

“Former Time Out editor O’Connell does an outstanding job ... An artful and wildly enthralling path for Bowie fans in particular and book lovers in general.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“O’Connell is gently witty, and clearly enjoys riffing on Bowie’s own playfulness... [Bowie's Bookshelf] is a handy, amusing and, thankfully, light-touch precis, tracking the musician’s high modernist influences while remaining aware of his flightiness and fondness for self-editing.”
—The Guardian

“You can only truly know a pop star through his bookshelf. John O'Connell's brilliant, gossipy book gives you a whole new secret David Bowie: the reader. This is the unwritten Bowie book that needed writing.”
—Caitlin Moran, bestselling author of How to Be a Woman

“Okay, so not technically a memoir. But O’Connell works off and analyzes material that Bowie himself provided late in his life: the 100 books that changed his life.”
—Entertainment Weekly, “Biggest Music Memoirs Being Published this Fall” round-up

“O’Connell’s diligently documented book on the literary influences on David Bowie is a fantastic voyage... His introduction is informative and crucial in framing Bowie’s library; it’s also very entertaining... An exciting book.”
—Booklist

“O'Connell, a veteran music journalist, gamely delivers brief essays on each title, with context on what influence Bowie might have drawn from them... There are a few surprising anecdotes—e.g., Alberto Denti di Pirajno's obscure 1956 memoir, A Grave for a Dolphin directly inspired Bowie's classic song 'Heroes'... O'Connell's approach does underscore the range and playfulness in Bowie's reading, from hefty tomes on the Russian Revolution to laddish comic books like The Beano ... Enlightening.”
—Kirkus

“If you’re also a fan of David Bowie, you’ll likely love this insight into his mind.”
—Book Riot

“Providing thoughtful historical context and commentary... O'Connell's brief essays on each book include anecdotes and trivia that will interest both casual and ardent Bowie fans, or anyone curious about ways art begets art... Bowie’s Bookshelf is a quietly electrifying collection, a tribute handled with reverence and respect, celebrating the guiding stars that books can be.”
— Shelf Awareness



“While guiding readers through the book list, Bowie's Bookshelf also acts as an unconventional biography of an artist who helped define modern music and pop culture.”
—Mental Floss

“If there’s a Thin White Duke fan on your gift list this year, check him or her off with Bowie's Bookshelf ... While not quite a biography, nor quite a memoir, it’s close enough to be categorized as one. I’d like to think Bowie himself would admire the rather unique effort.”
—Bookgasm

“A revealing look at the artist.”
—Furthermore

“I encourage any fan of Bowie or fine literature to pick up Bowie’s Bookshelf ... Readers should be inspired to seek out the books on this list, along with the musical suggestions for pairing and even the links to other similar works... It feels good knowing that a list like this exists and, in essence, keeps Bowie's spirit alive, allowing all those who miss him to have another shared experience with one of their heroes.”
—Book Reporter

“The author displays a breadth of knowledge not just about Bowie’s life and his music but also the authors and genres on the list... His thoughts on how Bowie transformed practically everything he consumed into his stage personae are insightful... With illustrations and suggestions for read-alikes and Bowie songs to listen to while reading each book, this is a fun peek at what stirred and shaped a legend. For Bowie fans and devotees of offbeat reading guides.”
—Library Journal

From the Publisher

01/10/2020

Three years before he died, chameleon performer David Bowie (1947–2016) made a list of 100 books that changed his life, from pulp fiction and Japanese novels to art and philosophy texts to humor magazines, cartoons, and black magic tomes. O'Connell, former Time Out senior editor and music columnist for the Face, peruses those titles in this collection of breezy essays. The author displays a breadth of knowledge not just about Bowie's life and his music but also the authors and genres on the list. Each short chapter examines a different work's effect on Bowie. Occasionally, O'Connell makes assumptions about when Bowie read a book—chapters in which he supplies quotes from the singer/songwriter are stronger—but his thoughts on how Bowie transformed practically everything he consumed into his stage personae are insightful.

VERDICT With illustrations and suggestions for read-alikes and Bowie songs to listen to while reading each book, this is a fun peek at what stirred and shaped a legend. For Bowie fans and devotees of offbeat reading guides.—Liz French, Library Journal

Library Journal

2019-08-29
A peek into the psyche of one of rock's most inscrutable figures through the books that had the strongest impact on him.

In 2013, London's Victoria & Albert Museum hosted an exhibition, "David Bowie Is," for which the star drafted a list of the 100 books that had influenced him. O'Connell, a veteran music journalist, gamely delivers brief essays on each title, with context on what influence Bowie might have drawn from them. This is sometimes a tall order. Many of Bowie's selections speak to his obvious passion for music, especially early rock 'n' roll and R&B (Greil Marcus, Gerri Hershey), his famous Japanophilia (Yukio Mishima, Tadanori Yokoo), and his stint in Germany (Alfred Döblin, Otto Friedrich). There are a few surprising anecdotes—e.g., Alberto Denti di Pirajno's obscure 1956 memoir, A Grave for a Dolphin directly inspired Bowie's classic song "Heroes." But many of Bowie's selections don't lend themselves to such cause-and-effect treatment. The best O'Connell can make of Bowie's affection for Frank Norris' McTeague and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is that teeth feature prominently and Bowie had dental implants; he can only speculate that Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel The Leopard appealed for its story of a giant in decline. That straining for meaning suggests that this project might better have been approached thematically rather than book by book. Exploring Bowie's interest in transgressive literature by Hubert Selby, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jack Kerouac, and John Rechy needn't require extensive plot summaries of each novel; numerous books on divided selves speak collectively to Bowie's career-long shape-shifting (and his late schizophrenic half brother). Still, O'Connell's approach does underscore the range and playfulness in Bowie's reading, from hefty tomes on the Russian Revolution to laddish comic books like The Beano.

An enlightening if imperfectly conceived look at Bowie's eclectic bookshelf.

Kirkus Reviews